Zwift Power dropouts all the time

Bugs and Support
1

Hello all

Yes, there’s a lot of posts any this and I’ve read most of them. I cannot fix this dropout issue and. My trainer is increasingly at risk of having an accident with a second floor window soon.

I have an OG Kickr Snap. I get dropouts where my 3-sec average power will either half. For 3 seconds or less frequently go to 0w for the seconds and my Avatar will stop in game.

These evens occur maybe 20 times an hour. I can’t group ride with anyone and have to output insane waters just to seemingly keep up with them.

I’ve tried a lot of things but I’ve had this trainer since 2016 and I had the same problems then. So much so I gave up and it sat in a cupboard for 4 years.

Anyway, a couple of friends are active in zwift and I dug it out a few months ago. Still getting dropouts, only this time, I’m in a different house, on a different computer with a different Ant transceiver and it’s still happening.

Ok, so here’s what I’ve tried:

I swapped my trainer for a friend’s OG trainer. I get dropouts on their trainer. They don’t get any on mine.

Swapped their transceiver for mine, no effect.

Removed all additional sensors (cad, hr), no effect.

Unplugged nearby 433mhz radio sockets, no effect.

Disabled USB asleep settings, no effect.

Checked PC power management setup, no problems.

Removed all electrical items in two meter radius of trainer, no effect.

Kept fan off, no effect.

Attached transceiver to cable and moved it so close to the trainer it may as well be plugged in iWahoo had the not very difficult idea to put a USB port on their trainers, marginal improvement.

Connected to USB 3 port, no effect.

Cleaned the optical sensor on the trainer.

Removed all other USB devices, no effect.

Disabled broadband router 2.4Ghz channels WiFi, no effect. Reenabled on channel 1 only.

Checked Trainer firmware updated

Checked windows updates

Checked for driver updates in device manager.

Checked for conflicting software (eg Garmim Connect), not installed.

The only thing I haven’t tried this time is reinstalling Zwift

I gave up on my last ride after 30 minutes.

Actually running out of ideas.

2

Wow. Seems debugging these issue is harder than most Zwift rides…

Just a quick one (no idea… at least not yet, not even sure if its relevant…): Not sure what’s you connection technology, though “transceiver” hints at ANT+ (the snap has both ANT+ and BLE, AFAIK)

3

Just try Bluetooth? There’s clearly something about your setup causing untenable interference with ANT+.

Have you checked the wireless environment with something like WiFi Analyzer?

1 Like
4

Hi guys

I use ANT+ collected to a 2meter long Male/Female USB cable to a USB 3.0 port on the PC which is then connected via 5Ghz WiFi to a BT hub downstairs.

I’ve not ridden in a few days. I don’t even want to look at Zwift or the trainer to fix this issue right now.

I can try bluetooth, is that through zwift companion? I was under the impression bluetooth is less able than ANT+

Would reinstalling zwift have any chance of a sucess?

I’ll check the room with the WiFi Analyzer, cheers.

5
  1. Try without the cable it might be the cable.
  2. With cable but USB 2 port.
  3. without cable USB 2 port.
  4. Move Cable and Ant+ dongle to other side of trainer.
6

That way, or with a USB dongle or PCIe card. Try it through the Companion app for free first, of course.

Not at all.

7

Did you ever figure it out? I have the same problem with a 2014 Wahoo Kickr. No matter what I do have those same brief power drops to zero that make group rides very hard and not really doable.

8

No, I never solved it.

Even with a borrowed turbo (another OG kickr snap), a different transceiver (same make/type) and a different computer.

My friend used my kikr on his PC with no problems although he did have problems with his when he first had it, I think he changed transceiver and that solved his issues.

I switched to using Bluetooth through the companion app as a couple of people mentioned here earlier and it works fine now. It’s not ideal, as I can’t use my cadence sensor, which is ant+ only.

I’ll have to buy a pcie Bluetooth card or update wireless card to one that also supports BT though as I don’t want to keep using my phone.

At least it works though.

9

Hello all,

after my switch to the Neo 2T I found out that the power data is too low. I use now additionally a 4iiii powermeter crank but I do not bring everything together to run. 10-30 minutes to the first droput, and the zwift group is gone :rage:

But an important question or guess:
Do you also always use a PC / tablet / phone / Apple TV on which Zwift runs, and you also want to record the training with a second device (with me an Edge 1030)?

ANT+ is unidirectional but possible for multiple receivers.
Bluetooth is a 1 to 1 connection with only one device.

My guess: My Edge 1030 tries every 10 minutes to establish an ANT+ connection to the Neo 2T and blocks it for 2 seconds.
But I have not yet found the magic connection where everything works fine.

10

Neo 2T power is not too Low. :slight_smile:

When you pair your trainer to Garmin Computer you want to connect only Power and Cadance…don’t connect controlable.

I always use Neo 2T for Zwift and i connect my Powermeter to my bike computer for Dual recording…this setup works without any issues.