bluetooth sensors
I've got an Elite turbo muin turbo trainer. And recently purchased the recommended speed and cadence sensor (Elite (Echowell) smart bluetooth 20cm cable speed and cadence) to be able to use the My training app or several others however I can not for the life of me get this sensor to be recognised by my phone or my tablet. They are both supposed to be compatible with this sensor. I have a samsung S4mini with os 4.4.2 and a nexus 7 with up to date os so they should both be fine.
I've studied the instructions for fitting to the bike in case of using the muin and also tried just waking the sensor with a wheel magnet. No luck. I have run through all the procedures for setting it up. restarting the phone, closing apps, etc. I'm wasting valuable training time doing this.
I have managed to connect a wahoo tickr HRM to the wahoo app but not to the Elite app.
Any ideas?
The battery is fine. It works in the HRM. But there doesn't seem to be any way to see if the Speed sensors are actually working and the instructions that elite supply ( and on line ) are only for ant+ sensors despite the app being compatible with bluetooth.
I've studied the instructions for fitting to the bike in case of using the muin and also tried just waking the sensor with a wheel magnet. No luck. I have run through all the procedures for setting it up. restarting the phone, closing apps, etc. I'm wasting valuable training time doing this.
I have managed to connect a wahoo tickr HRM to the wahoo app but not to the Elite app.
Any ideas?
The battery is fine. It works in the HRM. But there doesn't seem to be any way to see if the Speed sensors are actually working and the instructions that elite supply ( and on line ) are only for ant+ sensors despite the app being compatible with bluetooth.
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I have a wahoo speed sensor that clicks if you do this, I also have a wahoo app (wahoo utility) that you can use to check if the sensors connect or not.
Last I do not want to sound stupid but are you sure you do not have the ant+ sensors by mistake?
Yes. I did the same and I can also here the click. I also have the wahoo utility app as well and although my tickr comes up the Speed and cadence sensor does not.
It is bluetooth. It's written on the side. Smart bluetooth.
The only thing I wonder about is that on the Bike Discount site where I bought it it is pictured as an Elite branded sensor but the one I received id branded as Echowell. I think they are the same. they look the same other than that. but it should still work anyway right?
Bluetooth Smart is a subset of the Bluetooth 4 specs. A device can support Bluetooth 4 but not the Smart bit. A device that is not Bluetooth 4 capable can't support Bluetooth Smart.
According to this list and a couple of others. Both are bluetooth smart compatible.
http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/Bluetoot ... -List.aspx
If I am missing something please do tell me. I'm not trying to be clever. I obviously know little about the subject. But they appear to be on this list as smart ready. I just want to get it working.
Can you tell me why my HRM works then.
And any others solutions apart from buying new phones or tablet, neither of which I am prepared to do.
Regarding the muin you did your research and selected correctly (nothing to do with the fact I have one;) - did not buy the sensors though. I have cadence/hr readings from my wahoo cadence sensor and polar h7 strap.
Sorry if I sounded a bit cross before. I am a bit cross but not with you.
I will test it with my friends iphone on Thursday and see how that goes.
One other thing. I found out that my Samsung has Bluetooth 4. I dont know if that's the same as smart bluetooth but on the box for the sensor it says its compatible with bluetooth 4.
Yes, Bluetooth smart = bluetooth 4
concerning the sensor which doesn't work, pay attention to fix the speed sensor on the right location, and please follow this below image ( 34 mm from the outer edge )
The pairing procedure must be do when you are pedaling, and the app is running.
( don't search the sensor with the Bluetooth settings panel , it isn't the right way to detected it )
Check also the sensor battery charge
I have done more or less what you suggest I think. rotating the pedals with the speed sensor in various positions within a cm or so of the place you are saying. Trying different positions. I assume it doesn't matter which way round the sensor is as long as that little arrow is as close as possible to the internal magnet?
I'm pretty sure the battery is okay. I tried the one supplied and also the one out of my HRM as well because I knew that worked.
I haven't been able to try it with an i phone yet as the person I know who has one is far more technophobic than me and can't work out how to download the app.
A will try again this evening.
Thanks
I've just spent an hour trying this out. I measured the gap for the magnet. Tried it a few mm's either way, different batteries, different apps. My E training, wahoo fitness, Wahoo utility, Strava. Still no joy.
In my E training app I tried the connect sensors tab. I didn't do the normal bluetooth pairing .
I can only assume the sensors don't work. Or the phone isn't compatible. Although it works fine with my Wahoo Tickr HRM.
Maybe there is no magnet in the Muin? However I've tried swipping a magnet across the sensor and that doesn't work either.
What do you think? Time to send them back?
My wife's ipad v.2 didn't work either, you need v.3 and above.
I tried my daughter's ipad mini, which is bluetooth smart enabled, and it works fine, so the sensor and its fitting are correct. Very frustrating.
Does anyone know if the following would work. If I buy a bluetooth smart dongle, cheap off ebay, and connect it to my Nexus will it work? Apparently bluetooth smart is supported by Google 4.3 and above. Mines running 5.something, so with enabled hardware it should work?
The Moser
The VN
Thanks for your input.
I'm pretty sure my Nexus 7 is post 2013. At least it was bought either at the end of 2013 or the start of 2014. Is there a way to tell if it has the hardware?
To be honest I've been trying hardest with the s4mini. Which does work with a wahoo HRM.
I also tried connecting today with an i phone 4s and the wahoo utility app. But if wouldn't work with that either so I am now going to return the sensors.
This really does seem to be a minefield. Two pretty up to date tablets/ phones which sound like there is a good chance they are not compatible. All very frustrating really. And leaving me with a turbo muin that doesn't do any of the things I was expecting it to do.
The 2013 version has Bluetooth 4 and should work with Bluetooth 4 sensors. If you go to the about tablet part in the settings you should be able to find something to help you identify what version it is.
Also, the 2013 N7 has a rear facing camera, the 2012 one does not.
I don't know if Bluetooth dongles work in Android tablets. That would have to be researched.
will keep you posted as I'm sure some of the info gleaned here will be of use to others.
Thanks all.
What is even more frustrating, is that my laptop quite happily detects the sensor on the Turbo Muin, so I thought I'd go down the Trainerroad route, but that requires a specific Bluetooth dongle, which I can't find for less than £24 delivered. :x
The Moser
The VN
Some news about the sensors.
I returned the Elite/Echowell sensor and instead purchased a Bontrager speed and cadence combo sensor which has both ANT+ and Bluetooth smart (looks exactly like the Wahoo SC and does the same job) and guess what? my phone picks it up straight away, no problems.
The only problem is trying to attach it to the bike in a place where the speed sensor can pick up the magnet in the Muin. If i hold the sensor by the magnet it picks up the signal but as soon as I attach it to the frame the signal is lost despite the line on the sensor only being a few mm away from the magnet area. I am starting to think that the designers of the Muin didn't really think this part of the design through that much. If even with a working sensor you have to fiddle around quite so much to get it to see the sensor. I think it would have been nice to have had a built in sensor on the Muin like I think the Wahoo trainer has. Don't think I'm ever going to get the training app working and if I have to fuss about this much trying I don't think I could be bothered really. too much wasted time that could be put to better use actually riding.
You would attach the sensor to the bike if the magnet was on the rear wheel but the wheel is taken off the bike when the bike is on the turbo.
Yes...that is what you would do with that particular sensor. It is a speed sensor only and designed to be used as you say but you can also get a speed and cadence sensor from elite that is supposed to be used with the Muin and will also supply you with a cadence reading. The original one I had didn't work and I sent it back. I replaced it with the Bontrager one which does work now ( the central connection nut needed tightening) this is placed on the frame and the swing arm connects to the area where the battery is. The benefit of using this type of sensor is that you can use it on the bike for other apps like Map my ride, Strava etc or just to connect to your bike computer where as the one in your diagram is only meant for use on the trainer.
With these sensors costing quite a bit I didn't really want to double up if I could get one that does both. Using the bontrager sensor means I can only get a speed reading though but the original Elite version would have given me cadence as well ha it worked.
You see?
http://cdn.elite-it.com/sites/default/files/downloads/INSTALLAZIONE%20SENSORE%20ANT%2B%20PER%20MY%20E-TRAINING_0.pdf
I also have the wahoo sensor. I get speed/cadence on the road and cadence only on the trainer as the rear wheel where the magnet sits is off when the bike is mounted to the trainer. If I want speed reading as well on the trainer I stick the elite speed sensor on the trainer and good to go.
Although I am slightly surprised that your set up works too because I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that you couldn't connect two separate sensors at the same time and that they had to be a combo.
Anyway as much I I would have liked cadence info as well on the Muin I find now that I have got the system working that I don't much like the Elite app anyway and seem to find myself just using the Wahoo fitness app and not paying much attention to the speed anyway. Preffering to watch the heart rate. I don't have much time at all to set it all up each time. I can't help feeling sometimes that all the techy stuff gets in the way of the cycling. before last year I didn't even bother with a simple bar computer and was quite happy. Then I got an action cam and a computer and now this. My rides turned into a bit of a pain, constantly stopping to see if the camera was running or not, why wasn't my computer reistering mileage and speed when the camera was running, All sorted now but what a faff.
I'm using this stuff because I want to get fit and tailor my training but when I'm on the road I would rather keep it simple really. I'm not a technophobe or a luddite but it was spoiling the rides and I think I could tell the designers a thing or two about many improvements they could make. Some that are pretty obvious.