Bug: power meter loses connection in activity

Olaf Gottschalk

I was one of the happiest customers of Suunto when they finally added proper Bluetooth device management in their latest firmware upgrades! I never expected this to come true while owning the Race.

But…

…now my power meter connectivity during my bike rides randomly gets cut off, with the power data remaining at 0 Watts constantly.
This happens mostly during coffee stops in Auto Pause, but also sometimes in mid ride.

Apparently Suunto does not implement a proper reconnect while in an activity.
At the same time my Wahoo Elemnt Roam has no problem with the Speed Play pedals, but the Race is lost.
I searched the Pause menu for any hint of device reconnect or management - but did not find any.

This is really, really sad as this bug was introducing when the new BT management was added. In the old FW versions with only one sensor per kind I have never ever experienced such loss of connection while in an activity.

Does anybody know what I can do? Stopping the current activity and immediately starting a new one is the only "fix* I know. But this is so lame and dumb.
How can I force the Race to reconnect to my devices?

Please help!

Here is a picture of the situation while riding:
proof

Mads Hintz-Madsen

@Olaf-Gottschalk said in Bug: power meter loses connection in activity:

…now my power meter connectivity during my bike rides randomly gets cut off, with the power data remaining at 0 Watts constantly.
This happens mostly during coffee stops in Auto Pause, but also sometimes in mid ride.

Apparently Suunto does not implement a proper reconnect while in an activity.

I use Favero Assioma Uno power meter pedals connected to my Wahoo Roam using Ant+ and to my Suunto Race using Bluetooth.

I have not had any problems with the Race not reconnecting during coffee/shop stops where the Race is out of reach from the pedals.

If you are connecting the speedplay pedals to the Roam with Bluetooth then maybe try switching to Ant+. Just a wild guess that the Race might have some issues when also the Roam is using a Bluetooth connection to the pedals. Might not be the case though but something that you could try.

Olaf Gottschalk

@Mads-Hintz-Madsen thanks for the hint, Mads. Will check and try.
The problem I see is that this has never been an issue for more than 2 years with the old Bluetooth firmware and just appeared after the major redesign.
I hope that Suunto is aware of this issue and does something about it.

My Race is on the bike, so technically never far away from the pedals on stops, and two days ago the connection dropped even mid-ride without a pause.

I just wish the Pause menu had a connections settings so I can actively check&reconnect…

Likarnik

Same thing happened to me today, after 3:30h into 5:30h ride. It was just after big climb and I paused watch (vertical). It was not first pause/autopause of the ride. I found out after a descent that my power is 0 and tried to go into menu to reconnect but no luck. If we had resume later option this could be usefull in such case. Never happened before last update… and my assioma power meter pedals were only connected to suunto vertical, I don’t have bike computer. But I am probably going to switch to coros after 15years of suunto

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

hi all .

The devices will try to reconnect at all times provided they are found at the prestart screen.

If the cannot be found / reconnected then please try to close some BT of the phone (yup you read correctly ) just in case the phone has taken over (we have seen reports of this ).

Also in regards to power meters /sesnors.

Power of 0 is not disconnect. When the sensor is disconnected it should eventually show “–” after displaying the last value for a little.

Likarnik

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos thank you, I’ll give it another shot. Do you have any info if this is going to be resolved at some point? Atleast reconnecting in settings or maybe stoping acitivity and resuming later?

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Likarnik The watch will always try to connect to the device. No matter how much time has passed. I have this for example with my cadence sensors. We stop cadence sensor goes off, 1h later (finished eating) it reconnects. Check only if not something else is grabbing the connection.

Likarnik

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos ok, I did not think about that someone else ‘stole’ my BT signal. My PM is set to power off after 3min, so normally it wakes up after turning pedals and SV shows power no problem, just not this time… but it happened with h10 before that

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Likarnik Keep me posted. My wahoo cadence does the same. Powers off after a few. Spin of the cranks wakes it up and reconnects

Likarnik

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos you are single-handedly keeping my faith in suunto

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Likarnik "-p

VaineRT

I have a related problem where the watch links to my QUARQ pm, but then doesn’t pair duringhte ride. My stages PM is happy to pair along with my Karoo head unit. .

Olaf Gottschalk

Hi Dimitrios!

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Bug: power meter loses connection in activity:

The devices will try to reconnect at all times provided they are found at the prestart screen.

Ok, I never had any problems in pre start screen - Wahoo Speedplay pedals are always there.

If the cannot be found / reconnected then please try to close some BT of the phone (yup you read correctly ) just in case the phone has taken over (we have seen reports of this ).
To conserve energy, I switch off BT on my phone quite often. That’s not what causes this phenomenon…

Also in regards to power meters /sesnors.

Power of 0 is not disconnect. When the sensor is disconnected it should eventually show “–” after displaying the last value for a little.

Today, it happened again. It is always a problem when pausing for a while. Today I had a flat tire, Auto Pause paused the session. And the problem is: when starting to ride again, the power value is shown (and stays) 0 on the Race - the Wahoo Elemnt Roam has no issue, it shows the power value.
There is absolutely nothing I know on how to bring the power value back - except stopping the session and starting a new one.

This phenomenon was not there prior to the rework on the BT section of the Race. Never. Not a single time have I had this issue in those times.

What can help to detect the issue?
I am sending logs right now again - but I am not sure if someone is actively working on this.

It also seems I am not the only one … lucky me!

Please contact me if you need more input, Dimitrios!

Jere Teutari

My problem is that Garmin Vector pedals work fine (although dropouts) and Quarq cranck pm work fine.

The real problem is Assiomas. Making the connection is fine, but once I start an activity they are found at all. Very frustrating.

I have tried removing all other PMs and always start Suunto before bike computer.

Olaf Gottschalk

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos again - happened on my current ride. Just now. Paused for a coffee. Started to ride again, power = 0 Watts on the Race, but perfectly fine on Wahoos Roam.
New session: it works again.

Logs are sent to Suunto again!

nseslija

@Jere-Teutari No problems with my Favero Assioma, they are working perfectly with my Vertical.

Olaf Gottschalk

@nseslija said in Bug: power meter loses connection in activity:

@Jere-Teutari No problems with my Favero Assioma, they are working perfectly with my Vertical.

I will never understand why people comment with a different watch and different pedals that they don’t have this bug. I simply do not get it. What’s the point? Why not just say nothing instead?!?!?

Olaf Gottschalk

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos so - today happened again on the first coffee stop - then after new session started, the race crashed completely while in the session.
That is the thing it must NEVER do.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos protocols are sent.
Please contact me!
Thanks.

nseslija

@Olaf-Gottschalk I believe you that you will never understand…
Use your watch and enjoy outside .

OutdoorMan

@nseslija okay, but when your watch constantly crashes during training I kinda understand his frustration. You can enjoy outdoors but this is an unnecessary complication.