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Speed cadence sensor won’t pair

willdbellwilldbell Posts: 10
in Workshop
Hi everyone..
Having just acquired a mag turbo trainer for winter, I went and bought a ‘new’ subs speed cadence sensor off eBay.. problem is I can’t pair it.. changed battery.. simply no recognition of it on any of my devices.. Have I just purchased a piece of junk or am I missing something..?
Thanks

Posts

  • wongataawongataa Posts: 906
    What are you trying to pair the sensor to? Are you wanting to use ANT+ or Bluetooth?

    It could be faulty. Can you return it for a refund?
  • willdbellwilldbell Posts: 10
    wongataa said:

    What are you trying to pair the sensor to? Are you wanting to use ANT+ or Bluetooth?

    It could be faulty. Can you return it for a refund?

    Yeah, I can return it seemingly, however I’m thinking it may be something I’m not doing right.. never used one before thus I was wondering if it supposed to actually emit a Bluetooth signal all the time as there’s nowhere to switch it on? I did read about other sensors needing waking up by pedalling but that doesn’t work either..nothing picked up via Bluetooth.. the unit is a sbs bike monitor
  • i.bhamrai.bhamra Posts: 149
    Sorry to ask a silly question but...are you in "pairing mode" or whatever in your device or are you just expecting them to find the sensor? For example if using a Garmin have you selected the option to add a new sensor from within the sensor menu?
  • photonic69photonic69 Posts: 1,077
    Perhaps you can post links to the Sensors you have bought and the Unit you are trying to pair the sensors to. If we have that info then we could possibly offer advice.
  • thistle_thistle_ Posts: 4,596
    edited October 2020
    willdbell said:

    Yeah, I can return it seemingly, however I’m thinking it may be something I’m not doing right.. never used one before thus I was wondering if it supposed to actually emit a Bluetooth signal all the time as there’s nowhere to switch it on? I did read about other sensors needing waking up by pedalling but that doesn’t work either..nothing picked up via Bluetooth.. the unit is a sbs bike monitor

    Is it this one?
    http://www.sbsmobile.com/en-gb/products/fitness-health/bike/945-bike-monitor-for-smartphone.html

    That looks like the one I have and found it really difficult to connect with my phone.

    Like all sensors, it goes to sleep to save battery when they're not used, and will wake up when you pedal/turn the wheel. You cannot pair/connect while it is are asleep.

    The sensor uses Bluetooth low energy. You do not need to pair it to your phone in the same way as headphones or a handsfree kit, the app you are using (the SBS app, Zwift, IPBike etc.) should take care of all that.
    You need to wake the sensor up by pedaling or turning the crank, or waving a magnet in front of the sensor, then in your app go to "add sensor" and it should show up in the list.
    I've done a quick video (using Zwift as an example):

    Most times, the phone app will see the sensor and connect but it doesn't receive any data - the speed and cadence always shows as zero. Sometimes disconnecting the sensor and adding it again would fix it, sometimes turning Bluetooth of and on would solve it, sometimes a reboot of my phone did the trick but other times it just refused to work.

    Nordic Semiconductor who make lots of Bluetooth chips have an Android app called nRF Connect which lets you monitor BLE sensors. This app always detected the sensor and showed the raw data so it confirmed that it was working and transmitting.



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