ant+ is great... it's all comparable with other ant+ as long as it will read your specific type of device (older garmins won't read separate cadence and speed sensors, only the combined for example)...

so in short you'll need to get an ant+ HRM... there are dozens of options and many times you can find a deal on them if you look for a used forerunner... get it... keep the HRM and either sell or use the forerunner...

I've been using my galaxy note 2 with an OTG cable and ant+ usb2 stick for a few months now... I use IPbike for my app and as you mentioned you need to use his ant+ sensor app for it to all work... but it does work great... I had an old garmin ant+ HRM and picked up a cadence/speed sensor.

I also picked up a HTC rhyme with a bad ESN for next to nothing (it has built in ANT+) in effort to get the big fat expensive phone off my bars... ends up I can't bring myself to get rid of the all the data on the GN2 (the rhyme doesn't have a pressure sensor)... also if the phone has built in ant+ I haven't been able to get ipbike and another app to share the ant+ sensor info (if you have integrated ant+ apps like mapmyride, garmin active and endomondo will read the sensors) but as soon as I tell IPbike to start recording while using those sensors it won't share with the other apps :-/

honestly I see this as a stop gap until I have a garmin edge of some flavor... but it works well in the mean time.


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