I can’t get on with a neo and a MacBook Pro. never had problems in three years until they started playing around with these ‘bluetooth improvements’.
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For the past week or so Zwift no longer recieves both bluetooth signals for my HRM and cadence sensor when transmitted from the HRM.
AppleTV 4K on direct wire high speed ethernet connection
Wahoo Kickr v2 (2015)
4iiii Viiiiva HRM
Wahoo cadence sensor
-or-
Wahoo TickrX HRM/cadence
Fresh batteries in all
Since the Apple TV only has 2 open bluetooth connections available, for years I have been using the Viiiiva HRM to transmit both heart rate and cadence over a single bluetooth connection. It has been issue free. It stopped working with the latest update, so I bought a new Wahoo TickrX to try and that also did not work.
I can connect the HRM separately and it works fine for heart rate only, and same for cadence only. However, as of last week the HRM can no longer transmit both heart rate and cadence simultaneously to the AppleTV.
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Hi @shooj
Any chance you or one of the Zwift team can clarify exactly what the Bluetooth changes are or do?
My kickr 17 is connected to Apple tv4k via Bluetooth and it’s like riding through treacle despite a z1/Z2 ish power number being reported. The flywheel comes to a stop in seconds when in Zwift, yet a ride on the wahoo app will happily see it spin much much longer when coasting.
Can’t work out if it’s bad legs ( can’t make the power) , the trainer is misreading the power or Zwift isn’t playing nicely with it. I couldn’t even stay in the c pace partner pack earlier where I can usually do a couple of hours with the B bot.
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Hi Shuji, we need to understand what these changes are, my observations in the control point are:
Zwift is requesting control of the bike (control point: 0x00) which my application is accepting .
After that, ZWIFT used to send bike simulation parameters (0x11, free riding) or target power (0x05, erg mode), about 1 notification per second.
With the latest update I’m no longer receiving this data, hence the resistance doesn’t change.
Is there a specific setting required for the Fitness Machine Feature characteristic 2ACC of FTMS Service (UUID 1826)?
I assume this impacts many trainers.
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Hi all,
I’m still trying to isolate the exact reason, but having intermidant bluetooth connection between my turbo (kickr snap) and cadence (wahoo) and also the wahoo Tickr hr strap. Have had no issues for 18 months with this setup running via Bluetooth to iPad, PC and Mac.
I’m using a workaround at the moment using ANT+, but have to use my android mobile to run Zwift as it’s the only device that can receive ant+ I have right now.
Further testing today using a bluetooth dongle on a lead seemed to eliminate the issue, albeit needing the dongle sitting very close to the turbo, whereas before the laptop could sit and use it’s built in sensor from about 4 metres away.
I’ll keep in touch with the thread, as the only thing that’s changed for me is the latest update, but could be a coincidental issue with the turbo and HR strap.
Hrmmm… maybe thats why been having weird issues on ATV recently. Kickr '16 with some “questionable” resistance changes… Today on TdZ stage 2, standard ride, climbing up to the turn off for the Innsbruck climb, sudden had a massive increase in resistance and took “ages” to back off. Another day, free riding on watiopia, lost all resistance changes
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Mines been killing me!
A 1 hour ride with an avg wattage on zwift of sub 150w has me feeling more tired than a 3 hour club ride outdoors with a +200 avg
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@shooj hi, can you get any further info for us on this?
Seems to be an awful lot of kickr/kickr bike users especially with Apple TV set ups that are having issues with trainer control…… is it your changes doing it ?
Was having terrible issues with resistance being off, sometimes nearly impossible to pedal on a descent with my KickrBike. Stage 2 on Tour Zwift up the Alps was ridiculous, every time the gradient went down in a corner I could hardly push the pedals over. I rolled backed firmware on the bike from 1.25 to 1.22 and just completed Tour Zwift stage 3 with no problems. I did this after reading thread about folks with Kickr Core rolling back the firmware to fix a similar bug.
I’m using an iPad Pro and Bluetooth.
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I was using an older kickr 17 and had done so since Dec 17 which hadn’t had a firmware update or one to roll back for ages, and the last week and half were horrendous, I gave up today and threw a blanket of change at it.
Deleted zwift from Apple TV and reinstalled
Moved my headwind fan a bit further from the bike
Bought a new kickr v5 ( but didn’t update the firmware)
I did a 30km test ride using c cadence as a benchmark, quickly found myself riding away from the pacer and doing a decent 20min effort and then an effort on a climb. Zwift was finally back as expected. !! A marked change from me being a B class rider who often sits with the B pacer for a 2hour block being dropped by the C pacer after 10 mins last week because I couldn’t hold the effort! 120w felt like 320w !
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after the latest update my bluetooth connection stop working at all…windows 11 , after I try to connect I receive the message “no signal” and bluetooth stop working… I have tried 3 different bluetooth usb stick… obviously in windows 11 my bluetooth work instantly with peripherals like phones and gamepad and earphones… now I have buyed an ant+ stick …because I pay the Zwift service and cannot use at all… I hope someone help me to solve the problems…
my smart trainer is a TACX NEO 2T with the latest firmware installed, and have worked in past with bluetooth without problems
FWIW, erg mode stopped working with My PainSled and RowedBiker “row with Zwift” cycling simulator apps at the same time. I haven’t done any debugging yet and, frankly, they are not exactly “canonical” trainers so I’ll probably just update them whenever things settle. If any help is needed I’m happy to pitch in.
James
Extremely Frustrating! Windows 11, Kinetic trainer. Bluetooth connection.
On pairing screen it connects to trainer, but says “No Signal” for “power Source”. If I go into game mode it appears to work for 1 second, then changes to Connection Failure.
I have tried updating firewall settings, unplug/plug the trainer, turn off all surrounding bluetooth, etc, nothing seems to be fixing this issue!
Any help greatly appreciated.
When I get to the Bluetooth pairing screen, the Kickr and sensors are found, as is my HRM. Upon going into the main screen however, the HRM disappears and I get a “connection” error. Other Bluetooth connections are fine. Then, as I return to the pairing screen after riding, the HRM value appears again.
Seems similar to some others’ problems. I have submitted a support ticket.
Wahoo Kickr, recent update from Win 10 to Win 11 on laptop.
@shooj @James_Zwift Is there any update on the queries being raised in here?
Its really bad policy to post an update regarding technical changes with no further details and then dead thread it and ignore the replies.
What was the changes that were made?
Are the issues being seen in this thread a symptom of those changes?
From a personal perspective, Bluetooth HR connectivity (Tickr) has significantly got worse since the beginning of the year - The device is fine with other application (RGT) or with Garmin watch in the same environment, its solely Zwift on ATV that is challenging.
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Sorry - I’ll try to find who’s looking after this at our end and get an update for you.
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After having really difficult rides on my kickr17 using Bluetooth to Apple TV, I changed hardware to a kickr v5…… it’s an expensive user fix if it turns out to be a zwift side issue, so all info is welcome
I was hoping that this problem would be fixed for my setup after the last upgrade a few days ago, but sadly there has been no improvement. Whatever the ‘fix’ has been it certainly does not seem to be useful for a lot of people.
@Chris_Berry2, what is the nature of the problem you expected to be fixed in the last Zwift upgrade?
Firmware updates appear to have addressed issues reported above for Shift and Renpho trainers.
Would you please provide the details of your issue and provide information about your indoor bike trainer, and the device you have installed Zwift on?
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Hi everyone, I’m Jeremy one of the engineers responsible for modernizing our connectivity stack. I hope this isn’t too technical, but provides you with insight into what/why we are updating our communication protocols.
Improvements to FTMS controllable trainers
First, what is FTMS? FTMS is essentially a language defined in the Bluetooth Specification that fitness devices can use to talk to applications like Zwift. SOME of the most popular trainers speak FTMS. As we saw more FTMS devices being used on Zwift, we prioritized modernizing our FTMS implementation to match the spec as closely as possible.
An example of a trainer that can speak FTMS is the Kickr v5, while older Kickr’s (I have a 2016) do not speak FTMS and rely on a proprietary protocol.
Some material changes to our FTMS implementation include:
- Better error handling from the protocol itself. Previously, some errors weren’t being handled correctly.
- Zwift no longer sends unnecessary grade change commands to the trainer - The legacy implementation would spam updates even when grade hadn’t changed. This had three very negative effects: 1) In rooms with excessive radio interference, the Bluetooth LE (BLE) signals would get overwhelmed, causing devices to timeout and disconnect temporarily (ever seen your watts go to zero for a few seconds then back to normal?) 2) In simulation mode (SIM) updates would “fall behind” causing lag in the experience, and 3) battery usage was increased.
- Improved trainer control and reset requests - The legacy implementation was spamming for control, now it respects the specification
- Better logging and analytics so we can troubleshoot any future issues more easily and make sure the health of the implementation doesn’t degrade again.
General BLE Improvements
Mostly bug fixes (a few crashes, undefined behaviors, and improper characteristic processing), which we keep behind server controlled settings so we can control the rollout to users and make sure our updates have a net-positive effect on the experience.
In the end, we’re Zwifters too and we want to make the experience as seamless as possible. We really appreciate your passion and feedback as we try to continually improve!
Ride On!
Thanks @shooj for letting me know about this thread!
(edit - formatting)
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