The Ant+ Directory

What works with what?
That's what the Ant+ Directory is for!

Ant+
It is a popular system for sports/fitness devices to connect with each other.

It is, however, not the only system.
And each system is incompatible with the others.
You probably know of another system - Bluetooth, as used on tablets and phones.



But, you might say, my Bluetooth phone picks up my Ant+ sensor.
Yes, it might.
Either you are using an Ant+ adapter on your phone, or your sensor is transmitting on two systems at once.
I have a "dual band" sensor - My Tacx T2015 speed and cadence sensor. It transmits on both Bluetooth and Ant+ simultaneously, so I can pick up my cadence with both my (Bluetooth) tablet and my (Ant+) Garmin 310XT watch at the same time.

So do all Ant+ sensors work with all Ant+ devices?
Nope.
Imagine you have a running watch.
Just because your bicycle power meter uses the same Ant+ system doesn't mean the running watch will detect the bicycle power meter.

So how do you find out what works with what?
The Ant+ Directory!
It is just a listing of approved Ant+ stuff, and lists of what other Ant+ stuff is compatible.

So let's jave a look at the Ant+ Directory, and see what we can find out.

the homepage of the directory ...

... and when you roll down a bit, you get a LONG list of stuff.
So probably easiest to choose from the type of Ant_+ item you want.
Here I have selected "Foot Spped & Distance Sensors".
That seems to be a reasonable description of my O-Synce maxrun footpod,
which is the fourth item shown on the list on the right.

Click on the entry for the maxrun footpod, and a brief description appears.
It appears the footpod measures both speed and cadence.
Speed is good for running indoors, where you can't get a GPS signal.

The maxrun footpod is compatible with 72 other Ant+ items, one of which is the 310XT watch
(shown 3 from the bottom of the list)

click on the 310XT, and it bring up a short description. So the 310XT will handle 9 types of Ant+ sensor.

Clicking through to the listing for the Garmin FR310XT gives a list of all 261 sensors that are compatible.
Fourth from bottom on the part of the list is the O-Synce maxrun footpod

Scrolling further down the same list, pne finds the Tacx 2015 speed and cadence sensor (4th up from the bottom in this screenshot)

I could, of course, click through on the Tacx sensor, to see what that is compatible with.
Why would I do this?
well - does it work with my wife's Vivoactive HR?
The O-Scynce maxrun footpod is listed as comapible with both my 310XT and my wife's Vivoactive HR.
Actually, the Tacx 2015 sensor IS compatible with the Vivoactive HR! multi-sports indeed.
But for us that is extra value, because we can share one set of sensors between the two of us!

So that's how the Ant+ Directory works.
It is so that you can check your device will work with a new sensor you are thinking of getting, or you can see if a proposed new device purchase will work OK with your existing sensors.