sosche rythm+

pgmcpq

I just got one of these because it supposedly would work with my existing Garmen 305. Problem is I cannot get it to pair with the watch.


Turn it on - it flashes blue/red awaiting a pairing. Start the HR scan on the watch. Watch continues to show the X through the heart indicating no monitor found. Meanwhile the HRM starts to flash blue which I think means it believes it has paired. I removed the battery from the old strap hrm in case this was throwing things off.

Next I turn the watch off, and disable everything else I can think of that could possibly be speaking 'ant'. Now I just turn the hrm on - and again it eventually turns blue as though it has paired with something. I turned the phone off but still no dice.

Btw, it does show up as a potential blue tooth connection when the phone is on (at which stage it seemed to flash purple - a colour not mentioned in the manual at all !).

Reviews suggest it should work. Any ideas ? Any way to determine what it is paired to ?

sconhome

The 305 is ANT as far as I can remember so it will likely not pair with ANT+

It definitely isn't bluetooth anyway.

TFBubendorfer

The 305 should work with an ANT+ HR strap. That's what I used to use (also confirmed in the table in this page: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2007/11/review-of-garmin-forerunner-305.html). The Scosche RHYTHM+ is a dual Bluetooth/ANT device and should definitely work.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/05/scosche-antbluetooth-optical.html

Unpair the old HR strap first, then try again?

Krusty_Clown

The 305 is ANT+.

Posts on DC Rainmaker's review, seem to suggest that it should work. Example:

. I have not tried it yet with a Suunto, however I did it with the Garmin Forerunner 305, it took between 2 and 3 seconds to get it coupled and reading hart rate (via ANT+), excellent!.

pgmcpq

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

The 305 should work with an ANT+ HR strap. That's what I used to use (also confirmed in the table in this page: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2007/11/review-of-garmin-forerunner-305.html). The Scosche RHYTHM+ is a dual Bluetooth/ANT device and should definitely work.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/05/scosche-antbluetooth-optical.html

Unpair the old HR strap first, then try again?

Yeah, I actually took the batteries out of the existing hrms that came with the Garmin, and turned the phone off in case it saw bluetooth and decided that would do, but no luck. Took it to the office where I figured it would be safe from interference but again no dice.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

The 305 is ANT+.

Posts on DC Rainmaker's review, seem to suggest that it should work. Example:

Yeah, but I have seen some vague references to people having to downgrade the firmware with older devices.

It's strange as it switches out of "pairing" mode "red/blue flashing" into a solid blue but I cannot tell what this means as it is not mentioned in the (2 minature page :rolleyes:) manual.

I'll try Scosche support and see it that gets me anywhere (other than finding out the weather in Bangalore today )

TFBubendorfer

pgmcpq wrote: »

Yeah, I actually took the batteries out of the existing hrms that came with the Garmin, and turned the phone off in case it saw bluetooth and decided that would do, but no luck. Took it to the office where I figured it would be safe from interference but again no dice.

I think the 305 can only talk to one HRM at a time and it might still be configured to listen to your old HRM and therefore ignore the scosche.

Try the following: go to Settings->General->Accessories, set Heart rate monitor to "no" and go back. Maybe even re-start the watch at this point (old-school IT person coming through). Then go into that menu again and select "restart scan", making sure your old HM is well out of range and the scosche is pairing.

If that still fails get into contact with scosche support.

pgmcpq

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

I think the 305 can only talk to one HRM at a time and it might still be configured to listen to your old HRM and therefore ignore the scosche.

Try the following: go to Settings->General->Accessories, set Heart rate monitor to "no" and go back. Maybe even re-start the watch at this point (old-school IT person coming through). Then go into that menu again and select "restart scan", making sure your old HM is well out of range and the scosche is pairing.

If that still fails get into contact with scosche support.

Yeah, as another old school techie ( when in doubt ipl !) I tried that but no dice. Support was disappointing; basically sending me PDFs of manual but not really addressing the issue. Going to try another watch this weekend. If that fails I will return. Works fine over Bluetooth.

pgmcpq

Just to complete the story. It may be of use to others. I did finally get it working.

As I was looking for a return address I found a section of the manual that told me to call a number for return instructions. I did, got a support guy who instantly told me that I needed a firmware "downgrade" from the 2.6 version on the hrm to 2.4 and sent me an email with an attachment and instructions.

Took several attempts and the reinstall of the Scosche Fitness utility on the iphone (the downgrade hung the first few times) to complete. Once it did complete all seems to work well, measurement look "reasonable".

Not sure how I feel about the product. It seems the hrm as sold is not ant+ compatible, at least not any more. From the speed with which they diagnosed this (instantly) this is a known issue and why it is not part of an faq on their website puzzles me. The downgrade process took about half a dozen attempts and apparently ( I was trying anything by then) the reinstall of their iphone app and a lot of guesswork. The support guy from the phone contact was pretty responsive.

neilc

Great to see you got it working, have this HRM myself. I find it brilliant, totally accurate with no spikes (now). One tip on use which might be helpful for you. When I got it first I used to wear it on the upper inner arm and got some spikes at the start of a run. I thought the inner less weathered part of the arm would be better for the LEDs. Once I started putting it on the outside of the upper there's been zero problems.