with the latop it is built in, so not really. I do have a small BT4 usb dongle that I was using on an extension and it was dropping as badly using that, with it 2ft from the trainer. However, I’m not sure if the laptop was using the dongle or the builtin BT.
Wilfried, we really appreciate the detail that you and others on this thread have contributed.
The “stops pedaling” detail especially.
These disconnects are super frustrating (we hate them too!) and we are actively working on a fix for an upcoming release. Thank all for patience as we sort this out.
Will
4 Likes
This sound interesting, 
Just used the Nordic nRF connect app (android) to look at the bt signal strength. I get a max of -35db next to the RH side of the trainer. This drops to around -42db by the tip of the RH leg. Up by the bars, where the phone/laptop would be, the RSSI drops to between -70db and -75db. At one point it even dropped it and I end up with a break in the line on the chart (scan option at top right of app).
I’m not convinced signal strength is the issue but I will certainly try to disable the internal bluetooth and try again with the dongle on an extension (possibly 2 extensions to get really close).
1 Like
@Gerrie_Delport thanks, I’m on channel 3 (20MHz range) as it’s the less crowded here but will try to move the phone away from router and why not disabling the 2.4GHz SSID keeping the 5GHz one only for test purpose.
@Mike_Rowe_PBR thanks for commenting on the low points, will definitely try to improve this then.
@will_botti thanks. Not too worried about improving the drops situation but the fact that Zwift can’t pick up any data from HT although showing it as connected is more worrying (and frustrating) as only solution I found so far is to quit the game and therefore lose my session.
Mark, huge thanks for providing those details. Signal strength and interference can certainly contribute to connection loss, so it’s great that you examined that.
That said, we are actively working on this long-standing problem.
I’ve had many, many perfect rides in our HQ gym (not recently though due to lockdown). The gym has tons of trainers and lots of interference.
But when the connection does drop on Android, it often means rebooting, which is 100% unacceptable. We are on it.
Ride On!
Will
1 Like
I’ve been using a laptop (windows 10), didnt read the thread title properly before posting. I bought a 2meter USB extension yesterday and used that with a BT dongle today and the laptop, at the end of the garden. Disabled the built in bt to try and make sure it used the dongle. I managed just over 2.5hrs without the signal dropping once (that i noticed). I just went to look at the log expecting to see the BTLE bar height of 8-10 again, but they were at zero ! I suspect that is because of the external BT dongle ?
Hello fellow Zwifters,
First, I’d like to congratulate all the Zwift Team, I love the platform (even though I have experienced some issues) I know that there is a lot of work to be done.
This is my configuration:
Tacx Vortex with ANT+ and BT
Samsung Tab S4
HR Garmin Tri (I use de ANT+ to connect my HR to Zwift)
Speed/Cadence Garmin (I use them only to compare the numbers with Zwift)
Zwift companion on my phone Note 10 + with BT headphones with spotify
I didn’t use my HR monitor before, because I didn’t know that I could connect it via ANT+ with an adapter to my tablet, and I didn’t have any connectivity problems (only If I stopped peddaling in the middle of a workout for a couple of minutes, I had to reset the Zwift App, just like other Zwifters said on this entry)
But in this past two weeks, my HR monitor, disconnected every now and then in the middle of the workout, I changed the battery, and still, the same problem (but that isnt that much of an issue to me)
What really gets me, is that I’ve been trying to do meet up with other Zwifters, and I always miss it, because I can’t get my trainer going. It connects, and dissconects instantly, and the No signal sign appears, and I have to reset de app 4 o 5 times, and it is very frustraiting (I loose a lot of riding time doing this) and after I finally can actually start zwifitng, I have no problems. BUT yesterday, while I was zwifting, for 40 minutes, it just dropped, and I had to reset everything again.
I don’t know what to do, I checked with the Tacx app, and it connects rapidly (also to my Garmin) so, the problem seems to be with the Zwift app.
Thank you for your time
4 Likes
Hi @zwill,
I really hope you are on it, cause I’ve been using Zwift on Android since beta and keep having problems with drop downs.
My usual case happens when I take a break even as small as 10s, for example
when descending and trying to use the aero tuck position.
On the other hand when I keep pedaling I can finish 2+ hours sessions with no problems,
Even more I’ve never had drop downs out of the blue, but take a tiny rest and that’s it
all connections lost.
My guess is that the BLE sensors go to sleep, and the reconnection procedure is failing.
Only way to get back the BLE is restarting the game app.
The Ant+ update has been a big improvement, because Ant+ is able to reconnect most of the times by itself.
But there are still some pain points:
1. Accessing the connection screen in settings makes you stop.
Sometimes it is just enough to open the connection screen and pick the newly created Ant+ connection,
but you will be brought to full stop by opening that menu.
I know some people are using this functionality as a hack to quickly change from road to mtb bike and back, but it leaves us with zero chance of recovery from drop downs during events and races.
2. The UI itself is misleading.
After a drop down you open settings and you can see the UI is soon showing BLE as connected,
there is even a signal strenth bar that is all full, but in reality when you go back to the game
the BLE is still disconnected.
I think fixing the UI is a low hanging fruit and could ease many frustrations.
3. There is no ANT+ FE-C implementation for Android.
So when BLE is gone you have no Ant+ alternative for the controllable and now you have to live in flatland.
4. Ant+ cadence has lag and some bugs in the readings.
On my trainer I can get cadence from 3 sources:
-
BLE
best option until it drops signal -
Ant+ cadence-speed sensor
there is some really noticable lag in readings, but it is stable. -
Ant+ powermeter
this one I can 100% relate to the 2000 watts bug, everytime a use it a get the bug.
This has the behavior of a math or type error in the code.
Also easy one to fix, given the full cooperation of Tacx.
5. Holding background connection.
I like to listen to the Zwiftcast when riding on Zwift, but switching to other apps like podcast and music players, causes the game to kill all connections.
A couple of weeks ago, on Twitter, DCRainmaker himself was raging about the same thing regarding Zwift on iOS.
It’s basic stuff every other app can do.
6. Every update since Dec 2018 is one step forward two back.
back then it was significantly more easy to recover from BLE drop downs, just restart Bluetooth on your device and everything will automatically reconnect. Can’t zwift devs use the magic of git and bring some of that back?
In summary:
The problem after all is not that the drop downs happen with wireless those are unavoidable,
but more the way connecting back is failing.
Setup:
Tacx Flux S,
Samsung S9, Android 10
Tacx HRM strap
Garmin Fenix 5, HR broadcast
2 Likes
The issue of dropouts on android has been pending for over an year. Have been facing same with my setup as well. Will this ordeal end anytime soon or we shift to some other platform which is more stable than zwift?
Same here on Samsung Galaxy Tab S 6.
If it drops once, only killing the App and restarting it solves it.
However as Zwift forgets the selected route kind of not a real solution.
Setup:
Samsung Tab S6, Android 10
BT Tacx Flux S,
ANT Garmin HRM strap
ANT Garmin Cadence
Again today after 1:50h of ride. Had to switch to ANT+ for the power measurement to at least being able to finish my route.
Setup:
Samsung Tab S6, Android 10
BT Tacx Flux S,
ANT Garmin HRM strap
ANT Garmin Cadence
I have a similar problem. I lost connection randomly. Today I joined a 45mins group ride. Bluetooth connection dropped 4-5 times in the first 25 mins. after the last one, it didn’t get connected again. So I quit. Everytime I joined Zwift, I have this issue.
Elite Novo Force trainer
Misuro B+ sensor
I run Zwift on Windows and connect via internal Bluetooth.
1 Like
Again last Saturday (30.05.2020) after 1:26h of ride.
Switch to ANT+ for the power measurement after, but annoying that I had to finish the last 50km of my 100km without power resistence…
Setup:
Samsung Tab S6, Android 10
BT Tacx Flux S,
ANT Garmin HRM strap
ANT Garmin Cadence
I also sent the fit and log files to logs@zwift.com, but looking at the log files I fear they are pretty useless to debug this problem as they seem the log files only include the start of zwift and not the actual ride.
Happened to me today for the first time. Lap 1 of volcano ccw route during this mornings duathlon. Ground to a halt, turbo was flashing green (searching for connection) but still showed as connected in the pairing screen. Reconnected from the pairing screen and was fine after that.
Cycleops H2 trainer
Huawei M6 mediapad android tablet
Tickr X Hrm
Has happened to me a couple of times during rest breaks on long group rides. Most recently (6 June) I tried to keep things working by moving the pedals ocassionally to keep the watts above 0, but trainer still disconnected off BLE after a couple of minutes. Found this in the log at the time of disconnect.
[16:26:46] BLE : UCS: DISCONNECTED E6:93:67:AA:CD:AE, lost count: 1
On trainer reconnect via BLE Zwift reported Connected but ‘No Signal’.
Managed to eventually partially reconnect using ANT+ (power & cadence only) after a few minutes but got kicked from that after another 15k. No problem with HRM on BLE.
TacX Flow 3.1.22 / 1.1.3
Galaxy Tab S4 Android 9
Wahoo TickR
I’ve got the complete log file if it’s any help.
That is probably due to the sensors going to sleep mode to conserve battery power.
I did wonder, but the trainer’s mains powered so no battery to conserve. I tried powering cycling it but that didn’t recover the situation so I think the issue is in the app / Android OS. The only way I’ve found is to restart / reboot. If low / no activity triggers the disconnect it could help the developers recreate the issue and figure out how to reconnect successfully. The HRM worked through, also on BLE, as it didn’t have a break in activity (thankfully 
)
Hello @Dimitar_Marinov!
I know it’s been a while, but I wanted to say thanks for your excellent summary and recommendations!
Point 1 - Pairing screen halts you - is something we’ve discussed internally for years, but hasn’t been made a priority due to resources and new features.
ie there are ways to prevent exploits, without the hyper-punitive “simple HR reconnect blows up my race”.
(That issue, plus our desktop “must re-launch app to ride again” are my top two personal pet peeves, but I digress.)
Point 2,3 - Agree. ANT+ FE-C has been scheduled. No public date yet, but it’s officially on our list.
Point 4 - Appreciate the ANT+ details. I’ll circle back w/ our QA team on those.
Point 5 - I hear you. Not on our list, yet though.
Point 6 - very interesting feedback that re-connects were better in past, and the way you personally resolved them. I will certainly take a look at the code history.
Thanks again,
Will
Today again zwift lost the BT connection to the tacx 300m before the SCOTT ride finish lineafter 1:05h of ride.
Had to switch to ANT+ for the power measurement to at least being able to finish my route.
Setup:
Samsung Tab S6, Android 10
BT Tacx Flux S,
ANT Garmin HRM strap
ANT Garmin Cadence