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gpspassion
84985 Posts |
 Posted - 27 oct. 2005 : 12:33:22
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Updated November 2006
The new models that had been previewed on the FRWD site earlier this year are now available. The GPS recorder/receiver is more compact and the W series comes with a wrist display for easy performance monitoring, more details on FRWD website
Updated March 2006 - Had a chance to do some live testing of the FRWD GPS Training solution on the slopes at the foot of the Mont-Blanc in the Chamonix Valley and was quite impressed with the overall experience, hardware works fine, but it's the software that really shines
The FRWD500 Recorder Unit is easy to take for granted thanks to its ease of use, but it's actually quite unique, combining a GPS receiver, a bluetooth module (unit can be used as a standard Bluetooth GPS receiver while logging), a data logger, an altimeter/barometer/thermometer and an RF connection for the heartbeat monitor. The GPS receiver uses a uNav chipset, which is not very widespread on consumer devices and after testing a uNav based receiver last year (see here) I was a bit concerned but thanks to the placement on the upper part of the arm, it always has a good view of the sky and I didn't experience any lost fixes on the runs, even in tree covered areas. Much better than my Garmin Forerunner 201 that regularly lost the fix and insisted my max speed was around Mach 1...If you wear it inside a car, it will occasionally lose the fix when a SiRFstarIII unit doesn't, but that's not what it was designed for. It is powered by two AA batteries that I charged twice during my stay and never ran out of power. No settings on the unit, the PC software does that over Bluetooth (you can select the data capture frequency to extend recording time, every 1 second gives you 3.5 hours and 5 seconds give you 18 hours). No data display on the unit either, just press the button and it will start recording, press it again and it stops. This is where the "FRWD Mobile Player" comes in.
     
The FRWD Mobile Player runs on any S60 based Smartphone, that means all Nokia Smartphones such as the popular 6600 or 6680, the one I was using. Clever choice as you can show much more information and with better graphics than on an LCD screen that would be on the unit, you do need a phone though. The application is fast, stylish and lets you monitor what is going on, letting you set BPM thresholds for instance if you're praticing in a specific range, I wasn't but it was interesting to see my BPM spike up on the fast parts of the runs, not something you normally pay attention to when zooming down at 80kph+ ! I would have liked to see more control of the display, such as resetting the total distance, having a timer and even resetting the receiver. Not sure how much this would be used though as the "FRWD Replayer PC Software" lets you slice and dice the data.
     
The FRWD Replayer PC Software is the control center of the whole system. Once you have downloaded the logged data over Bluetooth (possible with a serial cable too), just watch the show ! Same stylish design and it's really quite impressive what's on offer here, very smooth tracks (see the first capture above) that I didn't think were possible with the standard 10 meter accuracy of GPS, in any case their algorithms work well with no apparent loss of detail as can be seen when you replay the run(s) at a factor of X that you can modify. You can then select the range you want to analyze more specifically and also replay several logs at the same time (race mode), which would come in handy for a sports team. One part that is a bit confusing is that it displays the altimeter/barometer measured altitude which is certainly more accurate over a limited period of time than the GPS altitude, but it isn't always easy to relate to compared to the actual altitude, and I didn't see a way to calibrate it. The Google Earth export feature works well with a nice track and max speed and alitutde markers being provided.
Summary : Overall I was quite impressed by the convenience and useful information provided by the bundle, even to a casual user like me and I'm sure dedicated sportspeople and teams would extract very valuable training data. I'll try to log some spring jogging to see how it behaves in that environment. It is certainly a unique package and it would be interesting to see how it compares to MotionBased's online solution. Pricing of the FRWD500 kit is €549 while the FRWD300 version (no altimeter/barometer/thermometer/heartbeat monitor) is €399
The Future : I just noticed that FRWD had put up a Novelties page with redesigned loggers, a Wrist Display Monitor and a Pro version of the PC Software. The Wrist Display will certainly come in handy even for those who owned an S60 Smartphone.
Questions, comments ?
 
First Posted October 2005
Now for something a bit different with the novel solution offered by Finnish company FRWD. No GPS assisted navigation here, but rather GPS as part of a full kit to log and analyze performance. To achieve this, the FRWD Recorder Unit, includes a GPS Module (uNav chipset), an altimeter/barometer and a heart rate monitor. This is reminiscent of the Garmin Forerunner's and Navman Sport.tool's with more features, but the main difference is the softare available to make best use of the data. For real time monitoring, there is the Mobile Player for S60 smartphones (Nokia 6680 for instance) and the Replayer PC Software lets you get the lowdown on your performance.
I have received a test unit, but we'll likely have to wait for the ski season for some live feedback, in the meantime you can catch some flash animations on their site. The GPS chipset that powers the FRWD recorder is a uNav, seen on the Emtac BTIII and tested in the chipset comparison.
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Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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altden2002
93 Posts |
Posted - 29 oct. 2005 : 00:39:00
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Awesome!
Can you use it for navigation? Does it support NMEA?
Can you access up to date heartrate data from the cellphone as you go?
I wonder what kid of protocl are they using. Built-in logger is only 8Mb, but if you could dump it to cellphone it would have made it so much better my phone has 1 Gb card in it.
Any plans for US release?
I am getting excited here, hope that is not too many questions :) |
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gpspassion
84985 Posts |
Posted - 29 oct. 2005 : 02:25:00
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Let's see:
1. Yes, it can work as a standalone Bluetooth GPS too
2. Via the Nokia compatible app, yes
3. Don't think you can download any data to the Nokia, will heck
4. I asked and no plans for the US so far :-(
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Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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gpspassion
84985 Posts |
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gpspassion
84985 Posts |
Posted - 19 nov. 2006 : 19:15:26
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| Updated November 2006 - The new models that had been previewed on the FRWD site earlier this year are now available. The GPS recorder/receiver is more compact and the W series comes with a wrist display for easy performance monitoring, more details on FRWD website |
Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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Moris
87 Posts |
Posted - 23 nov. 2006 : 09:58:58
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| Sounds really interesting. One unit with lots functions. It looks like you can also download the tracks to Google Earth. Does it come with the software to convert the files like WBT-100/200 from Wintec? |
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gpspassion
84985 Posts |
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SPORTS GPS - FRWD Logging and Analyzing - Review
