Wahoo Fitness – Anyone using their iPhone dongle?

My girlfriend wants an HRM and plugging one of the Wahoo gizmos into her iPhone4 looks like the most user friendly solution. Anyone who has used one can you tell me what you think? Open to other suggestions too.

Thanks

I vaguely considered it, but they are quite expensive and increase the size of the phone by a reasonable amount (so it won’t fit in a case). That and the fact that running ANT+ (and presumably GPS) will decimate the battery on the phone convinced me to get a dedicated Garmin unit instead. If you just want a HRM then the units are not particularly expensive.

I certainly don’t think it’s the most user-friendly solution either, since you’ll have to keep taking the phone out of your pocket or have to read the screen from an arm-mount to see what’s going on.

I’ve had one for a few weeks (got a second hand one off eBay as the RRP is pretty steep). I really like it. It works well with both strava and cyclemeter and gives you lots of geeky data. If I’m using it seriously to “train” in a specific zone (rather than just seeing how high I can get my HR whilst cycling up a hill), I have cyclemeter set up to speak to me through headphones when I enter and leave that HR zone.

It doesn’t add much to the battery consumption either – whilst skiing recently I had both strava (for monitoring HR) and Ski Tracks running for GPS for 7 1/2 hours per day and used about 60% of the battery at most. It’s comparable to usage prior to the wahoo dongle.

The dongle adds a bit of bulk to the phone, but only a tiny bit. I still keep the phone in my pocket whilst out cycling.

Does she have a 4 or a 4s?

The 4s has Bluetooth Smart (aka Bluetooth 3.0) so doesn’t need a dongle.

It’s a 4 (not S) so dongle required unfortunately. On the plus side all Ant+ gear should work with it.

I should add she is not a cyclist, use is a mix of gym/run/ride/walk so the phones GPS is a plus without adding another device to charge etc.

So Graham are you saying the the 4s or 5 I presume will ‘talk to’ ant+ HRM straps without adding anything to the phone?

Don’t thikn so.

As I understand it there are two possible low-power wireless standards here: Ant+ and Bluetooth Smart

e.g. this Polar H7 is Bluetooth Smart (see the logo) so it can talk to other Bluetooth Smart devices:

But it is not ant+ as far as I know.

(don’t actually have an HRM myself – just surmising what I think I know 🙂 )

Thats good to know Graham, thanks.

whilst skiing recently I had both strava (for monitoring HR) and Ski Tracks running for GPS for 7 1/2 hours per day and used about 60% of the battery at most.

Seriously? When I used to use Runkeeper with my 3GS I’d get 3 1/2 hrs MAX (from a fully charged battery) before the entre battery was gone (i.e. phone would switch itself off!)

It’s a 4 (not S) so dongle required unfortunately.

I’m currently trying to persuade my missus to upgrade to a 4s, so I can pinch it and hook up an HRM 😀

So Graham are you saying the the 4s or 5 I presume will ‘talk to’ ant+ HRM straps without adding anything to the phone?

No. Ant+ is the Garmin standard that they are sticking to but it looks like other manufacturers might be moving over to Bluetooth Smart.

Yeah I can see Bluetooth Smart winning that battle – mainly because modern bluetooth chipsets support it without any extra hardware so it will be built-in to most future smartphones.

(Plus I wrote some BT Smart software last year and it was pretty easy to do)

Bit old this, but still relevant.

From the same site here is the speil about the Wahoo Blue (Bluetooth Low Energy aka Bluetooth Smart):

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/01/wahoo-fitness-blue-hr-bluetooth-low.html

Oh and I mispoke earlier, it is Bluetooth 4.0 that is in the 4s and supports Bluetooth Smart. Not 3.0 as I said earlier.