Polar Infrared Device Problem



ultrarunner

New Member
Dec 16, 2003
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This issue has been discussed at length, but my particular circumstance is a little different. I have a Polar S710 with the optional infrared device (USB). My OS is Windows2000 and I know my USB ports work. I cannot get the computer to recognize the device. I've reloaded the software, updated it, etc, etc about 10 times. I spent an hour on the phone with a Polar tech today and he just had me reload everthing ... again. I'm following the available directions, most notably not having the device plugged in when I'm adding the software or updating it.

Does anyone have any experience fixing this?

Thanks!
 
Originally posted by ultrarunner
This issue has been discussed at length, but my particular circumstance is a little different. I have a Polar S710 with the optional infrared device (USB). My OS is Windows2000 and I know my USB ports work. I cannot get the computer to recognize the device. I've reloaded the software, updated it, etc, etc about 10 times. I spent an hour on the phone with a Polar tech today and he just had me reload everthing ... again. I'm following the available directions, most notably not having the device plugged in when I'm adding the software or updating it.

Does anyone have any experience fixing this?

Thanks!

I had the same issue as you, except I'm on WinXP. I remember rebooting till I was blue in the face. Polar just drove me nuts and the techies didn't seem to have a clue. I think the drivers suck. What I did was a complete uninstall, reinstall the drivers, and then plug it in. I really don't remember the steps, but I just got lucky and it recognized it. But still.
 
My machine (WinXP Pro) recognizes the IR port. However, if I reboot with the thinbg attached to my USB Hub, the boot time is excruciatingly long. Specifically, the WinXp memory check takes forever. Consequently, I have to remove the device when rebooting, and then reinstall it once the machine is up and running. If anyone has a fix for this, I'd love to hear about it!
 
Polar USA is extremely quick to replace equipment that doesn't work according to spec. If you're in the States, why not call Polar, and ask for an upgrade to the 710i (maybe it's the 720i), since for whatever reason, there appears an incompatibility with your equipment and the Polar USB infrared device? This may work with other Polar distributors around the world, but I've never dealt with them.

The "i" versions of Polar HRM's don't require the infrared reader--your computer's infrared port can be used directly. I've had both the 610 and te 610i, and the latter is much easier to use, and was a great deal easier to get interfaced with my computer.

Another possible option: use the serial infrared device.
 
Originally posted by msrw
Polar USA is extremely quick to replace equipment that doesn't work according to spec. If you're in the States, why not call Polar, and ask for an upgrade to the 710i (maybe it's the 720i), since for whatever reason, there appears an incompatibility with your equipment and the Polar USB infrared device? This may work with other Polar distributors around the world, but I've never dealt with them.

The "i" versions of Polar HRM's don't require the infrared reader--your computer's infrared port can be used directly. I've had both the 610 and te 610i, and the latter is much easier to use, and was a great deal easier to get interfaced with my computer.

Another possible option: use the serial infrared device.

In my case (slow bootup), I don't think its a hardware problem! Once booted up, everything works fine!

In addition, My understanding is that you cannot use your machine's IrDA port if you are running Windows XP. I wish you could -- I'd love to use my laptop when travelling.

Better yet. I'd love to be able to download and view Polar files with my Palm Tungsten, and later sync with the Polar Desktop software. I've made this suggestion to Polar but never heard back! If anyone here is a Palm Developer, this could be a killer Palm App.
 
I couldn't get the USB IR thing to work with XP at all, despite trying 2 different bits of hardware and wasting several hours of precious time messing around. In the end I swapped it for the Serial Port version and that worked fine first time.

m.
 
Hmm. I'm running Windows XP Pro, use the Polar 610i HRM, I don't use Polar's infrared device, I sync with my computer's infrared port. It works perfectly, was very simple to set up and has never had any problem at all. I'm using an IBM T40.

I think the problem you guys are having may be not using the "i" version of Polar's various HRM's. The non "i' versions do NOT infrared sync without the Polar infrared device.

Personally, if using Polar's infrared device caused my computer not to boot at normal speed, I'd consider that I had some sort of incompatibility problem and I'd look to Polar to provide a solution. As I have in the past many times, and as mentioned, I have found them to bend over backwards to solve the problems their customers have--even when it costs them new hardware, which they seem to hand out pretty freely.
 
I had thz same problems with XP Pro. After some research and a call to Polar Manufacturer, the guy said to exchange the USB by a Serial one.
So now it works.

PS: There are differents types of motherboard and so differents types of USB...don't ask me more...i don't know more...but my PC don't work with the USB.
 
ultrarunner said:
This issue has been discussed at length, but my particular circumstance is a little different. I have a Polar S710 with the optional infrared device (USB). My OS is Windows2000 and I know my USB ports work. I cannot get the computer to recognize the device. I've reloaded the software, updated it, etc, etc about 10 times. I spent an hour on the phone with a Polar tech today and he just had me reload everthing ... again. I'm following the available directions, most notably not having the device plugged in when I'm adding the software or updating it.

Does anyone have any experience fixing this?

Thanks!

Some of the USB's have problems on certain hardware. I had to exchange my unit twice through tech support before I got one that worked with my DELL. They worked fine on another computer. To tell if you have the same problem, try plugging in the USB device after the machine boots. As I recall, the issue was recognizing the device at boot up - after boot up there was no problem. If you see that behavior, have Polar send you an updated replacement.