 "Depends upon your philosophy" | 2009-08-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: AZE5X5CGAILEG |
This product works as advertised. The associated software works as well. Thus I have no complaints about the product and therefore can recommend the purchasing of this product.
However, my intended use of this product was to work in conjunction with my Timex heart rate monitor, speedometer, and watch. Thus this data recorder is part of a larger system for collecting fitness data.
I went with Timex vs. some of there competitors in this space as the watch and HR monitor were gifts. Overall I have been pleased with the system (although the HR sensors went bad sooner than I thought they should). But the Timex philosophy was to keep the size of the watch unit relatively small so that it could be used as your day to day watch. Therefore the overall system is broken up into pieces (this data recorder being one.)
To use the overall system, you have to strap on the watch, the HR band, the GPS unit, and the data recorder. Then you have to get the system working and synched up with the watch prior to starting your workout. This process, while not painful, is not elegant. Thus I am not convinced this multi-unit approach is optimal.
Again, this unit (and the overall Timex fitness system) work as advertised. If you don't mind having several units strapped to yourself to generate and record your workout information, then this system is likely something you should consider purchasing. If you would prefer a single unit that is larger but more integrated, then keep looking. |
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 "Detailed record for the compulsive" | 2009-02-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1DN4EUTLFK2LV |
I bought a refurb at a healthy savings and it seems to be working fine. The most cumbersome part of the heart rate monitoring system is the chest band, but this little gizmo clips easily onto accessible clothing. The pulse rate (I don't have the GPS unit) is stored every two seconds for an excellent record of cardiac activity during exercise. It seems to be quite accurate by manual and concurrent automated cross checks. It downloads automatically when connected to it's USB cable. The computer can be programmed to erase the record as soon as it is downloaded. I haven't reached its memory capacity yet, with about 20 hours in one day so far, but notice that with longer continuous sessions, it starts overwriting from the beginning of the session after several hours. This requires stopping and restarting occasionally if you're on a whole-day excursion. I presume that adding GPS data would significantly lower the available storage time.
The only downside is that it occasionally turns itself off, presumably from loss of signal which may be faulty contact of the chest strap transmitter or distance from the chest. As a tall person, I've found that this happens if I place the recorder in a pants pocket as well. Now I just clip it to my collar and find it very reliable after a heavy month of almost daily use.
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 "Excellent item" | 2009-01-14 |
| - Reviewed By nbolay |
| I've only been using this recorder for about 3 weeks, but I'm very pleased. I had no troubling getting it to sync with my heart rate monitor (I don't have a GPS transmitter). It does have a fairly short reception distance though. It will work on your belt area, but not much further. On a stationary bike, I clipped mine to the handlebars and a few minutes into the routine it lost synchronization. I've not had that problem if I wear it on the waist trim of shorts etc. It uploads instantly and without a hitch to the included software that allows you to track all sort of trends. The actual heart rate data can be exported as ascii data into other products to do more sophisticated analyses if you want, but the dozen or so ways to view things within the included software are very good. |
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| "An Ok Toy" | 2008-10-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: A7U0GWRY5SHW3 |
| The data recorder is an ok toy. I've had it cut out on me while it was supposed to be recording a couple of times. It doesn't link to the watch, so any timing infor from the watch is not kept. The PC program supplied with it is ok, would be much better if the plotted track could be coordinated with google maps or something of that sort. But it does a nice job of tracking work-outs and stores info in a very logical form. Overall I would just say that it is ok. |
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| "Right on track with this recorder..." | 2008-05-02 |
| - Reviewed By afnone |
This product is wonderful at recording workout data. And it easily and reliably links with your Timex chest strap.
My only gripe is that the software is not customizable to record and categorize data more toward users' needs. But it does do a great job of tracking your workout. I give it 4 of 5 stars! |
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| "Good product for training." | 2008-04-05 |
| - Reviewed By joe1832 |
| This monitor keeps a good track of heart beet when you're working out... The one complaint I have had so far is that the software disc that comes with it, is a mini disc. Which means that it can not be used with an apple computer, or any ohter slim line style disk drive. Other than that, it has great features. It can even use the collected data in other software programs, such as "crosstrainer.ca" which is an excelent fitness tracking software. |
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