It would be great if the Wahoo Kickr Bike hood and steering buttons could work when connected via Ant+. The best part is using the power-up button during a race. Steering is fun. But I wish the u-turn button could be turned on and off, or make it so the button has to be held for 3 seconds to activate a u-turn to prevent accidental turns. Even better, if tapping that button would scroll through different directions when they pop up, and holding it would do a u-turn, that would be ideal.
I used to connect my bike using Bluetooth, and enjoy the steering and hood buttons, but since the September 15, 2021 update (1.17), Bluetooth no longer works. I bought an Ant+ cord to connect the bike using that method, and didn’t get any disconnections during my first 45 minute ride, and I’m expecting Ant+ to continue to work, as people usually say is a more stable connection.
I always thought that ANT+ is a very compact, very low power consumption communication protocol which is also extremely rigid in data transfer protocol and limited in terms of what information and what type of data can be communicated between devices using preset data format. In my mind, ANT+ is like a very short phrase book which specifies what can be transferred and how (e.g., cadence, power, pulse), and allows nothing beyond that. I am not an expert in this area, but I thought that ANT+ simply does not support functionality like buttons while Bluetooth, which due to virtue of being by far less structured and restricted can support almost any type of data transfer which developers can think of. ANT+ is an (mostly) open for use by everyone protocol but it is developed and basically owned by Garmin, and Garmin did keep some features proprietary, as some power pedals functionality which only Garmin devices can display and support. If Garmin did not enable open support and communication protocols for KICKR Bike buttons, there is nothing that Zwift developers can do until Garmin changes its mind, until ANT+ protocol is updated, and until Wahoo implements these new protocol features in KICKR Bike firmware. Given the minimalistic approach to ANT+ which helps it be very energy efficient, which enables it be supported by sensors running for months from a tiny battery, this is extremely unlikely. Am I wrong here?