Garmin Forerunner - Pairing extra devices

With my new Garmin Forerunner 50 I also got the GSC 10 cycle speed & cadence sensor.

I really struggled to pair this extra device. I followed the instructions, changed batteries etc with no luck. It flatly refused to see the sensor.

After much hunting I discoverred the Garmin FAQ. This said to try riding the bike at the same time. IE wake up the sensor while pairing is happening.

A simpler solution was to wave the magnet near the sensor. Bingo. it is now all paired up.

Garmin Forerunner ANT Agent and running XP exe's on Vista

Lucky me, I received a Garmin Forerunner 50 heart rate monitor for christmas.

Incidently it was bought off amazon which is selling it an an amazing price.

The Forerunner series have the excellent capability of uploading your heart and distance data to garmin.com.

This is done by a wireless dongle and some software called ANT Agent. However this is an Windows XP executable and would not run. Many people appear to have struggled with this but the solution is quite easy and I found how here. This is presumably true for many other XP executables.

In case the link does not work this is what you have to do:
1. right click the ANT Agent executable you have just downloaded.
2. choose Properties
3. Navigate to the Compatibility tab
4. Set the Compatibility mode to Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
5. Click OK to save the settings
6. Run the exe and all should be OK