topic Xperia mini and heart rate monitor in Other/General

Xperia mini and heart rate monitor

sillycat — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 16:54:46 GMT

Hi!

I´m desperately looking for a compatible heart rate monitoring belt for my Xperia mini. I´m not very experienced with the whole theme.. all I know is most HRM use Bluetooth Smart and my phone only got Bluetooth 2.0. I have read though, if you use an app working with 4.0 it´s possible anyway (I feel it does not make much sense..). The other point is most HRM require Android 4.3 or higher, I have Android 4.0.

Does anyone here uses an Xperia Mini with an HRM and could advise me?

Thank you so much!!

Re: Xperia mini and heart rate monitor

JRAB — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 16:22:23 GMT

Hi,

You need any ANT+ heart-rate monitor strap (and bike speed/cadence sensor as well if you want). Google it - you can get them from Garmin, Suunto, Decathlon, and many other brands.

Most of the Xperia range are ANT+ enabled (I have an SK17i Mini Pro). You don't need to upgrade Android, ANT+ is available in 2.3 Gingerbread. I note you mention Android 4.0, which is unoffical on an Xperia Mini? It may be that if you're running a custom ROM for version 4.0 the 3rd-party developers didn't bother to include the ANT+ code? That's the main reason my phone is still on 2.3, as I haven't seen any mention of ANT+ in any of the custom ROM discussions - obviously less important than lovely/pointless(?) live wallpapers and stuff.......

You many need to go to the Play Store and install the ANT+ Radio Service (free) or other ANT+ manager.

Assuming ANT+ is enabled, you need to install a running / cycling app to make use of the HRM signal - I use Cycledroid which is free and easy to ,and IpBike which is free for initial demo and very powerful (although you need to learn how to use it for best results). These apps use the phone's GPS together with the ANT+ speed and HRM sensors to give as much data as you could need about your ride. IpBike will even read data from a cycling power meter if you're serious!!

There are a bunch of other apps though, such as May My Run, Runtastic, Strava, miCoach, Nike+ which should also work with the HRM strap.

Hope this helps.

Richard.

Re: Xperia mini and heart rate monitor

sillycat — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 14:12:23 GMT

Oh thank you so much!!!

That really helped a lot! Funny, I never knew what that ANT Radio App is for and it set me up a little when it wouldn´t let me uninstall it 🙂

Oh, and no the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is an official update it's been available for over I year now, I think.

Ordered a Garmin Ant device now and I´m very excited to try it! Hope I don´t have to downgrade the Android again though...

Thanks again!!

Re: Xperia mini and heart rate monitor

JRAB — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 15:18:36 GMT

RE: official Android 4.0, that's funny because my Mini Pro (SK17i not the earlier X10) won't let me upgrade through PC Companion.

Apparently in the 4.0 version, Sony switched off the ANT+ by default - you have to go into a menu to enable it (along with the Facebook integration apparently).