Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor
by Garmin
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor
Customer Review: ForeWARNing!
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased a Garmin Forerunner 305 about two months ago, and while I really liked the idea of having the GPS and HRM and tracking data, my experience with Garmin and this particular product has not been good.
When I first got it, I followed the instructions, got it plugged in and went out for my first ride with it. When I got home and plugged it in to my computer USB bus, the computer froze and required a reset to reboot. Once the computer came up again, the USB bus didn't work. I realized that the likely problem was too much current draw on the USB bus, and was going to need to get a new motherboard :( Darned disappointing, but being a computer and electronics person, I went and purchased the new motherboard and a powered external USB hub and about 12 hours later I was up and running again.
So, this time I plugged the Garmin Forerunner 305 into the powered USB hub instead of the computer. As soon as I did this, my computer blue screened (crashed) and it did so nearly every time I plugged the Garmin in. At this point I decided it must have been a problem with the Garmin Forerunner and got on their support system. Here is where the real problems happened.
Their support person told me:
1. Check for chipset names that are INTEL, NEC, etc. These are compatible chipsets with our devices.
2. If you have a chipset name that contains SiS, Via, OpenHCD, Ali, or Alr,
these chipsets are not compatible with our devices and may not allow the USB Card Programmer to function.
That wasn't on the package, or in the instructions, but regardless I learned that I had a compatible chipset from the manufacturer. So after letting them know that and that I now expected some compensation for my loss and that something definitely caused my motherboard's USB bus to go bad they asked that I send the unit, cable, charger, etc back to them so they could determine what might have caused the problem, which I did. After a week or so I asked if anything had been determined about what had happened but they didn't have any answers. I told them at this point that I expected some compensation for my damaged motherboard - another unit maybe? Something. They offered to send me a new unit and a cadence unit (for my bike) but I indicated that I already purchased the $60.00 cadence unit and that it didn't work on my bicycle due to the frame/pedal design and that a new unit would help since I really wanted to start using the new toy I bought.
After getting the replacement unit which didn't cause any blue screens (after about a week) and seems to be functioning as well as the rest of them, Garmin refused to compensate me for my motherboard - I offered to accept the unit that I sent in back as payment - Garmin's response:
"Unfortunately, it appears as if we are unable to determine why the failure occurred given the information you provided. Thus we question whether the Forerunner 305 had anything to do with the failure on your PC. The device you provided does meet all specification standards. I apologize we could not provide a more conclusive answer.".
Unfortunately, I had already sent the bad Forerunner 305 back to Garmin along with the crash dump files from my PC and offered to send them the motherboard several times as well - they were never interested in what brand/make/model of motherboard I had - so I was no longer able to determine if a component had failed in the charging circuit of the Garmin and was out of luck.
And that has been my experience with Garmin. Great idea, but a bad company. There are a lot of problems with Garmin's products, unlike many better manufacturers like Canon and Apple computer, they don't deal with the problems in an equitable manner.
Be ForeWARNED!
Customer Review: Pretty Nice, some room for improvement
Summary: 4 Stars
I have had my Forerunner 305 for almost 3 weeks now. Previous to this I used a Polar S150 (wired bike mount) for several years and a entry level Polar before that, so I am used to basic heart rate monitor but not advance data recording or GPS.
I have tested the Forerunner 305 running, biking and swimming and have been generally very impressed.
General: The concept of acquiring satellites before I get going took a little getting used to. After the first couple of times I generally get satellite acquisition within about 30 seconds as long as I am outside or in my enclosed front porch. I set the unit down so that it is completely stationary while acquiring satellites. I get spotty to no reception indoors. The heart rate monitor functions well in comparison to my Polars. I have only had erratic heart readings at the end of one bike ride (fixed by adjusting the strap), which is better performance than I generally would get with the Polars (Except for Swimming, see below). The grade measurements are so erratic as to be totally useless. I have had the grade measurement vary from 8% to 25% back down to 5% within one minute of sustained climbing on the bike. I believe this is due to a poor averaging algorithm (2 point average as opposed to smoother averages involving more points). This is something I intended to test once I figure out how to access the raw data. Data recording is interesting, but is highly dependent on the software used to analyze it. Training center software is decent but unsophisticated (lack of user configurable option is disappointing in a $300+ product). Motion Based has been fun to use, especially the map player. As noted in a previous post of mine errors in distance calculations arise due to Motion Based insistence on connecting erratic track points recorded when you are standing still.
Running: To this point I have done about half a dozen runs of 3-3.5 miles each on a couple of different courses. Mostly I run on trails with trees (no real leaves as of yet) with some street and open field running mixed in. Generally in the trees I average an accuracy of about 25 ft, which I consider to be pretty good. The tracks and distances are both reproducible to within this approximate 25 ft range. I have found the "instantaneous" pace to be somewhat erratic but generally within approximately 5% of the short term mean. The auto stop feature (I have it set to stop if pace falls below 30 min mile) working decently on the run but occasionally does not register that I am stopped. Overall I am very excited to easily track my running distance and have a pretty good idea of my pace.
Biking: Used for approximately 10 bike rides both on and off road. Despite some concerns that the antenna faces the wrong way when mounted on the handlebars (I mount mine by wrapping the monitor around a piece of foam) I generally get great GPS reception on the bike. Accuracy is generally about 15 ft on open road and 25-30 ft.on trails. The speed and distance seems to be very accurate and the precision (reproducibility) is within 1%. The auto stop feature works extremely well on the bike, starting and stopping the unit within 1 second. The one down side is that the buttons you are most likely to use for cycling are on the side of the unit (the up/down and occasionally the mode button).
Swimming: I have only tested in an indoor swimming pool, hoping to be able to record my heart rate. Unfortunately, unlike my Polar S150 the heart rate signal cannot be measured in the water. I did these tests with the receiver under my swim cap, which was pretty comfortable and I could access the buttons easily. There may be more utility for swimming in open water.
Customer Review: A good purchase
Summary: 4 Stars
A second heart attack has forced me to exercise in a more "controlled" manor. My cardiologist has implied that day hikes (6 hours or so) with more than 4,000 feet in elevation change, or hopping on my off road motorcycle and dueling it out with the "young guns" was not the most beneficial type of exercise for a 55 year old man who has had 3 stints placed to keep arteries open. Playing is good for the head, but the heart needs something more regular. The Forerunner 305 with the heart monitor is a nearly perfect tool for someone who wants to record or gauge physical activity. When used outdoors the GPS receiver keeps track of distance, speed, and elevation. Using that data (and your personal profile), it can calculate calories consumed. When paired with the heart monitor you can see where, when, and why, your heart is working the hardest.
The software that comes with the unit (Garmin Training Center) is pretty week in my opinion, but it is a functional tool. I prefer a piece of software called "SportTracks" [...]. for tracking my progress and making charts and graphs for my doctors. The 305 is comfortable to wear and has a reasonably simple user interface. It does take some time to get used to the button layout and menu structure, but there is probably good reasons for Garmin's choices here (I just don't know what they are). I have done "side by side" comparisons with my Garmin Etrex Vista HCx (MTK chipset), and My Tomtom ONE XL (Sirf chipset) against the Forerunner GPS receiver (Sirf chipset). At no point were any of the 3 in disagreement about any location by more than 30 feet. I have tested this in the car, on my bicycle (yes I have had all 3 mounted on my mountain bike), and hiking (I'm also a geocacher). The Forerunner is a top quality GPS lacking only the mapping and routing functions of it's much more expensive playmates (I doubt those functions would be much use on a screen that small anyway!).
I purchased the Heart monitor, Foot Pod, and Bicycle Cadence Sensor separately, and have found that each sensor has improved my "awareness" of where I need to improve my fitness. The Bicycle Cadence sensor has also been fitted to my elliptical trainer, and with proper calibration provides cadence, distance, speed, and calories burned to within just a few percent of what the elliptical trainer reports. When mounted on my bicycle, it auto-calibrated close enough on it's own (based on the 305's very accurate gps) that I did not bother to do a "custom calibration" on it. This is all possible because Garmin had the foresight to allow several separate bicycle profiles to be stored in the unit at one time.
The Foot Pod in like manor was close enough to not bother with recalibrating, but as I only use it outside, the GPS receiver takes care of the distance and speed data. I only use the Foot pod to record cadence while walking/joging/hiking.
I can't think of any constructive criticisms other than the limited menu options, and the inability to reconfigure the menu order (shortcuts would be nice). It would also be cool if you were given the option of flipping the screen upside down so the antenna was still pointing up when worn on the right arm, or when mounted on a bicycle. Oh yeah,, the training software is weak! Come on Garmin,, you have an excellent piece of hardware here,,, step up and put out a good software package to complete the package!
I would strongly recommend this product to a friend (including all of it's add on sensors,, heart monitor, foot pod, and bicycle cadence sensor)
Customer Review: A Great Running Tool
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a casual runner that usually runs about 10-15 miles per week. I bought the Garmin 305 last summer and have now used it on over 100 training runs, a few 5K and 10K organized runs, and some nature hikes. Throughout, it has been consistent and behaved flawlessly. I absolutely love it!
Prior to the Garmin, I would just use my wristwatch to record my time and calculate pace, while estimating the distance of my courses via mapping software on the internet. Initially, I was concerned about the apparent size and weight of the Garmin based on the online pictures, but that turned out to be a non-issue from day one. The Garmin fits comfortably on my wrist, the weight is negligible and, unless I am looking at the screen, I don't even know it is there.
Being somewhat of a statistics geek, I enjoy now being able to glance at my current and average pace, elapsed time, and distance as I run, and later (after downloading the data to the PC through the USB connector) being able to review my performance over certain portions of a course. If desired, I can overlay the data from the most current run over the data from a previous run of the same course to compare the two. From a training standpoint, while running I can use the Garmin to tell me if my pace is too fast or too slow from my desired target pace and make real time adjustments on the fly to meet my goal for that run. When I do organized runs, it is somewhat interesting to see when a 5K is really a 5K and when a 10K is really a 10K, and allows me to more accurately compare my actual running times and distance versus "official" running times and distance. The Garmin can store data from up to 1000 runs, so I am not even close to hitting the maximum.
The Garmin allows me to customize the readout, choosing up to 12 different types of data to show on three different screens. I can also configure alerts to tell me if I am running above or below a desired maximum or minimum pace, or alert me when I have covered a certain distance. Once I have run a course, I sometimes store that course to use as a "virtual" partner on a future run (right now, I have 2.6 mile, 3.1 mile, and 3.6 mile courses stored). The virtual partner feature lets me choose a stored course to run against myself, and when running can both tell me (data) and show me (little runner icons) how I am doing in relation to how I previously did. Best of all, I can use the virtual partner feature and still maintain the readouts on any of my other customized screens.
I've found it best to turn on the Garmin and set it on the ground or on a railing while I am warming up. If I do that, the Garmin will consistently take between 60 and 90 seconds to sync to the satellites and be ready to go. That allows me just the right amount of time for a few stretches. If I leave it on my wrist while warming up, the synchronizing can sometimes take much longer because of the body movement.
I typically don't run with the heart rate strap, and so I can't comment on the heart rate feature. As others have commented, the elevation readouts tend to be somewhat inaccurate and choppy. But, again, that feature is not as important to me as the others, since I usually run fairly flat courses and tend to concentrate more on pace and distance.
I would highly recommend this product for anyone wanting to track and save their training data. This Garmin has all the features I could possibly want. It's comfortable, durable, and reliable.
Customer Review: Slow runner
Summary: 1 Stars
Here is what I wrote in Dec 2008:
I waited to get one of these training devices due to high price and concerns that the data would not be reliable.
I can say after using the 305 that the data is very reliable and the price drop makes this an incredibly valuable training tool for the following reasons:
1) Removes the subjective evaluation of running--today "felt great" is no longer useful--the bpm tells the story. Even a slow run can be a great workout on an objective bpm basis.
2) The data collection is seemless--you don't notice wearing the watch although it is rather large.
3) Motivation--knowing exactly where you are at both w/bpm and pace allows you to slow down even if you subjectively think you are going slow, or speed up if you are in fact going too slow.
4) Historical record--imagine having your PR in a marathon recorded on this thing, or even better several months of the build up to such a PR, I wish I had the record of that but hopefully will in the future.
Possible downsides:
1) I don't know how long the device will last.
2) GPS coverage may vary over time/location--so far it has acquired the satellites quickly.
In total this an outstanding training tool that can help any runner. I think the negative reviews may be due to either (1) a bad device, or (2) olympic caliber athletes that need greater moment by moment precision. I haven't had any problems w/the 305.
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Well today I have to go with just one star. Turns out I unknowingly had one of those defective devices.
I found out when I ran a marathon and the watch appeared to work but a software glitch on the watch cut out all the data from about mile 13 on (even on other programs such as sporttracks). The watch totals were correct and gave me no indication that the data was spoiled by a defective device.
Now that problem alone is manageable. A latent defect in the watch. But Garmin customer support argued w/me for 30 minutes that it was me that was at fault. Looking at these other reviews I am surprised that Garmin allows their customer service to take such a hostile attitude to the apparently minor incidence of defective watches. Then again, who knows how many times they resell these defective units hoping the person doesn't log long runs.
The funny part, customer service suggested that I reset the watch and then go for a 26 mile drive. The willingness of their customer service to suggest such an absurd comparison is tellling. It is absurd on at least two levels. First, driving 26 miles likely takes 1/3 or less the time. This may hit at a defect well known to Garmin. Why not just fix the defect in the watch instead of trying to trick you? (...the next Marathon where the same watch cuts out, what then? does customer service suggest a hard reset and that I go out and run another Marathon?) The second absurdity is that a customer should invest the time and money to test the quality of a clearly defective product. How about I send it in and you reset it and cover 26 miles in over 3 hours and then let me know the result?
So the customer service is really a huge negative on an otherwise cool product. I'll be looking for other brands to replace this watch.