The Favor is the most basic of the Polar heart rate monitors. Unlike other models, it has no watch or alarm functions. The favor has a single line Liquid Crystal Display with characters that are 10mm tall. The Favor doesn't internally keep programmed target zone information, nor does it have any timers to assist you in your work out. The Favor turns on automatically when it receives impulses from the transmitter, delivering on the display a pulsing heart which shows the receiver is receiving from the transmitter, and your present number of heart beats per minute. It relies on you to determine that you've reached inside of your target zone. The wrist instrument can be strapped to your bicycle handlebar, or exercise equipment using the optional bar mount kit below. The Favor uses one replaceable CR2025 battery in the wrist instrument, which weighs 32 grams, the transmitter/strap weigh 73.5 grams. $ Price in Catalog
The Polar Pacer has a wristwatch styled receiving unit using a single line Liquid Crystal Display, with 10mm tall characters for easy reading. The Pacer wrist unit picks up information sent to it from an Electrocardiatric chest sensors which transmit heart beats to the wrist receiving unit. The round reciever is styled like the Edge and Favor models, and uses the same wrist strap and handlebar mount the other two models use, permitting the round reciever to snapped out of the wrist holder and into the handlebar mount. The Pacer has a 12 hour clock with AM or PM indication. This clock also has a separately programmable, and separately activated, 24 hour alarm. The Pacer wrist receiver can be programmed with the low and high number of heart beats per minute that constitute your workout. It will accept as low as 10 beats and as high as 240 beats per minute, in 5 beat increments.
The reciever can be set to deliver an audible tone, "beep" when you enter or exit the target zone. When out of the target zone the beep tone will sound with each received heart beat, so without looking at the wrist unit, you can need only to listen for the beep to stop to know that you have entered the heart rate target zone. The wrist receiving unit also displays your heart rate in 10mm high characters as you exercise. When the Pacer doesn't receive a heart rate signal from the transmitter, it displays the time of day.
The system comes with a chest band that holds the transmitter in place, that has two sensors, one on each side of your chest below the breast. As mentioned in the Overview, the transmitter has a non-replaceable battery, but is said to have a battery life of 2500 hours, so 2 hours of use a day will yield a useful life of nearly 3 1/2 years before the transmitter must be replaced. The wrist instrument relies on a field replaceable CR2025 3 volt, long life lithium battery. Removal of 4 tiny Phillips screws with a jewelers scewdriver gives you access to the wrist unit's battery compartment. The Polar Pacer wrist receiving instrument can be mounted on stationary exercise equipment, or a bicycle using the optional handlebar accessory below. The wrist device weighs only 35 grams, and the chest strap and transmitter weigh 73.5 grams. $ Price in Catalog
The Edge is an enhanced version of the Pacer that has a two line Liquid Crystal Display, the upper line has 8mm tall characters, the lower has 4mm high characters. The Edge has a 12 hour watch with AM or PM indication, and the watch has a 24 hour clock alarm. The Edge has a programmable target zone, the high heart rate limit can be set between 60 and 240 Beats Per Minute, the lower can be set between 15 and 135 BPM. With the target range programmed, you can select to have a beep sound while working out when you move into or out of the target zone.
The Edge will start your workout automatically when you bring the receiver in proximity to the transmitter or you can start it manually by pressing the right button. When your workout begins, your heart rate is displayed in the upper line and the total time of your workout that you spend in the target zone is displayed in minutes and seconds on the lower line.
At the conclusion of your workout you press the left button again, and the display changes, the upper line displays the amount of time that your heart rate during the workout exceeded the lower target limit, and the lower line becomes a stopwatch and displays the total elapsed time of your workout. This last screen can be recalled later, provided you don't initiate another workout. Beginning another workout erases the previous session information. The wrist instrument can be strapped to your bicycle handlebar, or exercise equipment using the optional bar mount kit below. The Edge uses one CR2025 replaceable battery in the wrist instrument, (36 grams), the transmitter/strap weighs 73.5 grams. $ Price in Catalog
This is a lightweight molded plastic housing that the Favor or Edge snaps tightly into, so you can see the wrist display and it's information, on your handlebar. The snap in case is fastened with a rubber protector to your bar and held in place with two zip ties. It's total weight is 7 grams. $ Price in Catalog
The Polar Accurex II takes heart rate monitoring a sophisticated step further, and enhanced memory functions over the original Accurex. The wrist receiving unit has a three line Liquid Crystal Display and simultaneously displays for current heart rate, intermediate time (time within the target zone during present workout), and total time of workout or exercise period (stopwatch), each in 5mm tall characters. At it's most basic, the Accurex II is a highly accurate 12 hour watch, with an AM/PM indication, that also displays the date, in month, day and year,
The watch function also has a 24 hour alarm, that can be used as a wake-up alarm or reminder timer. The Accurex II also has three other timers, separate from the watch alarm. Two of the timers allow you to segment your exercise period according to your own particular needs. You may set timer 1 to specify an amount of time you want to allocate to warming up prior to exercise, and timer 2 the period of time you want to want to allocate to your full strength exercise period. Another scenario may be that you use your HRM while training for sprints. Timer 1 could be set for the amount of "sprint" time and timer 2 you could use for "interval rest" periods. Both timers can be set from 0 up to 59 minutes 59 seconds. Left at 0 they are inactive.
These timers will activate the audible "chirp" sound to alert you when the time interval you have programmed it, has expired. A single chirp sounds when timer 1 or the recovery timer has expired, a double chirp when timer 2 has expired. While you are involved in the aspects of your workout you will want to know when your heart rate has reached into your "target zone". The Accurex II is easily programmed with your target zone, the lower heart rate limit can be set from 10 to 230 heart beats per minute, while the higher rate limit can also be set from 10 to 230 beats per minute. The remaining third timer is the interval "recovery" or "cooling off" timer when you have determined your workout is concluded, the recovery timer is activated automatically at the end of the workout timer. The recovery timer alerts you with a beep at the end of the time you have programmed to be your recovery time. The recovery or "cooling off" timer can be set for as short as 5 seconds or as long as 21 1/2 minutes.
When you begin your workout, the Accurex II display shows you five pieces of information simultaneously, and continuously. The upper line shows you your accumulated time in the target zone for this workout period. The middle line displays a stopwatch showing your elapsed time since the beginning of the workout, without regard to timer 1 and 2. The lower line shows your heart rate, in whole numbers, not rounded, meaning if your rate is 83 BPM, you see "83". To the left of the lower line is a small heart shape that pulses with your heart to show that the transmitter/receiver is working properly, and above this is a symbol to show if you have the audible chirping beep sound turned on.
At the end of the workout the Accurex II displays your total time in the target zone, and the total length of the workout. During use, the Accurex II provides you with the opportunity to store, so you can recall it at a later time 44 "lap" times. This is an improvement over the original Accurex II unit which had just 3 "lap" time memories not the present 44. When you are involved in the workout, and you reach a specific point in your run, ride, swimming session, pressing the "store/lap" button, saves for later review, the time up to that moment, you have spent in the target zone, since you last pressed the "lap/store" button, and the total elapsed time from the beginning of your workout.
It also records your heart rate at the moment the button is pressed. These 44 "lap" or "split" times can be recalled to the LCD screen later, so you can record these intermediate points in your workout, for later long term analysis. Timer 1 and 2 repeat back and forth automatically, until you start the recovery timer, which is what makes them perfect for sprint applications.
The Accurex II system is water resistant to 20 meters making it perfect for triathletes, swimmers, marathoners, as well as cyclists. The Accurex II sounds distinctive alarms when you move into or out of the target zone, so you don't need to look at the display. For each workout it records the time spent above, in and below the target zone. The watch element of the Accurex II relies on a replaceable BR2325 watch battery, (1.5 year useful life, using it 2 hours a day),and weighs 41 grams. The chest strap and transmitter weigh 73.5 grams. The system comes in high impact, shock resistant box, so it can be safely and respectfully stored and used for many years. The Accurex II has been superceded the Accurex II with NightVision.
The Accurex II is now made with a back lit screen, so its display can be viewed in darkness. All other functions and its packaging are the same. $ Price in Catalog
The Polar Vantage XL Heart Rate Monitor is a highly sophisticated computer that allows you to get the most from exercising, by monitoring your workouts accurately and recording them in great detail. The wrist instrument functions as a basic 12 hour watch that displays the time with an AM or PM indicator. With the watch is a 24 hour alarm. There is also a stopwatch timing showing far into your workout you are.
Like the Accurex II, the Vantage XL has two timers, timer 1, and timer 2. They are used in the same fashion as the Accurex II. There is no recovery or "cooling off" period timer, Polar suggests using timer 1, the warm up timer also as a cooling off timer, since in use the Vantage XL cycles repeatedly between them. Unlike the Accurex II, the Vantage XL has the capability to store and use separately two sets of heart rate "target zones".
Prior to initiating the workout, you select which set of target zone values, you want to use. Polar suggests that you can use the two target zones to monitor your heart rate in two different athletic activities, we suggest that you can also set the unit for two different people to use, at different times, by programming each persons target zone for the same activity. The bottom limit of the target zone can be set from 10 to 160 Beats Per Minute, while the high range of the target zone can be set from 10 to 250 BPM, both in 5 BPM increments.
While the Vantage is in use, it will record your heart rate, and retains it within it's memory at your choice of 5, 15, or 60 second intervals. The shorter the sampling interval the faster the available memory will be consumed. The Vantage has the capacity to store 1920 of these sampled intervals, or up to 2 hours 40 minutes of information sampled at 5 second intervals. With each workout, the Vantage creates a new "file" of sampled information. The sampled information available through the memory storage on the Vantage is; both heart rate target zones, starting time, the sampling interval you use, heart rates at each of the samples, the intermediate time the sample was taken, and the finishing time of your work out.
It is capable of storing the details of up to 8 workouts, keeping a detailed history of the entire workout for playback through the watch face or by down loading it to your IBM PC (or compatible), or Macintosh computer. This down loading of information is performed with an optional interface for the Vantage XL, listed below. With the sampled information in a outside computer, you can keep a permanent record, over a long period of time, for further evaluation of your performance. The files can selectively deleted to create more storage space. The Vantage system is water resistant to 20 meters, the entire wrist receiver weighs 44 grams, while the transmitter and chest strap weigh 75 grams. This model has been superceded by the Polar Vantage XL with Nightvision.
The Vantage XL now comes with a backlit screen, so you can view the display in darkness. All other aspects of the system are the same. $ Price in Catalog
The Polar PC/Vantage XL Interface comes as a set of software, cables, and file exchange hardware. It permits down loading of information from the Vantage XL to an IBM PC or clone, DOS based personal computer or an Apple Macintosh personal computer for further analysis. The system permits you to create a permanent record of your workout, (or workouts), and enhances quantitative analysis over a period of time.
The hardware interface is exquisitely thought out, and takes advantage of, and maintains, the Vantage XL's water resistant quality. The Vantage XL wrist instrument is well sealed against water with no external pins or ports for linking directly on a hardware basis to an external communications device. With the Vantage XL in it's communications mode, you place the device, in a designated area, on top of the interface box. With the file you want send selected, the Vantage XL transmits the data through surface of the interface box, where the records are parsed, and converted, then sent through a serial cable to your personal computer. The interface box is physically 2 1/2" deep, 5 1/2" wide and 1 1/4" tall, weighing about 8 ounces or 228 grams. The box relies on a standard 9 volt battery for power, and has a female DB-9 port on it's side. The system comes with a 30" DB-9 to DB-9 Male/male cable which is used to cable directly to a DOS based PC serial port, and in the Macintosh case comes with a DB-9 to a round 8 conversion cable which plugs into the Modem/serial port, the software is Macintoch System 7 compatible, and we have tested, and it works smoothly on System 7.1.0, it will also run on System 6 with a release of 6.5 or lower. With the file, or files loaded, the software, can display graphs of your workout, or workouts. The primary graph, is a line graph, that plots your heart rate on the X axis (vertical), across your selected time interval on the Y axis (horizontal), showing you where your heart rate was at each of the sampled intervals. Where the sampled information is more than one screen can display, you are permitted, on your screen, to either turn forward and backward "pages" of information, or reduce the overall size of the graph, compressing it into a single screen. The program also has a vertical bar graph, (or a stacked vertical bar graph, when multiple files open), that displays, by percentage of workout time, in 10 heart beat ranges during your workout.
The software permits you open, link, and combine more than one file for details multi-workout analysis, and it permits you to print out any of the graphs, so hard copy analysis can be done away from your computer. The package with all the necessary software, and hardware comes in two formats for the DOS environment, a 3 1/2" mini floppy (for portable and PS2) as well as a 5 1/4" floppy disc (for 286 and compatible units) and one 3 1/2" mini-floppy for Mac users. The documentation was clearly translated from original Finish language text, and is spartan, yet understandable. Specify computer type $ Price in Catalog
This is a thick foam pad designed to fit around all bicycle and stationary bike handlebars so the wrist watch receiving unit can be mounted on the bar for easy viewing. The wrist strap holds the pad and instrument firmly in place.
