Polar RS800cx and MAC OS

[johnnomonaghan]

I recently bought a RS800cx and am EXTREMELY frustrated.

I cannot get it to interface with my Mac at all.
I have trawled the net for answers........
Is there a "simple" user friendly solution our there?

Will iSMARTtrain be offering one any time soon?

Polar are not going too.

Absolute shame that such a good piece of kit is let down by a very lopsided approach to technology by Polar. Idiotic really.


Thanks.
Johnno

[Stuart]

Hi Johnno,
No simple solution, I'm afraid. There's no drivers for the Polar IR-USB interface (or most other IR-USB devices), and we need that to 'talk' to the Polar devices.

Thanks & Regards

Stuart

I recently bought a RS800cx and am EXTREMELY frustrated.

I cannot get it to interface with my Mac at all.
I have trawled the net for answers........
Is there a "simple" user friendly solution our there?

Will iSMARTtrain be offering one any time soon?

Polar are not going too.

Absolute shame that such a good piece of kit is let down by a very lopsided approach to technology by Polar. Idiotic really.


Thanks.
Johnno

[Alistair]

Stuart -

So do you think that you'll be able to make the Mac - RS800 link work some time, or is it a no-hoper?

Thanks,

Alistair

[jfj]

Alistair,
I do hope that you get an answer!
This question has been posed many, many times, still no answer - it seems that a simple "yes" or "no" is hard to get, or even better a timetable.
There are so many of us interested, and consequently a big market for iSmarttrain!

[Stuart]

Hi Guys,
The lastest on this is as follows:

The biggest hold-up is getting device drivers for the Polar USB-IR interface. I've got the source code from SigmaTel for the drivers supplied with the device (they're PPC only, and definately won't work in 10.5, and probably not in 10.4, but I haven't tested this). It's NOT a simple case of re-compiling the drivers for Intel Macs and 10.5. At the moment, I simply don't have knowledge or the time to learn about Mac device drivers to get around this. If anyone's got experience with this, let me know.

On the plus side, I have sucessfully downloaded from my RS800 using Belkin IR-USB adaptor, that's supported by Apple's IR-USR device driver. I've had it for some time, so I'm not sure if it's still available or if there's any other manufacturer's devices which may work (it depends on the chipset in the device). I'll post the model number here once I'm home. Obviously, this is a step in the right direction, and all that remains for me to do now is to decode the data that comes off the watch.

As you can see, I'm making progress with this, all be it slowly, due to other non-iSMARTtrain work commitments.

Thanks & Regards

Stuart

[jfj]

Stuart,
This is interesting news. Is it probable that the Belkin adapter would work with s625 as well? Is it the one called "Smartbeam"? Seems it is hard to find due to IR communication getting out of fasion, but I have managed to find it on eBay - would only like to get a conformation from you before ordering.

[Stuart]

The Belkin adaptor we've got working has the model number F5U230.

More details are here - http://tinyurl.com/dnfax5

I'm not sure if this model is still currently available - I bought my one some years ago.

Regards

Stuart

[Nekaj]

Hi all,
any news on this subject?

v.

[Nekaj]

Hi all,
anything new regarding this issue?

v.

[lstelie]

Hello Stuart

I have a belkin F5U230
Which IST settings did you use ?
- Under USB I have nothing
- Under iRDA I have s610 s625 s710 s725... but no rs800

Thanks