ANT Forum

Hello - sorry if this is in the wrong place, but the other forums don't appear to have had traffic for months and I am having trouble getting started.

I have an HRM1G heart rate monitor and an associated USB dongle (registers in Device Manager as ANT USB-m) to allow my computer to ostensibly talk to my heart rate monitor. I have SimulANT and ANTware II and have read the manuals for both, but I still find myself really confused.

My first goal is to ensure that my heart rate monitor is talking to the USB dongle and I can get events/etc from the strap. I can see a device in ANTware II (which appears to be my USB dongle) but I am completely unclear on how to make sure I am able to receive from the strap, or how to ensure the strap is functioning.

Ultimately, I intend to write a simple app to get a 5-second average of my heart rate and output it to a basic windows form to 'cut my teeth' on developing for ANT. I'm very comfortable with C#, so if anyone wants to suggest resources for that project, I will devour them voraciously!      

Hi,

SimulANT+ is probably your best bet if you're just planning to work with ANT+ HRM data. It can configure the channel decode the bytes for you. The "ANT AN Using the SimulANT+ Library for Simulating ANT+ Devices in C#" application note would be your best reference as it contains sample code for using SimulANT+'s C# library as a decoder for Heart Rate data.

If you would like to use ANTware II, the key is to know which channel parameters you need to set to track the strap's ANT master channel, which are listed in the ANT+ Heart Rate Monitor device profile.

This includes:
ANT Slave Channel Config
ANT+ Network Key
ANT+ RF Frequency
Heart Rate Device Type
Heart Rate Channel Period
Wildcarded Transmission Type and Device Number      

Great, thank you! I'm busy right this second, but I will try to step through this tomorrow. I appreciate the starting point!      

Hi tmesser & Harrison,

I was wondering if you've had a chance to work through any of Harrison's suggestions?

I am new to ANT mods but found myself deep into it this week with installation of a Data Bridge product that links a ProForm TDF exercise bike to Zwift cycling software through SimulANT+ on my PC. After a successful 1st ride with SimulANT+ as the liaison between the bike's output and Zwift I got to thinking of how I might add the HRM output to the mix. Naturally, I'd like to stick with SimulANT+ software. Some quick background, the TDF data bridge (TDFDB) install required 2 ANT+ dongles; one so the bike could talk to the PC and the second for the PC to talk to Zwift. So my questions are these,

Would adding the HRM info require a 3rd?

When adding a simulator there are several HRM options to choose from. Do I need to find data for all the info that Harrison, you have included? (quoted below)

"ANT Slave Channel Config
ANT+ Network Key
ANT+ RF Frequency
Heart Rate Device Type
Heart Rate Channel Period
Wildcarded Transmission Type and Device Number"

Or is one of the HRM options in simulators an "end all/be all" option?

Thanks for starting this thread, I hope I'm staying on point with what you are trying to achieve in hopes of adding the HRM data to my workouts.

Cheers! Scott