Elite Justo connection problems

Bugs and Support
1

Here is the information requested in the other thread. Please advise if there is other information that will assist.

  • Trainer Model Justo 2

  • Trainer Firmware version 37 hw ver1

  • Confirm if you are using Zwift Click, Play, or Ride. I have Click and Play both connected.

  • Confirm Firmware version of the Zwift shifting device you are using. Play: fw 2.0.1 hw 8.0 linked Click fw 1.2.0 hw 8.0 linked

  • Confirm which platforms: Windows laptop an older MSI steel series Win11, Galaxy Tab A (8.0", 2019)tablet for Companion. Bluetooth is usually off on the tablet unless I need it.

  • Confirm if you are experiencing the issue with: Native bluetooth for CORE, Play, Click, Rizer steering, and resistance. Direct connect/wifi for power and cadence(crank arm sensor using Justo2 bridge). I have tried via Companion(worked similar, PC seems to have a better radio), also have tried a few Dongles on USB extensions with mixed results as some of the newest version 5 ones seem to support less concurrent game devices. In general the PC radio is rock solid except for when resistance acts up. Even when resistance acts up the other bluetooth devices remain connected.

  • I experience the resistance disconnects after no pedaling. It might be after coasting down a hill for 15 seconds(less common), or being off the bike to grab something, or coasting down a long hill (but other times I can coast down a climb portal without any problem)

  • Confirm if you are using Virtual Shifting with Zwift Click, Play, (both)

  • Confirm your in-game Trainer Difficulty setting: 100%

  • Confirm your in-game Shift Style and Gear Range settings: sequential, mixed

  • If using Virtual Shifting on a normal bike (not Zwift Ride), please confirm your front chainring size: 39 back: 11 - 42 cogset which has saved my ride a few times after VS stopped working. Shifts rough so I prefer VS.

  • Notes: A couple weeks ago when I came back to indoor for the TdF event after riding outside for a couple months VS was basically unusable, no resistance changes, low resistance, worst trouble connecting I think I have ever had on resistance(bluetooth) also on power and cadence (wired/wifi?). I noticed the cadence seemed to respond weirdly. Then I realized I didn’t get cadence pedaling backward which I should with the crankarm mounted sensor. Stopped midride. Checked and found the battery was dead. Replaced and installed. Now getting cadence backward, and resistance started changing. riding. Thought that had solved it but have still had issues with lack of response since then. The 2032 battery in the sensor was down to 1v so the displayed cadence must have been from the Justo2 internal being used since the bridged device signal was absent.

  • Lack of response means start the ride, have resistance that might be right for gear 8, but I can change up and down 1 to 24 and back with no change in physical resistance. Sometimes seems like resistance changes at the next incline change. The change in resistance sometimes seems to reflect what the current gear number is more than the change in slope. For example the resistance has not changed since the ride started or has stopped changing mid ride. I shift down several gears. At the next hill the resistance gets lower. It may then get harder but this is not consistently true.

  • The Rizer will behave incorrectly as well perhaps mirroring the resistance errors, seeming to be responding in a delayed way to terrain already passed over.

  • A couple times when the resistance was not responding at the beginning of a ride spinning the trainer as fast as I could and letting it coast down seemed to get resistance to respond. I don’t believe this always fixes it.

  • I tried the circumference value change “trick” which I assume resets something. I think it might have worked on the following ride but I do not know it that was a coincidence. Certainly has not cured the problem.

2

Hi Robb, you have been posting in a variety of topics that are unrelated to your trainer so I moved this nice detailed comment you made to a new topic for discussion.

Problems with Wahoo firmware have no bearing on your issue so I wouldn’t bother digging through those lengthy discussions.

What do you see when you upload a log file to trainerdx.com? Can you share the results here?

Using a Bluetooth dongle can certainly help but I don’t know which ones you have tried. If you’ve used a Bluetooth 5 dongle with a RealTek chipset like a TP-Link UB500, then you’ve probably done as much as you can there.

I understand you have tried using an Android tablet running Companion and pairing that way, but Android tablet Bluetooth hardware varies a lot so it’s hard to draw any conclusion from that without knowing details about the tablet.

Have you tested your setup with only one Zwift controller paired?

Copying @AlanZ here since your comment was a reply to him.

3

Seems OK moving it here as the other thread had jumped around a bit over the months. I had other posts earlier on in that thread as it evolved. I had been led to believe the problem was largely tied to Elite’s choice to require Bluetooth for the resistance, something that still irritates me having paid the upcharge to version 2 of the Justo with wifi so I would not need to use Bluetooth for the trainer. I now believe the problem is not unique to any brand of trainer and reading through the problems from most of the brands see the common theme is Zwift.

I know in the past I have used only the Play controllers but will try again to see if that affects the performance. The firmware update to allow the Play controllers to link with only one Bluetooth connection has actually freed up a connection. I can’t remember when the change occurred but everything worked just fine in spring 2025 if my memory serves and then I began having issues which probably started after a Zwift update. I will do another upload for diagnosis. In the past I uploaded a few rides and on one right when VS stopped working was a Bluetooth disconnection, only on the resistance. I get very annoyed when “Well there’s your problem, your Bluetooth sucks!” Is suggested so please don’t. I have 5 (previously 6 before the Play firmware update) connections which are stable for hours of riding and the only failure is resistance associated with VS so I decline the suggestion that signal strength is the issue especially when I see other comments where people have tested and found the UDP packets stop being sent from Zwift leading to timeouts.

And here I am again reading, testing, and typing instead of riding. For this cost I expect to turn it on and ride not diagnose. I have yet to find, “This is what is wrong, do this”, that doesn’t change from each person with a suggestion and just lead to a lot of wasted time but no solution. The behavior does seem to change for the better, or worse, at game updates which also implies a Zwift cause.

4

@Paul_Southworth @AlanZ

As is the case recently the resistance took a minute or so to connect at game startup. I had to manually select Justo2 bluetooth. CORE didn’t auto connect either I had to manually connect. The Play and Rizer auto connected to bluetooth. Power and cadence both auto connected to wifi/wired adapter.

The resistance felt (normal?) for gear 8 as I started the ride but shortly the “no compatible trainer” popped up. I went to the connection screen and the resistance box was orange. Justo2 wifi or Bluetooth options were available. All other bluetooth connections were still connected. I chose Bluetooth for Justo2 but just got “connecting” for a while. I switched to wifi finally and pedalled a bit. I switched back to Bluetooth and this time it connected. Back in game VS was working again. Connection remained stable until the end of the ride. Resistance felt a bit easier than usual.

5

Their choice if you want to call it that was to ship firmware that supports virtual shifting as soon as they made it work over Bluetooth, telling owners that virtual shifting support via WiFi is coming later. I think they said fall 2026, though the initial virtual shifting support was delivered a few months later than advertised so we’ll see.

I suspect that may help you because the simplest explanation for what is going on is that you are still dealing with poor Bluetooth reliability. There are no UDP timeouts in your log report. I realize you are not receptive to my suggestion, but I think you may be stuck until you are willing to talk about it. Anyway I will leave it at that unless you want to get into those details more.

6

By the way, just looking at your log report again, it does say “BLE (LAN)” for the trainer connection which I didn’t even think was possible when using virtual shifting with that trainer (yet). I don’t have an explanation for that, but if true it implies that you should double check your pairing options. Maybe post a screenshot of the pairing screen. Were you using virtual shifting during that session?

Edit: Sorry I was having reading comprehension problems. You explained that you switched to LAN and back again.

7

Not receptive may be too strong but it seems to be the simple obvious thing “helpful” people point to “its your bluetooth”, without any “why”. If “buy a new adapter” solved the problem we would not be having this discussion. I have purchased a variety of bluetooth adapters. I bought an Ant+ adapter for the laptop to remove the HR from Bluetooth. Even with the Bluetooth dongle on an extension mere cm’s from the trainer the result was the same, resistance will randomly disconnect but everything else is stable. This led to my anger with Elite not supporting Bluetooth over lan/wifi as the lan connections were stable. At some point the question is why the resistance disconnects, not just get a better radio. Will connecting over lan/wifi even solve the problem when it is still Bluetooth packets being used? When this first started occurring it was only if I stopped pedaling for a period such as coasting down a long hill. Over time it seems to change with last nights example of disconnecting less than a minute into the ride while pedaling being a more extreme example of how the problem has progressed. If memory serves in the past once VS stopped working it was gone unless I power cycled the trainer (sometimes worked I think?) or restarted Zwift. Maybe these were just resetting a hung connection? I have learned not to start up Zwift and then go get water as I will return to find resistance disconnected and not wanting to reconnect. Last night although it disconnected Justo2 Bluetooth was still available in the list. Often only wifi is present once the problem surfaces. This evolution of symptoms without any change in trainer firmware or hardware has turned my focus back to Zwift.

I don’t even try to do races anymore (I’m slow but they can still be fun). No fun when the race starts and I suddenly have no gears and low resistance. As a bonus I remember an event that kicked me for illegal equipment change.

If I interpret correctly the 3 disconnects were 1) when VS stopped working, 2) when it was displaying “connecting” so long I switched to wifi thereby canceling the native connection, and 3) after I completed the route and was stopped after the arch but had not left the game. I didn’t even realize the last one had occurred until reviewing the log. I can only presume but the long “connecting” and then the success after using wifi for a couple minutes seems to me like an existing connection had to time-out and free up something.

Likely the failure occurs and is not noticed until a shift button is pressed or slope changes without any resistance change(or Rizer movement but that can be subtle). On other trainer brands instead of the mechanical magnetic brake staying in one position like Elite trainers the resistance may just disappear if it is an electronic brake.

If you are confident a different dongle is the cure provide the brand and model and I will get that.

One last comment: I have a Wahoo fan using Ant+ speed from the trainer. When coasting despite the in game speedometer reflecting my in game motion the fan will stop. This suggests the trainer is broadcasting flywheel (times set circumference) speed. Does zero trainer speed affect how it processes data?

8

I don’t know which Bluetooth dongle you used, but I have some thoughts about that. Your situation is certainly very frustrating and I can understand being disappointed that Elite have not delivered one thing that might help.

Built-in Bluetooth in a PC of that vintage is almost always Bluetooth 4.x. Bluetooth 5.x has twice the bandwidth, and other differences that make it better for handling lots of paired devices such as better frequency hopping. It is less susceptible to 2.4GHz interference. ANT+ is another 2.4GHz radio in the room. Your WiFi service probably includes 2.4GHz. Fans, cordless phones, baby monitors, and various other things in your home may get in the way of 2.4GHz communication.

I do not know which Bluetooth dongle you tried, so it’s hard to say whether you have effectively already tried what I’m about to suggest, but the RealTek RTL8761B chipset has an excellent track record. That is found in the TP-Link UB500, Edimax BT-8500, and some others. At the risk of wasting a little money, that’s the suggestion. I have seen it fix many PCs with poor Bluetooth reliability, and of course most of those cases did not have as many paired devices as you do.

If you decide to try it, unpair anything connected in the Windows Bluetooth settings (eg, headphones) before you start. Then go to Windows Device Manager, right-click on the current Bluetooth adapter and select Disable. Then plug in the dongle. Drivers should install automatically.

I don’t know much about your fan but I think most people set the Wahoo fan to adjust its speed based your on heart rate which is one of the options.

9

I will check what chipset my BT5 dongle displays in device manager. I even have a “BT6” dongle but this has turned out to be somewhat suspect as I now know BT6 isn’t even finalized. I believe when I first tried the BT5 dongle it did not support enough devices for my setup.

Will order one with the Realtek chipset as soon as I locate a seller.

Is the trainer constantly broadcasting Ant+ (if supported) or only after a pairing request? Possible point being Ant+ always present even if not used?

My Elite fan runs off CORE body temperature Ant+. The Wahoo fan is to add some variety. The point is the speed transmitted is not being relayed from the game as I had hoped. Rather than coasting down after a climb portal providing more wind effect it provides none because the fan stops about 20 seconds after the flywheel stops. I pondered whether this affects how the trainer reacts applying resistance. I believe there is a feature where the resistance is low for a second to resume pedaling. I have experienced the opposite as well where I start or resume pedaling and the resistance ramps up to where I can barely turn the cranks for a couple seconds before modulating.

10

Yes Zwift does not broadcast speed to anything. Yes I believe the trainer is always transmitting ANT+ unless Elite gives you an option to disable that transmitter. I don’t think that exists.

I have not ridden a Justo 2 but your experience of resistance when moving a flywheel from a dead stop is pretty normal and gets worse as the weight of the flywheel increases (in trainers that lack a motor to keep it moving when you are not pedaling).

11

In reply to last post:

In game speed is not broadcast to the fan, or anything: ok, good to know

Not the weight of the flywheel. This is like the mag brake does a cycle to fully applied, pauses, then backs off slowly. This does not occur every time so it is very noticeable when it does.

Changes made:

I found my Bluetooth 5.4 dongle with external antenna. I can’t remember if it had connection failures or just did not support enough devices. I used it tonight. After setting up I didn’t start riding immediately. When I started riding the VS not available no compatible message box popped up but before I could react it went away, the gear indicator returned and the shifting worked. I even took a couple breaks during the ride. None of the disconnects in the Trainerdx scan seemed to affect my ride. I presume it just reconnects before I notice. I tried to replicate a few situations that typically cause failures but it passed.

I am cautiously optimistic but I feel like this has happened before and failures returned but I have tried so many combinations perhaps this one wasn’t tried for long. Zwift making the Play controllers link and freeing up a connection might be the difference. I remember being frustrated because I bought a dongle that specifically stated it supported 6 connections but it did not. Might have been this one.

Comment:

If Elite had supported VS over wifi or bridging the CORE this would not have been an Issue from day one since I would have had enough connections on this dongle. I have read a lot of posts and never encountered “Be patient we will support wifi resistance for Virtual Shifting in fall 2026”. Your mention is the first time I have heard that announced.

Status update: tonight with this BT 5.4 dongle was the first ride I have had in quite some time that went smoothly. The disconnects corrected themselves and my ride went smoothly. All my devices were connected and functioned as expected. I will update once I do more Zwift rides which depends on weather.

12

Still three Bluetooth issues there. I’m glad it’s more usable and I think you must use Bluetooth 5 given the menagerie of pairings you have accumulated, but I would still call that “not great” and it might result in unwelcome problems.

13

Too late to ride outside tonight so another Zwift Tour Frenzy ride done.

I started Zwift and connected everything then didn’t start for a while. Previously that would almost guarantee a problem but no Bluetooth disconnects tonight. No changes that I am aware of that may have improved the connection success. .

I am not sure but I believe the Rizer is a bit smoother and maybe not as delayed.

It appears the network dropped a couple times but I didn’t notice. A smart tv using the YouTube app on the same wifi didn’t seem to freeze.

So far upgrading the Bluetooth with a BT 5.4 usb dongle has solved the Virtual Shifting failing during a ride. There are still disconnects in the log but I don’t notice problems in the game.

If you read more of this thread you will find there are some remaining odd behaviors but following Paul’s recommendation to upgrade my Bluetooth changed my experience from not planning to renew my subscription because I had problems most rides to having confidence I can complete a ride. There are still some occasional resistance variations which seem to occur if I stop for couple minutes and then resume.

Possible factors still being explored include my old 2012 laptop, and the fact I have more game devices than is common or so I am told lol.

I have not tested to see if I can add 1 more Bluetooth device like I had prior to Zwift linking the Play controllers. Will try that next ride by connecting cadence via native BT instead of the bridge. This will only be for testing if this dongle is limited to 5 FTMS devices. That may be why I didn’t keep using it earlier.

14

@Robb_Felker that’s great news to hear (thank you @Paul_Southworth for helping here)!
If you experience bluetooth issues again on a subsequent ride with your latest setup, please add your TrainerDX output again and tag me here. I’ll take a look at your specific activity on the back end to see if anything stands out as a potential root cause of the connectivity issues.

15

Sorry for the edits. I run TrainerDX on the laptop and post the link then switch to my tablet to add text.

A bit different result tonight.

I connected the cadence sensor via BT. Connection on the resistance took a long time and I persisted out of curiosity more than anything. I disconnected the Click to free a channel which didn’t seem to make a difference but after some time resistance finally connected. I tried the Click again and to my surprise it also connected.

I left things sit while I got ready. I came back, chose an event. At the start I had “Connection Failure” (network I believe). All BT seemed connected and I could move. I checked the connections screen and everything was connected so I just pedaled. After 30 seconds or so the “Connection Failure” went away.

AlanZ → Odd Resistance changes after stops. This seems similar to what others have reported on other trainer brands as well.

Fingers crossed there is something useful in the logs.

At #2 turn on the climb I took a break to get a sweatband. When I started out again the resistance had changed. Not referring to just the first few seconds. Before stopping I was riding up 10% in virtual gear 2 with my derailleur on the 18t. After I resumed I could barely push 40rpm in v gear 1. Without a cassette I likely would not have been able to continue. I changed gears on the cassette until I could reasonably pedal on the 32t. (10spd 39-53 and 11-42t cogset). I rode a couple more sections and stopped again as the pedaling was difficult. When I resumed again now it was easy, pedaling in vg7 (virtual gear), and 39f x 32t rear, up 10% or more slope. The only difference I could note was the first corner I stopped on was 10% slope. The next place I stopped was 2% I believe. It behaves like it doesn’t keep an absolute position for the mechanically operated mag brake and moves relatively from wherever it is or thinks it is. I stopped a couple more times on gentle corners and resistance stayed or became even easier. Resistance did seem to settle closer to what I would consider normal a while after each deviation.

I decided I should be trying to document with some screen grabs. Let me add that I bought this old laptop just for Zwift and have not used it for much else. I now know it has a touch bar and that the “Airplane mode” touch button is just above the F10 key and “external monitor” is just beside that lol. This explains the sudden disconnect of all devices lol. When I turned BT back on everything reconnected. Wifi was also off meaning “power” disconnected. Much to my surprise when I tried connecting “Power” via BT it also connected and worked. That is 7 native BT devices connected on the BT5.4 dongle. That has never worked before so I am a bit shocked. It took several minutes to connect resistance at start-up tonight so I may have abandoned before it connected in previous attempts when I purchased the dongle. When I first used the UGREEN 5.4BT dongle which Windows reports as Barrot I contacted the seller to say I could not get 6 devices to connect and he responded with an apology and said he had checked and unfortunately only 4 game devices were supported concurrently. I am confused but I guess it can work with this combination if I give it time. I plan to connect as many as possible via wifi anyway this was just for testing.

I started riding again and taking a few more screen grabs. I must have hit a wrong button or something and Zwift crashed/disappeared/went poof. I restarted but it was back at the beginning and I am done for tonight.

I see a number of disconnects. The big disconnect of everything was my fault when I hit “Airplane mode”. The rest I plead ignorance. I am not sure if they correlate with times I stopped to rest.

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16

Connection Failure is a pairing problem, so it could be Bluetooth or LAN depending on what got disconnected. I have no idea if your laptop would disconnect Bluetooth when using an external dongle when you activate airplane mode (ie does it happen in Windows or does it turn off the hardware in the laptop). Connection Error Messages

My understanding is that BLE does not have hard connection limits. There are limits imposed by Bluetooth bandwidth and the processing power of the device. The processing power of the old laptop is not good. It is not performing well but I’ve seen worse in devices that are usable. I’m unsure if the weak laptop is a factor here, but I would be trying other devices to compare. I still suspect that your troubles are mostly related to the large number of paired devices.

I also don’t know what’s in that Bluetooth dongle you’re using, if trying something like a TP-Link UB500 would help, or if pairing via the Companion app would help since that would use the Bluetooth adapter in the device running Companion.

The other test you could do is to reduce the number of paired devices and see if things improve. Like do not pair the Rizer or cadence sensor and pair only one of the Zwift controls. Is the connection stable? If so that would help confirm that this is some kind of problem with handling the large number of paired devices.

17

Overall I consider this ride a success hiccups and all as I learned useful information.

Sorry I confused the meaning of Connection Failure vs Connection Error. Perhaps the cadence sensor had timed out. Everything appeared to be working but cadence is only visible on Companion in my setup.

I already have this UGREEN BT5.4 w/ external antenna which is reported in Windows Device Manager as Barrot (I presume that is the chipset?) dongle so it has allowed me to begin testing immediately. I will buy the TP-Link UB500 if only to verify how it compares. If I still have disconnects with the recommended TP-Link then it must be the laptop. I live in a smaller town and when I looked online many stores do not list the chipset just the model. A few links discussing the TP-Link UB500 warned to avoid version 1 and to find the V2. There is an enormous difference in price depending on supplier especially once shipping is included. I may wait until next time I go to BestBuy in person. Switching from the built-in BT4 to the BT5.4 dongle has vastly improved my experience. I am now confident I can hop on the bike and complete a ride.

This was a high end gaming laptop/portable computer in 2012 but yes it is old. I bought it last year for $400 as a dedicated Zwift machine but may need to upgrade in the future. Time for a big screen but limited space. Zwift pegs the GPU continuously and drivers for Windows 11 have been an issue. As Zwift runs on tablets I didn’t expect the graphics to be an issue.

Connecting more devices via BT last night was experimenting, pushing the limits of the BT and the results surprised me in a positive way. Although “so many devices” keeps being mentioned I only have the Click which might be considered extra. The Rizer incline is controlled directly by the Elite trainer. I have 1 each of power, resistance, cadence, steering, HR(datastream includes CORE temp). I do have 2 game controllers Play and Click.

Although you mention the BT standard not having a hard connection limit there is definitely a hard limit of 2 BT connections on an Apple TV device. Part of the frustration diagnosing this has been missing or incomplete information or information that is out of date. What applies now and what information being stated as boilerplate was valid x versions ago of (Zwift update, BT standard, HW version, etc) but may no longer be valid. For example I went back to the built in BT4 because at the time it seemed stable and I was told newer versions of BT had more bandwidth but less concurrent connections per category of device.

Last night I had up to 7 devices on BT and it seemed stabil. I am still seeing the disconnects only when I stop. As I mentioned in my previous post ignore the mass disconnect near the end. I tapped the wrong thing and yes airplane mode disconnected everything. Everything reconnected smoothly once I turned the radios back on. No longer are BT devices disappearing from the connection page.

I assume lan/wifi transport works better as trainers are advertising wifi and bridging as upgrades. I usually use lan for power and bridge the cadence. I will move more to lan/wifi as more are supported. For example resistance, that which several manufacturers do not actually support over wifi if using VS despite manufacturers touting wifi as a stability upgrade and VS being a basic feature.

Before Zwift linked the Play controllers I needed 6 devices now 5 is enough. When I first tried this dongle UGREEN BT5.4 w/ external antenna which is reported in Windows Device Manager as Barrot (I presume that is the chipset?) I could not seem to connect more than 4 BT devices. Strangely when I contacted the seller he confirmed the 4 device limit and apologized because the posted specs were higher. Referring to the connection times on TrainerDX it took 4 minutes for the resistance to connect last night so this likely explains why I believed insufficient devices were supported for my purpose when I first tried months ago. Have any changes by Zwift over the summer also affects my results? Unknown.

Perhaps Zwift @AlanZ can comment on if the BT processing bandwidth is still a limiting factor over lan/wifi since BT packets are still used just transported a different way?

Lower performing BT is likely the explanation for slow connection which confirms that the BT is somehow a bottleneck. Even with better BT the resistance continues the behavior of disconnecting during pauses, and seems to often reconnect with altered resistance. This surprises me because if bandwidth is the limiting factor why are the disconnects during stops eg periods of low activity. On the forums other comments coincide with my experience that starting a ride ready to go and completing the ride without stopping pedaling can eliminate some of these symptoms. This is not often practical requiring pedaling even while coasting downhill and definitely no bathroom breaks. Having the better BT5.4 seems to have eliminated losing the virtual shifting but TrainerDX seems to show the disconnects still happen only on resistance but reconnect immediately so I don’t notice them in game other than as resistance changes. I now believe the loss of** virtual shifting and the resistance changes are both the result of disconnects. If the BT is quick to reconnect then only the change in resistance is noticed. Upon reconnecting the trainer and Zwift are no longer synced because they handle the reset/reconnection in different ways.**

(Note: I acknowledge TrainerDX specifically states it does not know which device disconnects but it is always only 1 device, the resistance changes, and weaker BT that is slow to reconnect gets the “no compatible trainer” and/or the gear indicator disappears. On the connection page always the resistance was disconnected. Often “All” will fail to even show the BT option for resistance for a while during these disconnects.)

18

Google says that the Ugreen dongle uses the Barrot BR8654A02 chipset, which is one I have not heard any reports about either for or against.

It is normal for a GPU to run at high utilization, but Zwift is nearly always CPU limited, and a 4th gen Intel laptop CPU is not going to be a great performer.

The 2 Bluetooth device limit in the Apple TV devices is enforced by the operating system. It’s not the hardware. Similar hardware in an iPhone does not have that problem. Only Apple could explain the reasons for that but Apple TV is essentially a phone without a screen and phones can handle more than two BT devices.

Disconnects during periods of no activity could also be due to Windows power management. You could look into the power plan settings and make sure it’s set to max performance.

The “no compatible trainer” message might mean that a Bluetooth disconnection resulted in a reconnection via WiFi.

Aside from the demands of your very impressive training setup with loads of devices, the weak link in everything is the laptop. I don’t feel enough confidence about that to tell you to go out and spend a heap of money on a laptop, but let’s just say that you have a deluxe assortment of training equipment, and an ancient laptop. That’s why I’m curious whether something newer with really reliable Bluetooth, like a modern Mac Mini, would make all this go away. But I can’t spend your money that freely since it might not work.

If you do decide to replace the laptop, I hope you will revisit the forum to talk about what you’re looking at.

19

I suppose the firmware in some BT devices could restrict connections as well. It was just a comment that documentation is frequently lacking. Write-ups are done by marketing who haven’t a clue but love buzzwords.

I will verify power management is set to performance. I lean away from power management because only the resistance seems affected and the disconnects can occur while coasting down a fairly short hill during active riding. It is almost like there is a 5 minute (random number I chose) timer and if you happen to not be pedaling at that moment then it disconnects. Sometimes coasting for several minutes has no effect and other times 5 seconds of coasting would cause loss of the gear indicator with the resulting “no compatible trainer” message when a shift button is pressed.

I lean away from it switching to lan/wifi because usually there is no resistance at all. Checking the connection screen shows the orange box for resistance. I don’t know how I would confirm that it tries to switch either way. Now with BT5.4 any disconnect immediately reconnects on BT so I am not sure why it would try wifi rather than just fail.

Since switching to the BT5.4 dongle i have only seen the “no compatible” message a couple times, for a moment, and then virtual shifting works again. I got the message at least once while the gear indication was still on screen.

I believe switching to the better BT5.4 dongle has completely eliminated virtual gear changes not causing a change in resistance. In bold for others with that same problem. No more shifting from 1 to 24 and back with no change.

I do still get changes in resistance meaning the scale seems to change. I might now be in gear 24 and still spin out up 3% for example, or gear 1 is now extremely difficult on a 7% grade. Not both at the same time. When the scale changes all gears get easier or they all get harder. I believe these correspond to disconnects on TrainerDX which implies something in how initialization is done but I have no way of confirming. Could Zwift think there was a disconnect but the trainer does not or vice versa? The focus is on the BT disconnects probably being inadequate BT, BUT in light of my recent experience and some of the complaints I have read in the forums it makes me suspicious there is an underlying weakness in how the initial state is handled during a reconnect. Perhaps a reset also resets the automatic calibration? This eventually hits anyone who experiences a disconnect but is frequent for those with certain hardware that causes more disconnects.

I screwed up not getting a better computer for Zwift and now RAM and storage prices are insane I would prefer to wait as I expect prices will drop again as the cycle usually does. I do have another laptop which is around 2018 vintage but it has integrated graphics and an A10 processor. It was the best I could get here in town on a day my older one died and I needed a laptop ASAP. I may try it but overall it is a dog.

20

You are right that the AMD A10 CPUs are also very weak. What you’re using now should work better. You could try it with the risk that you get another bad workout.

I don’t have visibility into Zwift internals since I don’t work for them so I can’t answer most of your questions, and I’d love to say that a better PC would resolve this but you have so much stuff paired, I’m just not sure. I can say that it’s really common that a TP-Link UB500 fixes Windows/Zwift Bluetooth issues so I do recommend that regularly, but roughly 100% of the people I’m talking to don’t have all that paired equipment that you do. I think you are stress testing the system in uncommon ways so that introduces a lot of uncertainty.

If I were in your situation, and I needed to ride with the PC I already own, I would focus on pairing fewer things. Strip it down as much as you can, like no Rizer, no cadence sensor, no Zwift controls, use mechanical shifting, see if you get to a reliable state and add back things one at a time to see what happens.