Question about resistance response times: I bought my H3 years ago because of the review Ray had for it saying it just worked and it responded very quickly during TR workouts (and the clever training sale and stacking coupons at the time). Recently the response to interval changes seem to be a bit sluggish. What use to be less than 10 is now maybe closer to 20 or so depending on the changes. Is this something swapping the belt could help with or am I running down the service life on this old thing?
Mine is an old one too but has consistently been ~2-3 seconds making resistance jumps, up or down. I did find at times that using BT with some apps (don’t remember which) was slow/delayed. If using BT or ANT+, try the other and see if it helps.
Also check you haven’t got it connected to something else that’s fighting for control
Had an Ant+ dongle at one point but it ceased to work years ago in spite of installing and reinstalling drivers and my connection seem to be with my training pc alone as it doesn’t show as selectable on any of my other devices. Likewise have run updates and spin downs both in the saris app and TR. Occasionally have smelled hot rubber during or after workouts which had me curious about the belt.
I’m still using the ANT+ dongle sold by Saris I got 9+ years ago. I have it hanging below my trainer desk on a 1 meter extension cable. I like to think that puts it in the clear for better communication with the trainer and any other sensors. ANT+ predates BT for sports sensors, and early implementations of BTLE for that purpose was pretty spotty, though it’s gotten a lot better the past few years. I still prefer ANT+. I see a number of ANT+ dongles on Amazon for ~$15.
I haven’t smelled anything from mine. Maybe the belt tension is off? There’s procedure for adjusting the tensioning pulley under tech support on the Saris site. It’s pretty simple but does require taking the right side cover off the trainer.
Spin-down calibration is a function of the trainer and the cal info is stored and applied in the trainer. That happens whether the cal is triggered by the Saris app, TR, or a head unit. I only ever use the Saris app and it reports a spin down time at the end of a cal. Mine has barely changed since I got it.
After years of struggling and suffering with my H3, I cannot emphasize enough how useful your post is. Thanks!