Cyclemeter Help

Eight Things To Know

  1. Cyclemeter now supports iOS 4.

    2. If your iPhone supports multitasking, Cyclemeter will continue to record your data when you receive calls, answer texts, listen to Pandora, and run other applications. Please refer to your iOS documentation to learn more about multitasking.

    If your iPhone does not support multitasking, Cyclemeter must be running to record your data.
    The following will stop Cyclemeter from running.

    • Press the home button on the iPhone.
    • Answer or place a call. Incoming calls will not stop Cyclemeter if you do not answer them.
    • Reply to or compose a text message. Incoming texts will not stop Cyclemeter unless you reply to them.
    • Use the iPod application to change music. See the Listen to Music tip.
    • Use any other iPhone application.

    If this happens, just be sure to run Cyclemeter again when you are done so it can continue to record data.

  2. Cyclemeter uses the iPhone’s GPS to record your location, distance, speed, and elevation
    • Use outdoors only.
    • After you launch Cyclemeter, wait for good GPS reception before starting, which is at least three bars as shown in the lower-left corner of the Stopwatch view.
    • Restart your iPhone if your GPS reception is consistently poor.
    • If you encounter GPS-related issues, see GPS Troubleshooting.
  3. Lock your iPhone using the lock button on the top of your iPhone to turn off the display before putting your iPhone in your pocket or armband. This conserves battery power, and prevents accidental touches. Cyclemeter also automatically stops recording after 30 minutes if your location has not changed.
  4. Cyclemeter automatically keeps all your data. A few years’ worth of data will only consume space on your iPhone equal to the size of a few songs. Items can be deleted or edited by navigating to them in the Calendar or Routes views, and touching Edit.
  5. Use Cyclemeter just like a stopwatch. In the Stopwatch view, touch Start when you start or continue, Stop when you need to pause or are finished, and then Done when you are completely done. Touch Reset when you are ready to start again.
  6. Add data manually. Forget to take your iPhone? No problem, just go to the Calendar view and touch +, or go to the Routes view, choose a route, and touch +.
  7. Cyclemeter can be used for many activities including riding, running, walking, and more. Tap the Activity button in the upper right corner of the Stopwatch view, and choose (or create) the activity you want. You can do this before or after you press Start, or anytime before you press Done. You can also edit the item later to change the activity.
  8. Create and use routes when you travel along the same path. That way, Cyclemeter will give you data that can rapidly help you improve. Read on…

Using Routes

Routes organize and compare your performance data. By creating a route and continuing to use it when following the same path, you can see your progress in the Map, Calendar, Graphs, and Routes views. Cyclemeter rates your performance along a route using these icons:

Best Best
Better Better
Median Median
Worse Worse
Worst Worst

To create a route, touch the Route button in the upper left of the Stopwatch view, then press +. Name your route. Turn on Show Icons when the route will always follow the same path, or off when the route will be used to simply group items together.

To rename a route, touch the Route button and then the Edit button in the lower-right corner of the Select Route view.

Select a route before or after your start to associate your path with the route. You can also edit the item later to change its route.

Simply leave "New Route" selected when you have no need to group the path with a route. You will still see those paths in the Calendar view and the Routes view under "All".

The Views

Stopwatch

Touch Start or Stop as you would with any stopwatch to start, pause, continue, and stop. Press Done when you are completely finished, and the data will be recorded in the Calendar and Routes views. Press Reset to get Cyclemeter ready to start again. See Remote Control to learn how to use your earphone remote to start and stop.

Map

The Map view shows your current path as a dotted blue line. If you are following a route, it also shows the official route as a purple line, and icons for the best, median, and worst for that route. Use the left button in the navigation bar to zoom in and track your current location. Use the right button to zoom out to the whole route. Pinch to zoom in and out, and double-tap to zoom in.

Calendar

The Calendar view shows your data by day of month, including icons for best, median, and worst. Touch Weeks, Months, and Years to see summaries. Touch + to add data for the selected day.

Routes

The Routes view reports on your performance and paths by route name. Drill down to see which were best, better, median, worse, or worst, and also to see maps and graphs. The "All" item contains all of your data ordered by date.

Graphs

The Graphs view shows your pace and elevation. Your current elevation path is shown as a dotted blue line, and the official route elevation path is shown as a purple line.

Remote Control

The Remote Control view allows you to start and stop the Stopwatch, even when it is locked, and in your pocket, armband, or bike mount. Just slowly double-click your earphone remote (about a second apart) to stop or start. Remote Control start and stop capability is off by default. Remote Control also comes preconfigured to play an announcement when the iPhone’s iPod is paused. This behavior may be changed to never play an announcement, or to silence the iPod and play an announcement on every click of the remote.

Announcements

The Announcements view controls how Cyclemeter speaks your pace, average, distance, and much more. Announcements can be heard on time or distance intervals, or on request using Remote Control. You can customize which of the 20 different announcements are heard, and in which order you hear them. To silence an announcement in progress, click the earphone remote.

Settings

The Settings view contains:

Offline Mode prevents Cyclemeter from accessing the Internet, but it will continue to record your time, distance, speed, elevation, and path. This is useful if you want to avoid data access charges. Offline mode also helps minimize battery usage, because Map downloads, Twitter, Facebook, and Email Updates will not occur.

Run Shows and Walk Shows control whether running and walking display velocity as Pace (time / distance) or Speed (distance / time). This also may be changed by editing any Activity.

Best controls what measure is used to order the best through worst workouts of a route.

Distance and Weight control what units to use.

Your Weight is used for calorie calculations.

The Proximity Sensor turns off the touchscreen and dims the display when any part of your body is nearby, such as when you put your iPhone into your pocket. However, because the display is still powered, your battery will drain faster. Instead, we recommend that you use the top lock button to lock your iPhone before you put it into your pocket with our app running.

Landscape Mode lets you to turn your iPhone to landscape left to see the Map, or landscape right to see the Graphs when you are viewing the Stopwatch.

Stopwatch Shows customizes what is shown in the lower right corner of the Stopwatch.

Distance Markers shows or hides the distance markers in the Map.

Graphs Limit controls whether graphs are clipped at two times their averages so more overall detail is shown.

Poor GPS Time is a troubleshooting tool that causes the Stopwatch to show the time in which the GPS accuracy was unacceptable. It will only show such time if it is greater than zero seconds. It will also show an alert after the workout if the Poor GPS Time exceeds certain thresholds to guide you through remedies that have helped other customers.

Power Off Remote After sets the time after which Cyclemeter will stop listening for a remote control start request (a slow double-click), so as to save battery life.

Upload Map Every 5 Minutes controls whether maps are uploaded so that your Twitter, Facebook, and Email Updates recipients can view them. A map is always uploaded whenever a Map Link is posted in Twitter, Facebook, or Email Updates

The Support Key is a special password that unlocks additional capabilities. It is used by the Abvio team for debugging and demonstration uses.

Twitter

The Twitter view controls tweets that allow your coaches, friends, and family to view your progress. If you have signed in with Twitter, a tweet will be sent when you tap the Start button, and also when you finish by tapping the Done button.

When someone replies to your tweets, you will hear their reply spoken using text-to-speech technology. You can turn off this option, or set it to speak every tweet from friends. You can also create a list of Twitter users whose tweets are the only ones you want to hear.

You can configure what you would like Twitter to send when you stop, start, continue, or finish. You can have tweets sent at time intervals and distance intervals. You can also choose to exclude a link to a map of your current location, which is updated every 5 minutes.

Facebook

The Facebook view controls posts that allow your coaches, friends, and family to view your progress. If you have connected with Facebook, a post will be sent when you tap the Start button, and also when you finish by tapping the Done button.

When someone comments on your post, you will hear their comment spoken using text-to-speech technology. You can turn off this option. You can also create a list of Facebook friends whose comments are the only ones you want to hear.

You can configure what you would like Facebook to send when you stop, start, continue, or finish. You can have postings sent at time intervals and distance intervals. You can also choose to exclude a link to a map of your current location, which is updated every 5 minutes.

Email Updates

The Email Updates view controls emails that are automatically sent to your coaches, friends, and family to notify them of your route and location. Enter the email addresses of the people you want notified, and then emails will be sent when you tap the Start button, and also when you finish by tapping the Done button.

You can configure what you would like to be included in the emails. You can have postings sent at time intervals and distance intervals, or when you stop or continue the Stopwatch. You can also choose to exclude a link to a map of your current location, which is updated every 5 minutes.

Register

The Register view is used to send your email and name with us. Set Receive Map to On to have an email sent with data and a map link after you press Done to finish a workout. Set Receive News to On to receive news of product updates. We will not share your email address with anyone.

Help, About

The Help view and the About view provide information about the product and us.

Tips and Tricks

  1. Listen to music. Before you launch Cyclemeter, get set up to listen to music. Launch the iPod app, and use the On-The-Go playlist to pre-select music or podcasts. Then launch Cyclemeter, select your route, and touch Start. While you are underway, click your earphone control once to stop or start your music, twice quickly to skip ahead to the next track in your playlist, and three times quickly to skip backward in your playlist.

    Important: If your iPhone does not support multitasking, and during your workout you run the iPod application to change music, be sure to run Cyclemeter again when you’re done so it can continue to record.

  2. Leave your iPhone in your pocket. Turn on Remote Control in the Remote Control view, and then you can slowly double-click your earphone remote (about a second apart) to start and stop.
  3. Create custom activities. Want to add an activity like "Nordic Walking"? Just visit the Stopwatch view, tap the Activities button to view the list of activities, then tap Edit to add a new activity or change an existing activity. You can give each activity a custom name, decide whether to use pace (time over distance) or speed (distance over time), choose the distance measure, and set other characteristics. Be sure to chose an activity type that closely matches the speed of the intended activity.
  4. Reviewing past performance. To review an item in the Stopwatch, Map, or Graphs views, navigate to the item from the Calendar or the Routes views. Then touch the summary, the map or graphs, and you will be prompted to review the item. When you are done reviewing, touch Reset in the Stopwatch view.
  5. View the Map and Graphs in landscape. Want to see your map and graphs in landscape? Go to the Settings view, and turn on Landscape mode. Then, whenever you are viewing the Stopwatch, you can turn your phone to landscape left to see the Map, or landscape right to see the Graphs.
  6. Start counting calories. Go to the Settings view, enter your weight, and then calories will be counted and can be shown in the Stopwatch view by changing Stopwatch Shows in the Settings view.
  7. Cycling safely with earphones. For safety, use only one earphone, and keep the other tucked inside your jersey. Go to Remote Control view and set announcements to occur on every click, which disables iPod Audio. Go to the Announcements view and set announcements to occur on a time or distance interval. Use your remote to start or stop the stopwatch, or to request an announcement.
  8. Cycling with a bike mount. If you plan to ride with a bike mount and want the display to stay on during your ride, go to your iPhone’s Settings > General > Auto-Lock and choose Never. This will consume battery power at a higher rate, so having a battery extender is recommended.
  9. Battery tips:
    • Turn off Wi-Fi, which will not only reduce battery consumption, but also improve location accuracy by assuring Wi-Fi location sensing is not used by the iPhone. To turn off Wi-Fi, visit your iPhone’s Settings > Wi-Fi.
    • Lock the iPhone, which powers down the display and touchscreen.
    • If not needed, shut off all automatic Twitter tweets, Facebook posts, and email updates except for the one that occurs on Done. This removes the need for Cyclemeter to update the map link.
    • Remember that the iPhone battery will begin losing capacity after about a year of constant use, and could require replacement to get best results.
    • For very long workouts, consider using external batteries or cases with battery packs.

GPS Troubleshooting

Cyclemeter uses the iPhone’s internal GPS to determine your location over time. While Cyclemeter employs advanced technology to filter out bad data, it is still dependent on the quality of the location data reported by the iPhone.

Symptoms that Cyclemeter has received bad data from the iPhone include:

  • Incorrect distance, elevation, climb, or calories
  • Incorrect average pace or speed
  • Excessive fastest pace or speed
  • Spikes in the graphs
  • Path deviations in the map

The following suggestions have worked for many of our customers.


Restart Your iPhone if GPS Reception is Consistently Poor – When iPhone GPS reception is consistently poor, try completely shutting down the iPhone and then restarting. To do so, hold down the Lock button on the top the iPhone and then “Slide to power off”. Wait until the iPhone is completely powered off. Then turn on the iPhone by holding down the Lock button until the iPhone starts. Restarting the iPhone has helped us as well as many of our customers in the past.

Use Our Latest Software – Make sure you’re using our latest software. We are constantly improving our software and making it better able to handle GPS inaccuracies.

Restart iPhone After Updates – After you install a new version of Cyclemeter, restart the iPhone. Our users have reported GPS reception issues after updating that are cleared only by restarting the iPhone.

Wait for Good GPS Reception Before Starting – After launching Cyclemeter, wait several seconds for the iPhone GPS to warm up and report good GPS reception. If Cyclemeter displays the Poor GPS Reception alert, please wait until the GPS status in the lower left of the Stopwatch shows 3 bars or more.

GPS Reception Is Poor Indoors – GPS reception is usually unacceptable indoors, because steel, wood, or concrete may be in the way of locking onto satellites.

GPS Reception May Seem Acceptable in the iPhone Maps App – Cyclemeter requires sufficient GPS accuracy to track your activity, while the Maps app requires less to determine your general location. If you look closely at the Maps app display, you may see a large blue circle around your location indicating poor accuracy. When GPS accuracy is low, the iPhone uses Wi-Fi and cell phone tower location sensing to determine your general location, which is not accurate enough for tracking your workouts.

How You Carry Your iPhone Can Affect GPS Reception – The iPhone needs to see at least 3 of the 24 GPS satellites circling the earth to get a lock on your position. Your body absorbs some of the signal. Most people keep their phone in a pocket, an armband, or in the back pocket of a jersey. Try not to have the iPhone near metal, such as a metal zipper or bike tools.

Your Case Could Affect GPS Reception – If your iPhone is in a case you may want to try removing it and see if you get better GPS reception. Some of our customers have reported that they get better GPS reception once they remove their iPhone from the case. We carry ours in a form-fitting plastic bag without a case.

Tall Buildings and Trees Affect GPS Reception – Tall buildings, trees, terrain, mountains, walls or cliffs, etc. can reduce GPS reception.

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) Can Affect GPS Reception – RFI may interfere with GPS reception. Typical sources of intense RFI include microwave antennas, satellite dishes and especially power lines.

Monitor Poor GPS Time – Cyclemeter will report the time that GPS reception was unacceptable in red next to the GPS indicator in the Stopwatch, and show an alert when tapping Done after a workout. To turn this off or adjust the value at which it occurs, see Poor GPS Time in Settings.

Turn Off Wi-Fi – When the iPhone cannot obtain acceptable location information from the GPS because of poor GPS reception, the iPhone will instead rely on less accurate information from a nearby Wi-Fi hotspot or cell phone tower location. That in turn may lead to an inaccurate determination of your location and poor results. One possible remedy is to turn off Wi-Fi during your activity, which also conserves battery power.

Use iPhone Within Acceptable Operating Temperatures – Apple has published the acceptable operating temperatures for the iPhone. Outside of those temperatures, the iPhone GPS may report erroneous or inaccurate location information to Cyclemeter.

Edit Your Statistics – Even if you follow all of the guidelines we’ve outlined, from time to time GPS reception issues may cause Cyclemeter to record erroneous results. Cyclemeter allows you to edit the statistics on your activity such as the distance, time, climb, calories, etc. Feel free to edit your statistics after your workout.

Lock Your iPhone – Before you put your iPhone into your pocket, be sure to press the top lock button. This locks the iPhone, but Cyclemeter will continue to record data. This also reduces battery usage by powering down the display. Note that you can use Remote Control to start and stop Cyclemeter while it is in your pocket and locked.

Cyclemeter Must Be Running to Record Data – If your iPhone does not support multitasking, make sure that Cyclemeter runs continuously during your workout. If you answer a phone call, reply to a text, or use the iPod application to change music, just be sure to run Cyclemeter again when you are done. Some of our customers have reported a habit of pressing the home button before putting their phone into their pocket, which is something to avoid.

Cyclemeter Requires GPS Capabilities – The iPod touch, iPhone first generation, and some iPad models do not have GPS capabilties. While they can generally determine their location, this is through the use of cell phone towers or wi-fi locations, which are not reliable or accurate enough. GPS accessories are available for the iPod touch, contact us for more information.

We Are Happy To Help – Write to us at email hidden; JavaScript is required, and we will be happy to answer any question or help with any issue.

Thanks for being our customer! Please send comments and suggestions to email hidden; JavaScript is required, and also rate Cyclemeter in the App Store.

The Abvio Team