ANT Forum

Hi,

I'm very new to ANT+ world, I've never used it before. In fact, I'm a student, and our annual project is to create a bike simulator. We have bought a home trainer, the Elite Qubo Digital. It's a wireless trainer, which works with ANT+.
Here is a link on which there are information about this home trainer : Elite Qubo Digital
A small device (a screen) which works thanks to the ANT+ protocol, allows the user to see the speed and many other parameters. (I'm just interested by the speed) and to control the resistance level of the roller.
And I know that there is an Iphone app which allows the user to adjust the resistance level of the roller thanks to an ANT+ device connected on it. (there is a pdf about that in the website I quoted)

Actually, I'd like to know if there is a way to receive data from that home trainer with an USB key (I'd like to receive the speed), and to send data through the USB key, in order to control the resistance level of the roller (I'd like to do the program in C++)

Thanks in advance.
Regards,      

Hi girerdc,

Thanks for your question. An important piece of information here is that ANT is not the same as ANT+. ANT is the wireless protocol, built into chips that allows devices to communicate. ANT+ is the managed network layer on top of that uses the ANT+ network key and operates in accordance with ANT+ Device Profiles. The ANT+ part makes things interoperable between different manufacturers.

ANT+ Device Profiles have been defined for many items of sports / fitness equipment. However there is no ANT+ trainer resistance profile yet (although we're working on it), so ELITE have used a proprietary implementation of ANT to make the trainer work. The website you linked to says the ANT+ HR data is used - so that part will be interoperable, but all the other data (speed, power, cadence, etc) isn't specified as ANT+ so probably just uses ANT.

So to be able to work with the data from this trainer you will need to contact ELITE to find out how they have packaged the data that is being sent, and how they suggest you can work with it. If it isn't ANT+ we aren't going to be able to help you decode the data because we don't how it's been structured. Maybe you can use their app as a first step?

If all you need is the speed data you could purchase an ANT+ speed sensor and an ANT+ USB stick. You could download the ANT+ simulator from our downloads page: http://www.thisisant.com/developer/resources/downloads/ (you'll need to sign up as an adopter, which is free, and which will also give you access to the ANT+ device profiles), and then you can receive the data on your PC. You can find products that are certified as ANT+ in the product directory: http://www.thisisant.com/directory/

Hope that helps,

Kat

     

Hi,

Thanks for your response, this is very helpful for me. I've sent an e-mail to Elite, I hope they will tell me how they communicate with the home trainer (but I don't think there is a high probability they do it).

Regards,

Cédric      

Hi Kat Kent,
In your answer to girerdc you say that you are working on a ANT+ device profile for trainer resistance. Is it possible to learn more about this work and is there a sceduale for when it will be ready?

Kat Kent - 22 February 2013 03:02 PM

Hi girerdc,

Thanks for your question. An important piece of information here is that ANT is not the same as ANT+. ANT is the wireless protocol, built into chips that allows devices to communicate. ANT+ is the managed network layer on top of that uses the ANT+ network key and operates in accordance with ANT+ Device Profiles. The ANT+ part makes things interoperable between different manufacturers.

ANT+ Device Profiles have been defined for many items of sports / fitness equipment. However there is no ANT+ trainer resistance profile yet (although we're working on it), so ELITE have used a proprietary implementation of ANT to make the trainer work. The website you linked to says the ANT+ HR data is used - so that part will be interoperable, but all the other data (speed, power, cadence, etc) isn't specified as ANT+ so probably just uses ANT.

So to be able to work with the data from this trainer you will need to contact ELITE to find out how they have packaged the data that is being sent, and how they suggest you can work with it. If it isn't ANT+ we aren't going to be able to help you decode the data because we don't how it's been structured. Maybe you can use their app as a first step?

If all you need is the speed data you could purchase an ANT+ speed sensor and an ANT+ USB stick. You could download the ANT+ simulator from our downloads page: http://www.thisisant.com/developer/resources/downloads/ (you'll need to sign up as an adopter, which is free, and which will also give you access to the ANT+ device profiles), and then you can receive the data on your PC. You can find products that are certified as ANT+ in the product directory: http://www.thisisant.com/directory/

Hope that helps,

Kat

     

Hi bengahl,

I can't share any more information about the work with trainer resistance at this stage. Early information access and the option to contribute to profile development are member privileges, so you would need to sign up as a member to join that discussion (http://www.thisisant.com/my-ant/members/).

Alternatively you can subscribe to the 'critical bytes' RSS feed to be notified of new releases when they occur (http://www.thisisant.com/feeds/tech_bulletin/critical_bytes/).

Kind regards,

Kat