Coxmate GPS with Heart Rate GPS Device for Water Sports Such as Rowing, Kayaking, Canoeing, Dragon Boating and Outrigger

The pros- the fields are really visible, and it is easy to navigate through the menu to set up your parameters.The cons- it doesn't work. At all. Every time you turn it on, you get an interesting surprise. One time, I hit run, the time starts, and it shows I am moving 10, 20, 30 meters, on and on. The problem is- I'm standing still. Another time, I hit start, and the time stays at zero, but other parameters start measuring. Every time, something funky happens. NEVER does the stroke rate, speed, or split work. I've followed all of the instructions, changed sensitivity, etc. but the electronics of this thing is a complete disaster. I've seen other reviews warning of this, but I hoped, from product reviews I'd seen, that they were just disgruntled. Instead, I suspect that the "product reviews" that I googled were less than disinterested parties. Seriously, you can get free apps for your phone that will perform better than this. Too bad, because even at $219, it is half the price of the NK model.

I bought this when I was looking for something cheaper than an NK device to use for dragon boat practices. Generally, I found the Coxmate to be very useful in our practices, though it does have a few flaws. Here are the pros/cons based on my experiences in a dragon boat:Pros: (1) price, cheaper than NK devices, but more expensive than smartphone apps. The apps that I’ve tried tend to be slow to detect the stroke rate (from a stop, it takes 5-10 strokes before it displays a non-zero rate) and they can display a wildly inaccurate stroke rate (maybe because most are intended for rowers, who have a much slower stroke rates than dragon boats), while the Coxmate and NK devices show reasonable stroke rates within the first 1-2 strokes. Coxmate seems to be more reliable than smartphone apps, but perhaps less accurate than NK devices in some circumstances (more on that later). (2) waterproof (vs most smartphones), Coxmate passed the dunk test, though you'll want to attach a float in case it goes overboard. (3) easy to use, however it does takes some time to learn the menu structure, and you’ll need to read (not skim) the manual to learn how to customize and program it, but once you know what you’re doing, it works pretty consistently and reliably. (4) the display: customizable, the screen is visible in both daylight and at night (it’s very bright in the dark), the touch-screen and hands-free auto-detect is really helpful (though it is very sensitive, so if the boat is moving due to current or wind, it may start the time before your first stroke). (5) great customer service - when my device started getting buggy, I was able to ask questions and submit a request for a replacement through their website. A replacement was sent promptly, and they reimbursed the shipping costs to send back the defective unit (since it needed to be returned to their office in Australia).Cons: (1) slows down or freezes when the memory is full. Took me a while to realize what the problem was, but once I deleted all the records from the previous sessions, it worked much better. (2) not very sophisticated analytics: I’m very impressed with the analytic capabilities of the smartphone app in terms of analyzing stroke mechanics (though I question the accuracy of the data that they are capable of collecting). Admittedly, I haven’t tried to use Coxmate’s “PC Analysis Software”, but the obvious advantage of a smartphone app is that the data is already in the phone and doesn’t need to be manually transferred to a computer. However, my primary need is to have real-time measurements of the stroke rate, boat speed, time, and distance traveled, and these are things that the Coxmate and NK devices (but not all smartphone apps) do pretty consistently. (3) poor accuracy at high stroke rates: between the Coxmate, NK, and smartphone app, the readings are similar (though not identical) 80% of the time in terms of stroke rate, boat speed, distance traveled, etc., so it’s hard to know which of the 3 is closest to the truth. However, the Coxmate seems to have trouble detecting fast stroke rates, while the NK device has less trouble. For dragon boat sprint races, we can reach stroke rates that range from 80 - 110 strokes per minute during the start or finish. The Coxmate doesn’t seem to accurately measure stroke rates higher than 85 (it often shows a rate that is definitely wrong), while the NK device does display something that is more reasonable. I think all 3 are probably similarly accurate when it comes to distance and boat speed, but the biggest differences across them all seems to be the ability to measure stroke rate. This might not be a problem if you are using it for rowing, where the stroke rates are much lower. (4) miscellaneous bugs: developed a glitch in the screen (which is part of the reason why I returned the first device), distance and time counter starts over at 0 when you exceed 9999 meters, or 99 minutes of paddling in a single session (problematic for long distance races), includes lots of unnecessary programs that aren’t useful for rowing or dragon boating (music, photos, geocaching programs), for some reason only certain outlets in my home and office will charge the device (not sure if that’s a problem with the device, or with my outlets, which do successfully charge other electronics).Overall, my biggest complaint about the Coxmate is that it seems to have problems detecting very fast stroke rates. But besides this issue, the other flaws are mostly just annoyances. Generally, I found the Coxmate to be quite dependable, which I think is the biggest benefit - there’s great comfort of knowing that it’ll work immediately whenever I turn it on. If all you need is real-time speed, distance, time, and stroke rate, it’ll probably work just fine in most situations.

This product uses GPS and accelerometer data to calculate useful rowing data points at a per stroke level, i.e., the data it saves is very granular.However: - It does not store a GPS track of the row - It does not (as far as I can tell) integrate with, or effectively export data to, planning/analysis tools like TrainingPeaks - Its own proprietary analysis tool is, as another reviewer has pointed out, quite dated and somewhat user-unfriendly

I wanted to like this thing, but the software interface reminds me of a device from 15 years ago. Additionally, no Bluetooth, and no iOS app support. The manufacturer does not respond to emails. The best part of buying this was printing out the return slip.

Loved this at first until like the fourth or fifth time I used it and it locked up and couldn't do anything with it.

Easy to use and read display lots of great features.