MAC OS X & Polar

I just recently purchased a S710 and have tried using your methods to get it to work with OSX and VPC 5.0 w/Windows 2000. For the life of me I can't get it to work. I'm not computer savvy but I try. I'm confused on which drivers of Keyspan to use. Could you contact me and let me know in a simpler way how I could possible get this to work - Polar still doesn't support the Mac. I have both USB and Serial connectors from Polar. Thanks in advance. Michael

Originally posted by gstahl [/b] [/i]
There has been some talk previously about using a Polar HRM (like S710 or S720i) with Mac OS X. Polar has come out and said they were not able to make it work with Virtual PC and it was not support.

I have been able to very reliably connnect to the HRM with Mac OS X using the Polar Serial IR Interface and a Keyspan Serial to USB adaptor. While the solution is a little complicated to initially set up, it is straight forward and very nice to have if your preferred OS is Mac OS X. Here is info on setting it up.

- Install VirtualPC 6.0 (I updated to 6.0.1 but do not think this is required). VirtualPC 5.0 may also work but I did not test it.

- Get a Keyspan multi-OS Serial to USB adaptor (you will really be using on the Windows side so it must be the multi-OS version).

- Follow the install instructions for Option 2 VirtualPC support (well documented in the Keyspan manual). This means that you will NOT install the Keyspan software on Mac OS X.

- Install the keyspan Windows software as part of the option 2 virtual PC setup

- Connect the Keyspan adaptor and enable it in the USB settings of VirtualPC.
(I had a standard Windows issue with it recognizing the adaptor (new hardware), keyspan's web site had good help for this). In the end I deleted the existing device (with ? in devices list), restarted and then pointed Windows to the CD-ROM with the drivers. It took a little to get the right combination of options for Windows to find the driver but in the end Windows found it and installed drivers for the Keyspan.

- I left it set up as COM3 and plugged in the Polar IR interface to the keyspan.

- Go into Windows, install the latest Polar software.

- Set the Polar software to use COM3.

- Follow normal HRM setup for connection and conect with Polar software. Everything works like a champ and is rather quick. Once the COM3 port got stuck on busy and had to restart the PC but otherwise had no problems with uploads or downloads from the HRM.

The software works fine but as others have said it's interface is a little cumbersome (especially compared to other OS X software interfaces =).

Hope this helps folks who have Macs and want to use the HRM.

Now I can use my PowerBook and have to totally portable solution, this really rocks!!!

Regards,
Geoff Stahl [/QUOTE]

I have also had no problems although only thanks to this forum. Thanks all!

I've had success with a combination of

OSX 10.3
Virtual PC 6.1
XP
Keyspan USB-Serial Adapter (High Speed)
Polar serial IR adaptor

It can be a slow process at times using the Polar Software. Sometimes the COM port gets stuck, but this is XP we're talking about and although the Polar software is excellent and I can't fault it, they would do well to support the Mac and either buy in the Training Log App by OTAG, and make it into a killer app OR port their PC version. There's nothing else on the market for the mac (not that I'm aware of). Polar make great, good looking products that are way-ahead of the competition in all areas. Look at Apple, very similar and get more press that their market share suggests. We can dream...

I'm having all sorts of trouble trying to achieve the same thing.

I have - Mac OS X 10.3
Virtual PC 6.01
Windows XP Pro
Keyspan USB Serial Adapter US19H
Polar IR Interface
S710 heart monitor

I can't get Windows XP to accept that it has the drivers installed for the Keyspan Adapter. I've had the "Found new hardware" wizard pop-up twice in a row and locate the driver from the CD, plus the CD auto-ran the installer itself. None of these have resulted in the Keyspan Utility being able to identify the device.

Virtual PC reports the device, and I've selected it as a USB device to be used by XP. Is this how you did it? You mention COM3 - but the Keyspan device doesn't appear in the list of devices I can select for the COM ports.

Any thoughts you can offer gratefully received.

if you look at OTAG software they have a beta piece of software that you can use a Mac, OSX and no virtual PC rubbish. It's a diary, graph maker etc.

well worth a try
http://www.otag.co.uk/TrainingLog/index.htm

hope this helps

Joe Beer
JBST.com

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by gstahl
There has been some talk previously about using a Polar HRM (like S710 or S720i) with Mac OS X. Polar has come out and said they were not able to make it work with Virtual PC and it was not support.

I have been able to very reliably connnect to the HRM with Mac OS X using the Polar Serial IR Interface and a Keyspan Serial to USB adaptor. While the solution is a little complicated to initially set up, it is straight forward and very nice to have if your preferred OS is Mac OS X. Here is info on setting it up.

- Install VirtualPC 6.0 (I updated to 6.0.1 but do not think this is required). VirtualPC 5.0 may also work but I did not test it.

- Get a Keyspan multi-OS Serial to USB adaptor (you will really be using on the Windows side so it must be the multi-OS version).

- Follow the install instructions for Option 2 VirtualPC support (well documented in the Keyspan manual). This means that you will NOT install the Keyspan software on Mac OS X.

- Install the keyspan Windows software as part of the option 2 virtual PC setup

- Connect the Keyspan adaptor and enable it in the USB settings of VirtualPC.
(I had a standard Windows issue with it recognizing the adaptor (new hardware), keyspan's web site had good help for this). In the end I deleted the existing device (with ? in devices list), restarted and then pointed Windows to the CD-ROM with the drivers. It took a little to get the right combination of options for Windows to find the driver but in the end Windows found it and installed drivers for the Keyspan.

- I left it set up as COM3 and plugged in the Polar IR interface to the keyspan.

- Go into Windows, install the latest Polar software.

- Set the Polar software to use COM3.

- Follow normal HRM setup for connection and conect with Polar software. Everything works like a champ and is rather quick. Once the COM3 port got stuck on busy and had to restart the PC but otherwise had no problems with uploads or downloads from the HRM.

The software works fine but as others have said it's interface is a little cumbersome (especially compared to other OS X software interfaces =).

Hope this helps folks who have Macs and want to use the HRM.

Now I can use my PowerBook and have to totally portable solution, this really rocks!!!

Regards,
Geoff Stahl

I've tried this - but as far as I can see I need to upload each file individually from the heart rate monitor. Am I missing something. I want to be able to see all the files available, select them and click upload - as you (now) can with the Polar software.

if you look at OTAG software they have a beta piece of software that you can use a Mac, OSX and no virtual PC rubbish. It's a diary, graph maker etc.

well worth a try
http://www.otag.co.uk/TrainingLog/index.htm

hope this helps

Joe Beer
JBST.com

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Michael Mitchel
I just recently purchased a S710 and have tried using your methods to get it to work with OSX and VPC 5.0 w/Windows 2000. For the life of me I can't get it to work. I'm not computer savvy but I try. I'm confused on which drivers of Keyspan to use. Could you contact me and let me know in a simpler way how I could possible get this to work - Polar still doesn't support the Mac. I have both USB and Serial connectors from Polar. Thanks in advance. Michael

Originally posted by gstahl [/i]
There has been some talk previously about using a Polar HRM (like S710 or S720i) with Mac OS X. Polar has come out and said they were not able to make it work with Virtual PC and it was not support.

I have been able to very reliably connnect to the HRM with Mac OS X using the Polar Serial IR Interface and a Keyspan Serial to USB adaptor. While the solution is a little complicated to initially set up, it is straight forward and very nice to have if your preferred OS is Mac OS X. Here is info on setting it up.

- Install VirtualPC 6.0 (I updated to 6.0.1 but do not think this is required). VirtualPC 5.0 may also work but I did not test it.

- Get a Keyspan multi-OS Serial to USB adaptor (you will really be using on the Windows side so it must be the multi-OS version).

- Follow the install instructions for Option 2 VirtualPC support (well documented in the Keyspan manual). This means that you will NOT install the Keyspan software on Mac OS X.

- Install the keyspan Windows software as part of the option 2 virtual PC setup

- Connect the Keyspan adaptor and enable it in the USB settings of VirtualPC.
(I had a standard Windows issue with it recognizing the adaptor (new hardware), keyspan's web site had good help for this). In the end I deleted the existing device (with ? in devices list), restarted and then pointed Windows to the CD-ROM with the drivers. It took a little to get the right combination of options for Windows to find the driver but in the end Windows found it and installed drivers for the Keyspan.

- I left it set up as COM3 and plugged in the Polar IR interface to the keyspan.

- Go into Windows, install the latest Polar software.

- Set the Polar software to use COM3.

- Follow normal HRM setup for connection and conect with Polar software. Everything works like a champ and is rather quick. Once the COM3 port got stuck on busy and had to restart the PC but otherwise had no problems with uploads or downloads from the HRM.

The software works fine but as others have said it's interface is a little cumbersome (especially compared to other OS X software interfaces =).

Hope this helps folks who have Macs and want to use the HRM.

Now I can use my PowerBook and have to totally portable solution, this really rocks!!!

Regards,
Geoff Stahl

[/B][/QUOTE]

Geoff,

Not to be dense, but my Polar IR interface has a USB connector on it. Will your solution work for my IR unit? Or does your IR thing have a serial connector?

The reason I ask is that I have searched online for a for a Keyspan adaptor - multi-OS or otherwise - that fits the description of your solution, but the ones I have found all appear to have odd connections. I think I need USB on both ends of the adaptor since my IR unit has a USB plug and my Apple PowerBook has a USB socket.

Could you let me know the proper product name for the Keyspan product you are using? I have an S720i and a 15-inch Apple PowerBook that I'd really, really like to use that rather than the daggy old Windows 98 box I'm stuck with at the moment.

Cheers

Brian Paterson (Hong Kong)

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by gstahl
There has been some talk previously about using a Polar HRM (like S710 or S720i) with Mac OS X. Polar has come out and said they were not able to make it work with Virtual PC and it was not support.

I have been able to very reliably connnect to the HRM with Mac OS X using the Polar Serial IR Interface and a Keyspan Serial to USB adaptor. While the solution is a little complicated to initially set up, it is straight forward and very nice to have if your preferred OS is Mac OS X. Here is info on setting it up.

- Install VirtualPC 6.0 (I updated to 6.0.1 but do not think this is required). VirtualPC 5.0 may also work but I did not test it.

- Get a Keyspan multi-OS Serial to USB adaptor (you will really be using on the Windows side so it must be the multi-OS version).

- Follow the install instructions for Option 2 VirtualPC support (well documented in the Keyspan manual). This means that you will NOT install the Keyspan software on Mac OS X.

- Install the keyspan Windows software as part of the option 2 virtual PC setup

- Connect the Keyspan adaptor and enable it in the USB settings of VirtualPC.
(I had a standard Windows issue with it recognizing the adaptor (new hardware), keyspan's web site had good help for this). In the end I deleted the existing device (with ? in devices list), restarted and then pointed Windows to the CD-ROM with the drivers. It took a little to get the right combination of options for Windows to find the driver but in the end Windows found it and installed drivers for the Keyspan.

- I left it set up as COM3 and plugged in the Polar IR interface to the keyspan.

- Go into Windows, install the latest Polar software.

- Set the Polar software to use COM3.

- Follow normal HRM setup for connection and conect with Polar software. Everything works like a champ and is rather quick. Once the COM3 port got stuck on busy and had to restart the PC but otherwise had no problems with uploads or downloads from the HRM.

The software works fine but as others have said it's interface is a little cumbersome (especially compared to other OS X software interfaces =).

Hope this helps folks who have Macs and want to use the HRM.

Now I can use my PowerBook and have to totally portable solution, this really rocks!!!

Regards,
Geoff Stahl

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Brian Paterson
Could you let me know the proper product name for the Keyspan product you are using? I have an S720i and a 15-inch Apple PowerBook that I'd really, really like to use that rather than the daggy old Windows 98 box I'm stuck with at the moment.

Cheers

Brian Paterson (Hong Kong)

Here's one I can answer while I wait to see if Geoff's got any clues to help me.

The Polar USB IR adapter doesn't conform to any known standards, so without a specific Mac OS driver, no-one I've heard from has ever got it to work on a Mac.

That's why all the people saying they've got their heart monitor to work with their Mac are using the Serial IR adapter from Polar, together with a Keyspan Serial USB interface.

The one everyone seems to be able to get to work (except me!) is the Keyspan USB Serial Adapter US19H
- http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/USA19HS/

Looks like you'll need to buy a Polar IR Serial adapter and a keyspan serial adapter to give it a go.

Good luck.

David,

I was beginning to suspect that I'd need to find a Polar IR serial device as well as a Keyspan.

Thanks very much for your input. I guess I'll get on with the task of tracking down a Serial IR interface.

I have to say, it seems like a massive marketing mistake for Polar to cut the entire Mac universe out of their potential customer base for want of a driver. How much can it cost to write that it of software?

Thanks again

Cheers

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by davidlegendmcna
Here's one I can answer while I wait to see if Geoff's got any clues to help me.

The Polar USB IR adapter doesn't conform to any known standards, so without a specific Mac OS driver, no-one I've heard from has ever got it to work on a Mac.

That's why all the people saying they've got their heart monitor to work with their Mac are using the Serial IR adapter from Polar, together with a Keyspan Serial USB interface.

The one everyone seems to be able to get to work (except me!) is the Keyspan USB Serial Adapter US19H
- http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/USA19HS/

Looks like you'll need to buy a Polar IR Serial adapter and a keyspan serial adapter to give it a go.

Good luck.

I realize that this is an old thread but i'm new here and need to make sure I get the right software . maybe Geoff or anybody who has been able to make this work could please tell me which version of virtual Pc 6.1 do i need to make this work ,XP home , 2000 ,XPro or the basic stand alone.thanks for your help
Leonel

Leonel

Plese go to http://www.otag.co.uk you can download a Beta of TRAININGLOG that allows you to download HR data via IR (sonic link
is on it's way) straight into a Mac using the SERIAL USB IR link and
a Keyspan USA19QW adapter (plus driver). No windows software needed.

Hope this helps

Joe Beer JBST.com