Multiple power drops during rides

Bugs and Support
21

I know there are so many reasons for power drops, but I just solved mine, so I wanted to share for anyone else that my be searching. The answer is at the end, but first, i will mention all the things, I did. Some of the things may also make it more stable, but they weren’t the root cause.

First I have a trainer where the power cord can come loose. Power flickers can cause dropouts so I worked with the plug to make it a tighter fit. (in my case used a pin to expand the center plug carefully).

I also turned off wi-fi to make sure that wasn’t the issue, it wasn’t. Turned off fans, that wasn’t the issue although the fans are now further away. I repositioned my computer it is now permanently closer to the trainer… I would plug in and unplug my ANT+ dongle, and because that would often get it to reconnect, that was a bit of a false flag, because that also wasn’t the issue.

I got a USB extension cord, and frankly that may also be a help because the ANT+ usb dongle is more secure in the cord, and the dongle is now elevated and away from the computer, but it also wasn’t the root cause.

Finally I turned off my HR monitor…and problem solved. My HR monitor causes a conflict with my trainer! I had a watch, a Garmin Vivoactive HR that can broadcast it’s HR readings on ANT+. But it was totally causing power drops from the trainer!

I switched to a Wahoo Tickr, and now life is good.

Seems like its different for everyone, but thought I’d share my tale, for whomever it helps.

3 Likes
22

Move your fan away from your computer.

  1. The fan screen could work as a faraday cage/sheild.
  2. The fan motor’s electromagnets could interfere with the Bluetooth signal.

This worked for me. I hope it works for you. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
23

I just fixed mine(I think!). Drops outs were getting progressively more frequent (1 per minute). I tried most of the fixes mentioned above (switching off blue tooth on phone, not using earphones, unplugging Alexa and other wireless devices, moving away from fridge…), but problem persisted. Finally, based on Robert’s first solution, I unplugged my TACX Flow power chord at the device and re-inserted it firmly and the problem seems to have gone away. Seems that it was gradually working itself loose and causing frequent drops of power/signal. Fingers crossed this is actually the solution, because I am flat out of other ideas!

2 Likes
24

Just to confirm that the fixed has worked. No more power drops.

1 Like
25

Are these true of ANT+ as well?

26

Yes

Here’s a deep dive if you are interested

Also you can upload a log file to zwiftalizer.com and it will visualize the dropouts and tell you the rate of ANT+ dropouts. RxFail will never be zero but you can move the dongle and upload a log file and see if the % goes down.