Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing

raven

@peringmar I assume you’re not active during the rest portion of intervals? When I do interval workouts, during rest periods I continue to take light strokes at low power. Screenshot from intervals.icu

I consider a session as having continuous movement without stopping so if I were to do several 100m sprints and racking the handle in between, I’d record them as distinct sessions.

I’m similar with cycling and running. If I do intervals in cycling, I keep spinning during recoveries at low power, etc.

peringmar

@raven
Think you miss interpreted what I wrote, so I hope this clarifies it.

I too keep rowing at a slower pace in the rest sessions of intervals, but the issue that I posted was that when the rest session is activated when doing intervals on the PM5 (the interval mode) the last measured power and stroke rate keeps getting logged on the watch until the next interval starts. So no rest session power/stroke rate gets logged until the next interval starts.
A proposed solution for the distance was the following. Example:
10 minute warmup in “Just row” (2500m) gets written to variable “distance” on the watch.
Switch to intervals on PM5, the intervals (4000m), variable “distance” gets updated to 6500m
Exit intervals, cooldown in “Just row” (1000m)
final variable “distance” 75000m gets sent to mobile app, instead of just 1000m like its currently.

peringmar

said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

the last measured power and stroke rate keeps getting logged on the watch

From my screenshot, where the continues lines lie at like 440 Watts during the rest mode instead of the actual power

Sportsfreund

Good work, guy. But really, there’s no need for a connection like this. The PM5 needs to be connected to a smartphone to plan and upload races. What we need is a connection from C2 to Suunto to actually use the load values in CTL/ATL, etc.

raven

@peringmar said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

@raven
Think you miss interpreted what I wrote, so I hope this clarifies it.

I too keep rowing at a slower pace in the rest sessions of intervals, but the issue that I posted was that when the rest session is activated when doing intervals on the PM5 (the interval mode) the last measured power and stroke rate keeps getting logged on the watch until the next interval starts. So no rest session power/stroke rate gets logged until the next interval starts.

A proposed solution for the distance was the following. Example:
10 minute warmup in “Just row” (2500m) gets written to variable “distance” on the watch.
Switch to intervals on PM5, the intervals (4000m), variable “distance” gets updated to 6500m
Exit intervals, cooldown in “Just row” (1000m)
final variable “distance” 75000m gets sent to mobile app, instead of just 1000m like its currently.

Ah, thanks for clarifying. I’m rowing on a WaterRower/SmartRow combination, and while I’ve done quite a bit of Concept2 rowing, I never used their interval mode. On the PM5, can you program to go from one work intensity to a second work differing intensity without a “rest” interval?

raven

@Sportsfreund said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

Good work, guy. But really, there’s no need for a connection like this. The PM5 needs to be connected to a smartphone to plan and upload races. What we need is a connection from C2 to Suunto to actually use the load values in CTL/ATL, etc.

A connection from the C2 logbook to import into Suunto seems not within the scope of what is possible with a SuuntoPlus app, but rather, that ability would need to come from a collaboration of Concept2/Suunto themselves. If Suunto wishes to do that, then perhaps they can also talk to SmartRow so sessions from the SR logbook could also auto-upload to Suunto? http://www.smartrow.fit/

This setup would be for people not currently using the PM5 bluetooth connection to send data elsewhere like ErgData or EXR, etc.

People on alternate rowers like the RP3 or the SmartRow system I use may one day benefit from the work here if it extends beyond the Concept2. I have two data connections from my power meter, so one can go to my SmartRow app and another could go to a connection like this. Perhaps eventually C2 will update the PM5 to allow dual bluetooth signals as many cycling power meters have.

off242

Hello, @Martin-Lillepuu .

Curious if ErgSync has been tested with non C2 rowers, such as WaterRower with the Bluetooth option installed on its computer. As I’ve (sort of) resolved the issue surrounding Varia radar units with the Race2, ErgSync + WaterRower is next on my list—but if anyone has any input before I head into things, I’m interested in your experience(s).

raven

@off242 said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

Hello, @Martin-Lillepuu .

Curious if ErgSync has been tested with non C2 rowers, such as WaterRower with the Bluetooth option installed on its computer. As I’ve (sort of) resolved the issue surrounding Varia radar units with the Race2, ErgSync + WaterRower is next on my list—but if anyone has any input before I head into things, I’m interested in your experience(s).

I believe you’re referring to the “commodule” that attaches onto the WaterRower S4 monitor.

https://www.waterrower.com/wr_us/waterrower-com-module.html

The other upgrade option for WaterRower is to get SmartRow, which is a replacement pulley that also sends metrics by bluetooth.
https://www.waterrower.com/wr_us/smartrow.html

http://www.smartrow.fit/

The S4 / commodule gets metrics by measuring paddle rotations. Compared to the Concept2, this is quite a bit more “optimistic” in its pace. For example, a 2:00/500m pace might be something like 1:48/500m with the S4.

SmartRow is a power meter that measures the force you put on the drive, and uses the same power-to-pace conversion as the Concept2.

Neither method transmits exactly like the Concept2 though. In theory, this should all be covered by “bluetooth FTMS (FiTness Machine Service)” protocol, but in practice, apps like EXR needs to do different things to accommodate each method.

I use SmartRow and have not yet attempted to try to connect it to Suunto, as my current flow is to simply get the TSS load estimate from intervals.icu then edit my Suunto session report to change the TSS there to manual and replace it’s (lower) TSS with the result from intervals. I can try that in the near future, but that won’t be useful if you’re a ComModule person.

Edit: Today 11 April 2026, I attempted to connect SmartRow to Suunto and it failed to be found. Again, I wasn’t expecting this to work as the developer has only specified Concept2 at this time.

off242

@raven said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

I believe you’re referring to the “commodule” that attaches onto the WaterRower S4 monitor.

Yes, the ComModul is what I, at present, have on my rower. Well, technically, as the battery needs charging, and I’ve lost the cable. New one should be in later this week.

Good to know, though, that SmartRow is not (yet) connecting to ErgSync; saves me a few hundred that I’d rather not spend in the hopes it would work. Thanks for taking one for the team, @raven.

borgelkranz

@off242 what I can add: as of late, SmartRow does directly connect to EXR. What I learned in that context: there are different versions of the SmartRow pulley. The old, silver one and the new, black one. They seem to differ slightly with respect to connection. I own the silver one and EXR had to provide a bug fix for it to connect.

raven

@borgelkranz said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

@off242 what I can add: as of late, SmartRow does directly connect to EXR. What I learned in that context: there are different versions of the SmartRow pulley. The old, silver one and the new, black one. They seem to differ slightly with respect to connection. I own the silver one and EXR had to provide a bug fix for it to connect.

The ability of EXR to connect to the SmartRow pulley directly is a fairly new development, and happened due to collaboration between the two companies. For those new to this, previously the only way to work was by a “broadcast” method, where the SmartRow pulley connected to the SmartRow app on one device (like an iPhone) then the SR app “broadcast” to EXR on a second device (e.g. iPad or Apple TV).

Some people disliked this method due to requiring two devices; additionally, the broadcast method adds a slight delay, so EXR is about a half-stroke “behind” the SR app.

The new “direct connection” improves things in most regards, but has the negative consequence that sessions are no longer written to the SmartRow online logbook. EXR can write session data to the Concept2 logbook for those people, but not yet to the SR one.

Additionally, SmartRow also has a “power handle” meant for air-resistance rowers like the Concept2. People who happened to get a cheaper air-resistance machine with poor metrics can get this handle to get more accurate data. However, I suspect the cost of a cheaper rower and the SmartRow handle would be close enough to the Concept2 one might just get that anyway.

The SmartRow handle also works with the Concept2, and while C2 people don’t necessarily need better data (given C2 is the standard) the handle also has four buttons, each with two top/bottom selections which can be used to do things like control a music player and perhaps eventually may have game effects in EXR (like the Zwift Play buttons in the cycling world).

SmartRow is working on a “handle version” for WaterRower to give those media controls over there as well, and that version of the handle has dual bluetooth support, which allows one to have that direct EXR connection as well as a second connection to SmartRow app for those who want consistent logbook records.