Haven’t worried/thought about this until now because everything has been working swimmingly if I pair my devices via Bluetooth directly to Zwift on Apple TV (wi-fi connection for ATV).
Not being all that tech savvy, I was wondering if Zwift’s internet recommendations are still valid (“a bandwidth of 3 Mbps or higher, with a ping under 50 ms”) as the game evolves and is updated etc. Would the user’s internet speed influence the effectiveness of the Companion app Bluetooth bridge? My internet speed is above Zwift’s minimum recommendation and signal strength is always good-to-excellent, but…???
Zwift recommends using something like “speed test” to check wi-fi speed and stability. I’ve done this for Apple TV (which runs the Zwift app) and my Android phone (which runs the Companion app) and parameters like (download) speed, jitter and ping all seem acceptable as a lay-person (definitely not a tech expert!).
Now this is the bit I don’t understand (copied from the British ESports Association website article, " Ping, latency and lag: What you need to know") and I quote, "Check your ping. Most games will be able to measure and display your exact ping to the server you’re playing on. If you’d like to know what your ping is before playing, there are many online tests available.
How do I check the ping to Zwift’s server (or am I misinterpreting the above?). In Zwift’s article entitled " Completing an Internet speed test, they suggest the following these steps:
Go to “Speed test” website/app
Below the GO button, locate the Change Server button.
Select the Change Server button, and pick a server in Los Angeles.
Select the GO button.
Would this be the correct approach for a UK-based user and how do I connect to an LA-based server?
See, I told you it was silly question time. Any help/guidance would be much appreciated
Zwift’s servers are in AWS us-west-2, which is in Oregon, not Los Angeles. Any network traffic between the UK and AWS us-west-2 is going to be routed over the AWS backbone. Checking your connection statistics across the pond on the civilian internet is pointless.
I think zwiftalizer.com has a relevant ping test to AWS us-west-2.
Cheers Jim, I wish I understood all this stuff better (shouldn’t need to be a rocket scientist just to ride on Zwift ).
Anyway, just checking my Apple TV wi-fi connection on a number of the local networks (with/without stuff like ZC and Discord launched on my Android which uses the same network) and everything seems fine ‘n’ dandy. Typical download speed, ping, jitter, %loss values of around 8.5 Mbps, 35 ms, 3-11 ms, 0%.
Still no luck pairing via ZC bridge but direct Bluetooth pairing is instantaneous and stable; tried again, must be a sucker for punishment!
Hi Jim, yes, the ZC app has my location permission granted and I’ve followed all of Zwift’s instructions.
The current problem is not in establishing the bridge (well, not always) but more to do with the stability of the bridge. Recently I’ve been involved in rides which have lost Bluetooth connectivity in as little as 4 secs or as long as 1 hour 40 ish minutes.
When it does happen, it’s not sufficient to revisit the “pared devices” screen and simply re-pair because this doesn’t work. I have to shut everything down (Zwift app, ZC app, clear caches, re-start everything etc) and you can’t be doing all that in the middle of a race. I’m so glad I shelled-out over 500 quid for a pair of power meter pedals which are mostly redundant now because of all these ZC bridge problems.
Hi Gerrie, Apple TV only has 3 Bluetooth channels and one of them is dedicated to Apple’s Siri remote control. That leaves 2 free channels. If I use my Neo 2T as the controllable and my Assioma pedals as the power/cadence source, then I can’t use a HRM (a prerequisite for most races). Hence the requirement for a stable Bluetooth bridge if I use this particular set-up.
The reason I didn’t like to use my Tacx Neo 2T as the power, cadence & controllable device originated from reports by other 2T owners of poor power accuracy when benchmarked against a wide array of secondary power sources. To give you some idea of this problem, my first 2T unit (which only lasted 18 months before a terminal failure and warranty replacement) gave a 7% lower power reading compared to my Assiomas (well above expected drivetrain losses). When this unit was replaced, my new 2T was only 3% lower than the same pedals evaluated under exactly the same test protocol.
So, really, it’s less of a problem for me now since my replacement 2T and the Assiomas are pretty similar in their power values, but obviously the pedals are slightly higher (as they should be).
have had a 2T from last week and when dual recording with a 4iiii single sided crank I am finding it is pretty much the same as the 4iiii with only minor fluctuations here and there
I read through the numerous responses on this thread and didn’t notice if it was mentioned yet, but we do have a helpful article on Zwift’s support site to address connection issues having to do with the ZC BLE bridge. I’d suggest that you start there if you haven’t tried all the suggestions in that article yet.
There was a known issue as of the last few weeks having to do with connectivity issues for Android ZC users trying to utilize the BLE bridge for device pairing, but that was reportedly resolved as of the
3.33.1 ZC app release last week (more info here).
Upon taking a closer look at your account, I noticed that you’re using a Motorola moto g8 power lite Android for ZC. I feel like I’ve seen others write in to Zwift support with similar issues of BLE connection dropouts from their devices when utilizing the ZC BLE bridge with that specific type of Android device. I have to wonder if there’s an issue with that specific type of Android and Zwift. It’s hard to say.
Out of curiosity, do you have a different device you can use for Zwift Companion (if only for testing purposes) and see if the ZC BLE bridge connection dropout issue is something that happens when using anything other than the Motorola Android? It would be good to know if the issue can be reproduced in your environment with multiple devices or if it’s isolated to ZC on your Motorola Android.
Hi Steven, thanks for your informative reply and suggestions to possibly address the issue.
Unfortunately, the Moto Android device is the only one I have and my wife uses a similar Moto phone so as far as testing this hypothesis goes, it looks like we’re scuppered.
One of my team mates has got a similar problem and is going to try out 4iiii’s Viiiiva ANT+ to Bluetooth Smart Bridge & Heart Rate Strap. This might be a better/different option to the ZC bridge?
You’re welcome, and thanks for letting me know whether or not you have a different Android device. I figured it was possible you didn’t have one, but thought it was worth a shot to ask in case you could try a different device for ZC.
As for the Viiiiva, that should (in theory) work, but the downside of devices like the Viiiiva HRM (and comparable ANT+ to BLE bridging devices like the NPE CABLE for example) are that one cannot get reliable controllable resistance from smart trainers when using those devices to pair. I’m not sure if that’s changed recently, but that’s always been the case historically.
If you use the Viiiiva, you’ll likely want to use it for heart rate and your Assioma power meter only (e.g. “Power Source”, “Heart Rate Monitor”, and “Cadence” at the Zwift pairing screen), while pairing the smart trainer for “Controllable” directly to Zwift using the Apple TV built-in BLE connection. They should be discernable fairly easily from Zwift’s pairing screen when you “Search” to pair a device.
Also, the Viiiiva can be tricky because it reaches out and wants to pair everything to Zwift, so if you have miscellaneous sensors in your environment, I’m thinking that the Viiiiva will see them and possibly try to pair them all to Zwift (and not necessarily in the right spots where they should be paired). As I understand it, the Viiiiva requires the use of a third-party Viiiiva app to properly configure your devices to pair with Zwift. There’s perhaps a bit of a learning curve to get it all working properly, but it’s feasible and I believe there are guides and instructions out there to help make it happen (e.g. this video).
Thanks for taking time out to go into such detail about the 4iiii HRM. I was looking at their website and the user manual last night and, TBH, it all seemed a bit complex (I was hoping for a simple plug-and-play device). I was, however, thinking of using it as you suggested i.e. HRM paired to the Assioma pedals ANT+ signal for power & cadence and then to ATV via the Bluetooth bridge and then using direct Bluetooth from my smart trainer to ATV as the controllable.
I think I’ll wait and let my team mate test it out on his set-up first and see if he recommends it.
As things stand, I can still pair my Assiomas & trainer directly to ATV (minus a HRM) and use this set-up for the WTRL TTT series. Unfortunately for the ZRL series I need a HRM so I’ll have to ditch the Assiomas for these races until I can find a fix.
I’ll keep on running tests as time permits and will try to get my hands on another Android device to see if this works better with ZC.
I think it’s also worth noting that using the ZC BLE bridge to pair your devices to Zwift essentially adds an extra layer of complication and a potential point for failure because it introduces the WiFi element to the Zwift device pairing process.
That said, it’s entirely plausible that the issue is not a Bluetooth issue at all, but is perhaps more a matter of intermittent instability issues with your WiFi network (e.g. your router) and/or your Android phone’s WiFi connection to your network.
It’s been my observation that the ZC BLE bridge relies on one’s WiFi network to be relatively stable (basically at all times), so any dropouts in the WiFi/internet connection, bugs or loops in the operation of your network hardware, or even having elevated router firewall settings can negatively impact the ZC BLE bridge. Sometimes the problem can be a little more advanced than “my WiFi signal is strong”, and since you’ve had such consistent trouble with the ZC BLE bridge dropping your BLE devices from Zwift, it’s reasonable to surmise that one or more of the aforementioned things is a potential culprit.
Thanks for this advice Steven. To date, I’ve not really been concerned about the quality of my wi-fi because everything had been working so well (never had any wi-fi related drops); even the ZC Bluetooth bridge was reasonably stable with just a few sporadic problems.
However, because of my recent ZC Bluetooth troubles I’ve been thinking more and more about the possible impact of wi-fi on the robustness of my set-up. All the tests I’ve done so far (at the point of use) using Speedtest suggests everything is OK.
I also ran Zwiftalizer’s Ping test a few times yesterday (and swopped a few e-mail’s with Michael Hanney) and there did seem to be some deterioration in the signal quality (not strength) in the evening. I need to re-visit these tests, as I’ve now got a better understanding of what the actual output parameters mean, and do a more systematic study of my internet connections.
I’m sure it won’t hurt to improve my wi-fi, so this is something I’ll be looking into. I’ll also try to lay my hands on an alternative Android device to see if my Moto G8 Lite is somehow impacting the ZC bridge stability.
Thanks for your continuing interest and useful advice, it’s much appreciated.
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