Advice on Nordic USB ANT Stick & Garmin305 Heart Rt. Monitor

After doing some more research and thinking, I think I’d now simply like to ask:

What’s a relatively cheap and easy way to start out with the ANT protocol. If I buy the Nordic USB ANT stick from this site (it’s about ~$50), what else do I need to buy so I can have two things talking to each other? [I have doubts about my heart rate monitor I mention below. It may be kaput or not or too old to be using the ANT protocol]

Thanks,

Dave.

Original question below.

Hi, I’m a newbie to SparkFun and the ANT protocol so my apologies if I’m posting in the wrong place. Please excuse my neophyte questions and redirect me to the correct forum.

I’d like to start playing with the ANT protocol and I have one idea on how to get started. I wanted to get advice as to whether or not it’s a good idea or get better ideas. I have a GARMIN 305 GPS Running Watch and Heart Rate Monitor. From what little research I’ve done, I think that the Heart Rate Monitor communicates with the GPS Watch through ANT protocol. I was thinking that it should be possible to use the Nordic USB ANT Stick (sold on this site) to communicate with the heart rate monitor. I’m not sure if it’s possible to communicate with the watch itself. My specific questions are:

  1. Is my idea of using the Nordic USB ANT Stick and the Garmin 305 Heart Rate Monitor a sound one? Do I need anything else? Is there enough there to at least read the heart rate monitor from a C++ or C# program running on the PC? Are there documents kicking around on how to do this? I would at least need to know how to “talk” with the USB stick from a C++ program.

  2. Is there information from Garmin or their devices and what protocols they are using? Presumably, I need to know both the low level ANT protocol (available from Dynastream?) and the high level message structure that Garmin is using. I have been unable to find much info on this front. Just some vague references that lead me to believe the GARMIN 305 Heart Rate Monitor does communicate with ANT.

  3. Can you suggest a better “beginner” project to get me started with ANT? I did see that there is an ANT development kit for ~$600.00. That’s a little steep for me. I’d like to stay under $100.00.

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions,

Dave