I’ve been doing a lot of indoor workouts lately, with the same exact setup every time (Kickr Core + Favero Assioma with Erg PowerMatch). Things have generally been working very well.
But yesterday I noticed that the power was much less stable than before. Only at the end of the warmup and during the first interval, though:
I believe I had an Android app update before that workout. I’m now running 2023.4.0.92184.
Today was worse:
Most of the warmup was jumpy, like yesterday. But shortly into the first interval, it’s clear that something isn’t working, or at least severely lagging. Just before I quit, I tried changing the Responsiveness from 0.50 to 1.00. I also tried the Legacy PowerMatch. None of this seemed to help the power get back on track.
Thankfully, I figured it out. I noticed that the Android app had two connections to the Kickr Core. I reckon that made two PowerMatchers fight each other. After I fixed that, everything was back to normal.
Not entirely sure how it happened, but I suppose it’s possible that the app update obsoleted some setting, which made the app look for new devices to connect to. Maybe.
Yeah, double connection makes sense to me, as that creates a tug-o-war between devices. I’ve experienced it when having two apps (TR & Z) connected to the trainer. I presume you connected to 2 channels (ANT+ & BLE) on the same device which could create the same basic issue.
Maybe a dumb question - does it usually work really well?
I have the single-sided garmin power pedal but just use the Kickr and figured if it wasn’t broke I’d just use that. If it is generally reliable maybe it would be worth trying powermatch.
PowerMatch works very well. If you aim to use that power meter outside, it’s generally good to use the same device for power measurement inside and outside, for consistency.
Deltas in power reporting between a power meter and trainer are common here. Some will bring up the notable difference in single-sided power doubled vs total power of your trainer, which is worth consideration. But having the same measurement device (S-S issues and all) in all your data seems the most reliable from a consistency of data standpoint.
Other than the benefits of using same power measurement outside and on the turbo, I find that the experience is more enjoyable with powermatch than without. My setup is Garmin rally pedals “driving” a KIKCR bought in late 2019.
The ramp up / down seem to be less abrupt, even they are very quick.
I’ve had power accuracy issues with my Kickr Core in the past, but with PowerMatch I don’t even bother calibrating it. It probably thinks I’m doing widely different power numbers, but that doesn’t matter one bit!
So yeah, I highly recommend PowerMatch, particularly if you will use the same power meter inside and outside.
