Good point, i can’t remember where my bluetooth HRM is. I had one for my old polar that i used to dig out the once a year i was turboing on TR (when injured). Do you ‘have’ to have HR?
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No of course not
OK cool - wasn’t sure if it was some pre requisite to try to deal with cheating and stuff. At least that’s one less barrier! As i’m not training for anything, the HR isn’t really too important to me. I just want to find a way to get some extra workouts in per week, from home. Certainly on the days when i have the girls (and i’m not working) i could get an hour in at lunchtime whilst little one sleeps and the older one can watch the ipad.
Test this evening then i think.
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Yes mate sounds good 
You do need to connect the trainer via BT if using an iPad, which means a back wheel speed sensor as a minimum.
yep, i’ve got one of those. Even bought some new batteries, as it hasn’t been used in over a year.
Right, sorry. I’m after more help please.
So FINALLY got onto zwift today. Ipad didn’t like Bluetooth sensor. But watch and phone were picking it up. Phone had companion app, ipad had main app. Tried the laptop, same result. Managed to get into the game, but my dude was going nowhere. Had the dashboard up on the companion app. Little did I know it would be the last time I’d ever see that screen!
Read online that I needed to switch off bt on all other devices. So turned my watch and phone off. Laptop bt menu magically found the speed sensor - why on earth that should matter is beyond me. Anyone? Is this normal?
Try to start a ride. Nothing. Restart zwift on the laptop. Bingo. I’m in and my little dude is riding. Don’t have a clue what’s going on though. Can’t join my mate’s group ride. No idea why. But my chap is moving. Wattage looks high though. More on that later.
Give up trying to join group ride. Companion app now just giving me generic home screen can’t get anything else. No dashboard. Try fully logging out and in. Try it on the ipad. Nothing.
Right I’ll just choose one of these events in the side. One starts on 2 mins. I’ll see what happens if I click it on the companion app, see if they’re linked. Click the race, and boom. Command to join pops up on the laptop. So they are linked. Just no information of any use on the companion.
So is start this race in New York. I have no idea how long the race is. I bumble along for half an hour. Chatting to mates. Apparently there should be a blue bar at the top showing how much I have left. I don’t have a blue bar. But I do have my race leaderboard on the right. So I’m clearly on a course. My orange bar is growing. Mistakenly think that may be the race. People start revving up the effort. I’m on some sort of group. I power up. Sit on the front and put in a 5/6 min effort. Keep seeing pop ups on the right talking about a sprint. Assume this is what y’all been talking about. So I power up. Assume I’m towing the 59 people behind me. Don’t care. I’m working out. Orange bar gets to the end. Race doesn’t I just go up a level. I get bored and stop.
If the race wasn’t ending, why did everyone follow my big power hike. What were the sprint pop ups on about?!
I’ll give it another crack tomorrow or Weds. See if I can work it out.
Any help on the companion app issue?
Any help on the in game info? Where do I see the length of the race?
Any help on best combo - Windows laptop, ipad and android phone (pixel 2)?
Power was deffo reading high throughout. Also, when I fully powered up I spun out in top gear. Assume the pressure wheel thing is too light on my rear wheel? Tried it a bit tighter earlier, but it felt all jerky. Any advice on tension. Resistance setting on full, though I can’t notice the difference when I change it. It’s a bottom of the range tacx. Basic as they come.
What do I do about the power? Assume the in game wattage will drop if I tighten the tension. If it’s still over reading, can I amend it in any way? Or do I just leave it, as my effort was accurately reflected in the power on screen. So as long as I’m getting decent consistent workouts, then who cares. I’m not exactly going to be ‘winning’ anything here as I’m a crap cyclist. Or would that not really be in the spirit of things (though clearly there are no shortages of people willing to game the system!).
I think that’s all for now.
Sorry and thanks in advance!
GB
'cos BT can only talk to one thing at a time, so if it’s talking to the phone, it can’t talk to the ipad.
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Not in the app, you can use your own virtual power meter based on a more accurate power curve for your turbo, but that’s going to need another device to do the handling of the power.
This has the tacx bluemotion power curve already in it, (and a picture of Darren in the preview who some of the road cyclists in the SE might know!), this is what we use to “calibrate” the KKR for Otter to overcome the 45kg minimum weight, but you can also use it to make the reading correct if it overreads.
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So don’t they use the known power curves within the app? And how do I ‘correct’ it? Is that in game, or just for my own knowledge? Mine is the Tacx twist
I just looked at that link. I have literally no idea what all that stuff is going on about! Pulls and raspberry pi. Beyond my comprehension I’m afraid!
Did not know that. Every day is a school day eh.
Yeah. Zwift is a minefield
This is the menu after checking all your devices are connected. (I’ve just googled an old one)
Box on the left is the current monthly challenge. You can earn in game frames, wheels, kit etc…
Middle box is the world choice. Depending on platform you’ll have 2 or 3 choices here. Watopia and 1/2 roaming different worlds (London/NY etc)
Under that is the route within the world you want to ride
Ride type is where you select a workout you want to carry out. If you’re using Zpower (ie now power meter) you probably won’t be doing this
Device list is self explanatory
As is the rider list. If anyone you know is online you have the option to jump in with them - otherwise it’ll just show randoms
On the right are the events
Not much info shown though so always best to select through companion app so you know what you’re joining.
Then the calendar of the worlds.
If you’re just riding you’ll see something similar to this.
Blue box top left - current power, cadence and heart rate
Circle to the right will have any power ups you currently have (you earn these by riding through a banner
The box in the middle is current speed - distance travelled - meters climbed - elapsed time.
The orange bar is the progress you’ve made through your current rider level - this is done through earning xp - you get xp for every km/mile you ride and a whole host of achievements/challenges
Small orange bar with the bike and number is your current level and the blue box with numbers in are your current total ‘drops’ (the in game currency and used to buy faster/fancier frames/wheels)
Drops are earned by simply riding. (Ride harder or uphill and you’ll earn them faster)
Top right box is the map and incline % (the maps are pretty crap but you can see if you’ve got a climb coming up.
The box under that will show other Zwift Er nearby and some current metrics about them. Like their current w/kg and how far they’ve ridden.
If you’re in a race or event you’ll see something like this - the main difference is the blue bar with the number of laps or distance remaining of the event.
The box on the right now shows what position you’re in
The box on the left is the current leaderboard for various sprints/kom or lap times
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Cheers Adam. No idea why I’m still awake! Exercising until past 9pm always ruins my sleep!
Looking at your last image. I had all that stuff on the screen except the blue bar showing progress. My mates were telling me about it, but it just wasn’t on the screen. But I had the race position etc on the right. Maybe it was just an u fortunate glitch? I’ll fire it up again tmw. Maybe on the ipad, and see what happens.
Cheers for the comprehensive response though! Not sleeping much?! 
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Yeah late night 
Yes, no idea why your race didn’t have that blue bar!?
With the companion app - is it on the same network as your laptop?
I’ve only really use it to join events. Appreciate it’s easier to chat through it though
Yeah, on the same network. Its clearly connected as I joined the event via the app. But then that was it. If I don’t really need it for anything other than joining then I’ll just leave it.
Hopefully next race the main screen will work.
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Companion connected on WiFi? You could join the event over 3g but needs to be on the same WiFi network to work ‘in game’.
Yep. All on same Wi-Fi. It worked momentarily at the start then stopped.
Zwift had a number of issues last night, so don’t worry if the companion app was playing up. There were thousands that couldn’t even log in to ride, not ideal at present!
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OK cool, that’s useful to know. Thanks Hammerer.
Anyone have any other thoughts on the power issue? I looked back at the last time I was in the turbo, well wattbike, as I was recovering from an injury. My ftp was around the 200 mark. Last night I think it gave me a 20min power of like 236 I think. Does that look right? When I was powering along in the game at 300 odd Watts it certainly didn’t match my memories of wattage during tough intervals in the wattbike.
I’ve tightened up the turbo, so that should give a tad more resistance. Don’t think my old racing slicks are helping with friction on the turbo wheel thing.
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The one thing I’ve found with my set up is, I can’t seem to do a spin down calibration in Zwift. I’ve resorted to doing a calibration in TrainerRoad first, just to be in the right ballpark. It feels about right, but can’t be sure.
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