Best way to start?

[sean808080]

I recently got a Sunny Fitness Hydro Water Rower (SF-RW5910). The monitor is pretty limited so I'm excited to use open rowing monitor as a way to make the rower smart.

I finally got my hands on a Raspberry PI 3 A+ and was able to get openrowingmonitor installed after some trial and error. It's been a while for me so I enjoyed the challenge of getting it up and running headless because who has a wired keyboard any more?! :-)

The rower already has one magnet and it has a blank mount for another sensor! I put another reed sensor in the empty slot and like magic open rowing monitor started showing data!

Now the fun part. I spent some time on the config files and started with the Sportstech WRX700 since that is also a water rower. I'm stuck on the best path to getting strokes detected consistently and trying not go get lost in changing too many variables at once without clearly understanding what I'm doing. Sound familiar perhaps?

I guess I'll start with a few basic questions:

1. If I have createRawDataFiles: true, shouldn't I see new raw data files for each rowing session?
   As it is now, I have one file that doesn't seem to get updated with each rowing session.

2. The numOfImpulsesPerRevolution should be set to the number of magnets, correct? In my case: 1.

3. I get that default.Config.js will get overwritten so any changes that need to persist should be made in the config.js instead. What is the best way to setup the rower profile in the config.js? Is it to copy the template that is closest (in my case WRX700) and modify it and change the rower name? Maybe an example of a properly formatted config.js file would be helpful for newbies like myself?

4. I see in the repo, an excel file called rowing_settings_analysis_small.xls
   Is that to be used to examine the raw data from a rower in order to get to better settings?

5. I see a V1Beta Pull Request has been hanging out there for some time. Is it recommended to use that PR or stick to the main? If so what would be the correct command to upgrade my install to use that PR?

Thanks for your patience as I'm working my way through this. I appreciate any input you kind folks can provide!

[sean808080]

I see that for question #5 the instructions on how to upgrade to the V1 Beta are here. Sorry I missed it!

[JaapvanEkris]

V1Beta_Updates is technically the best solution as it has ANT+ support and a bit better debugging of the config file. V1Beta is pretty good and a huge step from the current main version. Main is still there as we still have to figure out how to get people from main to V1Beta without ending in chaos.

The xls is depreceated. The log files should now be able to tell you what is going on. As a practical help, we have a manual to help you tweak your settings: https://github.com/JaapvanEkris/openrowingmonitor/blob/v1beta_updates/docs/rower_settings.md

Copying the profile into the config.js is indeed the best approach for a new machine. Please note: if you have a working solution, we are more than happy to include your settings in the rowerprofiles, which might help future users.

Please observe the sentence "If no strokes or pauses are detected, you can force the writing of these files by pushing the reset button on the GUI." in there. You can force creation of the files.

[sean808080]

Thanks @JaapvanEkris !
I upgraded to the v1 beta branch and started fresh. A few issues with npm and other issues during the install but it looks like I got through it OK.

Now the stroke counter is much better. It seems to count every stroke correctly. Only thing that seems to need attention is the distance per stroke but I'm not 100% sure yet at it's late. :-) I used the profile for the Sportstech_WRX700.

Attaching the recording of 10 strokes in case there's anything that I'm missing here.
2023-03-02_02-08-35_rowingData.csv

Showing this to my 10 year old son impressed him! For a few minutes, I was a cool dad. haha

[JaapvanEkris]

Showing this to my 10 year old son impressed him! For a few minutes, I was a cool dad. haha

That is all that counts! Cherish those moments.

[sean808080]

Checking the logs I see some errors that make me wonder if I did something incorrectly.
They start with --> TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'totalMovingTime')

Attaching the full logfile if it's helpful... The updated version with v1beta started today so ignore yesterdays logs.
v1logs.txt

[JaapvanEkris]

Checking the logs I see some errors that make me wonder if I did something incorrectly. They start with --> TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'totalMovingTime')

Thank you for filing this bug :) This one is on me: we wrongly assume there are some strokes detected when the files are written. I added a safeguard in the V1Beta_updates. In the later session, I see things go right, is that correct?

[sean808080]

That's correct. that error only gets thrown when you hit the end workout button without any strokes recorded. after that it recovers and works as expected.

[sean808080]

I"m pretty happy with the setup but I am seeing regular warnings in the log regarding maximumTimeBetweenImpulses. Is this acceptable or something that needs to be tweaked? I'm not sure if some warnings are normal in the logs.

[JaapvanEkris]

I"m pretty happy with the setup but I am seeing regular warnings in the log regarding maximumTimeBetweenImpulses. Is this acceptable or something that needs to be tweaked? I'm not sure if some warnings are normal in the logs.

maximumTimeBetweenImpulses can be ignored when they are sporadic. The same maximumTimeBetweenImpulses is also used to check whether the flywheel is fast enough after a pause (or a cold start), so as long as that isn't too slow, it isn't an issue. Typically, you'd like to avoid these messages, so increasing its value might make the logs look nice and clean, but nothing that needs to be done per se.

[sean808080]

good to see. thanks so much for your guidance @JaapvanEkris !