I have been using my ipad, with tacx bushido smart and a bluetooth speed+cadance sensor.
After losing two 60K rides, due to the ipad freezing on me, I would like to try using my laptop instead. The laptop is a brand new core i7, so I know it’s up to it.
My question being - how does the connection work? will the laptop just “pick up” the readings, like the ipad did? do I have to pair manually? do I have to install anything (had to install the tacx app on the ipad, for example…).
Thanks for your help…
Yotam.
You cannot directly connect the trainer to Zwift running on a PC over Bluetooth. You would need to use the Zwift Mobile Link on your phone to bridge the Bluetooth signal to Zwift running on the PC: https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/205055065-Zwift-Mobile-Link?section=200993429
If possible I would suggest getting an ANT+ dongle and a USB extension to connect your trainer to Zwift. This would simplify the pairing of the trainer. You would still need to use the ZML to bridge the BLE signal of your speed and cadence sensor to Zwift on the laptop.
I use a PC (Surface Book) and found I had to use the ANT+ dongle. While I could pair the Tacx by Bluetooth Zwift doesn’t seem to work with it. I have tried unpairing and repairing, always I see the Bluetooth logo with an X. Mind I don’t care as the Ant+ have been 100% since about 2 upgrades ago. So your 60K rides should be safe provided MS doesn’t force a reboot.