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What USB ANT+ BLE dongles to use and where to buy? #61

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WouterJD opened this issue Apr 24, 2020 · 65 comments
Open

What USB ANT+ BLE dongles to use and where to buy? #61

WouterJD opened this issue Apr 24, 2020 · 65 comments
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@WouterJD
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@WouterJD
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WouterJD commented Apr 24, 2020 •
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ANT dongles

FortiusANT supports USB dongles with the ID's 4104 (Suunto), 4105 (Garmin) or 4100 (Older).

USB-dongles can be bought on miscellaneous shops, Google for "usb ant+ dongle"...

Currently (April 2020...Jan 2021) it appears there is a high demand and therefore some links to suppliers to give you suggestions - sorry for suggestions in the Dutch area and that some reference appear to be out-of-stock.

Read this post for general information.

Warning (CYCPLUS, Amazon, Aliexpress) , read this first. Dongles from manufacturer=CYCPLUS (also advertised as Antself, sold by Amazon) are reported not working well with FortiusANT (#45 #65). See also tacxfaqx.com. Some recovery from errors is implemented in FortiusANT 3.0 but behavior remains poor.
Refer to this post from Ilja for some explanation.

Because of the worldwide audience it's impossible to give a clear direction where to buy and we can only provide suggestions - use this page to post questions and others may help you.
Please understand these are only references to ANT+ dongles and please understand that this does not imply any guarantee from our side!

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Dongles

Onboard Windows Bluetooth is not supported; a separate BLE-dongle is required.

When using - b (node.js) supported dongles are (see documentation) and node-bluetooth-hci-socket:

  • BCM920702 Bluetooth 4.0
  • BCM20702A0 Bluetooth 4.0
  • CSR8510 A10
  • Asus BT-400
  • Intel Wireless Bluetooth 6235, 7260, 7265 or 8265
  • Belkin BCM20702A0

Known good models:

Other suppliers

USB-hubs

You use a USB-hub AND have connection problems? Read this
@totalreverse
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I have two budget ANT+ sticks labeled ANSELF. They work without problems.

You can order them i.e. from
ebay
amazon

My sticks have ID 0x1008 (4104). Other reported that their sticks have ID 0x1009 (4105), which should work, too.

@RodeTheAlpe
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I bought Anself from Amazon as well, no problems using with Zwift, Rouvy, etc...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M3VQP6Z

@WouterJD WouterJD pinned this issue Apr 27, 2020
This was referenced Apr 29, 2020
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@aegisdesign
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@WouterJD Looking at the investigation on tacxfaqx.com, is it possible to detect the faulty cycplus dongles lack of continuous scanning mode in code and warn they won't work?

@WouterJD
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WouterJD commented May 9, 2020

Any code-suggestions welcome. Please follow #65

@harveygf
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@WouteJD Great product. Managed to finally get my old machine connected to Zwift. I have the I-flow with the T1932 (white/Blue) head unit. My question is to do with the Ant+ dongles. I was able to have the Trainer connected my one Windows 10 Laptop with the USB that runs a DynaStream AntUSB-M dongle and has the 0x1009 ID. I then ran the FortiusANT.exe and everything worked 100%. Then on a 2nd windows 10 Laptop I had the same DynaStream AntUSB-M dongle and has the 0x1009 ID, and this had zwift loaded. I was able to pick up the Ant sensors and my HR strap (direct into Zwift) and do a ride.
The problem is I still required the old TACX software to work for my wife. So I converted the first Laptop back to the Tacx software and decided to run everything off the 2nd laptop. I was able to get the trainer to talk to the FortiusANT.exe and it picked up and calibrated the trainer, also picked up the DynaStream AntUSB-M dongle and has the 0x1009 ID. I pressed the start button and Speed, Cadence and power were working 100%. I then started the Zwift software, which it picked up the sensors, but when doing that FortiusANT.exe looses connection to the ANT dongle. It seems Zwift is trying to use the same ANT dongle as FortiusANT.exe instead of it using the 2nd dongle. I know both dongles are the same but have I done something wrong with the setup or installation of the ANT Dongles, or do I need to use 2 different dongles.
Again this is an awesome product you are creating. Thank you very much

@WouterJD
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Hi @harveygf . I'm Wouter from the Netherlands and happy that you're thrilled about FortiusANT. I'm always curious where the product goes to and therefore like to know where you are located. If you like, ping me on strava!

Basically what you try to do is OK and I have done it myself as well.
So we're talking about PC2 (#1 is for your wife).
Sequence is OK: first start FortiusANT, Start, Calibrate; then start Zwift. Note that during calibration, FortiusANT will not be seen by Zwift.

FortiusANT connects to the first dongle that is available and I assume also Zwift does so, then taking the second dongle.

You state that "FortiusANT.exe looses connection to the ANT dongle"; please explain - what happens?

@harveygf
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Hi @WouterJD To keep you up to date late last night I managed to get all the drivers uninstalled for Libusb-win32 (Had to use an external program in the end). I then installed the libusb-win-32 "VR-Virtulal" driver. After that I created libusb-win-32 - for the FortiusAnt to access the Ant+ dongle. This one I actually changed the name and the manufacture. Once this was done I tested the FotiusAnt.exe and all was working 100%.
Lastly I plugged in the 2nd Ant+ dongle, but then went to device manager and updated the driver but used the one supplied by Zwift. Once this was done, I was able to get FortiusAnt.exe to work with the trainer and swift to use the 2nd Ant+ dongle for connection.
I will test it tonight with a ride.
Just a quick question for FortiusAnt.exe. I know you can add commands when starting it up like your FTP, Bike gears etc. Does it also use rider and bike weight in it's calculations for power?
Thank you again, great product.

@WouterJD
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We are working on a new version where the power calculation is improved.
Refer to pullrequest #84 where this development is discussed

@harveygf
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@WouterJD Managed to do a zwift ride last night, Worked great. I did notice my ave watts was way lower than normal on both the fortiusAnt.exe and Zwift, but was still great to use it.
Went to do another ride today and unfortunately it has been blocked by Symantic Anti Virus for both the ExploreANT.exe and the FortiusANT.exe as Heur.AdvML.B Heuristic Virus. Even states is does not suspect it is a real virus but is blocked anyway by the "blooodhound and SONAR" in Symantic. As my office controls this part, I can't even into the ignore list :-( Not sure if anyone else has had this happen.
Trying to now see if the wife will let me use her mac, but doubt that ha ha

@WouterJD WouterJD mentioned this issue May 24, 2020
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@mruzzon
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mruzzon commented Sep 6, 2020

Any code-suggestions welcome. Please follow #65

I've been running the code on a Mac using Python successfully for the most part except for frequent dropouts while using the CYCPLUS ANT+ dongle. I've noticed that the frequency of dropouts improved considerable after setting the hear rate data to none, thou...

Any plans to add BLE support instead? Would be really neat to run directly from the Mac or somewhere else directly to my iPad... Thanks

@WouterJD
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WouterJD commented Sep 7, 2020

Any code-suggestions welcome. Please follow #65

...on a Mac .. frequent dropouts while using the CYCPLUS ANT+ dongle.
Any plans to add BLE support instead?

  • Sorry that CYCPLUS ANT+ dongle remains troublesome
  • What do you mean with BLE-support

@mruzzon
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mruzzon commented Sep 7, 2020

It disconnects several times and reconnects, only issue that's causing for now is that it seems to hinder the calibration process...

BLE - what I meant is if it would be possible to broadcast the data using bluetooth instead of ANT+, no dongle needed in this case.

Thanks a lot for this!

@WouterJD WouterJD mentioned this issue Sep 7, 2020
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@WouterJD WouterJD added the documentation Improvements or additions to documentation label Oct 26, 2020
@WouterJD
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Issue closed, because I want to have a short issue-list to keep focus.
Questions and comments remain welcome!

@WouterJD WouterJD mentioned this issue Nov 4, 2020
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@kiwisibk
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kiwisibk commented Nov 5, 2020

So is the CYCPLUS dongle now working or not? Which one to recommend for best results? Thanks

@WouterJD
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WouterJD commented Nov 5, 2020 •
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If you make the question binary; the answer is: no.
The reason is unclear.

Other dongles do not report similar problems

Welcome in the FortiusANT arena. Please introduce yourself; where do you come from and what Tacx do you use?

@kiwisibk
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kiwisibk commented Nov 6, 2020 via email

@WouterJD
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WouterJD commented Nov 6, 2020

Hi Arno how are you today?
Please tel me what Tacx you use; welcome in our community - you are the first athlete in Poland!

What dongle to buy is difficult to say; it depends very much on the country.
The header of this post provides links; Futurumshop-dongles work well and cost here around EUR 30,= (you need two). I don't know for you what the easiest shop is. If you have issues, please let me know.

@kiwisibk
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kiwisibk commented Nov 6, 2020 via email

@WouterJD
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WouterJD commented Nov 6, 2020

Hi Arno, sorry for confusion.
I got a response on Strava at same time from Krzysztof Bejner and connected that to kiwisibik...

Please refer to #14 (comment)
Amazon stick, 17 days delivery.

I hope it helps

PS South Tyrol I know a bit; tell me more? Are you on strava as well?

@WouterJD
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@aegisdesign thanks!

@switchabl
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switchabl commented Jan 30, 2021 •
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@aegisdesign That is a good point. I've bought several used ANT dongles for cheap myself.

As a general guide (whether buying new or used):

GOOD:

PROBLEMATIC:

@WouterJD
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@switchabl thanks; linked in the header message

@ibooij
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ibooij commented Feb 8, 2021

To put some more nails on the Anself/Cycplus coffin: I recently tried to purchase an Anself dongle, but got shipped a Cycplus one. Having seen reports that Cycplus did not work at all using continuous scanning mode, I was surprised that this Cycplus dongle did recognize my devices and could receive all messages. However, my software was unable to send any messages using this dongle. It looks like ANT Extended messages might not be supported on it.
I then tried using the same dongle with "normal" ANT point-to-point connections, which does work.

My conclusion for now is that Cycplus has updated their dongles to make continuous scanning "kind of" work because they can now receive messages. They're still broken though. From the reports that I have been getting, the newer Anself dongles behave in the same way as these newer Cyclus dongles.

@switchabl switchabl mentioned this issue Feb 9, 2021
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@MeanHat MeanHat mentioned this issue Feb 16, 2021
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@WouterJD
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@ibooij thanks for this explanation;
Welcome to the FortiusANT community

I'm always curious to know who I communicate with, where FortiusANT is used and what configuration is used.
Please tell me what bundle did you buy, and what brake and what head unit do you use?
I would therefore appreciate that you introduce yourself; perhaps leave a comment under issue #14.

@leovanr1
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It is a shame that I didn't read this carefully enough: now I bought a Garmin USB1 model that doesn't work. I can succesfully install the driver with the libusb inf_wizard, but it is still not found.

@switchabl
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@leovanr1 That is unfortunate. In theory we could try to add support for the USB1 but it only has 4 channels so we would need to turn some features off. I think it is also pretty rare now so I am not sure it is worth it. Zwift, Rouvy, Trainerroad and RGT don't support it anymore either.

@leovanr1
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I could have known if I had read your information more carefully. So don't worry about it.

@switchabl switchabl mentioned this issue Feb 22, 2021
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@inonoob inonoob mentioned this issue Feb 24, 2021
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@WouterJD WouterJD mentioned this issue Mar 17, 2021
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@yancart
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yancart commented Mar 17, 2021

Hi, can anyone confirm if the Garmin USB ANT+ Stick 010-01058-00 will work ok with FortiusAnt?

image

Thanks

@BikeBeppe64
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BikeBeppe64 commented Mar 17, 2021 •
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Hi, can anyone confirm if the Garmin USB ANT+ Stick 010-01058-00 will work ok with FortiusAnt?

image

Thanks

If original it works

@yancart
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yancart commented Mar 17, 2021

Hopefully they are and about to buy as they are wanted to replace my CYCPLUS USB ones as I'm having alot of dropped comms...

@BikeBeppe64
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1615999389315.jpg

Mine works without problem

@yancart
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yancart commented Mar 17, 2021

Thanks..
Just out of interest, whats the photo of, is that a SFF pc in a box?

@BikeBeppe64
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Thanks..
Just out of interest, whats the photo of, is that a SFF pc in a box?

It's a Raspberry PI 4 B

This was referenced Mar 22, 2021
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@bramghent
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bramghent commented May 15, 2021 •
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Hello Wouter, I'm very impressed about what you've had build together with friends. I am very curious if I get my old Tacx fortius working with Zwift (because I'm not at all an IT pro). First step: I've ordered today 2 ANT+ LIVL0V V5 dongles on Amazon.nl (https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B08L3KF918/). I'll hope they will work. Have you, or other FortiusANT users, any experience with these dongles?

@WouterJD
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Welcome to the FortiusANT community

I'm always curious to know who I communicate with, where FortiusANT is used and what configuration is used.
Please tell me what bundle did you buy, and what brake and what head unit do you use?
I would therefore appreciate that you introduce yourself; perhaps leave a comment under issue #14.
You could also consider to visit the sponsor page

Welcome! Well --- never heard of LIVLOV before; but generally spoken all dongles work with exception of the mentioned ones.
Curious to hear your experience

@WouterJD WouterJD mentioned this issue Nov 18, 2021
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@WouterJD WouterJD self-assigned this Jan 5, 2022
@inonoob inonoob mentioned this issue Mar 4, 2022
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@WouterJD WouterJD mentioned this issue Nov 28, 2023
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