ANT Forum

Hi,

We are having several issues while connecting our device to a ANT+ rower machine(using a PM4 module).
We are able to get our device to receive broadcasts from the rower machine, but it does require several workarounds that I hope you could help us confirm.

1) I notice that if I do not copy and broadcast the manufacturer and device ID of a Garmin device(FR60), I am not able to get pass the authentication step. It seems like the PM4 module is rejecting our default manufacturer and device ID?

2) Once our device connects with the rower machine, the ANT FS implementation on our device will timeout after the default 60 seconds. It appears that once the connection is made, the PM4 never pings our device occasionally to keep the FS connection alive? Do we need to set the link timeout to infinite or ping ANT FS ourselves occasionally?

3) It appears that the PM4 module never requests a user settings file from our device during initial pairing? Are FEs required to request user setting files?


Thank You,
Harvey      

Hi,

Regarding your questions,

1. You may want to get in touch with the manufacturer of this device to confirm whether they are rejecting authentication based on the manufacturer and device ID, and whether your device could be added to their list.

2. The Fitness Equipment device profile specifies that on the watch device (display), the ANT-FS channel should remain connected throughout the session. Wording cold be clearer, but essentially, this means that the watch should keep ANT-FS in transport state (infinite link timeout) until it loses the FE-RX channel.

3. FE's are not required to download any files from the watch, but most of them do download the settings file.      

Hi Alejandra,

In regards to number 3; since I do not get a request to download the user settings, what is a good way to detect that I am pairing with an FE and not a PC host? For our application we need to support the pairing of an FE and/or a PC host. The difference is that if I am pairing with an FE, I will need to open up the FE_RX channel to listen for broadcasts. Due to power constraints, I am not able to always have the FE_RX channel open.


Thank You,
Harvey      

Hi there,

I am currently also working with the concept2 PM4 and a ANT+ USB stick. I hoped you can share some information on how you received data from the PM4. I can connect to the PM4 using ANTware but only when transmitting, but how to receive? Do i need to connect first through transmitting then open another channel to receive?
With the ANT-FS PC client program i can connect fine to the transport layer. I understand the PM4 doesn't use this layer but what is the next step? The ANT-FS PC host program i cannot find anything.

Hope someone can help.      

Please have a look at the fitness equipment device profile, this describes how to communicate with a fitness equipment console. To communicate with the PM4 using existing tools, you will need to use both the ANT-FS client and ANTware, as there are two channels involved.      

Thanks for answering. So u are saying i need 2 ANT+ USB sticks since i cant connect to both programs at the same time. I need to keep a channel to maintain a connection with and a channel to receive the data?      

You would need two USB sticks to use the existing tools (ANTware, ANT-FS client) simultaneously. Are you planning on creating your own application?      

Yes i am. I was first trying to get familiar with ANT and testing if my setup will receive the data.
But you are suggesting i should start creating my own program? Is there maybe some reference code/project i could start with?      

I still would suggest using the existing tools first to get familiar with ANT, ANT-FS and the Fitness Equipment Device Profile.

Please have a look at the following post, it will point you to the development resources that are available.

http://www.thisisant.com/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,146/func,view/catid,25/id,1169/      

So it is possible to have these two channels on one USB stick? Why cant i manage this with ANTware where you can open multiple channels? Isnt that the same principle?      

Yes, it is possible.

The limitation with ANTware is at the application level - it does not implement ANT-FS. That is why you need two different applications (and sticks) to communicate with fitness equipment; while ANTware is capable of handling multiple channels, it does not implement the messaging and state machine necessary to communicate with an ANT-FS device. You could manually send the messages if you wish, it is just not as straightforward.      

Trying to receive data from multiple PM4s. Does this mean I need to open an ANT-FS and RX channel for each PM4?

So with a USB stick having a max of 8 channels, I would need four to connect to 15 PM4s?

Or is there a better solution?      

Yes, as defined by the Fitness Equipment device profile, you need two ANT channels to manage the session and receive data from a fitness equipment console. If the users have fitness equipment enabled watches, you could use the watches to kick off the session (ANT-FS), and use the USB stick to just receive the FE data, either with synchronized channels or with the continuous scanning mode.

In the specific case of the PM4, I believe the manufacturer added a special mode that can let it broadcast the FE data without needing to use the ANT-FS channel. I would suggest contacting the manufacturer regarding how to enable this mode.