I have zero-to-intermittent connection to my new-ish (2021) garmin cadence sensor in TrainerDay (…only?)
Troubleshooting info (kinda boring):
iPhone 12 pro, latest TD app
i removed Garmin Connect and TrainerRoad from my phone, to see if that might help. The sensors also don’t show up in bluetooth devices in iOS settings except when TD is open (which is I think how it is designed to work in TD?).
For testing, I also unpaired apple watch in TD in case iOS was giving watch ‘too much bluetooth love’ and hurting the cadence sensor connection, if that’s a thing.
brand new battery in sensor–LED blinks ~10x upon install
at this point, i get either zero or intermittent cadence data at best in TD. (Garmin speed sensor is stable, polar HR is stable.)
Interestingly, if I re-install TrainerRoad and connect my cadence sensor there…
a) Cadence works smoothly in TrainerRoad and …
b) If I leave TrainerRoad open, then launch TrainerDay and do a ride in TD (i.e. with TrainerRoad open in background)… cadence works perfectly in TrainerDay! No dropouts!
If TrainerRoad is closed in background, the issue returns. Back to zero-to-intermittent cadence in TD.
(I only bought one month of TrainerRoad and don’t want to renew, so this is not really a solution…)
Let me know if there are other things you want me to test to see if I can get this to work without TR workaround.
Thanks,
Courtenay
PS I’m just getting into indoor cycling, and just starting to check out the app options, and although I miss a few TR features, I love TrainerDay much more, as a ‘fitness only’ rider, for many reasons. So not trying to compare it unfavourably to TR, except, maybe, in the area of sensor driver reliability… for now.
That is completely crazy. If there is anyway you would be willing to record a video showing how TR stabilizes the connection in TD I would love to see that. Even a screen shot showing a minute of with TR and a minute without could be fine.
I have a Garmin cadence sensor… I would need to find it, test it out and see if I see anything like you are suggesting. I had people talk about irregular cadence in the long past but nothing in a while.
I captured a lot of this for you, already. I’ll upload some 10 min ride tests and screenshots, here, or let me know if you want them sent elsewhere, instead.
Also had this conversation with GPT 4.5, which suggested that TR might have better BLE stable background connection code, and guessed about(?) how that might assist TD.
GPT is amazing these days, I spend hour each day researching stuff but this is a total hallucination Remember this is really only a problem for you and not for other people so it is very device specific some how. But when they are saying background mode that means if you are watching a movie for example with TD not on the screen.
We don’t use native code (we use React Native) and our BLE library is open source project and some times the libraries we use can have bugs but most likely this should be fixable. Once I see what you are showing, I will share with my developer and we can see if my Garmin cadence sensor does this too. I have iPhone 11 pro.
Thanks for the context with the BLE library, Alex.
Update: WORKING NOW I deleted TrainerDay app and data, then reinstalled. The rides all came back, and the poor recognition of the cadence sensor resolved (no need for TrainerRoad to be open), so that will be my fix, for now. Should have tried that, first, in hindsight, but I only just started using the app a week ago.
I can still upload the intermittent / zero connectivity rides if you want to see the issue, but I’m good for now. (It just looks like, as you can guess, random drops to 0 RPM that come and go, or just ‘go’ or 0 RPM the whole time).
One more detail is that when recording a ride in trainerday, the cadence sensor always showed up in iOS settings, even when TrainerDay couldn’t see it (and no other apps were open).
So I think TrainerDay was connecting to cadence sensor at some level, but… it wasn’t showing up on the connected devices window, mostly, or sometimes it was, but just as ‘paired’, not ‘connected’.
Nice to hear. So you had 2 problems I missed that. Once is it disconnects which is fixed and some times it still shows 0 which still exists? Do I understand that correctly?
Yes, I guess there were several issues, but they all seem to be resolved, since reinstalling TD.
Previous issues (to answer your q / clarify):
intermittent, dropped, or zero cadence data collection/display
sensor disconnecting or disappearing completely from connected devices screen (but always visible in iOS Bluetooth devices while TD was recording a workout; still worked properly in TR…)
Remember this is really only a problem for you and not for other people so it is very device specific some how. But when they are saying background mode that means if you are watching a movie for example with TD not on the screen.