So, I’m having problems with my Wahoo Element Bolt connecting to Zwift. The sensor batteries are fine. The unit is a little over one month old. The cadence sensor will get up to approximately 65 rpm on Zwift and go no higher. As of today, the heart rate sensor no longer registers on Zwift. On the Wahoo, everything appears to function properly. Suggestions?
Terry
OK, just a guess here. The actual computer is called Element BOLT but the sensors are just Wahoo so can I assume that you are also using your Element BOLT while Zwifting? It could be that the Bluetooth on your sensors are connecting with the Element BOLT and not allowing Zwift to grab the signal. I would turn off your BOLT and see if they connect to Zift during startup.
Thanks Bob. I did as you suggested and in fact my heart rate showed up on Zwift and appeared correct. I then turned the Element Bolt back on and the heart rate signal was lost on Zwift, but was recording on the Element Bolt and appeared correct. There was a Zwift update I installed at some point last week. Could some glitch in the update be causing the problem? Also, I’m using an Apple I-pad AR3 when Zwifting. By the way, the rpm problem on the cadence sensor wasn’t affected by turning off the Wahoo Element Bolt. Still won’t register above ~ 65 rpm. Any other ideas?
Terry
Well, I’m tempted to say pedal faster but that is just being funny. It is odd that it sticks at 65 as I would expect it would either connect or not. My next recommendation would be to turn off your BOLT, open your Ipad and in settings re-pair your cadence sensor. while turning your cranks see if your cadence sensor is listed in bluetooth devices on your Ipad. If it is then “forget” your cadence sensor and then let your Ipad find it again and add it. I think there is a conflict with the BT between your devices. Also, if you are using the companion app on your phone that may be grabbing your BT signal so turn off BT in the Companion app itself since you are not routing the signal from Companion app to a PC.
Check to make sure you’ve got devices paired in the correct slot. I had a similar issue and I was paired to my speed sensor under cadence and my cadence sensor under speed. Pairing correctly fixed this for me
I’m pretty sure what you have suggested isn’t the problem since all sensors were working fine with Zwift at the initial setup. These two problems developed first with the cadence sensor, probably from the get go and I just didn’t notice, and the heart rate sensor early last week. Thanks for the suggestion. I will double check.
Terry
It’s HAUNTED!!! So after again pairing all devices to Zwift, we finally got all three sensors registering on Zwift and all but the heart rate sensor on the Wahoo Element Bolt. Off I went a Zwifting. Somewhere into my ride, the heart rate switched from Zwift to Wahoo. The only thing that happened during the ride was that my wife took my iPhone upstairs, turned my iPhone back on including Bluetooth. There seems to be a battle going on between Bluetooth on the phone and my Wahoo as you suggested. Still a mister but I am happy I have my cadence back on Zwift.
Terry
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@Terry_Sappenfield Bluetooth sensors can only connect to one application/device at a time, so when you have them connected to Zwift (not direct to the ipad or the Element Bolt) they will be unavailable to other devices (in theory). Perhaps they are losing connection with the ipad (a frequent issue with bluetooth devices and Zwift) and that is when they are being grabbed up by the Bolt or the iPhone.
It would be best to keep the Bolt off during your Zwift session, and keep the bluetooth turned off on the iPhone.
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Terry, why do you feel that you need to or want to ride with your BOLT when Zwifting? Everything you need is displayed in Zwift and Zwift can download to Strava so you don’t lose anything. Wouldn’t all your problems be solved if you just left the BOLT off while riding in game?
Mike, The BT connects to whatever physical device you are running Zwift on. You don’t connect BT to an app per se but rather the app grabs it from the physical device. You are correct that in theory BT connects only two physical devices (they are only radios after all) at a time so whichever grabs the signal usually keeps it but in Terry’s case it looks like the Ipad may have lost it and then his BOLT grabbed it because he had it paired to the BOLT at one time and it continually looks fr it.
I’ve come to that realization.
I’m not sure I agree with this, from what I have seen and heard on the forums, if your trainer for example is connected to the windows bluetooth prior to opening Zwift, then Zwift will not be able to grab the signal. I’m not 100% sure on this, so could be wrong.
And it is a one to one connection, so one bluetooth device to one receiver (PC or ipad). You can’t have one bluetooth device connected to more than one receiver (PC and ipad).
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If your trainer is connected to your Windows app (Zwift) then it is actually connected to the built in BT radio in your PC. The app then connects to the PC BT radio. If your trainer is connected to your PC then it can not connect to the IPad for example.
In my case I use a ANT+ dongle on my PC when I Zwift on Windows because my PC does not have a BT radio built in. On my IPad I use the built-in BT. Think of BT as a radio that is built into the device. It’s often transparent because you connect to the radio through the app and in this case Zwift. Zwift will use either BT or AMP+ to connect to your trainer. It’s important that your trainer hasn’t connected with another BT device otherwise it won’t “talk” to your device running Zwift.