Totally frustrated with Neo 2T. Have you experienced these issues?

aegcp · August 24, 2020, 12:26am

I purchased a neo 2T in March 2020. During this time I have noticed a lot of issues that I haven’t been able to resolve. one of the -minor- issues is power differences between my assioma duo’s and the 2T (when riding at 200, Neo reads 200, assioma duo’s read 215. I will post a separate thread on this with analysis), but the biggest issue so far is that it suddenly spikes the intensity without any reason. It could happen at any time, during a hard interval (which kills you physically and mentally!) or a rest interval (where it can go above FTP, making the rest interval useless)

I see a lot of time Traineroad “pausing”, appearing as it loses connectivity.

I have always used Ant+ for connectivity. Line of sight is clear and I never had issues with my old Vortex Smart
I tried using bluetooth but got disconnected a few times
I am in the middle of an interval and the suddently the tension to pedal increases.
no other device connected (no HR monitor)
No powermatch (assioma duo only connected to garmin 530), Tacx neo 2T connected to Trainerroad.
No wifi connected.

Examples below:

Acho, at minute 1.08 it decided to get harder, and it never got to the target power. Had to stop after a while because it never got back to normal.

Ebbets

For a period of 6 seconds, 2T decides to bump intensity for no reason (287 vs target 204).

Abbey
Second interval, target 209, it decides to spike to 259, for about 7 seconds.

Rest period, target 93 and randomly jumps to 176 and other to 240 watts!!

Dans

Cannot get an easier workout. and it still shows the issues (easy to spot)

Another attempt to do Dans

spike can easily be seen

*Pettit -1

Andrews

I have plenty more examples. has anyone experienced this?

gcarver · August 24, 2020, 6:09am

Are you running TR on a pc or mobile? It is of course important for the device to be close to your bike stuff. Disclaimer: neo original; With my older laptop I found it wasn’t terribly reliable until I dropped a usb line under my bike with the ant+ dongle right there. But my android tablet works fine from just ahead of the bars (bluetooth in that case).

wattsgood · August 24, 2020, 12:44pm

I have two sets of assioma duo’s and both sets read about 3-4% higher power compared to my Neo 2T.
This makes sense given drive train power loss and the +/- 1% quoted accuracy for the Neo and assioma’s. I manually set a negative 4% offset on my assioma pedals to normalize things for when training outdoors.

I don’t however experience the erratic power behavior you are dealing with.

cowboyjon · August 24, 2020, 12:48pm

Looks like some pretty major issues right there.

For the money it cost I’ve been dissapointed with my 2T, for a few reasons.

I wish I could help but the only thing I could say that is maybe relevant is I have noticed a pretty big difference in the experience between Trainerroad/zwift, the Neo 2T and using different devices to run the software - 3 year old phone, 1 year old phone, 3 year old laptop.

aegcp · August 24, 2020, 1:07pm

It’s been almost 7 years since I switched to mobile. But now that you asked, I now have a Samsung S20 for the last couple of months. prior to this, I had a Samsung S9. there is no more than a meter distance between the phone and the Neo 2T.

thanks for the suggestion. Never used Zwift
I’m borrowing an old laptop and giving it a try. there are no other devices connected, either.

aegcp · August 24, 2020, 1:10pm

Power differences between the Neo 2T and the assioma Duos are quite noticeable. I am gathering evidence and will post a separate thread on this. But you raised a good point about the negative offset that I didn’t know about. will look into this.

gcarver · August 24, 2020, 6:19pm

Could be the S20 has it’s Bluetooth antenna in a more shielded spot, or the bt software stack is less stable somehow. Heck, it could be a hardware fault, like the antenna is physically unplugged inside (ie, bt works, but only at very close range). Might be worth trying the s9 again as a troubleshooting steps.

aegcp · August 24, 2020, 9:20pm

I’m using Ant+ but interesting you mentioned this, I downloaded an Ant+ tester app and ran this in both my S9 phone and S20.

S9 noticed the ANT+ Plugins version

S20 – noticed the ANT+ Plugins version

they’re different!

how do I get this updated? can’t find it app store? (or, should I even go ahead and update it to begin with)

adamhp · August 24, 2020, 9:32pm

Man, this sucks and I can only imagine how frustrating this is. I am also a Tacx 2T user and will relate my experience:

There will be a 3%-5% difference in power when measuring at the pedal and measuring at the hub. This isn’t unique to the 2T or your assimo pedals, I see the same with my pedals and 2T. And it’s a real difference, if I do an indoor ride with a power settings it’s harder than riding that same ride outside using power at the pedal. About 3%-5% harder
I have not experienced ANY connectivity problems with the 2T. Have you loaded the Tacx Utility and upgraded the firmware? There have been several releases since the 2T came out, some of which resolves ANT+ connectivity. Having said that, I use Trainnerroad with Bluetooth from my iOS device and that has been incredibly stable. My Garmin head unit (Edge 1030) connects via ANT+ and has never lost connectivity, but I’ve only done a limited amount of smart training using the 1030, so perhaps that’s the root of your issue.
While YMMV, my experiences with Garmin support have been VERY good. Call them with your issue if #2 doesn’t fix it. They will help you.

aegcp · October 8, 2020, 2:11pm

I thought I’d provide an update on the situation, in full transparency to the product (neo 2t) as well.

The issues continued for a number of days. One day I was riding and noticed in my garmin 530 the following

the sensor indicating indoor training pairing was popping up as connected and then it would dissapear (as not connected).

it turned out that somehow, during the edge 530 setup which I had bought months back, I paired the trainer with the headset.

I don’t know how but it appears that when I was doing a TR workout, this pairing would take over and cause the crazy power readings I had been experiencing.

After unpairing this from the edge 530, I have not been able to replicate the spikes anymore. I have done quite a few workouts and this specific problem is gone.

Regarding the connectivity dropouts, I used a laptop with Windows 10, connected to 2T ant+ using a dongle and I haven’t seen dropouts anymore.

Recently, I have used my son’s Galaxy S9 (this was my old phone, before getting the S20 which I am currently using) to do my workouts and I haven’t seen the issues anymore.

This gives me more reason to believe that there is something with the Galaxy S20 that is causing this connectivity dropouts.

So, after using the laptop or the galaxy s9, I no longer have connectivity issues. the power spikes are gone after unpairing I mentioned above.

took me many hours of frustration. the trainer itself has been good, no issues. if you have issue, try with different devices, isolating sensors, etc.

rkoswald · October 8, 2020, 8:30pm

Glad to hear that you figured most (all?) of the issues out. Only other thing I’ll note is that in your original post it looks like your HRM is dropping out, too - Pettit -1 and Andrews. Was this also resolved?

aegcp · October 9, 2020, 12:45pm

Hi there. as part of the investigation, I had to unpair everything and start one by one. First, checking Assioma Duos were not having connectivity dropouts, then adding the 2t, then eventually adding the HR monitor.

so, no, I haven’t got to the point of pairing the HR monitor yet. It is an old garmin with a brand new battery. I will check in the next few days to see if this causes issues.

interestingly I have always ended up using ant+. bluetooth doesn’t seem to be reliable to me. I think it’s also time to look for a new HR monitor (wahoo tickr or something like it), but in the meantime and for testing purposes I will try with the garmin.