Ant+ drop out frustration

[Cory.Rood]

Doing my ramp test today and at the 11 minute mark TR dropped my stages pm and my H1 but kept my garmin hrm. I continued until everything came back(resistance stayed at the 9-10min step level) figuring it was a fluke and that a pre threshold drop out wouldn’t have much of an impact on the result I continued.

Then at minute 14 it dropped again. This time I was just above threshold and decided this test was ruined and quit. I had some choice words and took what felt like an unearned angry shower.

Planning on switching back to Bluetooth this afternoon and giving it another go. I don’t know what I’m looking for but just needed to vent, royally pissed me off!

Edit: I’ve worked with TR support in the past on this issue and their resolution is to use Bluetooth. I dual record with my garmin 530 and it doesn’t drop like TR does.

[bbarrera]

Sorry to hear that, had troubles with dropouts myself. It’s weird that both 520 and 530 bike computers have so few dropouts at my handlebars, but hang an ANT+ dongle close to bottom bracket and it doesn’t work as well. Seems like a computer not ANT+ problem.

[Cory.Rood]

Or an application problem, as it seems that the only time I get drop outs is when erg resistance changes. When I did zwift I never had drop outs on ANT+.

[loxx0050]

Curious if you are experiencing this with the computer or mobile app?

I’ve experienced lots of signal dropout issues with the Android app. It started this past summer in June on a regular basis and after trying lots of different things to try to resolve it have come to the conclusion something is fundamentally wrong with the Android app and the USB device powering an ant+ stick just takes a dump which in turn drops the connection on all my devices (regardlessof if it’s ant+ or Bluetooth). I have to unplug and replug the dobgle to get them to connect again. I’ve had up to 6 dropouts in one 60 minute session before. Others just 1 or 2 dropouts.

Reason for my conclusion is I have dropouts in Ant+ of all devices simultaneously using an Garmin Ant+ dongle and a USB C to A OTG dongle. Even trying out an Bluetooth HRM instead with 2 Ant+ devices still had all 3 simultaneously dropout (HR wouldn’t reconnect in Bluetooth mode in the app but would let me connectin Ant+ mode since its a dual broadcast device). Since my powermeter that I use for powermatch is Ant+ only it’s not like I can just go Bluetooth only. Another thing to note is when I first got my trainer for some reason erg mode wouldn’t work with Bluetooth connection the trainer and ant+ for powermatch. Both both devices connected ant+ erg worked so I never bothered.

My only solution to prevent dropouts is to ditch the Ant+ stick with the USB adapter dongle and use a device with built in Ant+ hardware (tested out 2 different phones with this and no dropouts on with multiple sessions each). Super annoying I had to resort to this because one of my phones with ant+ native is my work phone which I try to avoid for personal use at home and the other is a backup phone for the kid…which isn’t always available when I want get in a TR session.

Before people start asking what I tried to do before coming to my above conclusion I’ve done the following (includes things that TR support suggested):

• changed batteries on all my devices (HR, PM)
• double checked my firmware on my trainer and PM (Power2Max Type S) . Both are up to date but my Power2Max doesn’t allow user updates of the firmware.
• reduced wireless signals interference (used to use a set of Bluetooth headphones and switched it for wired)
• changed channels on wifi using a wifi signal analyzer to see what was optimal, got rid of some 2.4ghz networks (still had to keep 1 for older devices but got rid of the guest network) and swapped to 5ghz where possible,
• was using a chromecast for my pain cave TV and tried with that on and off
• switch to a wired Roku instead to see if that would help reduce 1 wifi signal using a chromecast
• typically use an USB cable extension with my ant+ stick so tried without it to see if that was failing
• tried new USB C to A dongle (2 pack so tried both)
• tried new ant+ stick since I thought that could be failing (have an old Garmin 2.0 stick and got a new Garmin stubby one)
• tried multiple phones with ant+ stick (3 different phones with one on Android 8 and 2 on Android 10). All 3 had simultaneous dropouts off all connected devices
• tried uinstalling and reinstalling app (and same with ant+ apps/plugins)
• tried to change power settings on phone to high (worked once and then never again just to mess with me)
• used to run it split screen with an another video streaming app and casted on the chromecast. Stopped doing that and ran it by itself on dedicated device (used roku above or just watch OTA TV when a football game was on)
• tried different HRMs, 1 ant+ only chest strap and Garmin 245 watch onboard HR in broadcast mode (at first ant+ only but recently a firmware update allowed it to transmit on both Bluetooth and Ant+ mode…tried both modes).
• tried to make sure to close all background apps
• restarted phone after closing all background apps to see if it would help not have any extra things in the background taking away from TR app and the phone powering the USB device

Edit - two more things I forgot to lost I tried added ((last two bullets)

[HLaB]

Might be nothing to do with it but I can sympathise as I was getting a lot of power drop outs on ant +. It turned out that my bike fit in moving the cleats back would see me occasionally touch the power pod (blocking its signal). I had to file the outside of the cleat so it couldn’t touch.

[Cory.Rood]

That sounds very similar to my situation.

I started in TR in Feb of this year, no drop out issues via ant+ until sometime in June(I’m using the windows app). I’m no computer software engineer but it sure seems like there is some kind of issue with ant+ and the app to me.

I’ve got an A event in April of 2021 that will require some LONG rides, I can tolerate 2 hours of TR, after that I need something that will simulate terrain variations and my Apple TV running zwift only does bluetooth, so I was hoping Ant+ would work on the app, I logged 3-4 rides on Ant+ prior to today and they all worked perfectly so I thought I was good, guess not…

[Pasque]

I feel you dude. I had the same problem in my very first ramp test. Really doesn’t get any more frustrating than that. For me Bluetooth is Indeed a lot more stable than ant+. The only remedy that worked for me for ant+ is to get a USB extension cord and get that dongle as far away as possible from any other electronics. It seems very sensitive to interference.
I just use Bluetooth these days, but for the occasional TR + zwift session I use ant+ for zwift. Still had occasional dropouts, but much better than before.

[ABG]

I couldn’t get anything to connect this morning. 40min of restart and reinstall finally fixed it.

Computer and phone had issues

[IvyAudrain]

Sorry for the trouble. You’re getting lots of good advice here, but with issues like this, it’s always good practice to reach out to the support team so they can look at your internal ride log, your software versions, check for firmware updates, etc. Feel free to email them at support@trainerroad.com and they’ll sort you out by running through any of those possible troubleshooting steps specific to your equipment.