Beta Firmware - Feedback Report

[Lunchtime0614]

Hi - I tried the beta firmware to see if my watch would pick up the speed from the peloton. Sorry to report but in my case the beta firmware seemed no different than the latest production version. Meaning it still showed cadence and power but not speed. This was using a Coros Pace 2 Watch as well as the Wahoo Fitness app on iOS (ver 14.8.1).

I'm not sure if this is the correct spot to post this but it looked like the only place to post feedback.

[DangerP6]

On the production software, it passed the power data with no issues, however there was no speed/distance data passed from the DFC/Peloton though the Garmin Fenix 6 watch. Thanks!

[LeitoRodz]

Hi there,

Happy to report that power and cadence reports without issues on both production and beta FWs. No success on getting speed on the pre-released version.

Device: Garmin Forerunner 945 Software Version (Garmin device): 8.20 (28b18b9)

[doudar]

A lot of BLE ftms devices don't report speed because real world speed is a product of your weight, rolling resistance, incline and drag. It's typically up to the app you are using i.e. Zwift to calculate the speed.

[melissalee08]

Fenix 6S giving only speed and cadence after beta firmware update. Garmin software version 20.

[veneman]

Thanks for sharing what's worked on the beta firmware.

What we've seen with the beta is that Garmin devices pick up either the cycling speed and cadence profile or the cycling power and cadence profile but not both.

The power meter profile spec allows for adding in the speed data as well but when we tried that it only worked for Wahoo devices. The fitness machine service spec allows for broadcasting power and speed so that'll be the next one to try. We'll send an update when that's ready to test. 

As @doudar mentioned, real world speed depends on many things. Since speed on an indoor bike is kind of made up we just matched it closely to what the bike displays as the speed at a given power/watts.

[canuk-1]

Beta worked perfectly with Forerunner 745. No speed but not a surprise per above.

[mkgraham82]

Thanks Jason for the great follow up. New hardware has its bugs in the real world. I tried the beta as well and power and cadence showed up. No speed. Would it be an issue to have metric speed in km/h?

Happy to have no issues with dropouts.

[drewbiedoo]

Hi, just loaded the beta-2 bits onto my newly received DFC. I have a Peloton Bike and a Garmin Vivoactive 4. Worked great! Thanks for providing this firmware update, as the release on the device wasn't recognized at all. Interestingly, I also tried my Garmin Edge 510 and it would not recognize either version - I had hoped it would recognized power, which garmin has intentionally hobbled on the Vivoactive 4. The good news is the Peloton Bike power isn't that accurate, so I'm not missing all that much. Good luck with the venture, I really like this idea & implementation.

[nwkandler]

Just a data point- I'm using a Fenix 6 Sapphire (19.2) and have had no problems - everything working great. Thank you - getting 'credit' with the power info in the Garmin ecosystem has been a huge improvement!

[Harti-801]

Polar Vantage V, dfc_power-speed-cadence-beta.1 Power, Cadence and Speed will be received by the watch without any communication interrupts. But there is a minor issue to the speed value. It is approximately 5 % lower as on the Peloton. However I am really happy to own the DFC.

[TJBoyle1]

I want to highlight an issue I'm not seeing anywhere else. I am trying out the Speed & Cadence beta software connected to a Garmin Forerunner 745. I'm getting both speed and cadence data just fine from my Peloton Bike (although I had to set the wheel size to 2115 mm to get distance to come out right). But I also have an elliptical machine nearby that is fitted with Wahoo speed and cadence sensors. When I try to use the Elliptical, I get no data unless I unplug the DFC on the Peloton. It seems the DFC is broadcasting continuously whenever it has power, even if the Peloton has not been in use for hours, or days. Somehow, the DFC is overiding the ANT+ connection of my Wahoo sensors to my Garmin 745. (I use the bluetooth connection for an app on my phone.) Since Garmin does not allow the user to select or deselect sensors based on activity (a well-known deficiency), I seem to have no option but to unplug the DFC every time I want to use the elliptical. I'm not a watch watcher during an activity, so If I forget to unplug the DFC, I can get a long way into my elliptical workout with no data . This issue would disappear if the DFC stopped transmitting after some period of no activity coming from the Peloton.

[drewbiedoo]

I'm seeing the always broadcasting behavior as well. Most sensors only Broadcast when there is activity and then a short period after. The dfc just keeps sending. It would make sense to implement a sleep function on the radio when data is at 0 for some period of time.

[veneman]

@TJBoyle1 Thanks for sharing the details on your use case. I can understand the frustration as I've run into a similar issue when I have one DFC plugged in on the workbench for testing and then I go to start a ride on the bike which has another DFC attached. I then have to dig into the sensor menu on my watch and disconnect from one of them.

We considered making it only advertise when it receives a signal from the bike but decided against it to make connecting to it more seamless. DFC advertises all the time so that it's quick and easy to connect it as soon as you're near the bike instead of having to wait until you have a class queued up. The bike only sends the signals that DFC picks up on when it's in a biking activity and showing the metrics on the display. Waiting until that data is there would mean a few extra seconds before you'd be able to connect to it. That's the tradeoff that drove the design as it is.

That being said, a future update may address your situation. DFC has the option to run on battery but it's not optimized to run for long at this time. To be more power efficient we'd wait for a signal and then start the radio. That's essentially what other battery powered sensors do. We don't have a timeline for this but it is on our list for a future update.

[acousticbiker]

Thanks for sharing what's worked on the beta firmware.

What we've seen with the beta is that Garmin devices pick up either the cycling speed and cadence profile or the cycling power and cadence profile but not both.

The power meter profile spec allows for adding in the speed data as well but when we tried that it only worked for Wahoo devices. The fitness machine service spec allows for broadcasting power and speed so that'll be the next one to try. We'll send an update when that's ready to test. 

As @doudar mentioned, real world speed depends on many things. Since speed on an indoor bike is kind of made up we just matched it closely to what the bike displays as the speed at a given power/watts.

Any updates on whether the fitness machine spec worked or any other potential solutions to allow speed, cadence, and power?

[only-chrisbh]

+1 to the last comment by Accousticbiker. Any update on getting the speed and/ or distance data yet?

[acousticbiker]

Happy New Year! Just checking back to see whether any progress made on the being able to report speed along with cadence and power?