B3CK wrote:

I'm still working out the kinks with my Wahoo, finally got the wattage to be more realistic after a calibration.

However, Zwift is presenting a whole new set of challenges.

One ride it has mimicked the hills by auto adjusting the resistance, etc, which was really cool. Since then, I haven't been able to get it to work. I did a ride yesterday where I was having to hammer in order to bust out sub par watts. I've never put out that much effort for such little output, knowing my average output, something was definitely wrong.

I guess I will just have to re-calibrate before every ride since it is so inconsistent. When not paired to Zwift and paired to the Wahoo app, it seems to adjust resistance/desired modes pretty well.

This would be the "Use power from electronic trainer" option, correct?

So, checked = Kickr power reported/recorded, non checked = paired power meter controls kickr?

Sounds like you may be having Sim mode issues. Some people have to use the wahoo app to cycle off and back onto SIM mode while on zwift if the resistence adjustments stop working. Also you can look at your zwift log file - in document/zwift/logs to see if the kicker is connecting in sim mode. Log will have a line like the below. Also - zwift had an ant+ bug they fixed last week but I don't know if it is fixed on the Apple stuff yet. Are you running windows or apple? If apple it may be the the zwift ant+ bug still.

[15:05:32] ANT : KICKR Setting Sim Mode


[15:05:32] ANT : Setting Sim mode

We had this exact problem with Tour de Giro.

The kickr stops responding to resistance-change ANT+ commands, but it keeps responding as if it is being successful. Our first attempt at fixing it was to have the app reconnect to the kickr every 20-30 minutes, but that'd cause 2-3 seconds of zero-resistance, which angered users as well. Hearing that Zwift is having it as well tells me that it is a kickr problem and not a TdG problem.

For those on Zwift, I have a question: does your kickr read super-high when you hit the bottom of a hill? I always found the thing would record an immense power spike as the flywheel decelerated at the bottom of a hill.

It's a different version of the software. You can get the latest beta here: http://www.trainerroad.com/install/beta.

You should choose "Use power meter to control electronic trainer". TR will output your power meter's power but constantly try to adjust an offset so that your kickr sets the correct amount of resistance.

If you find that this doesn't work well for you (you have to have a steady cadence, no switching from 110 to 60 to 110 to 60 over and over) you can just apply a constant offset to your trainer.

So if you know your power meter is always 20 watts low, you can just set a 20 watt offset to your trainer to bring up the power.

Nate - Is the beta version the only one that is lining up the Kickr with the PM? I don't have the Beta installed but my power numbers are very close. Come to think of it I'm using the PM control option on the kickr too so I don't know if TR is doing any syncing for me or not.

Nate,

When I have it setup that way the KICKR cycles from increased resistance to lower resistance. The average comes out correct but during the interval it varies by 10-15 watts around to mean.

Thanks

Awesome, keep us posted!

Response from Wahoo -

Thank you for the response. Now, I understand the issue you are describing. I will pass this along to our engineering team. At this time, I do not recommend using the power meter tracking functionality with SIM mode. I know the development of this functionality focused on using it with ERG mode only.

Nate, I think setting a constant offset would go a long way toward solving my problems (at least my indoor cycling problems). I have read the thread, but must have missed it -- how do I change the offset? Thanks, Perry

Nate, I think setting a constant offset would go a long way toward solving my problems (at least my indoor cycling problems). I have read the thread, but must have missed it -- how do I change the offset? Thanks, Perry

Anyone on the latest greatest KICKR firmware, 1.1.3.32?

Yes! I wanted to jump on this conversation because I haven't seen this issue mentioned much at all. As far as I can tell, he KICKR seems to completely ignore flywheel acceleration and deceleration in its power numbers. Instead it just seems to be using some kind of speed x resistance formula.This both generates artificial power spikes at the bottom of hills and swallows power at the top. It really is annoying in sim software such as Zwift. It also sucks for racing because you lose the jump in a sprint. Instead of being able to jump into the pedals and generate a power spike, you get slowly rising power as the wheel speed increases and then the power stays higher than it should as you lose strength in your legs and the wheel speed decreases.

I've reported this to Wahoo, but they don't seem to take it seriously (they told me they reported it to the firmware folks, but they haven't heard about the issue from anybody else). I would have thought that they could implement some kind of flywheel energy lookup and just add the difference in energy over the time between samples to each power report. They are doing something akin to this to detect coasting already, but this adjustment is just binary.

This discrepancy is also pretty easy to see when comparing to a crank-based powermeter (I borrowed one since my power meter is a Powertap). The differences in power reported by the KICKR vs. a Quarq deviated by greater than 100 watts in certain conditions (coming into a 10% hill on Zwift). I could see how this would totally break their syncing algorithm when trying to calculate the power meter offset. I imagine this is an issue even in erg mode in workouts that call for cadence changes.

Anyway, it might help if others report this to Wahoo as well. The KICKR has the potential to be nearly a perfect trainer for me. If this bug were fixed I'd be hard-pressed to pick out any flaw.