Heads up! Here’s your massive list of sports tech deals! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $449, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium for $735, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, and plenty more! Go check out the full list here!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
Here’s how to save!
Wanna save some cash and support the site? These companies help support the site! With Backcountry.com or Competitive Cyclist with either the coupon code DCRAINMAKER for first time users saving 15% on applicable products.
You can also pick-up tons of gear at REI via these links, which is a long-time supporter as well:
Alternatively, for everything else on the planet, simply buy your goods from Amazon via the link below and I get a tiny bit back as an Amazon Associate. No cost to you, easy as pie!
You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.
-
Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
-
5 Easy Steps To The Site
1
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
2
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
3
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
4
My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
5
The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
All I’m waiting for is a swim metrics app and I’m buying it!
Someone actually posted an app that helps you count swim distance. You have to press the lap button on each turn, but it’ll do the distance portion for you. Not the best solution on earth (since they can’t leverage the accelerometer yet), but not horrible either. Clever.
Automatic Swimming LAP Counter (works with ALL pool sizes and Swim Styles):
TESTED! 98% Accurate!
link to movescount.com
1) Create an App with this code:
DISTANCE / (LAP_DISTANCE_PREV + 0.01)
Format: “1” Decimal
Postfix: “Laps”
note: “LAP_DISTANCE_PREV” is “Previous lap distance”
2) Create a Custom Exercise mode with “Multisport” Mode
GPS: OFF
Recording interval: 1s
PODs: All OFF
Alti-baro profile: “Alti”
3)
Inside the pool, Push Lap button just once after your FIRST LAP, and it will Automatically count your other laps.
Notes: If you stop for a rest in between your laps, remember to push Start/Stop button(pause), to get more accurate data.
Change the above code to this for 99% Accurate Counting:
DISTANCE / (LAP_DISTANCE_PREV + (DISTANCE / 100))
This approach is using Ambit Fusion Speed for Swimming!
this app doesn’t do much yet- but it sure does open the doors to endless possibilities. the limitation seems to be what you can fit on that display. I don’t understand why Motorola didn’t open up its MotoACTV to this, as it’s got betterinterfaces and display capability.
Seems like these aps are basically just showing the results of an equation that uses data from the built in data fields. No ability to save any data (either just tempororary in the app or to the data that can be sent to the computer) or comunicate with outside source (for examples using Ant to send data to a smart phone that could then use that data) or interact with the user
Indeed, that is the case.
However, as I noted on Thursday – it’s a start. And it’s well beyond what any other company provides. Ultimately, I think it’s just the beginning – and, if they mature it, I really do think it could turn the tides in the GPS market.
Hello rainmaker, hello all,
Could anyone tell me how to get a reliable, live, power reading from an ANT+ power meter to a suunto watch?
I am using a just purchased power to max that works perfectly with trainer road on my home trainer. For outside with my ambit 2 I tried several moves count apps, which all give different readings, none of them show 0 watts when i stop pedaling, and none immediately react when I go from leisurely pressure to hard climbing, or they show readings like 600 watts when I’m cruising downhill…can anyone help?
Normalized power would be nice as well of someone has done the hard work… :)
cheers and keep the rubber side down :)
If “source” data are stored, it should be easy to replay the calculation.
Hi Ray!
You think this is only the first step for a better improvement of Ambit and App?
Do you think that Suunto will use the accelerometer to improve some functions and develops others new? The Apps are not accurate to calulate the slope and I hoped them should be use the accelerometer to guarantee real values!
Ps: sorry for my english!
Hi Ray!
You think this is only the first step for a better improvement of Ambit and App?
Do you think that Suunto will use the accelerometer to improve some functions and develops others new? The Apps are not accurate to calulate the slope and I hoped them should be use the accelerometer to guarantee real values!
Ps: sorry for my english!
These apps are an amazing feature! I really hope they allow multiple apps soon…I have a couple I would like to add to one profile.
It seems you need to update the app to show both instant and average power, negating the need for two apps to be loaded.
Hi, as the ‘writer’ of this app, that would be great, but not possible. The ‘app’ feature is simply a formula. It doesn’t use a programming language at all. So it can only provide one output figure – thus the need for seperate apps.
The real issue here is for suunto to allow three things:
1. Ability to display multiple apps on screen/activity, so we can have both average/instant power. This opens up options like max lap power, av lap power, which would both be useful.
2. Ability to use app outputs in the creation of other apps – so if I wanted to create an app that showed power based as a percentage of my FTP, I could simply call on the value result of the instant power app and work it out from that.
3. Show app result data in movescount, so the ambit records app formula outputs just like all other values, and then view them on graph etc.
Once suunto does these three (simple) things, apps will be fantastic, and the possibilities amazing.
While I love the idea of having apps on my GPS I think there is a very big jump to get from this to a more complete app environment. As these apps are just formulas there is no ability to run code on the GPS so other then giving a useless number the app can’t do any harm (take up too much memory, take up too much cpu, call a function that exposes a bug in the OS,…)
So seems like they would need to make public how to compile code for their watch (this seems highly unlikely for the general public to get this level of access but maybe a limited number of 3rd parties similar to game consoles), make an interpreted environment similar to TI-Basic on the TI graphing calculator, use a vm enviroment like .NET Micro Framework or the Java equivalent, or switch their OS to Android like the motorola watch to take advantage of the work already done to support apps.
Wish I could be more optimistic but none of those seem that likely in the near term. The long term, maybe in that processors should be much faster and use less power making it easier to have an android base last all day in a tiny form factor.
Hi Rainmaker,
did you have the chance to compare the app with the new in-ride system from kurt kinetic. It would be very helpful to evaluate the app result with it.
Thanks,
Jann
In order to compare “in ride” the kurt kinetic to the app result, suunto allow now Suunto ambit owner to save data from an app’ during a training.
I’ve written (in french) a tutorial explaining how to do that :
link to coureurduchablais.com
Hope it will help you for some stuff in your blog.
Very cool, thanks for sharing! Great to see the app updated that quickly!
Wondering how you mounted the watch to your aero bars. Sorry off topic but something I’m researching. Also, your opinion on the Suunto ambit 2s vs Garmin 510 set up would be appreciated.
The easiest way to attach the Ambit to the aerobars is to use one of the UCI mounts, which basically is a generic mount that you can attach any sort of bike computer to it. That’s roughly what you see up there. Here’s an example here: link to amazon.com
I own an Ambit2 and am very happy with it.
one thing so far I am missing: in an ultra trail run the water stations are spread along the course at varying distances. is there an app to MANUALLY input lap distance, calculate those laps’ pace/speed, and show a distance COUNTDOWN to the next water station?
Hi,
you can enter the run as a route in Movescount and define the water stations as waypoints. While you navigate the route, the watch will tell you how far you are from the next waypoint.
This could cause a problem in that the Navigation feature apparently switches GPS fixing frequency to 1s (not verified by me), so your battery life is going to suffer compared to using 5s / 60s frequency. If so, consider switching off Navigation when you know there is not station for a good while, then switching it on again.
Hope this helps
Kaspar
Just stumbled over this post while trying to dig deeper in this whole APP world. I received an old Ambit as a present and now started to explore its functionalities. In combination with a Garmin GSC 10 it should give all the necessary data but with tons of apps available it is pretty difficult to keep track. Would you still recommend this APP or are you aware of any better (more accurate?) releases in the past? Thanks and keep up the good work!
There is no reason why a single app could not switch the display between multiple calculated parameters at some time interval. In your example of peak and average power one could display peak for say a number of seconds then the average for a number of seconds all within a single application. The programmability of the ambit is as you say far more limited than Connect IQ. It does, however, allow you to develop your own apps privately and test on your own device – something that Garmin does not. I suspect it is more accessible to the non-programmer as it does not require a knowledge of objects, inheritance or to download, configure and learn how to use a development environment. It would be nice if Suunto added supported for graphical output and the display of up to three numerical values on a screen just as the native views can. I also am unable to see how to retrieve waypoint positions. I would like to write my own back to start indication in large as my presbyopia makes it hard to see the little direction indicating triangle (bug) on the display when lost running in the dark. I could be out there for hours!
Which pedals did you use for the power input ?