Hello all, help appreciated.
Is there a simple way with minimal faff, to run zwift and xert through Apple TV and iOS respectively. Been on xert for a few years now, but feel like I’m getting stale and need a little more variety on the trainer.
I don’t want to walk away from xert and loose the data and analysis.
Ideally I’d like to be able to complete xert workout with zwift on the apple TV.
I did find a similar thread, but it was a few years old and went off topic with no resolution.
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.
Run Xert on your phone as you normally would. In addition, connect Zwift to your HR strap and trainer. The trainer will only be connected to get the power, so you have to turn off the trainer control.
Hi @stuyd , as @hpbieker mentioned above, this probably works best if you have either a dedicated Power Meter & a smart trainer OR a trainer that supports multiple BLE connections (IIRC, Wahoo is the only manufacturer that offers this?)
Setup would be something like this…
Xert EBC
Power Source: Smart Trainer (MANDATORY)
Trainer Control: Smart Trainer (MANDATORY)
Cadence/HR: Not really needed if you’re saving the file from Zwift.
Zwift
Power Source: Power Meter
Cadence: Power Meter
Heart Rate: HRM
Trainer Control: EMPTY/UNPAIRED - Make sure this is left empty!!
As @ManofSteele mentioned, you can use a power meter instead.
Also, there is a ANT+ to BLE bridge called NPE Cable that you can buy (I think it has a new name now). It will take a ANT+ signal and republish it as BLE.
The third alternative is to get a ANT+ USB stick and run Zwift on a computer instead.
There are also USB A to C and C to A adapters, those come in handy sometimes, both directions. They are cheap and simple. And the ANT+ dongles some people have left over from old Garmin devices that used them to connect to a PC. So sometimes you are lucky and already have everything you need just lying around if you’re a bit of a packrat
Hi Stuart
I use NPE CABLE and Heartbeatz, which works flawlessly.
CABLE and Heartbeatz are legacy devices now I believe and are now combined into 1 device, WYUR.
CABLE = Convert ANT+ to BLE
It will convert your trainer’s ANT+ to BLE, which you can connect to ATV.
Heartbeatz converts my Apple Watch HR signal into ANT+ and then CABLE converts that to BLE, again connecting to ATV.
I have an Elite Direto XR trainer, and I can connect my HeartBeatz signal to that which then broadcasts my HR into 1 connection along with power and cadence.
If you want Xert to control your trainer, connect your trainer, and CABLE to ATV or vice versa.
Flawless, no dropouts, Power, Cadence and HR on ATV and iOS devices, connects immediately.
It depends on what type of workouts you want to do. You can do FTP based workouts from Xert in Zwift on Apple TV by just downloading the ZWO file for your workout and using ATV and Zwift (no Xert app).
If you want to do workouts like you’d only get using the Xert app, then you would just be using Zwift for something to look at since it wouldn’t display your workout or control your trainer power. You’d have to look at 2 different screens and the phone is far too small for workouts with any intensity IMO. At least I can’t see the numbers clearly enough on my phone screen when doing any intensity. I find the Xert phone app to be pretty much useless for that reason.
The best solution would be if Zwift fully supported Xert. A very good solution would be if Xert supported landscape mode. Then you could Mirror your phone to your ATV and just use the Xert app. You can do that now but it’s awful in portrait mode.
