Just received new JetBlack Victory and decided to use Zwift Play controllers. On first three rides I was able to connect HRM and Zwift play controllers via bluetooth without a problem. The same connection has worked flawlessly for me over a year with the original Zwift hub. But on each of the three new rides, on uphill sections, my Victory lost the connection and stopped. When I touched the trainer on the left side it was extremely hot.
Oddly enough, when I was going uphill on a 10% grade I was still in 14th gear. On my original hub I would have been in 6-8, maybe even 4. Any ideas why it is over heating?
One possible connection issue being reported by others occurs if the trainer isn’t turned off between rides. Mainly affecting connection using WiFi but worth a punt if you are leaving your trainer on between sessions.
Thanks, Mark. I unplug the block from power line after every ride to keep from tripping over cable. I’m trying a few more calibrations, then swapping out play controllers for simple switch that came with trainer. Then I’ll try wifi but I’m only about4-5 feet from bluetooth connection that has been stable in year or so of zwift hub use. But thanks again for the advice.
By-the-by - while leaning over my JetBlack tonight to look at the ridiculously bright LED, I did spot that there is a label there that does warn you that the flywheel will get hot (ex-engineers brain screaming that if that’s the case, the warning should be on the flywheel itself).
Whilst called a flywheel, its also a brake. It’s the part that gets slowed by the trainer’s electronics to fake things like drag and uphill slopes. So it is absorbing a big part of the x Watts that your generating.
I’ve now left an infra-red thermometer next to mine to measure the temperature of my flywheel after the next ride so we have some ballpark idea of a typical temp.
Hi Shuji,
Yes, I did fill out a support request at Jet Black; have yet to hear back but it is the holiday season. I did another calibration via JB app and was able to complete “Oh Hill No” after one bluetooth drop at the 80% mark (Jan 6) with a 233/140 power rating . I believe I was at 167 when it dropped to zero. However, my gearing numbers were much better. Even with dropped connection, I did my best time and the gearing seemed close to past experience with hub. Will continue to calibrate a few more times.
Yesterday, I rode “Countryside Tour” connected via Wifi, and had no drop outs and gearing seemed to be much better (first attempts at using “play” so it takes a little getting used to extra buttons). Of course, there was only 609ft of elevation gain over 10 miles so the trainer was not taxed as hard as on the 1,000-foot hill climb. BTW, I don’t really depend on power ratings because even on the old hub some of the “high” numbers were never reached on ride; I think the highest I’ve gone is mid 200s. I mainly watch the average output and heart rate to gauge intensity of workout. Not a racer, just trying to keep moving. I also have the “resistance simulator” setting at about 33%
Thanks for the help
Hey Mark, I posted a longer response to Shuji on this topic but here’s the short of it. Bluetooth crashed again, I calibrated a couple of times, connected with wifi, and resistance/gearing seems to have improved on flatter 10-mile ride. Will keep working on it, monitoring, and staying on wifi. Sorry to see the bluetooth problem, but as long as the wifi connection is stable and gearing is getting better, I’ll keep trying because Jetblack and zwift have helped me stay active (at a cost well under expected). The trainer still runs hot, but who knows, that could be normal; I just never noticed it(or touched it) with earlier Hub. Sorry, I have no means of gauging the temperature.
Before today’s ride, the freewheel temperature was 9°C (the trainer lives in a very cold room at the moment as it is below freezing outside). After 45 minutes of riding at an average of 180 Watts, the freewheel temperature had risen to 35°C, an increase of 26°C.
If we assume a trainer in a warmer room (say 20°C) and ridden by a more powerful rider, it’s easy to see a flywheel getting to 50°C plus and that is the stage at which things do need “Warning: Hot” labels.
[For the nerdish inclined, it takes 410J to raise the temperature of 1kg of steel by 1°C. So raising the temperature of a 4.7kg flywheel by 26°C requires at least 50kJ of energy input. Now Strava think I expended just over 500kJ for the whole ride. Rough human physiology is that maybe only 20% of that (100kJ) went as power to the pedals (a lot is lost in food to energy conversion, raising my own temperature, pumping blood, working other organs including the brain, etc). So we have half of what remained and actually went to the pedals turning up as heat in the flywheel. And of course other bits of the trainer will have warmed up too, and over the course of the 45 minutes the spinning flywheel will have radiated some acquired heat energy to the room. Anyway, nerd out.]