Connection to Garmin Vector 3 dropping

Bugs and Support
1

I Zwift using a spin bike (don’t @ me), Garmin Vector 3 power pedals and a Garmin HRM. The HRM connects via ANT and the pedals use Bluetooth, both connect to an Android tablet which runs Zwift. Everything is updated to current software/firmware and calibrated. This setup has all worked flawlessly until this week when randomly, about 45mins into a ride the data from the pedals stopped showing in Zwift and my avatar stopped pedalling. This has never happened before. I reconnected straight away and and carried on with no issues.

The connection issues happened again today, this time 5mins into a time trial but my HRM dropped too. I reconnected and it all looked fine but then both connections dropped as soon as I went back into the game. I left the TT and, after swearing at all hardware/software for a solid 2-3minutes which admittedly wasn’t really long enough, briefly got my avatar moving in game before everything failed again.

Before I gave up I…

  • rebooted the tablet
  • removed and repaired the pedals in my Garmin Connect app just in case
  • checked all batteries were charged
  • checked all software was updated via the Playstore

…and went back to Watopia but, again all connections dropped after a few minutes.

I don’t have a head unit for the pedals so I’m not sure how I can test them outside of Zwift as they don’t connect independently to my Garmin Connect app (thanks Garmin). It seems odd that both the ANT AND Bluetooth connections were affected but I’m not sure what that points to. To be clear there is no problem with Zwift connecting to either the HRM or pedals initially, it sees them both and connects like normal, they just don’t seem to want to stay connected. The pedals and tablet are both less than 6months old. I’m looking for a place to start really, as right now, there are so many moving parts, I’m spolit for choice so any help would be very, very much appreciated not least because I’m supposed to start my Z2H 100mile ride training on Saturday and, well, can you imagine if it happened on a longer ride…the swearing would go on for days.

Zwift version 1.12.1 (67629)
Zwift phone app version 3.25.0 (1238)

Thanks in advance

2

For anyone who finds this topic while looking for info on this error…the issue I was having was resolved by changing the batteries in the Vector 3 pedals.

Although, in the Garmin Connect app, the battery had a full green bar, I knew that couldn’t be the case as I’d already ridden over 60hrs of the approx. 120hr battery life so thought it should be closer to half charge. There were no warnings that the battery was close to dead which is a pretty poor show on Garmin’s part, I think. I did notice that the watts I was generating were fluctuating more than usual on a ride a few days before and that I sometimes got an error message when trying to look at the pedals in the Connect app for a few days before but other than that, nothing. Maybe if I had a head unit it would’ve indicated the battery level there? Anyways, I took a punt and changed the batteries and, voila, no more problems, connects straight away and no drop outs so ultra training here I come :slight_smile: