Polar HRM S510 Question
 

I've got a Polar S510 monitor that occasionally stops reading the current speed and displays "--" for the heart rate. It seems that this occurs after I've been riding at least an hour or two. The owners manual suggests electromagnetic interference, but I'm not buying this possibility.

Anybody else have an idea what might be causing this?

Regards,

Trekaholic

I had a similar problem, and like you said, it was not eletromagnetic in nature. It turned out that my sensorstrap was slipping down during training, until it could not take a effective reading. This caused my POlar to register --.
There are actually many possible reasons for your Polar to fail. I suggest you try the following. New sensorstrap - borrow one from a friend and see of problem persists. This way you will know if it is the strap or the watch....Try to re-position your polar watch on your bike or arm. Clean both polar watch and strap using ordinary washing up liquid - your salty sweat can be a watch killer. Try these tips first and hope for the best

:beer:

First question...
Do you take the same route every day?

FYI, in the same place, just past an oil refinery, both the coardless cyclo comp on my friends bike, and both our heartrate monitors blank out...

So it is possible..

Thanks for the replies...

I don't think the strap is slipping and I don't take the same route all the time, so I can't link it to power lines or chemical plant RFI or electromagnetic disturbances. And actually, I do ride near such sources on occasion, but that doesn't seem to be an issue.

What I am starting to realize is that the "problems" I think I'm seeing stem from starting and stopping. I usually have the HRM on the handlebar mount. If I get off the bike, I don't seem to be able to pause the exercise without removing the HRM and carrying it with me. For some reason the HRM seems to require a continuous heart beat signal, even if the bike is stopped. Is this normal?

I'd like to be able to walk away from the bike with the HRM on the handlebar, fill a water bottle or two, and get back on without shutting the unit down or having it reset itself to a new exercise.

Is there a way to do this? I've tried various experiments with the buttons, and autostart on/off, but it always resets to a new exercise.

I hate to admit it but there may be a user problem involved! Maybe I've got a setting incorrect?

:crash:

I've got a 710 and have no problem walking away from the bike. It picks me up when I get back in range. While I'm out of range, my heartrate is recorded as 0. You stop recording (on the 710 at least) by pressing the stop button once. This halts the stopwatch, but the sytem still displays the heartrate. On the 710, I have to press stop twice to exit an exercise--can't comment on the 510.