New toy! (PM5 monitor)

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Rob C
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Rob C »

If you don't use the PM5 for a good while, you may think that having checked the battery is OK, all would be fine. Check the date too. Mine decided I had gone back in time to 2013.
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Recess »

The date thing is a good reason to hook into Ergdata - it spots it before you do. Great for gym machines that no one cares about.
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by CamiCrew »

I requested, and was granted, access to the Ergdata beta for Android. (Yay, but...)

The beta version is at 1.29, whereas the one on my phone is v1.23. I've followed the instructions C2 sent, which said to get the Play Store version and the beta would push to my phone as an Update. It has been a few days now, no update. I've uninstalled and reinstalled, hoping it would help. I checked the app and "autoupdates" is set to On. I've restarted, I've rebooted. Still says v1.23.

Any clues? I'll check back in with C2 but if it's something blindingly obvious, I don't want to bug them. :?: ](*,)
-barbara

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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Recess »

If buy them - the very fact it's not auto updated may be a bug in their program! Plus, they're really receptive people. I've never had such friendly, personal service from anyone else.
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by CamiCrew »

I did bug him. He didn't know why it wasn't working, but he mentioned the Google Play Store beta programme, since I'd asked if my model of phone might be an issue.

This made me decide to check the Play Store app itself.

Play Store was linking to my Google personal info, but oddly also to a work email I don't use on this phone. Once I re-logged in within Play Store, I was able to see new actions on the beta page that led me to v 1.32 :)

Whew. All that to get to the squirrely beta part? :lol:
-barbara

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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by GrantR »

after all that effort, it beta be worth it!
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Rob C »

GrantR wrote:after all that effort, it beta be worth it!
[-X :P

Meanwhile

"infinite loop detected" Code 44 - yep another row disappeared into the electronic ether. Odd how the computer can always read the USB stick and the Concept 2 utility decides it needs to repair some files, but the PM5 will never warn you until after it's too late.

I'd try these ergdata things, but my android stuff is so ancient, I doubt it is supported.
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by CamiCrew »

Got a good laugh from this one.
GrantR wrote:after all that effort, it beta be worth it!
So my Android beta is now up to ErgData v1.33. Today was its first glitch. Rowed a 2x5000/r:2:00, set up as distance intervals. Completed the two 5ks and paddled about a minute of the second 2:00 rest interval, then stopped the workout.

The PM5 displays it correctly as a 10000m row with 96m rest, lasting 44:57.6.

The logbook import via ErgData, however, shows a 20000m row, lasting 1:07:39.4 :shock: If I click into the detail, it shows active time and meters correctly, but the Rest Meters say 10000 (not 96) and Rest Time shows as 22:41.8, which is actually the duration of my first 5000m interval.

Screenshots are off to C2. I've been switching between RowPro and ErgData for comparison purposes and to join others online. Like both for different reasons.
-barbara

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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by dr3do »

Rob C wrote:"infinite loop detected" Code 44 - yep another row disappeared into the electronic ether. Odd how the computer can always read the USB stick and the Concept 2 utility decides it needs to repair some files, but the PM5 will never warn you until after it's too late.
"Glad" :oops: that I'm not the only one, who experienced this behavior.
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Rob C »

I thought my problems with the PM5 were behind me. But No :evil:

There's a wretched "new improved" Concept 2 utility. Who knows what the benefits are, but the problem is that this utility has a "coming soon" feature for backing up your USB drive. Any user of a PM5 will know backing up the USB stick is an essential function. Sooner or later something will corrupt. Either the PM5 refuses to read the stick, or your computer does (because the PM5 messed up), and then you are in trouble without a repair utility.

You guessed it, the PM5 decided to freeze on load or shutdown (not really sure what it was trying to do), corrupted the drive so the computer couldn't read it, and lost a workout. Somehow I did find that on the PM5 internal memory, but until I used Windows 10 to repair the stick (windows saying there was an error on the drive) the PM5 can't read the stick to allow the transfer. This time I was fortunate and it appears all workouts were saved. But who knows for the future.

Concept 2 know how to build a good erg, but really need to find better people for their electronics.
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by J-Dog »

I'm joining in the fun. Got my PM5 yesterday, and installed it last night.

Managed to do a 10' on it for the C2CTC thingy.

Noticed that the HR monitor wasn't working for the 1k I tried after that – reading on here, the PM5 had switched off and back on and lost track. Hmm.

Worst thing was that it now gave me "Your generator cable is faulty" error messages, although it still seemed to work for basic operation.

I checked the prices (22 quid), and checked some YouTube vids on how to change it. At the end of the video, where the bloke shows you how to reconnect everything, he says "push the connector in all the way into the PM5. It's easy to not do this, and then you'll get generator errors . . ."

Checked my work and found a little bit of extra click on the connector, just like the bloke said! Hooray!

Haven't checked it, yet, but I'm hoping this is good to go, so check the connector is pushed in properly when you upgrade to a PM5.

Hope that helps,

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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Rob C »

Well now I'm livid.

This morning I set a PB for the 2k. Not by much but it was a PB. Then this afternoon I did a re-row of a 10x2k interval. In other words the USB stick was reading OK at the beginning of this afternoon's workout. Completed the work out, stepped away from the erg to do a few stretches, looked again at the PM5 and it's asking me for a user name for the new logbook it's just created. Yep all previous logs entries including that PB have gone to the ether.

Worse the latest v7 Concept 2 Utility doesn't offer backup / restore like the older one. So I can't even revert to an older version. I've got nothing, other than the historic online log.

I'm on new batteries, current firmware, all leads are pushed home. Not sure what more I can do with this pile of useless <insert all sorts of unpleasant language here>
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by CamiCrew »

Rob - why do you use the USB stick?

I've never used it, nor the predecessor log card, so apologies if it's a dumb question.
-barbara

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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Rob C »

The PM5 memory only holds a few workouts. The USB stick (or the logcard) should be able to remember them all. A lot of the rows I do are re-rows of an older workout, whether that is interval, set distance, whatever. It's also very useful for only setting up some of these weirder CTC challenges just the once when you attempt them a few times. I particularly like to use the pace boat of the older workout as a guide.

In theory you plug the USB stick into your computer and the Concept Utility uploads that data to the online logbook. The Utility thingy can also put updated firmware onto the USB so the PM5 gets "improved" features. I don't have a PC near the erg so the USB stick is seemed the easy way of doing all the transfers. With the PM3 logcard it was a lot more of a pain as I had to find a very long USB cable to do the updates, the logcard was also getting very slow to read through workouts, but that had never, ever, corrupted.

But some good news, after a couple of hours of messing around I've found that the PM5 has actually created a duplicate set of folders and files on the USB stick. Exactly named the same. That's caused all sorts of issues as Windows couldn't work out what was what as you can't have two sets of folders with exactly the same file name, or at least that's what Microsoft thought. Careful cut and paste of files, and a couple of false starts when the PM5 and the Utility didn't want to read the files properly and I may just have got the logbook back. I'm going to make a few copies and transfer it all onto a different USB stick in case that is part of the problem, and see what happens ....
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by J-Dog »

Nicely hacked, Dude.

Glad you got yer data back.

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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by jhaveman »

Rob, our PM5's memory still holds all the workouts that we did since we bought it (early March).
We've only ever used it with ergdata, never used a USB stick or C2 Utility with it - don't know whether this can explain the difference in behaviour?

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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by JonT »

I too thought there was quite a lot of capacity for storing rows in the PM5 itself. I've had mine since it was launched and not had a problem. I've completely abandoned the USB and now either use ergdata or RowPro to capture the rows. RowPro is my favoured option because it is also a battery saver (powering the PM5 through the usb cable to the laptop - at least I think it does that). I realise that paying for software and using a laptop isn't the right answer for everyone though.

Like you Rob, I re-row a lot which is why I really like RowPro. I find it strangely motivating to row against a computer generated version of me. I do sometimes surprise myself when the earlier version of me puts on a burst of speed when I least expect it. #-o

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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by jhaveman »

Just in case anybody else runs into this. Since about a week our PM5 was showing erratic SPM values when rowing at low speed (slower than 2:20, and very noticeable when going slower than 2:30).

We cleaned the flywheel housing and oiled the chain, but this had no effect. We then contacted Concept2 who were very responsive. We sent them some videos of the force curve when the problem occurred, there were some strange jumps in it that caused the PM5 to erroneously conclude that a stroke had finished. We then realised that the issue only seemed to occur when a bluetooth link to our iPhone was active. :idea:

We then suspected a battery related issue. The PM5 still had its original Energizer batteries fitted (we bought it in March). The power level showed as 56% so we didn't think there would be an issue, but when replacing them with used Duracell batteries (power level 80%) the problem went away. A bit of experimenting showed that with the Energizer batteries the problem was always there, and we haven't seen it with the Duracell batteries yet (but have only been using them for a day now).

Concept2 did mention that they had seen problems with the Energizer batteries before, but this was a new one for them.
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Dogma Dave »

We (minto and myself) bought a brand spanking new Model E last month, and the PM5 shipped with Duracell batteries, so your concerns appear to have been acted upon, which is most heartening... :-)
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by zootMutant »

jhaveman wrote:A bit of experimenting showed that with the Energizer batteries the problem was always there, and we haven't seen it with the Duracell batteries yet (but have only been using them for a day now).

Concept2 did mention that they had seen problems with the Energizer batteries before, but this was a new one for them.
That is totally bizarre. #-o
Dogma Dave wrote:We (minto and myself) bought a brand spanking new Model E last month, and the PM5 shipped with Duracell batteries, so your concerns appear to have been acted upon, which is most heartening... :-)
:P
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Dogma Dave »

zootMutant wrote:
jhaveman wrote:A bit of experimenting showed that with the Energizer batteries the problem was always there, and we haven't seen it with the Duracell batteries yet (but have only been using them for a day now).

Concept2 did mention that they had seen problems with the Energizer batteries before, but this was a new one for them.
That is totally bizarre. #-o
Dogma Dave wrote:We (minto and myself) bought a brand spanking new Model E last month, and the PM5 shipped with Duracell batteries, so your concerns appear to have been acted upon, which is most heartening... :-)
:P
Bizarre indeed...
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Juergie »

I have been running my PM5 without any problems for the last several months. Before that, I had several occurances where the PM5 would save my workout to the inserted USB stick. At last it even "destroyed" the stick.

Since then I always do the same steps before a workout:

* connect a power supply to to PM5
* insert USB stick
* do the workout
* afte the workout is saved to the stick, remove it
* unplug the power supply

This has been working flawlessly. For some reason I tried a different power supply today. The new one is much weaker than the other one. And sure enough, after the workout I got an error and it could not be saved but was lost.

So power seems to be crucial and I will return to the old power supply.

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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Tgtaylor »

The Energiser batteries supplied with my C2 lasted about two weeks before i was having trouble with them. I noticed that with the memory stick inserted, the battery level dropped quite a bit. so i have presumed that the PM5 is reading a simple voltage test and does not take into account any extra loading it may have to supply ( like the memory stick). If i remember right the reading was about 55% (without memory stick) when i started getting trouble with it.
So now I am using Duracells. I take photo of the screen (inc verification code) if i have done a row that particularly good (well good for me), before inserting the stick and transferring the row. happily the Duracells have lasted just over 8 months now and read about 59%. so will have to see how low they can go before giving me trouble.
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Duckrunner »

Reading through these problems i am wondering if its worthwhile upgrading to the PM5. I like the PM4 it does what i want it to do and has done for over 10 years.
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Re: New toy! (PM5 monitor)

Post by Juergie »

Duckrunner wrote:Reading through these problems i am wondering if its worthwhile upgrading to the PM5. I like the PM4 it does what i want it to do and has done for over 10 years.
I use a PM4 on my rower, connected to RowPro during workouts. And I have a PM5 on my SkiErg that I connect to my iPhone during workouts.

The way I use them I see no reason to upgrade my PM4 since it does all I need. The PM5 might have additional functionality but so far I have not discovered it and therefor not missed it on the PM4. But to be honest, I haven't been looking for that because of the way of my setup.
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