Polar HRM glitch

Duncan said:

Hi,
I recently bought an A3 Polar heart rate monitor. It works reasonably well
but one thing has been a little disconcerting has been some very high
readings.
At some points during races my reading goes between 200-219 bpm. It doesn't
usualy stay there long but today it hovered around 217 for a while and
seemed fairly stable. I wasn't pushing very hard but it was the start of
the race so I may've been pretty excited.
I'm 30 and for most of the time I'm racing I'm between 170 and 180 bpm. I
wasn't close enough to anyone else to pick up on readings from other
monitors.
I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?
Cheers,
Duncan.

Mine's an A5, sometimes when I'm jogging very slowly I skyrocket to
around 200 but it's usually just when my transmitter slips a little bit.
If you're wearing a bra it'll do that.

"Duncan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi,
I recently bought an A3 Polar heart rate monitor. It works reasonably

well

Quoted message said:

but one thing has been a little disconcerting has been some very high
readings.
At some points during races my reading goes between 200-219 bpm. It

doesn't

Quoted message said:

usualy stay there long but today it hovered around 217 for a while and
seemed fairly stable. I wasn't pushing very hard but it was the start of
the race so I may've been pretty excited.
I'm 30 and for most of the time I'm racing I'm between 170 and 180 bpm. I
wasn't close enough to anyone else to pick up on readings from other
monitors.
I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?
Cheers,
Duncan.

Were you close to any overhead powerlines? They send HRMs nuts...

Alex said:

"Duncan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi,
I recently bought an A3 Polar heart rate monitor. It works reasonably

well

Quoted message said:

but one thing has been a little disconcerting has been some very high
readings.
At some points during races my reading goes between 200-219 bpm. It

doesn't

Quoted message said:

usualy stay there long but today it hovered around 217 for a while and
seemed fairly stable. I wasn't pushing very hard but it was the start of
the race so I may've been pretty excited.
I'm 30 and for most of the time I'm racing I'm between 170 and 180 bpm. I
wasn't close enough to anyone else to pick up on readings from other
monitors.
I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?
Cheers,
Duncan.

Were you close to any overhead powerlines? They send HRMs nuts...

I've never hada polar but a friend of mine get's wierd readings within
range of my Sigma HRM.

Maybe it's when you're really close to another rider and signals
interfere with another wireless device?

--
Nick

Alex said:

"Duncan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi,

<snip>

Quoted message said:

wasn't close enough to anyone else to pick up on readings from other

Quoted message said:

monitors.
I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?
Cheers,
Duncan.

Were you close to any overhead powerlines? They send HRMs nuts...

My hr monitor has never had a problem with overhead powerlines; is that
a common occurrence?

"Duncan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I recently bought an A3 Polar heart rate monitor. It works reasonably

well

Quoted message said:

but one thing has been a little disconcerting has been some very high
readings.
At some points during races my reading goes between 200-219 bpm. It

doesn't

Quoted message said:

usualy stay there long but today it hovered around 217 for a while and
seemed fairly stable. I wasn't pushing very hard but it was the start of
the race so I may've been pretty excited.
I'm 30 and for most of the time I'm racing I'm between 170 and 180 bpm. I
wasn't close enough to anyone else to pick up on readings from other
monitors.
I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?

It's either a car, tram, overhead lines, poor sensor-body
contact or someone else's monitor is messing with
yours. It happens to most HRMs. Excitement alone
wont get you over 200bpm unless you are excitedly
plugging your fingers into a powerpoint? ;-)

hippy

hippy said:

Excitement alone
wont get you over 200bpm unless you are excitedly
plugging your fingers into a powerpoint? ;-)

hippy

It would have to be a pretty raunch slide show to get your heart rate to 200!

"PiledHigher" <[email hidden]

Quoted message said:

hippy said:

Excitement alone
wont get you over 200bpm unless you are excitedly
plugging your fingers into a powerpoint? ;-)

It would have to be a pretty raunch slide show to get your heart rate
to 200!

nerd alert nerd alert ;-)

I'm sure there's some "interesting" ppt files out there..

hippy
- a big nerd

"Tamyka Bell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

My hr monitor has never had a problem with overhead powerlines; is that
a common occurrence?

I rarely notice an effect with powerlines, but sometimes
they're the only things around that could have caused
the interferance. Hawthorn velo has given me some silly
high readings - there's no trams (which always give me
stupid readings) and no other riders so I blame the nearby
powerlines. They are fairly large lines..

hippy

Tamyka Bell said:

Alex said:

"Duncan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi,

<snip>

Quoted message said:

wasn't close enough to anyone else to pick up on readings from other

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

monitors.
I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?
Cheers,
Duncan.

Were you close to any overhead powerlines? They send HRMs nuts...

My hr monitor has never had a problem with overhead powerlines; is that
a common occurrence?

Ordinary power lines have never given me grief, but the big ones always
have. Used to live under them and the HRM would give false readings the
moment I stepped outside, but once I was 20-30 metres away it was okay.
Same thing with tramlines. I also used to get a bizarre false reading at
the same point on a regular ride and worked out it was a house with one
of those mobile mechanic vans with all the car computer gear inside (I
guess using a mobile phone would be the least of his worries).

On one of the BR rides the big powerlines in Diamond Creek stuffed the
bike computer and I had to pull the battery after I got home to reset it.

DaveB

[quote="Duncan"]Hi,

At some points during races my reading goes between 200-219 bpm. It doesn't
usualy stay there long but today it hovered around 217 for a while and
seemed fairly stable. I wasn't pushing very hard but it was the start of
the race so I may've been pretty excited.


have you checked your pulse? make sure that the problem is with the HRM and that you don't have a supra-ventricular tachycardia (an arrhythmia with a rapid heart rate around 220bpm)? This is the problem that Stuart O'Grady has, and if you are young and fit you may not get a drastic change in your cardiac performance.

Tamyka Bell wrote -

Quoted message said:

My hr monitor has never had a problem with overhead powerlines; is that
a common occurrence?

Yeah, but Tamyka aren't you just a bit short of the old voltage up in that
fair northern state just at the moment ? <g>

All Polar models seem to suffer spurious emf "spikes", lasting as long as
you are close to the source of interference.

Classic unreliability occurs when crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge where
the cycleway is next to the train line - think a very big electro magnet.

Other place is beside the rail lines on the road out to Waterfall - there
may some hv lines thereabouts as well.

It also seems to give you spurious max speed readings, much as I would like
to have reached 213 kph trying to get on the wheels of that flash Eastern
Suburbs bunch this morning.

best, Andrew (remove the .x1 to reply)

"hippy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Duncan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I recently bought an A3 Polar heart rate monitor. It works reasonably

well

Quoted message said:

but one thing has been a little disconcerting has been some very high
readings.
At some points during races my reading goes between 200-219 bpm. It

doesn't

Quoted message said:

usualy stay there long but today it hovered around 217 for a while and
seemed fairly stable. I wasn't pushing very hard but it was the start

of

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the race so I may've been pretty excited.
I'm 30 and for most of the time I'm racing I'm between 170 and 180 bpm.

I

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

wasn't close enough to anyone else to pick up on readings from other
monitors.
I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?

It's either a car, tram, overhead lines, poor sensor-body
contact or someone else's monitor is messing with
yours. It happens to most HRMs. Excitement alone
wont get you over 200bpm unless you are excitedly
plugging your fingers into a powerpoint? ;-)

hippy

I disagree.
I've done experiments to try to isolate the problem. I've gone to areas free
of electrical equipment to make sure it's not caused by electrical
interference. I'm an electrician by trade and have an Amateur radio license,
(did morse code as well).
The problem seems more pronounced if I've had coffee earlier in the day.
Usually the reading settles down after about 5 or 10 minutes. It can be
annoying if you want an accurate reading though.

Marty

"Duncan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi,
I recently bought an A3 Polar heart rate monitor. It works reasonably

well

Quoted message said:

but one thing has been a little disconcerting has been some very high
readings.
At some points during races my reading goes between 200-219 bpm. It

doesn't

Quoted message said:

usualy stay there long but today it hovered around 217 for a while and
seemed fairly stable. I wasn't pushing very hard but it was the start of
the race so I may've been pretty excited.
I'm 30 and for most of the time I'm racing I'm between 170 and 180 bpm. I
wasn't close enough to anyone else to pick up on readings from other
monitors.
I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?
Cheers,
Duncan.

Normal. I get a similar problem from interference. I can see the HRM (210)
go up when my mobile is in my pocket as regular as clock work.
Occassionally I will get an unusual reading near o/head power lines or when
someone with a HRM (this occurs rarely) rides along side.

Kevin

I am not sure which models everyone is using. I know that the A series is not coded, meaning that they will give errors from nearby cyclists with other HRM's. I am not sure if this is only the Polar A series or all Polar HRM's or even othe rmakes.

I hav ethe M32, and my wife uses the M62, and we do not have problems. One thing I have noticed is that if she is using the trainer and I stand next to her, my watch will read about 3bpm lower than hers - but that just messing around - there is no real purpose for two recievers. Other than that I have never really had a problem with unbelievable readings

"Tamyka Bell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Duncan said:

I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?
Cheers,
Duncan.

Mine's an A5, sometimes when I'm jogging very slowly I skyrocket to
around 200 but it's usually just when my transmitter slips a little bit.
If you're wearing a bra it'll do that.

I don't wear a bra but I do have a hairy chest. I have to adjust the strap
fairly often if I'm not soaked in sweat. I just would've thought it'd go to
zero instead of 200+. In hindsight this seems consistent with my
experiences ie. start of race before I'm all sweaty.

"Alex" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Duncan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?
Cheers,
Duncan.

Were you close to any overhead powerlines? They send HRMs nuts...

Can't remember any powerlines, it was the start of the Beechworth -> El
Dorado gold rush just leaving town. As seems to be the case these days I
was on my own in the big gap between the faster elite riders and the rest of
the field.

Duncan said:

"Alex" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Duncan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm pretty sure this is a glitch, is this normal for an A3?
Cheers,
Duncan.

Were you close to any overhead powerlines? They send HRMs nuts...

Can't remember any powerlines, it was the start of the Beechworth -> El
Dorado gold rush just leaving town. As seems to be the case these days I
was on my own in the big gap between the faster elite riders and the rest of
the field.

See http://www.nk.com.au/Downloads.htm Nelson Kellerman are the Canberra repair agent for Polar and have a good pdf file (145kb) on "Abnormal Heart Rate Readings During Exercise."
Scroll down, Polar is at the bottom of page.

cside said:

I am not sure which models everyone is using. I know that the A series
is not coded, meaning that they will give errors from nearby cyclists
with other HRM's. I am not sure if this is only the Polar A series or
all Polar HRM's or even othe rmakes.

I hav ethe M32, and my wife uses the M62, and we do not have problems.
One thing I have noticed is that if she is using the trainer and I
stand next to her, my watch will read about 3bpm lower than hers - but
that just messing around - there is no real purpose for two recievers.
Other than that I have never really had a problem with unbelievable
readings

--
cside

I have a tendency to use my polar watch as a stopwatch and I was doing a
speed session with some friends and freaked out when my hrm started
beeping at me. It was set for a pretty low heartrate for a recovery run,
and Hollie was working pretty damn hard. I ran past and suddenly *beep,
beep, beep*. Scared the [censored] out of me.
--

"Tamyka Bell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have a tendency to use my polar watch as a stopwatch and I was doing a
speed session with some friends and freaked out when my hrm started
beeping at me. It was set for a pretty low heartrate for a recovery run,
and Hollie was working pretty damn hard. I ran past and suddenly *beep,
beep, beep*. Scared the [censored] out of me.

The only thing I feel when mine beeps in anger..
because it means I've forgotten to dump its
contents to the computer and the watch memory
has filled up! :-)

I figure if you're not feeling like you're about to
die then who cares what the HRM says. I've
had enough "crazy" readings to know that it's
the unit at fault. <smacks Polar on desk> "Ya
hear that?!? I know you are lying to me!"

hippycardia