Update: another ride when the Sterzo would show as connected (even calibrate), but not work. Eventually during the ride, I took the thing out from under my wheel and popped the batteries out.
Oddly enough, the Pairing screen still showed it as Connected. I would hit the steering button, the ‘searching’ screen would come up and be blank (because no batteries so no signal), but when I would hit close (obvs without connecting to anything), the button on the Pairing screen would still show Blue and Connected. (I have a video of that happening.)
I put new batteries in (although the other batteries are about three rides old). Then went back to Pairing, disconnected, reconnected…and then it worked.
So I have no idea what’s going on. Next will be to try pairing via Companion App. It seems like there’s nothing wrong with the Sterzo, but that would be another way to check. Everything else connects and works okay via BT, and my BT drivers all show as being good and up to date.
They have a bug that is inconsistent. I need help and have a story similar to yours but also bought a new Sterzo smart, updated it and still have the same issues. I’m not tolerant of crap service and think I’ve been bumped back down to ambassador level (when he couldn’t help) by an expert that couldn’t give a flying ****.
Is there a way I can contact @shooj too? ← did doing THAT work?
@shooj…ignore that. I tried to use the phone as a bridge (no joy) BUT when I went back to BT on the comp…all was back to normal. Weird…but I’m taking it as a win and just moving on. If it repeats again tho, I’ll toss my toys out of the cot and have a good old-fashioned wobbly, I reckon
Interesting, I might try that too. In a way it doesn’t make sense, because the rest of my BT devices remain connected. But computer things sometimes work even if they don’t make sense.
Still, if multiple people are having this problem, I think Zwift needs to be looking into it more. I wish it wasn’t marked as ‘solved’ just because OP doesn’t have the problem anymore.
Not sure who else to try to summon to this discussion. @evan-zwift ?
I’m happy to help investigate this issue a bit further as a Sterzo owner myself. It sounds like for almost everyone reporting this recently that it’s not occurring in every activity. For anyone still experiencing this, I want to make sure we’re on the same page, so we can find out what steps to take to force this issue to occur.
The device has been calibrated before starting an activity
…then we should be able to narrow down what steps are causing this to occur.
I’d also like to confirm:
whether anyone is experiencing this issue on any platform other than Windows
whether this is only occurring over a native bluetooth connection (as opposed to occurring over Zwift Companion bridge pairing)
whether anyone has attempted to refresh their device’s pairing history by deleting KnownDevices.xml from Documents/Zwift (on PC/Mac) or by re-installing Zwift (on iOS, tvOS, or Android)
what battery types are being used for affected Sterzo users (e.g. are these common alkaline batteries, or are we using NiCad or lithium batteries?)
the exact pairing screen behavior of the issue when it occurs (any screenshots of strange pairing screen behavior would be helpful)
the exact in-game behavior of the issue when it occurs (e.g. is everyone getting steered off to the left side of the road?)
Any additional description of in-game behavior? (e.g. Does turning have any effect when the issue is occurring? Does the behavior change if nobody else is nearby to draft? What happens if your hands are completely off the handlebars?)
Have not tried another platform (could possibly try my phone, if it will still run Zwift (it’s a 6 year old phone, lol). Haven’t tried Comp App bridge yet.
Have not tried yet.
Duracell (the Copper Top!)
I have a phone video of my screen when it was doing the thing I described above–Sterzo with batteries out, but pairing screen button still showed blue/paired, and clicking to search showed no devices…but button still blue/paired when exiting search screen. I can send that vid or take screenshots to post.
EDIT: here was the order: Sterzo powered, showed as connected to start ride. Removed batteries mid-ride. Went to pairing screen. Blue/paired steering button. Click blue button, search opens. No device on search. Click Ok. Blue button still blue/paired on pairing screen.
Then I put the batteries back in. Still nothing. Then went back to pairing. Clicked blue button. Sterzo found. Disconnected. Clicked Okay. Clicked RED/unpaired button. Search screen opened. Found Sterzo. Clicked to pair. Clicked Okay. Blue button. Back to ride…and it finally worked. That was the order from the other day.
Usually just doesn’t do anything. Handlebar icon by my name in the list, but no steering. Sometimes steers immediately to left when reconnecting, then no further steering (but icon still shows by my name).
No other strange behaviors. After it does the left steering thing, after a few seconds my avatar behaves as if there’s no steering connected.
After the whole thing the other day and getting it connected mid-ride, today it did connect from the start and work normally for my whole ride.
I have the same problem with the sterzo steering. I have changed the battery, the cover is well closed, I have updated the elite app with sterzo, the steering is well calibrated, and the action figure goes to the left and stays there. I have windows 11 installed
After replacing the batteries, the Sterzo connected fine, but the steering was still not functional. I had to disconnect for auto-steering to function properly.
No joy on my ride today–steering dead across multiple connections/reconnections, same as above. Zwift detects and connects to Sterzo, steering symbol by name, no steering.
No steering on first entering my ride last night (same as always, steering shown as connected from login). Disconnected in pairing screen while riding. Went all the way back to the ride, then back to the menu and reconnected. Steering worked this time after that, for the rest of the ride, including ending one ride and starting another.
I had no steering againtoday for an hour group ride. Left ride, activated steering over BT, and joined a RP but nothing. Left game, rejoined RP and steering shows connected over BT but nothing. Once again connected but this time through phone and it works, but my HRM drops connection every 15-20sec for 10sec.
