So, I recently bought a gaming PC to replace the laptop (which was having freezing/crashing issues). Initially, it did quite well as far as the freezing is concerned. My first 3 rides went well; except it lost connection with my Wahoo HRM in the first 2-3 mins of each ride.
So, I was going to try without the HR monitor at all (since it isn’t vital), but this past Sunday (2/14), Zwift wasn’t even getting a stable/consistent connection with the Kickr Bike before my ride even started. I tried again today (2/16), after re-installing Zwift on Sunday and got about 20 mins into my ride before Zwift lost connection with the Kickr Bike and couldn’t get it back consistently.
Any ideas what would be causing the BT connection issues?
PC users should always start off with ANT+ in my view. Try Bluetooth if you’re not having any joy with the usual tips on how to obtain a strong, stable connection.
Neither is ‘better’, but Bluetooth has additional potential points of failure.
I guess another benefit to Ant+ would be that not much else (and nothing else in my house) uses that protocol; so there would be less potential interference from other devices.
I just ordered one from Amazon, so will post here again once I try it out.
I did my first ride using Zwift and ANT+. It actually worked and I finished the ride (certainly a plus)!
But a few questions:
Using BT, Zwift connected with the Kickr Bike (as one unit) for Power, Controllable, and Cadence. But using ANT+, Zwift connected to 2 devices; one for Power & Cadence and another for the Controllable. Is that normal usage?
I also had the Wahoo HRM connected via ANT+ as well. But during the ride, there were several points where the connection with the HRM “blinked” out for 1-5 seconds. Is that normal as well?
2a. Using an USB Extension cord, I have the ANT+ dongle directly under the Kickr Bike flywheel. Would that possibly be causing a little interference with the HRM? Could I improve that by just moving the dongle off to the side a bit so it can get better line of sight to the HRM and the Bike at the same time?
I’m not complaining on either of these points. I had just never used ANT+ so curious what experiences others have had.
For reference, here is a picture of my metrics (from Strava) showing the HRM connectivity blinking:
Yes line of sight is important so moving it slightly out of centre could well help. For reasons I have no idea zwiftalizer recommends the dongle should be ABOVE sensors at all times . No idea why as I did what you did to get it closer and that means putting dongle on ground . Havent noticed any issues as a result . Drop outs of any sort are not usual but causes could be many as I am sure you know only too well . is battery fresh being first port of call .
Do you use zwiftalizer.com ? Worth while if you are diagnosing these sorts of things.
Not quite sure here if I am understanding your 2 device connection thing . Are you refering to the 2 ANT protocols perhaps . There is the legacy ANT+ private and the newer and better ANT+ FE-C . You should always use the later and if possible even swtich off the former from being broadcast as otherwise you will get collisions every 200s or so .
I did a ride today and everything seemed to run okay. I had moved the ANT+ Dongle off to the side a bit so it sits on the floor about 10-12 inches from the Kickr flywheel. Initially had some connectivity issues with the HRM, then switched it to ANT+ connection and it remained stable the rest of the ride.
As for Zwift connecting to the Kickr Bike via ANT+ and it showing as 2 devices, here is a screen shot of the pairing screen. I highlighted the Device ID’s for Power, Cadence, and Controllable. Even though all three of those come from the Bike, the Power & Cadence have the same ID and the Controllable is a different ID.
