No change of resistance when using ant+ with Garmin Desktop App

8198558 4 months ago

Hi all,

I have a Neo2 connected to my laptop via bluetooth. I'm using the Garmin Desktop App for trinings. The signal is pretty bad with Bluetooth so I bought an Ant+ dongle. I can connect the desktop app to the power meter of the Tacx (doesn't show up as a Tacx Neo 2 when using Ant+). It looks like the icon of the speedometer is not turned. Problem is that the resistance stays the same during movies. There is no change when climbing or descending. I red somewhere that this only works with the Fe-c protocol, but I can't find how to enable this. Hope someone has a solution for this.

Best, Martin

0 Luko79 4 months ago

if the signal is bad with BT than with ANT+ it will be worse :) (probably the 2.4GHz interference is huge in your room, do not use 2.4GHz wifi during indoor session, only 5GHz if the system is capable) you need to buy an usb extension cord (5m is ok) and put the BT or ANT+ dongle into it and place it near to the non-drive side of the Neo. Btw is the ANT+ stick recognizabled good in the Win? is there no yellow mark in the device manager, sometimes it needs manual driver installation. if it is the problem, follow this steps:

support.garmin.com/.../

0 8198558 4 months ago in reply to Luko79

Hi, thanks for your quick response. I used an extension cord for the dongle. It is 20cm away from the motor. Ant+ is connecting and the connection is super stable. I have installed drivers and according to windows the dongle is working properly. Only the resistance not changing when training via movie.

0 Luko79 4 months ago in reply to 8198558

i would try to test it with an another app like Zwift (has free trial) or MyWhoosh / Indievelo (these are free) and if there it is working good than something is not good in the TDA app (setting or probably a bug, i never used this app with my Neo on PC, only with Android tablet and via BT ofc)

Do you have BT dongle also or that is inbuilt your PC? a good BT 5.3 dongle is 10eur, i have it (for headphone) but it is good for Neo also.

0 Alex Masalovich 4 months ago

You probably have a connection conflict. Before connecting Neo via ANT+, you must first disable its connection via Bluetooth.

0 Luko79 4 months ago in reply to Alex Masalovich

it is easy to recognize on the fly if the BT is active, the blue led must be off if you wanna use the ANT+ FE-C

0 8198558 4 months ago in reply to Alex Masalovich

Bluetooth is completely disabled. Ant+ is connected and gives the green light. I also disabled Bluetooth on my laptop and put my phone on flight mode to kill all signals. I will check Zwift this evening.

0 Alex Masalovich 4 months ago in reply to 8198558

What I mean is that in the application itself you should disconnect Neo first.

0 jimrward269 4 months ago in reply to Alex Masalovich

Are you anywhere near your WiFi router I had a whole ton of issues with BT and ANT or any combination of I eventually moved to another room away from my router and it all works fine now

0 Luko79 4 months ago in reply to jimrward269

just FYI, my router is behind the Neo apprx 30cm, the ANT+ stick is next to 30cm, my computer is in front of me (so the ANT+ stick and the Neo are in the "noise") and i have ZERO dropouts. THE KEY is the 5GHz Wifi and forget the 2.4GHz (disabled if possible in the router, or set to channel 1 and use it only with those devices which are unable to work on 5GHZ, but used very rarely)