Drivo II very slow to change resistance... normal?

Noticed the same issue yesterday with my Elite Direto and Ansel Adams. Not quite as long of a delay as you are having, but still 5-7 seconds before it ramps up to the target wattage. Compared to my previous trainer, the Cycleops Magnus, it takes about twice as long for the resistance to adjust in Ansel Adams. I’m also noticing that using the Elite Direto, the resistance fluctuates much more (+/- 30 watts) during the 50 sec anaerobic intervals compared with the Magnus.

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I tried today morning some workouts. When try do intervals the resistance fluctuates were about 20-50watts during 30 sec interval. When it was go from 126-300watts - then was about 10-15 secund to get this 300watts. When finnally I got my watts, the interval was finished.

I changed my gear, in front 34, rear 28(ultegra 11-28). It seems to be a litttle bit better but still is not acceptable.

Mayby this something about Trainerroad program software?

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I have a Drivo and mine seems much faster than yours. Its a bit slower in power match than when just using the trainer alone. Small ring at the front does make a big difference. Attached Kaweah power matched with stages left only. Middle effort was out the saddle drills every minute (nasty Chad :slight_smile: )

Kaweah

@Ardian I’m bummed to hear you’re also having issues with your Drivo II. It’s not just TrainerRoad software. See some of my posts above; I’ve tested it on the Elite app and Zwift using BLE and Ant+. No change.

@wapes This is the performance I was expecting! Not sure if this is a firmware issue then or defective new hardware. Judging by Elite’s past (and their forum), they pretty much never update firmware, so it’s not good news either way.

The firmware on mine is the same as it shipped with (Feb 2018), my understanding is there is no way to update it currently? I did look into it a little while ago as when doing the out of the saddle efforts I felt it should be able to respond a little faster. If you did it in resistance mode rather than erg, 2 downward clicks as you get out of the saddle and your power would be bang on straight away not messing around for the entire 20 seconds as it tries to adjust. Maybe I am being unrealistic.
Hope you get yours all sorted! If you want firmware info etc… just let me know

@wapes I think what you posted above is as good as Erg-mode gets right now, and is probably ideal since you don’t want the “brick wall” effect. I’ve had three Kickrs, and all of them would do this type of resistance change FAR faster. I just looked up a previous Spanish Needle workout, and my Kickr 2017 would go from 120w to 370w within 3 seconds.

Unfortunately, I don’t think your firmware info will help me, since we have different models.

@jmvcolorado , when you switched cadence mid-interval on the Kickrs how quick are they to respond to that. For example when I slow my cadence from 85-90 to about 70 the power drops by about 70 watts under target. After 10 seconds of standing it just about gets itself set on the correct power. When I sit back down and the cadence goes up the power spikes and takes some time to settle.
Is that right?

I wrote to elite about this issue with drivo II.
Read what this well know biker wrote about drivo II

It’s looks like similar difference in Watts fluctuations… What do u think?

@wapes That is normal behavior for wattage to fluctuate significantly with cadence changes. This happens with all trainers and Erg-mode. Resistance wattage is a function of power AND cadence. Drop cadence and resistance must increase to produce the same wattage; increase cadence and resistance must decrease for the same wattage. This is why there’s always an up/down swing during steady-state intervals, because as a human, your power output and cadence aren’t perfect. The trainer is constantly trying to correct (and possibly predict) our imperfections. Some trainers are better than others at holding this, and some are more “smoothed” than others about showing what’s happening.

FWIW, I have found that when I’m fatigued, I have a much harder time spinning up smoothly during hard intervals, and a hard time maintaining even power. So I can see my intervals look a LOT more jagged when I’m tired and really struggling, than when I’m rested and feeling strong.

Don’t know if that helps.

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@Ardian I read DCR’s review before buying the Drivo II, but I guess I under-estimated his assessment of how slow it changed resistance. He called it “so-so” I believe. Shane Miller gave the Drivo II high marks, with “no drama.” In light of how much faster the Drivo I appears to be, and that the Drivo II is supposed to be 3x faster… I’m super disappointed right now.

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I guess it’d be one thing if Elite support was really on top of things and firmware updates were forthcoming. But thy’ve been promising Drivo I owners updated firmware that would enable Ant+ simultaneously with BLE for over a year. The Elite app is not even currently capable of checking or updating firmware I don’t believe.

I checked power files of my Elite Direto and it takes about 4-5 seconds to get to target power. I found Direto struggles to get to target power when going on high cadence (100+). With cadence of around 80 rpm it takes those mentioned 5 seconds max.

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The same feelings :cry: I should have stayed with drivo I and don’t waste money.

More over when I see how long elite team work for their software update I don’t have hope for better solutions to these issues

FWIW, I tried the Drivo II in the large cog and small chainring… no change. At one point, it took 12 seconds to go from 160w to 190w. I think it’s a firmware screwup, honestly. Which for Elite’s track record, might as well be considered a hardware malfunction, since they aren’t likely to fix it. I was doing Ebbets workout, which has 5-second sprints in there. For me, those sprints were something like 380w-460w. The Drivo II would ramp up power pretty quick, but not quick enough. It would only hit 30-50w below the target, and that would be 1-3 seconds AFTER the interval was over.

I wrote to elite about this issue. Waiting for answers. Let u know.
BTW Im gonna try calibrate mi drivo by elite app. Have u heard about it? Some say that It can help.

Yup, he used it during his testing detailed above.

Well, after getting the direct contact for Elite’s US distributor (Todson) from Clever Training, he replied “I spoke with Elite about this, and they expressed that they would work with you directly on it. This is not an issue we have heard of before, so Elite will be best equipped to handle it.” So there goes that avenue.

Elite’s support has asked for my serial number two days ago, and then they got stuck on the fact that the Drivo I workout screenshot I sent (also above) wasn’t my Drivo I, and the workout wasn’t done at the same time on the same connection as my Drivo II. Ugg. A week down and not even close to a resolution or answer here.

FWIW my Elite Direto on Ant+ in erg mode takes from 6-12 seconds to go from, say, 40% to 90% power, pretty much regardless of whether my cadence stays the same, drops, or increases. After very briefly overshooting, it fluctuates below and above target for awhile longer, and then settles down if pedalling stays very smooth. For longer intervals, my power is often just a watt or two below target, but rarely if ever over. However, for short intervals, the lag significantly lowers average power for the interval, and so it is always significantly below target, never over, regardless of any compensation in cadence or force I apply to try to correct this, as I easily can in resistance mode or could on the old Kinetic. (In my setup, TR is getting its power from the sensor on the Direto, not the 4iiii on my bike, and Power Match is off, since I had very poor luck with that.) It as if whenever the Direto feels me push harder, it drops the resistance (hence jump in cadence) almost instantly, BEFORE it can report a higher force (or increased cadence) to TR, whereas if I push more lightly or slowly, it reports the lower power and increases resistance simultanteously or nearly so! As with a loan shark, I thus always remain at least a little in debt, no matter what extra payments I may make.

Sometimes I wonder if it has to do with when TR actually calls for increased resistance and when the Direto applies it. In my files I notice that the green target line jumps up a second before the interval (as recorded) actually starts, although I don’t know whether TR decides on this anticipation, or the Direto does, or how the Direto responds to it. The green power line also drops a second before the interval actually ends. It seems to me that if the Direto got a 5 or 10 second “warning” about a change in target, instead of 1, then the resistance and my power might increase when the interval began, instead of after, and might be easier to coordinate.

Just conjecture. Don’t know it all really works. I really like erg for intervals over 3 minutes or so. But to stay “on top” of intervals of a minute or less, I don’t know what to do except change to dumb mode mode, and shift.

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Fully agree on the green power line idea. I was thinking this myself the other day. It’d be great if TR gave you a customizable “before” and “after” time delay (positive or negative values) or maybe time delay based on power increasing vs. power decreasing, or maybe it’s just a single setting. It’d be awesome to fine tune that to your system and trainer (and maybe with some TR recommendations for your trainer model, if available); so you could set power increases to start say -5 seconds ahead, but intervals ends (or power decreases) to start at 0 seconds (no change).

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So what then? Still waiting for answers?
Yesterday Elite Europe Support ask me about my serial number so its interesting if I get the same replay!

BTW. I Did a workout. But before made my test. I did a “calibrate trainer” in elite app, after that click the “power capping / power smoothing” in elite app and started new workout in TR.

So now I have someting like in the picture.
Is quite better but still true is sentence that “for short intervals, the lag significantly lowers average power for the interval, and so it is always significantly below target”

BTW. Sorry for grammar, greetings from PL :slight_smile: