Using assioma duos with a Kickr core - which gives a better user experience - trainerroad’s powermatch, or the control with ANT+ power meter function via the wahoo app?
Thanks!
I don’t know if the core does the wacko power smoothing my Snap does, the graphs are reported by the trainer as 100% perfectly traced to the intervals. I use the on-bike power meter for true power readings, learning to control/smooth power with legs, and have consistent data recorded by the same power meter for your outdoor rides for direct comparisons to performance.
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I haven’t had good experience with Wahoo Control with ANT+ so have since moved to using both the kickr as trainer and pedals as power source.
You should be able to disable the power smoothing within the Wahoo app.
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I have a Kick 2017 and vector 2s pedals. I can’t say if one is better or not but I use power match on TR. Mostly because I don’t want to have to open the wahoo app as well as TR when I can just do it all in TR. What I can say is that don’t have both turned on. I did that for a bit and had a horrible experience with wild swings in power. Seems as if they were both fighting for the control.
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I have a Snap18 and PowerTap P1’s. I use the Wahoo app to allow control of power via the P1’s / ANT+ & disable power match in TR.
As I understand the Snap adjusts power according to what the P1’s instruct yet the snap still broadcasts the power reading to my phone. Benefit here is that because the P1’s are dual sided I get total power broadcast and not just Left only (as it would with power match only), I don’t know if the Assiomas would do this or if it’s a P1 thing only.
Ever since buying the P1’s and using this approach the workouts have been consistent in terms of power whereas using the Snap only they were not. I can’t talk for power match as never used it but the above approach has been faultless for me. Once setup I never needed to open the Wahoo app again either for every workout, TR only.
I zero offset the P1’s every workout and calibrate the Snap also. I also disable power smoothing in the Wahoo app.
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Control w/ PM for me
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I’ve been using PowerMatch for a year without issue. I often use ANT+ for control with my Mac because my Vectors sometimes dropout via BLE, but I’ve had more success with PowerMatch than via the Wahoo control having tried it all…
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Personally I think the answer depends on your setup - maybe mostly the trainer and its inherent level of accuracy / variation.
At home between my wife and I we have a SNAP and a Kickr '17. I tried PowerMatch with the SNAP (to a PowerTap wheel) and noted it didn’t react well. I think the SNAP was just so inaccurate and inconsistent between usage, spindown, tire pressure, etc… that PowerMatch had trouble making it work well. I opened the Wahoo app (just once) and added the ANT+ ID of the PowerTap wheel and everything has been great since (~6 months of riding 3x a week).
On the Kickr '17 I use PowerMatch with a set of Assioma pedals and it works well. I think the Kickr and Assomas were “in the same ballpark” of power measurement to begin with - I compared over a few rides without using match and noticed < 10W difference in steady state ERG usage.
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I’ve been trying to get the Wahoo control with ANT+ to work, but it always seems way off the times I have tried it. Also, on the Android app there is no place to enter the ant+ ID for the power meter, which all the instructions refer to, so I wonder if something is going wrong with my setup.
Are any of you configuring this with an Android device?
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I’m also struggling to work out how to do this. I have a 2and gen KICKR SNAP which isn’t playing nicely with power match but cant figure out how to link my PowerTap P1 pedals directly to the trainer.
I’ve got an Android device too if that makes any difference.
Wahoo do not support power match in their app in adroid devices. There is an option for that but it does nothing.
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I’m more or less in the same boat and would like to know your thoughts on this…
I ordered a Kickr Core and since I will transfer most of my training outdoors once the weather gets better, I want to keep my Power2Max powermeter that’s on my bike. However, the P2M only has ANT+ enabled by default and Bluetooth is a 50€ upgrade, which I obviously want to avoid if not needed.
I plan on using TR on my Mac and the desired setup would be to use ANT+ power control on Kickr Core, which then transmits power and cadence data via BLE to TR.
Will this work for power and cadence data? Is this reliable, or is better to use PowerMatch and upgrade the firmware of my powermeter to BLE?
Thanks!
That will work for power data. Cadence will then still come from the trainer sensors.
Also you need the ios version of the Wahoo app, since Android has not got this feature yet.
The Beta TR app has some fancy configurable powermatching that might work nicer than the Kickr power matching. But you can just try it out first and see if it works for you. Also can’t you get an ANT+ dongle for the Mac?
Okay, so cadence doesn’t come from the powermeter because Wahoo only allows for power data to be broadcasted via ANT+? Do you regard this as a drawback, or is the cadence data on the trainer accurate?
I can get a ANT+ dongle, but what’s the advantage if the indirect way, i.e. via the trainer, works just fine? Or am I missing something?
I read somewhere that the ANT+ power control is not very reliable and every few rides it just takes the power data from the trainer itself. Has this been solved on Wahoo’s side?
ANT+ dongle and a long USB cable is the cheapest solution to this. Then you will know if you’re using the right power meter. Otherwise, you’re setting it in the Wahoo app and hoping.
Why the long USB cable?
Yes, the settings in the Wahoo app is to connect an external ANT+ powermeter, but it will still use the cadence from the trainer itself. This is not really a drawback as the cadence measurement of the Wahoo is accurate enough under normal conditions. At most if you are soft pedaling, the trainer will not read the cadence, while the powermeter will.
The dongle would be an alternative for getting the upgrade for your powermeter, if you want to go that route maybe cheaper.
I have used the ANT+ power control with my Assioma pedals in the beginning, but I had always the Garmin connected to the pedals to check that power was actually from the pedals. These days I just let the TR app do the powermatching.
I guess, to have the dongle as close as possible to your powermeter for best connection.
@nieroc As @mrpedro said, you need the stick to be close to the source of the signal. ANT+ isn’t a strong as BTLE. I’ve used this method and had good results. Just have it on the ground somewhere near your power2max
Thanks guys! An ANT+ Dongle is around 17-20 €, while the BLE Upgrade is 50 €. Just to make sure: Would ANT+ via dongle allow to use PowerMatch in TR?