PM2Erglib

The PM2Erglib project is centered around the Concept2 PM2+ performance monitor, the monitor that comes as an option to the Concept2 ergometer indoor rower.

What can you find here?

• Protocol documentation for the PM2+ serial interface protocol, including all setup commands and commands you need for running races! See the documentation for pm2d to find out everything known today : pm2d.pdf!
• Some small tools for the PM2+ protocol (on the CVS tree)
• pm2d, a daemon for Unix systems that interfaces between graphical desktop programs and the PM2+ (see below)

Currently, pm2d is still being developed. The current release, pm2d-1.0.1, performs basic functions like setting up a workout, monitoring and collecting data during the workout, and writing log files. There is no friendly user interface yet; the user interface will propably be a separate program. You can use the 1.0.1 version to do your workouts by pointing your browser to it (at http://localhost:8880/), or extend it by writing your own graphical interface for it. Be sure to read the documentation pm2d.pdf first.

A very brief introduction to pm2d (for Linux, if you use FreeBSD or other un*xes you'll have to figure out yourself what to do):

• Install the software (eg. rpm -i pm2d-1.0.1-1.i386.rpm)
• The main executable has now been installed as /usr/bin/pm2d, the documentation is in your default place for documentation (eg. /usr/share/doc/packages/pm2d/pm2d.pdf)
• Connect your PM2+ to a serial port (preferably the first one, otherwise use the -s/dev/<serial device> command option when you start the daemon).
• Start the daemon: /usr/bin/pm2d. You can add a lot of -d or -m flags if you want lots of debugging output.
• Point a browser to http://127.0.0.1:8880/ to access the unfriendly user interface. This interface is intended to be used by front end programs, not directly by a user, so don't complain to me if it doesn't look nice!
• Try the commands, and watch your unit respond to them.
• There are some links to do standard setups for distance or time workouts. They should work, however, nothing will show in your browser (some browsers seem to have problems with that)
• then click the link 'pm2-poller-start' (your browser will display 'poller started').
• View your results (during the workout) by clicking 'pm2-retrieve-lastdata', or 'pm2-retrieve-report'. After a complete workout, the daemon will automatically save data for all strokes in a file in /var/log/pm2d.
• Enjoy, and row!

If you want to download the current version, get it from the project summary page download links at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pm2erglib/ It is available as RPM and SRPM for Linux, and as a gzipped tar sources for other Unix systems (it has been tested on FreeBSD and Solaris/Intel).

The next planned release will have a couple of interesting features:

• It will be able to communicate to other pm2d programs somewhere on the Internet (or locally in your own network). In this way, pm2d will be able to function as a race server.
• It will be able to connect to e:Row, and present itself to e:Row as just a rower unit (or several rower units). In this way, you can join a normal e:Row race on the internet, but still use pm2d to collect your data. This function will require two PC's however, one running e:Row and one running pm2d.
• Maybe an XML based interface instead of the current simplistic one.

You can watch progress on the new version (or help!) by having a look at the CVS tree at http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/pm2erglib/pm2erglib/pm2erglib/pm2d/

pm2snoop is a tool for analyzing the serial interface traffic between a program on a pc (eg. pm2d, or e:Row) and the rower. It is not a nice, well-written program... but it works. It is intended to run on a pc (with two serial ports) of which one is connected to the rower, and the other one to the pc running the program you want to analyze.

There is no packaged version available for pm2snoop. Also, there is no documentation at all. The protocol is not completely decoded, and there are no current plans to improve on this.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or whatever, contact me at sytsezelf@users.sourceforge.net