Polar RS200 decoder

Introduction

This program offers a command-line interface to the popular RS200 heart rate monitor from Polar Inc. The decoder interprets data sent by the device over its SonicLink sound protocol and offers multiple ways to store the data as a workdout database.
You can use it to

Store workout data on a PC
Analyse workouts and follow-up data
Import data to a spreadsheet or a database

Supported heart-rate monitor models

Polar RS200
Polar RS200sd

Supported operating systems

Windows XP
Linux

Unlike software available from Polar Inc, the decoder does not require a web service to display the data. Instead, you can store the data to your own PC, analyse it with a spreadsheet or import it to a database. Supported storage formats include plaintext exercise summary, XML, comma-separated values, and raw binary.

Installation and use

To use the decoder you need a standard PC with Linux or Windows XP and a microphone. The decoder is a single command-line application that connects to the microphone and starts showing volume level after invocation. Once it detects RS200 SonicLink data coming from the microphone, it reads the data and outputs it to a location you specify. To get an overview of possible options and arguments, simply run the program without any arguments.

You can store the files outputted by the decoder and use them as a rudimentary exercise database. However, to get full benefit of the decoder, use it together with a database application such as the SportsTracker. SportsTracker has ready-made input filters for the decoder and can display your results graphically. For more information on SportsTracker, follow this link.

Please download the package and read the README file for further instructions on installation and use.

Downloads

You can download the program either as a compiled ready-to-go binary or as source. The downloads are available here.

The Windows binary has been tested to run on Windows XP SP2 but should run also on other WIN32 platforms. The Linux binary has been compiled and tested with SuSE Linux 10.0 and has been reported to run without problems on other similar distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora Core).

The source package contains a makefile to compile with gcc on Linux. Also a project file for Visual Studio 2005 is included.

Feedback

If you find bugs or would like to suggest improvements or just give some general feedback, please use the forums and feedback functions of Sourceforge found here.

License

This program has been released under the GPL license. You are free to distribute and modify the program as long as you credit the original authors. The code is based on the original decoder for Polar S410 by Tomas Oliveira e Silva.