Vortex doesn't sent power via ANT+ (BLE is fine) after some time riding at 240+Watts

Hi,

I'm using RGT as indoor app, and linking the Vortex via BLE. RGT then exports to Strava

I'm dual recording with Edge530 via ANT.

I see sometimes 3 to 6 seconds drops in power in Edge, not in Strava. But when riding high power (at least for me) sometimes it stops sending power.

Last Saturday I did a 1h48 min ride. The last part had an effort (4 min @263w). In RGT (Strava) everything went fine. In Edge there was a drop on Power after 2 mins into the effort, and never recovered for the remainder of the session (Speed as reported by Vortex also dropped, and cadence had a 7sec glitch). HR as reported by Fenix 5+ was always recorded.

On the left the Vortex via ANT+ (recorded in Garmin Edge 530), on the right Vortex via BLE (recorded by RGT).

Back in May I was doing an FTP test and Vortex stopped reporting power after 10 minutes. I opened a ticket, I was given instructions, but then I started riding outdoors.

I'm using the latest firmware as per Tack Utility. I doesn't report errors., and the light was blinking green

In the 2 pages of this forum, there not a question about this issue, however in different forums it has been reported.

I wonder if someone has experienced this very issue and how it was solved.

0 jaimegu over 3 years ago

Notice in the added graphs. HR never stops (and average/max values match). Cadence also match (despite 10 seconds drop).

There is a glitch for Power and cadence (that's why I did the screnshots for the last 13 minutes of the activity).

Speed doesn't match as one thing is reported by Vortex, and another is the w/kg vs gradient in the app.

If it helps, the timeline for the ANT issue is:

T=0s Power lost
T=2s Cadence lost.
T=5s Speed reduced
T=9s Cadence recovered. Speed reaches 0 kph

0 Luko79 over 3 years ago in reply to jaimegu

Overheating. It is common issue with Flow and Vortex. Try to cool it with an additional fan, like as he did (or just with a normal floor fan) www.thingiverse.com/thing:3047910

0 jaimegu over 3 years ago in reply to Luko79

Thanks Luko for your answer, first in almost a month.

I am fully aware of similarities between Vortex and Flow.

I am also aware of the Flow problem, which has been officially acknowledged by Garmin/Tacx https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=cfURSKfTWz9HTQt37XW8H7&productID=690890&searchQuery=LED&tab=topics

However, I haven't been able to find such disclaimer for Vortex.

Furthermore, both trainers are rated and priced differently, for the Vortex to shutdown below 30% of rated capacity. I would consider it as misleading advertising.

But, the problem has evolved more during the last month, so I leave here for documentation:

It originally happened under the higher loads (>240/250W), now it may happen during easy rides.
It only happens in ANT+. Bluetooth works fine
The LED keeps green and there is no overheating alarm in the Tacx Utility
It happens every other ride (aprox 50%)
Even when it doesn't totally fail, you can see power/cadence via ANT+ drops for 3/6 seconds several times in most of the rides, and this is not correlated either with power output. My guess is that ANT+ drops happen frequently and most of the time it self corrects.
When it happens I can try to re-scan and find power and spd/cad sensors with the same ANT-ID, but different from the original one.

I do have a case opened with Garmin support but their answers are rather poor. At the beginning they said double recording was not supported (WHAT??? More than half of the people does that, and it's even required in some events).

So I discontinued the use of Garmin Edge and to prove it's the trainer, I used ANT+ on RGT. Sure enough, at the 2nd ride the issue appeared.