[Ti] Virtual PC and USB Questions

[Dave Hoppenrath]

On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 19:33:00 -0700, Greg Hydle <ghydle at mac.com> wrote:

> Hello all!
> 
> I was wondering if any of you have had success using the Polar Heart
> Rate Monitor and infrared USB connector under Virtual PC.  Or if anyone
> had any other solutions!

Hey Greg,

I went through this hassle last spring. Tried both the serial infrared
interface connected to a Keyspan serial-USB adapter, and the USB infrared
interface. Tried both under Virtual PC 5.0.4 running Win98 SE and no luck.
No matter how I tried to configure settings for either the COM 1 or COM 2
ports, or the USB port, using the "Polar Precision Performance" software it
wouldn't "see" the interface. Selecting "HR Monitor Connection" from the
"Tools" menu brought up the "connecting to HR monitor" message in a window
entitled "Infrared Connection," but the connection never got made.

A few months earlier my brother asked me if I wanted a free computer, a
several-years-old Dell he had been running Linux on. At the time I had
declined, but now I took it from him and installed Win98 SE (which it could
barely handle). Installed the Polar software and everything was A-OK fine.
So now the Dell sits down the basement next to the bikes, as the ONLY thing
I use it for is to download the data from the monitor (mine's an S710,
incidentally). I then copy the files to a floppy and transfer them onto my
TiBook's hard drive, and can then open the Polar software under Virtual PC
and view/print the graphs/reports/data as I please.

Two problems with this. First, it's klunky and kind of a pain. Second, every
summer my wife and I escape the flatlands of Minnesota for a week or two of
wonderful cycling in the mountains of Colorado. We bring the TiBook with us
but of course not the Dell. And the HR monitor's memory is not capacious
enough to hold the data for all the rides, so at some point we need to find
a Windows box to download to. Not slick at all.

So I would also very much welcome any advice on how to use one of these
Polar interfaces directly with my TiBook. If anyone can help, please chime
in. (Incidentally, I'm on digest mode, so if this has already been resolved
I'm sorry for a useless post and thankful for any solution!)

-Dave Hoppenrath