Polar OH1 heart rate monitor and PM5

[tesseracts]

For anyone who is interested, I tried out the polar oh1 heart rate monitor (the arm band) with my PM5 and ergdata. I wasn't sure if I would be able to connect the HR monitor and my phone to the PM5 since they both use Bluetooth. But I was able to!
But it only worked if I first connected ergdata on my phone to the PM5. And then I turned on the HR monitor and connected it to the PM5.

[Garyvrck]

Do you find the OH1 to be accurate?

I've been using my Garmin VivoActive 3 but it is very unreliable for rowing. It takes forever for my heart rate to rise on the watch even though I know it is pounding!!

Thus I'm trying to decide between the Polar H10 strap or this Polar OH1 monitor.

Thanks in advance for your feedback,
Gary

[jrpeiso]

I've been using the OH1 for the last month or so and it works great.

[gregsmith01748]

Do you find the OH1 to be accurate?

I've been using my Garmin VivoActive 3 but it is very unreliable for rowing. It takes forever for my heart rate to rise on the watch even though I know it is pounding!!

Thus I'm trying to decide between the Polar H10 strap or this Polar OH1 monitor.

Thanks in advance for your feedback,
Gary

I found it to be very accurate. I’ve been using it for a couple years now. The thing I like most is rechargability and an on/off switch.
https://analytics.rowsandall.com/2017/0 ... or-rowing/

[alien878]

For anyone who is interested, I tried out the polar oh1 heart rate monitor (the arm band) with my PM5 and ergdata. I wasn't sure if I would be able to connect the HR monitor and my phone to the PM5 since they both use Bluetooth. But I was able to!
But it only worked if I first connected ergdata on my phone to the PM5. And then I turned on the HR monitor and connected it to the PM5.

I have an OH1 and haven't experienced this using ergdata on the iphone. I did find I needed a USB stick in the PM5 so it remembered the connection. Also, I made sure that the OH1 was not registered in the phone's bluetooth list (not sure if this is necessary, but it made things simpler to know the OH1 always connected to the PM5 and never the phone).

Something else: the OH1 now supports ANT+ with a firmware update. I haven't tried it, cuz if it works, don't mess with it. If nothing else helps, you might try ANT+.

I have no complaints with the accuracy of the OH1. It does seem to do some aggressive averaging to smooth things out, but I think that is typical of most monitors.

[Garyvrck]

Great article that you provided Greg!!

I purchased the OH1 and have successfully used it with my rower and BikeErg in conjunction with my iPhone and both the ErgData app as well as the Polar Beat app. I’ve compared accuracy with my old heart straps and there is excellent correlation.

Overall I’m very happy with it!

Cheers,
Gary

[bisqeet]

i have quite a lot of HR monitors... not sure why, pretty sure my wife doesnt know about them all.

anyway - i also have the oh1 and used it with several others to compare.

i found it to be as accurate as the H7/Garmin HRM Tri within a certain tolerance band.
Suprisingly enough the Apple watch 4 showed similar trends and was overall quite good.

The vivoactive was ok-ish, but wouldnt like to base any training on it.

[dr3do]

Do you find the OH1 to be accurate?

I had the chance to try out a OH1+. I'd say it depends…

SmartBike:


RowErg:


SkiErg:

[Carl Watts]

Accuracy should all be pretty close to one another, you pretty limited with an instantaneous accuracy because your HR is so slow and its measured in BPM. Its an accuracy vs update time problem and the only thing that can be used to improve it is an algorithm that starts to use your previous HR and then starts to predict where your HR will be in say 5 seconds time.Think about it, you have to get much smarter than just measuring your HR for the last 6 seconds and multiplying it by 10. Most of the issues will be in it actually receiving every single HR pulse to enable the accurate calculation in the first place.

[Ahad]

Has anybody used OH1 on PM5 without attaching the cell phone to PM5?
OH1 connectivity can support Bluetooth LE, and ANT+, but it does not support old type of connectivity called 5KHz or called Gymlink (Gymlink itself has two types: coded, or non-coded).
H7, H9, H10 supports Bluetooth LE, ANT+, and also Gymlink (only coded version of Gymlink to my knowledge.
I dont know the HR receiver module inside PM5, which one supporting. My assumption is that PM5 only supports Gymlink coded on PM5, then it can work directly with H7/H9/H10, but not going to work with OH1 directly (without connecting a cell phone).
I think all above users that say they could make OH1 to work with PM5, it was because at the same time they had connected their cell phone to PM5, and for the reason all cell phones supports Bluetooth LE which is the newest standard, it is actually the cell phone that is connected to OH1 (not PM5), and then the cell phone can communicate with PM5 with the cable connected to.
I have bought OH1 already and I am in waiting list for concept 2 PM5, so I dont have the PM5 to test myself. I loved OH1 so much that even without knowing to work with my future PM5, I purchased it anyway.
The reason I prefer OH1 over H7/H9/H10 is just because it is arm band and does not need to be moistened to work.
In comparison of OH1 to H7/H9/H10, I can say it is not as accurate as H10, but it is very close to (for accuracy), so the accuracy is not an issue for me.
The other down side of OH1 vs. H10, is that, H10 is instantaneous to show your HR, but on OH1 there is a lag of 5 to 15 seconds to show the correct HR. I mean on OH1 it seems you see the HR of almost 10 seconds before, which even for this, I would greatly prefer OH1 over H10 for being so comfortable to put on. I can deal with 10 second delay to show the real HR. There is no doubt H10 is superior in every aspect over OH1, except it is a pain for me to moisten it and put it on.
So even if I assume PM5 HR receiver is old standard of Gymlink, it still works with P7/P9/P10 directly, but not with OH1 (directly without a cell phone).
It would be nice if concept 2, upgrade their HR receiver of PM5 to either Bluetooth LE that is far superior standard than old Gymlink.
All above, is just based on an assumption that PM5 HR receiver supports only Gymlink. If it already support them, please let me know.
As soon as I receive my concept 2, I will update you if I could make it to work with OH1. Another hope is that Polar makes a new firmware that cause OH1 to support Gymlink as well.

[CJOttawa]

PM5 supports ANT+ and BTLE for HR monitors. Your OH1 will work with either.

I suggest ANT+ since it supports unlimited receiving devices and won't use up a BTLE channel.

[ArmchairPhil]

Yes my Polar OH1 connects to the PM5 via Ant+ and the PM5 will then show my heart rate if I press just row or whatever.
I then use my cellphone to connect ergdata to PM5 via Bluetooth and for music .
Read Greg Smith's link which reviews its functionality

[Allan Olesen]

All above, is just based on an assumption that PM5 HR receiver supports only Gymlink.

And NOW you say that, at the end of that very long post? Have you any idea how much disturbance that assumption of yours created inside my head while reading through your post?

[Ahad]

Sorry on my last post which was based on a wrong assumption. I had missed the page on PM5 specs, it clearly mentions that PM5 supports Bluetooth LE and ANT+.
in that case it should work fine with OH1.

[Ahad]

OK. Let me explain what I meant by the long post I left.
I was trying to expand the question to all PM2, PM3, PM4, PM5 monitors and all polar HR straps and explain which strap works with which PM monitor and why:
Polar HR straps uses 4 types of communication protocols: Gymlink (not coded), Coded Gymlink, Bluetooth LE, ANT+
Polar T31 chest strap uses Gymlink (not coded) (I am using this strap on my treadmill)
Polar T31 coded chest strap uses Coded Gymlink
Polar T7 uses Coded Gymlink, Bluetooth LE (not ANT+)
Polar T9, T10 uses Coded Gymlink, Bluetooth LE, ANT+
Polar OH1 uses Bluetooth LE, ANT+ (not Gymlink, or coded Gymlink)
and on the other hand:
PM5 uses Bluetooth LE, ANT+,
PM4 uses ANT+
PM3 with concept 2 HR receiver kit addition, uses "Coded Gymlink"

Conclusion:
PM3 with receiver kit from concept 2, you can use T31 coded strap, or T7, T9, T10,(All communicate on Coded Gymlink), but does NOT work with OH1.
PM4 you can use T7/T9,T10, OH1, (All communicate on ANT+)
PM5, you can use T7, T9, T10, OH1 (All communicate on both bluetooth LE, or ANT+)
If you see any error on above information, please advise.
Note: Gymlink is an old protocol used on old devices, but Bluetooth LE and ANT+ are the latest.