Timex data recorder arrived
The replacement for my old Timex data recorder arrived. I don’t have the Timex Trainer software loaded on this computer, I’m hoping there have been some bug fixes since the last time I tried it.
In my experience, the data recorder and software usually works pretty well, and is a great improvement over trying to log workout heart rates and paces manually. However…
I purchased my first data recorder shortly after they went on the market, having already gotten the Bodylink heart rate monitor and the predecessor Ironman GPS unit. At the time, both the hardware and software seemed a little buggy, but still pretty amazing for the price point, just over $50. The lack of user interface makes the data recorder a little challenging to use sometimes. There is a single button and a single LED which flashes timed patterns in red or green to indicate various conditions, which can be difficult to see in bright sunlight and can take a while to interpret. In particular, it’s easy to miss the red-and-green flash which indicates low battery, which soon leads to the unit shutting itself off.
The most unfortunate experience I had with the data recorder was using it at my first time running the Big Sur marathon and having the Timex Trainer software choke while uploading the 4 1/2 hours of data. I had the speed smoothing function turned on and I’m guessing that it hit an exception somewhere while chewing on missing or spurious location data. I was fairly annoyed about this, since I wanted the training data, and actually worked out the HR part of the data using the flash memory dump feature in the Timex software.
Hacking the data out of the firmware wasn’t my first choice, I actually contacted Timex to see if I could either have someone rescue the data from the memory dump or send some documentation so I could do it myself. I got as far as extracting the time and heart rate data, which was moderately useful in planning for the next time around.
There’s now a project on SourceForge, sponsored by Timex, which provides the logger.dll code used to interact with the data recorder over USB. I haven’t gotten around to trying it, partly because I haven’t had a data recorder for a while, so I may give it try sometime.
My notes on hacking the Timex data recorder are posted on the main blog in the running category:
Tags: bodylink, fitness, gadgets, gps, hrm, running, timex, training
January 11th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
The Timex API on sourceforge, sweet! And did you notice the comment, “Developers are encouraged to use 1.0.36 or later if they are expecting to utilize the position and altitude data provided by the GPS-3D sensors.” Does that mean the newer versions of the GPS now record position? Finally??? I will be thinking about upgrading my unit if so.
January 11th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
It looks like the new Trail Runner model provides GPS lat/lon and elevation data. I don’t think the Navman II GPS does though. I still have my original Ironman GPS, so an upgrade would be timely, and would also improve the battery life and receiver performance.
I haven’t seen the Trail Runner GPS sold by itself, there’s also a new watch that has display functions to deal with the position and elevation data.
December 16th, 2006 at 11:24 am
A simple question for a guy like you but a brain teaser for a neophyte like me. I too have the data recroder and was dutifully logging data onto my old computer. I just bought a new computer and can’t export the data all at once. Trying to avoid having to manually enter over 150 workouts. Thanks.
December 16th, 2006 at 11:42 am
You can just copy the database from your old computer to the new one. It will be called TimexTrainer.mdb, in the installation directory, typically something like C:\Program Files\Timex\Timex Trainer\Database\
If you’ve installed the software on a new system, there will also be a database there, you’ll want to back it up, probably export the few entries you have there, then replace it with the old database containing all of your data.
Once you’ve got the old database working on the new system, you can import the new workout data, and continue from there.
January 1st, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I cant import data from a previous computer. it is the latest model with elevation changes. I have changed the extesion from .mdb to .csv and it still does note work.
Thanks
Earl