TD and Zwift at the same time

Mobile Apps
#1

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me figure this out?

I have a pair of assioma duos and a Tacx neo 1.

I run TD on my Samsung phone. I connect via Bluetooth to the duo’s for power and cadence and to the Tacx to control the trainer (power match).

I also run zwift on my Apple TV which only accepts a Bluetooth connection. It won’t connect to the Tacx because the Bluetooth channel is used to control the trainer by my phone.

Can anyone suggest a way round this? I used to use TrainerRoad and I could connect my phone to the pedals and the trainer via ant+ which would make the whole set up much easier but I’m struggling to figure out how to do this in a Bluetooth only set up.

I have tried to pair via the zwift companion app but I don’t think it works with ant+ anymore??

#2

Hmm, yes this sounds like a problem. One thing you can do which obviously is not ideal is forget about power match and just use the pedals on zwift and the trainer with our app. If you have fairly consistent offset you could just adjust your workout a little modified and record with zwift and ultimately it would be kind of like power match. The other option is to get a NPE Cable device and connect it to Ant+ and this would give you second bluetooth channel.

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#3

Ooo I like the Cable device idea. I’ll give that a try.

I like powermatch as I train with my pedals indoors and use them on the bike outside. There is a 4% offset between the pedals and the Tacx in low fly wheel speeds but in high fly wheel speeds it is as much as 8% which is why I would rather stick to power match.

#4

Actually the NPE Cable device needs an apple phone to set up which I don’t have.

#5

Oh yes sorry. I don’t have any good ideas other than us adding Ant+ which I really want to do…

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#6

That would be a fantastic addition to your app. I really do love the app just ant+ would be amazing.

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#7

If you use the TrainerDay app to control your trainer, you can’t pair the trainer as a controllable in Zwift. But normally you should be able to connect to it as a Power source and just read power from it.
And I would be surprised if the Assioma’s don’t support 2 BLE devices. Did a quick search but can’t find it right away.
if you let Zwift scan for devices, isn’t it finding at least one of them as a power source?

#8

Thanks.

I did say that if i connect the neo as the controllable trainer I can’t connect it in zwift. I should’ve been clearer…it won’t connect to it as a power source either. I wonder if it is because the neo transmits all three (power, cadence and trainer) in the same channel. Once one is connected the others are tied up too?

As for the duos, once they’re connected to the phone via BLE they disappear from the zwift pairing menu so I guess they only support one BLE connection.

#9

I don’t know if this generally works, but on my Samsung Android phone I simultaneously use Bluetooth with the Zwift Companion app, and Trainer Day. Perhaps it works since it’s a single device hence it treats it as a single Bluetooth connection?

As MedTechCD mentions, you need to pair with Zwift first and disable the controllable power in Zwift.

#10

I have seen cases where I can connect 2 devices to one source and I believe that is a BLE5 feature but I don’t know how to repeat this now. But my experience is like yours that once trainer is connected to one source it can’t be connected to another because yes it all comes through as a single device with multiple services.

#11

I have not used Zwift companion in a while. Why does it need BLE? I would think it can communicate over WiFi to the main app.

#12

It depends on the device. The first BLE devices only supported one device connection. More recent BLE (or dual BLE/ANT+) support 2 BLE channels and let you connect 2 different devices simultaneously in BLE.
The Polar H10 for example supports the 2 BLE connections if you have enabled that in the settings. I have it paired in Bluetooth mode to my Edge 830 and my Samsung phone running Fatmaxxer for DFA-A1 in real-time. I wanted my Edge to record HR in BLE because that’s better for RR interval recording. That way I can do post-ride analysis for DFA-A1 as well.
Still can’t find a decent answer on the BLE capabilities for the Assioma’s…

#13

Yes, if you read about BLE 5 it supports multiple channels but I am not sure how this all works. Android 8+ supports BLE 5 and iOS 11+ but I assume the devices themself need to be BLE 5 and maybe that is the same thing you are talking about.

#14

No, there are a number of BLE 4 devices that allow two devices to connect. In some cases, 2 apps running on the same phone count as one connection. But sometimes they are considered 2 connections. So it’s a bit trial and error.
But ANT+ is way more flexible with that. The signal can be picked up by a limitless number of devices…

#15

I have a trainer (Suito) that does not support multiple concurrent Bluetooth connections. Hence I would not be able to simultaneously connect the trainer to

  • Zwift on a laptop (w/ Bluetooth)
  • Trainer Day on phone (w/ Bluetooth)

In my case, with a Samsung S10 (Bluetooth 5) running Android 11 I can run

  • Zwift on PC set to use the Zwift Companion as bridge
  • Zwift Companion on phone which communicates with trainer over Bluetooth
  • Trainer Day on same phone which communicates with trainer over Bluetooth
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#16

Oh wow!!! You are the king!!! I did not realize Zwift companion could work like this. Nice work.

#17

The only way round it for me is to run zwift on a phone. That way I can pair it via ant+ as apposed to just BLE via the companion app.

I think this is a lot of faff. I’ll just wait for TD to add ant+ to the workout app. That would be by far the easiest solution.

#18

To confirm this works.

I can use my phone to connect TD via Bluetooth to my pedals, HRM and trainer using powermatch and also the companion app on Zwift to record power.

I did have to connect the devices via the companion app first. It didn’t work if I tried to connect TD first.

One more thing, you have to disable background battery optimisatiom for the companion app otherwise it’ll just go to sleep…that’s if you are using android. No idea about apple.

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#19

@rkid84 Glad to hear it works. Yes, generally you need to connect Zwift first, unpair the power control (so that it doesn’t fight TD).

I haven’t had the Zwift Companion App go to sleep on me (I believe its notification helps with this?) but what you’re saying is good advice.

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#20

Just to add, it’s very easy to use TD and Zwift with BLE and ANT+. I’ve been using it this month on Macbook (iOS app) to have TD control trainer while on Zwift doing TdZ. Might be obvious to some but just thought I would share.

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