Such a great solution! Thank you! It worked for a "old" FDF Viking Pro.

[antaron1973]

I just wanted to say thank you for this solution. I have a rather old First Degree Fitness Viking Pro waterrower of the first generation with a small monitor that just has a USB connection, but no software. I asked FDF if I can upgrade to the new monitor that also allows BLE connection to virtual rowing apps. They told me very friendly that the new monitor is incompatible and there is no solution for older rowers to make them "smart".

However I realized that the tech behind water rowers didn't quite change over the last 10 years. Then I found your solution and bought myself a Pi Zero. With a multimeter I found the two cables inside the old monitor that are connecting the sensor. I plugged them into the Pi and voila - my rower was immediately smart. Thank you, that you could do, what FDF can't or doesn't want to do.

Even the connection with EXR was easy and straightforward. What a software!

[JaapvanEkris]

You are more than welcome!

Please note that the V1Beta is a better version as it deals better with measurement noise. The youngest version for the Raspberry Pi Zero can be found here: https://github.com/JaapvanEkris/openrowingmonitor/tree/v1beta_updates_Pi_Zero_W , which is over a year further in its development than anything here, and is targetted at Pi Zero's only.

In the last year we did further develop that codebase (offering more and better metrics and better integration), but unfortunatly it will not work on the Pi Zero anymore due to incompatibilities of Node.js and webAssembley (see this discussion for more info). It will run on a Pi Zero 2W and any other RPi: https://github.com/JaapvanEkris/openrowingmonitor/tree/main

[antaron1973]

Thanks for letting me know. I forgot to tell that I actually used a Pi Zero 2W.
I tried your further developed fork and got it installed. Also the rowing measurements work. However, I never got to work the BLE and connection to EXR. I tried out everything, including reinstalling bluetooth. It seems bluetooth worked, when checking via bluetoothctl, but EXR never found the rower. When calling systemctl status openrowingmonitor, I didn't see the line "└─872 /usr/bin/node ./app/ble/CentralService.js". I think this means BLE doesn't work, however I never found any errors in logs.

So I went back to the original version and voila everything worked again. When I say it worked, I mean the BLE connection of FTMS to EXR.
I could then also see when using systemctl status the line "└─872 /usr/bin/node ./app/ble/CentralService.js"

I don't know, I'd like to profit from your further developments, but at this point it doesn't work for me with EXR.

[JaapvanEkris]

I never got to work the BLE and connection to EXR. I tried out everything, including reinstalling bluetooth. It seems bluetooth worked, when checking via bluetoothctl, but EXR never found the rower. When calling systemctl status openrowingmonitor, I didn't see the line "└─872 /usr/bin/node ./app/ble/CentralService.js". I think this means BLE doesn't work, however I never found any errors in logs.

Interesting. Thanks for reporting this and I'll look into it. I have tested the latest branch with EXR, but perhaps it might have issues on the Pi Zero 2W. Time to get one myself to play with it :)

Question: were you using the FTMS or the PM5 BLE interface?

I don't know, I'd like to profit from your further developments, but at this point it doesn't work for me with EXR.

That is the most important use case (also a daily EXR rower). I'll let you know if I think it is resolved.

[JaapvanEkris]

However, I never got to work the BLE and connection to EXR. I tried out everything, including reinstalling bluetooth. It seems bluetooth worked, when checking via bluetoothctl, but EXR never found the rower.

We are on it, but fixing it is quite a challenging one. You can follow our progress here: JaapvanEkris#69