Tried using the controllers today during a workout…paired through the Companion app and using ATV. This was the exact same setup as I used last night with no issues.
Controllers said they were connected on the Device screen and in the game, on the HUD it said steering was “on” and there were prompts to use the side buttons to increase / decrease intensity during the workout. I even received in game prompts to use some of the buttons…but none of them were working. No response to any button…no Ride Ons, no menu options, steering, etc.
After the ride, I tried pairing directly through BT on ATV…when I did that, there were two green signal (or battery) strength icons for each controller that were not there when pairing through the Companion app.
I am gonna try using an iPad later today or tomorrow so I have more direct BT connections and see what happens.
I had issues connecting last night as well. Got it working one time but failed on the shutdown / restart to see if it would all pair clean the 2nd time thru… it did not.
I am wondering on the proper order for start up procedure when launching apps & devices. Have not done a scientific approach (too damn frustrated that it wasn’t working easily) so I don’t have great info to share, but tried the two basic approaches and couldn’t see one as better than the other, yet.
Launch Zwift on ATV, Launch Companion app on iPad, power on Play controllers.
Exact reverse of #1.
Had issues with seeing 2 or 4 options in the Steering box. One pair is pure BLE and the other pair is BLE over Companion. We initially saw 4 options the very first time we got connection, and chose the BLE Companion option. But other times only showed 2 options, which seemed to vary between the direct of Comp options for some reason I couldn’t pin down.
My wife and I did get a single run each thru the Rush course, which was fun. Just need to dial in the process to get it consistent, and hopefully easy.
One annoying menu thing, is that the pairing screen on ATV has either:
Pair through Phone
Pair through Bluetooth
listed in the top right.
My confusion is that the button and name is what you get when pressing that button. Which means that the current state is exactly the opposite of that indicator. Took me a few swings through the process to understand the state/name status. I get it from a pure programming perspective, but it caused some serious frustration initially.
I’d rather see some visual “toggle” switch or stacked radio button (either/or) that clearly shows:
There are two discrete pairing modes in the first place. (I know this but many users may have not idea).
Which of those modes is currently active. (the real source of my frustration).
That it really is an either/or choice, not a combined one (see below).
Related to all that, I am learning that it seems you are pairing through one and only one of those modes at any time.
I was under the mistaken impression that you started with pure BLE direct to ATV for stuff like the trainer (Neo 2) & HRM (Tickr) and then ADDED more devices through the Companion app for extra stuff like external cadence or these new controllers.
But what seem to be the case is that once you have to exceed the BLE limit on ATV, you are entirely using the Companion app for all pairing. That was an additional learning/frustration because I would prefer to have the trainer at the very least as direct BLE to ATV.
Let me know if I am off base here, as I am just trying to understand the behavior I had last night. Being an Apple noob doesn’t help since my DNA apparently includes PC/WIN not iOS
SO my experience was that you have to start by pairing a trainer first…otherwise no other product options come up…you just see two options - “Power Source” or “Speed Sensor”.
After you pair a trainer (or I guess a speed sensor), other devices become visible (HR, cadence, Steering, etc). But since the Play controllers take 2 slots, there is no way to pair them directly through ATV since one slot has to be taken by your trainer.
Yup, it seems you have to “wipe the slate clean” and start from scratch when you exceed the 2 device limit (1 always required for the remote). That just went against what seemed “ideal” in my mind, but looks to be the way it is setup. 3+ devices for ATV = Companion app pairing for all.
ETA: just to cover this base, here is the support file my wife found that got us to our send pairing, but the one that actually worked (as my initial blind approach worked but locked up during the tutorial for some reason).
Question - does Zwift Play have a botton(s) to turn erg mode on and off during workouts?
I like to switch in and out of erg mode for short high power intervals and sometimes for rest intervals. If that is not a current function, it would be a great add!
Not per the current programmed button assignments.
That would be a good one for them to add. Could be a combo of pressing both Intensity adjustment buttons together or some other press & hold that isn’t already assigned.
I fully admit that I am potentially making this harder than it needs to be. Per the typical Apple experience I hear relayed so often, I did expect this to be a quick and easy operation.
But I could well me the fly in the ointment since I know just enough to be dangerous in many ways. That and of course I didn’t RTFM before starting…
Back on the trainer today…managed to get the controllers connected properly again (a bit of faffing about, but nothing too troublesome).
Seem to have settled on a controller position slightly lower and rotated outward fro use with my Campag shifters. The outward rotation gives me access to all the button and the lower position allows me to wrap my fingers around the hoods as normal. The downside is that I have to use my index fingers to reach the buttons and not my thumbs…but it works well enough. No issue reaching the steering controls, etc.
Was only doing a TR workout, so never really needed the controllers much, but I spent some time swerving all across the lane just because I could when I was in my recovery intervals.
One test by my wife and she wanted them gone. Function is fine when we get connection (still some faffing to make that happen vs dead simple auto each time) and she likes the controls. But she got some really odd behavior in a ride that lead to crazy speed with the same power.
I did a short ride too, but seem to have a BLE issue on my PC with the Play connected. My dead reliable headphones started skipping and dropping signal with the Play in use. I disconnected & turned them off and the headphones went back to normal use.
I plan to try with connection via Companion app instead of my PC to see if that is better and leaves my audio connection alone.
Yeah, I am connecting through the companion app and ATV…definitely still some monkeying needed to connect through ZC, but I am guessing it is a reflection of the process / app vs. the controllers.
I do wish these were ANT+…same for the Sterzo Smart.
