Nokia N97

Lawr

Has anyone here ever used their Nokia N97 as a cycling computer/gps?
Just curious. I have one on order and understand that it has the capability (with the help of some free and/or cheap downloaded software and a Polar hr belt) to calculate cadence, hr, speed, distance and elevation. I'd love to hear if anyone has had any experience using this phone as a cycling computer.

Thanks in advance.

ednwireland

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/main/index.do

doesnt do cadence or hr, but does the rest (i actually export to mapmyride if i want levation data as it doesnt display that very well)

doozerie

I've used my Nokia N95 with Sports Tracker. It's not bad, but my phone would invariably lose a GPS signal at some point during the ride, sometimes for several miles of the journey. I believe that some people have no such problems though. If you already have the phone, then it's certainly worth trying out as it is basically a GPS device for free (plus Nokia now offer decent maps for free too, including turn-by-turn directions). As you might expect, using the GPS function is a bit heavy on the battery so if you leave the house with a low battery charge you may find yourself with an unusable phone before you get home.

I eventually got fed up of losing GPS signal on my spins so I bought a Garmin. The Garmin has never lost its GPS signal over the same routes.

The Nokia N95 does not record cadence or heart rate, so unless these functions have been explicitly added to the N97 (for which you'd also need a heart rate strap and cadence sensor) you'll get speed, distance, and elevation only.

ednwireland

rarely have that problem with my e66

Lawr

Nokia advertises an accelerometer as one of its communications features:

"Portrait and landscape orientation modes; with transitions via dual slide operation, or auto-rotate controlled by accelerometer".

And as one of its navigation features:

Integrated GPS, A-GPS receivers, Compass and accelerometer for correct orientation of display, Nokia Maps"

In addition to Sports Tracker, the OVI Store advertises Velocomputer, not free, but not expensive. The Velocomputer software will read the accelerometer and track changes in attitude, which is accomplished by strapping the phone to your thigh. With each stroke of the pedal, the attitude of the phone changes. This information is recored and cadence per quantity of time is tracked. I understand that one of the features of Sports Tracker 2.0 is that it will capture the signal of the Polar HR transmitter that was specifically designed to work with the N79. Apparently, at one time, Nokia had some sort of a deal going with Polar. Nokia was selling a Nokia N79/Polar Heart Rate Monitor bundle.

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/main/n79_polar.do

I think that I read somewhere that it will work with the current Polar WearLink transmitter or with the Kyto Bluetooth heart rate belt [Type:HRM-2805]

http://www.kyto.com.cn/en/productdetail.asp?productID=190&CategoryId=35

Apparently the original Polar transmitter for Nokia was Bluetooth technology.

Anyway, I should be getting the phone in a few weeks, and as soon as I have any experience with it, I'll report on my findings. I have heard that there is a lot of unreliability with the mobile phone technology, esp. GPS signals, even on Apple iphones. I am going to try to see if my phone will communicate with my Aldi's special (E17.95) hr monitor first. If it doesn't, no big deal. I can just wear the watch. My first big problem, I guess, will be trying to figure out how I am going to attach the phone to my thigh. Ace bandage? We'll see.

Thanks for the feedback, folks.

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