Smart Trainer: Following a course does not modify resistance in the trainer

Have not tried to 'Follow a Course' with the current 19.20 firmware but it has worked well in the past.

Have you read the following DC Rainmaker article about smart trainer control?

Garmin Shows Off Smart Trainer Integration on Fenix 6 & Forerunner 945 | DC Rainmaker

what trainer do you have? i did a few months ago recreated the route i do outside and power was way too high so i assumed it was not working with my trainer. on the other hand, if i use it with program like zwift or trainer road, it works fine. i also tried it with ant. i will try with bluetooth under 19.20 on monday to see if that has changed.

Yes, I did, and it seems it should to work doing nothing special.

I am using 19.20

Thanks. My trainer is Tacx Flux S. It works fine with Kinomap, golden cheetah, and Tacx mobile app (not tested with zwift).

Also, the watch controls very well the resistance, and the power seems correct, when using free mode, or resistance, or power training 

So, it is frankly disgusting, a course is a very interesting feature for indoor training.

My main course is that the watch starts locating my position in the real GPS location, instead of the starting point of the route.

Did you send the route to the watch from Garmin Connect?

I have had issues with Garmin Connect replacing the elevation profile of the route with a DEM derived elevation profile that may be radically different. Check the gradient profile of the route on the watch and see if it agrees with what it should be.

Are you using the dedicated 'Bike Indoor' activity profile and using the 'Follow Course' option in 'Smart Trainer Options' to select the course?

I have noticed there is an inconsistency when starting the 'Bike Indoor' activity. Sometimes you go directly to the 'Smart Trainer Options' menu. The other times you go directly to the data screens and have to long press the 'Up - Menu' button to get to the 'Smart Trainer Options' menu.

If you use the regular 'Bike' or 'MTB' activity profiles you will receive power and speed/cadence from the trainer but there will be no control of the trainer.

Tras, the route was sent by Garmin connect, the only other way is using one of the route I have fine with the bike, isn't it?

Anyway, the elevation profile seems ok, it is a simple test, one kilometer, approx, with a huge slope, to test the route.

I am using bike indoor, following a course; I cannot see what I am missing

Did a ~9.7km real world test ride yesterday which I recorded with my Edge 1030 Plus. Saved the ride as a course in Garmin Connect Web, renamed it, and sent it to the Edge 1030 Plus and fēnix 6X.

Rode the route this morning with the fēnix 6X, and then the Edge 1030 Plus for comparison, connected (by ANT+) to a Tacx Neo 2T and resistance increased and decreased appropriate to the gradient.

What I did notice with the fēnix 6X is the bike location on the map appeared to be lagging by around 200-300 metres. Unfortunately I didn't notices this until near the end when I switched from the elevation screen. (As I knew where I was going it was easier to ride the elevation profile.) I will try again tomorrow and pay more attention to the map.

I also noticed that Garmin Connect is still replacing the elevation data from the original ride with DEM elevation data. (It added a hill that doesn't exist and changed the profile of another.)

Finally, I got it. I tried with a different course, and it worked fine. Maybe the course I was playing with was was not correct in some way, although the slope profile seemed ok; in fact, during the workout, the slope field was permanently equal to 0.

That course was built inside Connect app.

With a new course, imporeted from Tacx app, it worked.
Anyway, and this is not directly related with this issue, but can be useful for otrer people, I noticed two things:

- If the GPS is activated, altitude, slope and position are wrong for the full course, as it is registering the real position, instead of the 'virtual', according to the course. So, I had to enable a energy mode such that it daoe deactivate GPS; afterwards, the workout registers gps data refered to the course

- This can be related to the trainer (in my case, Tacx Flux S), as the speed is sent by it: speed is realistic with positive slopes, but in negative slopes it is not considering the gravity/potential energy, etc effects: instead of increasing speed, as it is the natural behaviour outdoor, it keeps the speed according to the cadence, etc, of the trainer, the same as no slope. I think it is because triner sofware does not consider the physics priciples involved. Other softwares do (even Tacs app does it correctly). That is something that could be improved, but is not related to the watch (unless Garmin decided to implement its own speed calculator, that would be really nice)

Thanks for your messahes, I have been able to finally solved my issue!

I have a similar issue as Follow course does not seem to change the resistance.

I've even created a course that is a long hill. The trainer grade goes from 1-9 but the turbo resistance is unchanged. Gps is definitely off.

I'm using a wahoo kickr snap and the watch can control the resistance fine if I manually set it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Andy