ANT+ "delay"

RGT
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I’ve been experimenting with equipment connectivity due to nagging problems.

The first issue was the HR monitor dropping out after a few minutes on RGT. It works fine on Systm. I’m using a Wahoo Tickr hrm and a Kickr with bluetooth. The trainer didn’t seem to have any problems. If I go back to the sensors page during the workout, disable then re-enable the HRM, it comes back in for a few minutes then dies again. Putting in a new battery didn’t help.

I went through the step of finding every other bluetooth master-capable device in the house and shut them off. It still happens. Then I tried using my Garmin Pro HRM. It works a lot better, but still tends to drop the monitor.

To reiterate, Systm is working fine, no issues. Also please note, I have Systm off when using RGP (validated through Task Manager). The Wahoo support desk suggested I uninstall Systm just to see if that helps. It didn’t.

Then I bought an ANT+ dongle and installed that. This seems to have fixed the HRM dropout issue using the Tickr, but now there is a massive delay in response to the Kickr on RGT. Again, Systm seems to work fine. Quite literally, there is a ~30 second delay between when I start pedaling and there is a response to cadence and power on the PC.

With ANT+ enabled in the sensor screen, I’m getting an ANT+ listing for the HRM and two ANT+ listings for the trainer.

The two ANT+ listings for the trainer are slightly different. One is called “power meter” and has only a power and cadence ‘switch’ to enable. The other is called “fitness equipment” and has power, cadence, and control ‘switches’.

I experimented by turning on just the control switch on the ‘fitness equipment’ and power and cadence on the ‘power meter’. This gave me the same result - severe delays in trainer response.

I then turned BLE back on and also got listings for the HRM and trainer. I enabled the trainer in the BLE listing, and every thing seem to work fine.

To summarize

  • everything works fine with Systm: Different HRMs, Kickr, ANT or Bluetooth
  • Using RGP and Bluetooth - Kickr works fine but HRMs drop out (and yes, fresh batteries)
  • Using RGP and ANT+ - HRMs work fine but Kickr suffers massive response delays.

Seems a bit silly I should have to use ANT for the HRM but bluetooth for the Kickr?

3 Likes
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Hey @zencycle and welcome to the forums.

First I gotta say I don’t work for The Company and I don’t have a solution for you but I do have to commend you on such a thorough job of troubleshooting and documenting the issues you have.

Clear, concise, excellent summary. It makes me think you work in a support role somewhere!

The delays in communicating between app and trainer via Ant+ are not uncommon though 30 seconds sounds excessive. Most people find BTLE much more responsive.

I think you’ve found the solution to your issues though you are 100% correct that it’s silly to have to use Ant+ for HRM and BTLE for the trainer. I actually do this on purpose when I do cadence drills as my Ant+ cadence sensor is able to capture 200+ RPM where my Kickr or Bluetooth cadence sensor craps out at about 150.

Have you tried things like moving a fan? I’ve heard anecdotally that has helped with BTLE interference for some people. Similarly with changing Wifi frequency settings from 2.4 to 5 ghz or vice versa? I’ve also heard anecdotally that has helped though I’d have no idea how to do it :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Last thing I’ll say is that SYSTM and RGT are two totally different apps so it doesn’t surprise me that you’ll have a different experience with stability and connectivity. Hopefully, as time moves on The Company will find a way to integrate the best bits of both.

1 Like
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IDK. I’ve only recently started using RGT so am trying to figure it out myself. Here’s my recent post inquiring about how the RGT pairing screen works. RGT Sensor pairing questions A suggestion there to turn on only BT and see what I get and then turn on only ANT+ and see what I get in order to identity which is which and use that to tell which is which when both BT and ANT+ are switched on is a good one, but that doesn’t answer my other questions.

FWIW: In SYSTM, I found my trainer to have about double the ERG latency using ANT+ than when using BT, so I use BT for the trainer. HRM and cadence are connected via ANT+. In other apps, ZWIFT and TR, I’ve used ANT+ for everything with no issues. I’m not yet sure what’s going on in RGT.

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Hi Glen,
I had a coffee mug a log time ago that said “last week i coodent even spel enjener, this week i are one”. I manage sustaining engineering for a small electronics manufacturing company. A lot of my responsibility involves Root Cause Failure Analysis (Six Sigma 8D stuff).

I have a feeling I need to upgrade my PC - It’s newer and running Windows11 but is definitely on the lower-end. It meets all the Wahoo published requirements but shows a lot of ‘teleporting’ - bouncing back and forth within the game. I’m going to try connecting via ethernet instead of Wifi first. I do see in another thread one user had some success enabling port sharing on his wireless router, that might be worth a try.

I’ve read about the WiFi band changes - a bit of a problem for me in my basement - the 5G signal doesn’t propagate through walls as well. That said, if I was having interference issues I’d think I would be seeing them using the Systm app as well. My problems are strictly through RGP.

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Since you’re a board certified surgeon :wink: you might understand this better than me. But I’m told that because of how RGT works that the bigger issue users have over PC specs is with their internet provider’s “latency”. I honestly dunno what that even means but given your background in astronomy, perhaps you can test that and see if that might be causing some of the issues.

There’s a couple of posts about latency issues and one of them is here: Am I the only one with RGT issues? - #45 by Kotts

Note I really have no idea whether this would have anything to do with your BTLE/Ant+ thing and your HRM but I bet you’d find it interesting reading and would even understand what they’re talking about :slight_smile: