Turbo Trainer weirdness

[KAgantua]

I have a road bike connected to a Novo Smart turbo trainer,
This is connected via Bluetooth to my Android tablet runnning Trainer Road.

I have noticed I have to pedal very fast to get any real power, always in the hardest gear (Largest on the pedal, smallest on the wheel)

I took a video the other day, generating just over 200 in power, pedalling reasonably fast.

I have noticed the app misreads the cadence a lot, bouncing around 9/ 70ish/ 200ish.

Is something set up incorectly?

[frisbee]

Sounds like it’s not controlling the resistance, maybe another app interfering with trainer road.

[Paul Drawmer]

Is the tyre/roller interface working correctly? Tyre pressure/roller pressure etc.

Have you calibrated the trainer with the software? Most software reports a run down figure. If you do several calibration runs together, do you get a reasonable grouping of figures?

[lufbramatt]

Worth sending an email to trainer road support as they are normally pretty helpful. they may have knowledge of this issue.

Is the firmware on the trainer up to date?

The Trainerroad software is pretty solid so I'd expect either a connection issue with the tablet or something up with the trainer itself.

Looks like the guts of the unit is the same as the Elite Qubo, so that may lead to more info on google.

[RapidRob]

I had the same turbo and have had similar issues. I was using it on Zwift, and somehow, if you power the turbo up and then boot zwift up and connect in a minute or two, it works. Can't remember which but either plugging the turbo in whilst zwift was trying to connect, or leaving the turbo sat there for a while before connecting, caused this issue. Sorry I can't be more help, it's been a while. Wasn't half annoying starting a zwift race having 200W max though

Edit to add: make sure it is connecting it as a controllable unit too. FYI I was using a laptop and ANT+ dongle, not sure if that makes a difference.
Also edit to add: Re cadence, that is normal for these, they have no proper cadence sensor IIRC and so just use the fluctuation in power through the pedal stroke to work it out. Get a crank sensor or ignore!

Edited by RapidRob on Friday 14th October 08:55

[RapidRob]

Paul Drawmer said:

Is the tyre/roller interface working correctly? Tyre pressure/roller pressure etc.

Have you calibrated the trainer with the software? Most software reports a run down figure. If you do several calibration runs together, do you get a reasonable grouping of figures?

This is one of the annoyances of this turbo, no calibration unless you have a power meter

[KAgantua]

Thanks guys, thees an app you can download called myETraining for this trainer that lets you do excercises and stuff (Paid) but also calibrate (Free)

Im going to run it and calibrate it see what happens.

[Paul Drawmer]

KAgantua said:

Thanks guys, thees an app you can download called myETraining for this trainer that lets you do excercises and stuff (Paid) but also calibrate (Free)

Im going to run it and calibrate it see what happens.

I have an Elite trainer, it's great. (Direto) It's great, I love it, does exactly what I want.

I'm not into Zwift, I just do sessions using power, cadence and time. (I'm a numbers guy)

The software; myEtraining, is best described as work in progress. The training history is kept on their server, so I link it to Strava to provide a better view of the history and progress. The upload is not automatic, I have to tell it to do it after each session.

After the last update I couldn't see my training history. I had to uninstall and reload the app. Then reset the trainer, HR Zones, HRM, weight etc. A real pain in the butt. And it now won't export to Strava at all!

Love the trainer, but the software is not so clever. Difficult to get support. Don't pay for it.

[KAgantua]

Ok.
Fixed it. Now have erg mode.

Downloaded software.

Calibrated (except cadence,heart or crank sensors)
No difference.

Upgraded firmware.
No difference.

Read something on another forum about using the apps workout program to 'get it working'

Two minutes on highest resistance in the myelite app.

Ran trainer road... I now have resistance!! And it runs in erg mode!!!

What a faff!! Thx guyz

[KAgantua]

Still a problem. Workaround is to load the MyEt training app, go to level mode, set highest level, wait for it to sync with the trainer, and turn the crank a couple of times so it registers input.

Shut down app, load traner road, it then works. What a faff!