Cadence monitors on Android

[G0ldfysh]

I am happily using androids myTracks to record my rides giving an idea of hills climbed and average speeds. Happy to swap to something else if needed though.

I noticed going through the menus, that there is an option for additional sensors eg. heart rate and cadence.
Heart rate I have a built in monitor if I can feel my heart in my chest trying to escape and feel sick I slow down.

Cadence counting in my head though while cycling in a group I too easily lose count or just forget so what sensors are out there that I can connect to my phone?

It is an HTC desire and after internet searches I was looking at the Garmin GSC 10 which looks like it connect via bluetooth, but I'm not sure at the moment from reading online.

Any recommendations?

[bernie_eccle]

Sorry I can't help you with your question but I too am using My Tracks. I was wondering, do you mount your phone on your bars? I just set mine going when I set off and then stick it in my pocket and check the data when I get home.

I am interested in measuring my cadence but I would need to know this in real time so would need to be able to view the phone. Please excuse me if I am way of the mark, but I am new to all of this.

[Silver940]

bernie_eccle said:

Sorry I can't help you with your question but I too am using My Tracks. I was wondering, do you mount your phone on your bars? I just set mine going when I set off and then stick it in my pocket and check the data when I get home.

I do, I just use one of those arm straps wrapped around the stem and a lump of foam padding.

[G0ldfysh]

I have a cheap hard case off ebay and then sticky cable tie pads to the back of that, couple of cable ties on the bar stem and I'm away. Stem is 100mm which is convenient with the length of the HTC

[samwilliams]

G0ldfysh said:

It is an HTC desire and after internet searches I was looking at the Garmin GSC 10 which looks like it connect via bluetooth, but I'm not sure at the moment from reading online.

The GSC10 just transmits via ANT+, I think. Quite a few Android phones have the capability to receive the signal, but the vast majority don't have it enabled. The only ones I'm aware of at the moment that do are some Sony Ericsson ones.

You can definitely get bluetooth heart rate monitors, but I'm not sure if there are any cadence sensors around.

[TonyHetherington]

bernie_eccle said:

Sorry I can't help you with your question but I too am using My Tracks. I was wondering, do you mount your phone on your bars? I just set mine going when I set off and then stick it in my pocket and check the data when I get home.

I am interested in measuring my cadence but I would need to know this in real time so would need to be able to view the phone. Please excuse me if I am way of the mark, but I am new to all of this.

I have a mount for my iPhone and it works very well - it's called a RAM mount.

[amnesia182]

HTC Highroad were using Desires to upload data from Garmin Edge 500 sensors in the TdF in real time last year... I haven't been able to find out how they did it, but I suspect custom ROMs from HTC are the key.

[samwilliams]

amnesia182 said:

HTC Highroad were using Desires to upload data from Garmin Edge 500 sensors in the TdF in real time last year... I haven't been able to find out how they did it, but I suspect custom ROMs from HTC are the key.

Yeah, they had a special firmware on them to enable the ANT+ and did it using Google MyTracks. So, in theory it can be done, but you'd need to be really clever or, more importantly, know the right people (neither the ANT+ firmware or live updating on Google MyTracks is available to normal people).

I did quite a bit of research into it for a cycling trip I did this year, and the only way to use ANT+ sensors at the moment, without an additional dongle, is with some of the new Sony Ericsson phones - we were using the Xperia X8 and Endomondo for live tracking.

[TonyHetherington]

I use CycleMeter, and I'm sure that uploads to the internet at different points on your route if you want it to? Ok it's not live live, but it will updated every 1mile, 10mins or whatever I think?