Support for Genius T2021 Brake (~46, 117)

[WouterJD]

Hi Wouter, from Melbourne, Australia

• I have a Genius T2021 Brake (Non-smart TACX proprietary ANT+), and an original Tacx 2018 Dongle. I am currently running TTS 4.22.5.
  I am interested in liberating my trainer a little to experiment with some of the newer software around. Surely if the Vortex can work, then the Genius must be possible too at some point. I would be happy to try and test any ideas you have.
  Interestingly, I decided to jump in and uninstall the "Jungo" TACX USB drivers, and install the "libusb-win32-1.2.6" drivers instead. TTS4 still works for me! (Windows 10)

FortiusANT is not registering the trainer yet though.
Any tips to try and get it working?

Thanks

Originally posted by @Sigfreid74 in #14 (comment)

[WouterJD]

To start with, please send some photos of the essentials, like headunit and connectivity.

I have the impression you have a USB-connected trainer...

[Sigfreid74]

Thanks for the quick reply Wouter, I'll try and help out where I can -

The "T2020 i-Genius" brake is one of the pre FE-C ANT connected trainers using the TACX proprietary protocols - (like the i-Vortex and the Bushido). No direct USB cable connection like the Fortius. I am using the TACX - supplied T2018 USB ANT dongle.

There is a wireless ANT headunit which is purely optional for use in TTS4, it is only used to control the cursor on the screen while you are on the bike.

There is some information about the Genius ANT interface here:
https://github.com/fluxoid-org/CyclismoProject/wiki/Tacx-Genius
specifically: Device type: 0xd3 (sometimes referred to as "0×53")

I have installed the libusb-win32 drivers and TTS4 can still communicate with the trainer and other ANT devices (like the speed/cadence sensor and HRM). I uninstalled the Jungo USB ANT drivers that came from TACX.

I have installed Python, upgraded PIP and then installed the requirements.txt dependencies. Then I ran ExplorANT.bat and it was not detecting the Genius Brake, but it was detecting the HRM and Garmin Speed/Cadence sensors.

[WouterJD]

My first thought: you do not need libusb at all.
Try the -t i-Vortex flag which causes FortiusANT not to use USB but pair with i-Vortex.

If the pre FE-C devices use the same protocol it should work and in that case read for 'i-Vortex' "Tacx proprietary pre FE-C device".

After your confirmation I will come up with some better name than that.

[WouterJD]

PS I see that -t is not yet wiki-documented😝

[Sigfreid74]

Hi Wouter - sorry for the delay - I thought I replied yesterday but something must have gone amok...
I tried the -t I-Vortex tag for ExplorANT and FortiusANT and no response so far. The Ant stick is working as ExplorANT picking up the HRM and Garmin speed/Cadence Sensors.
I was wondering if you were using code from the ANT.h file from GoldenCheetah to find the i-Vortex.? it specifies the Ant TYPE as "0x3d" or "61", the frequency is 0x42 (66) and the period is 0x2000 (8192)
According to the TotalReverse analysis of the ANT protocol for Genius - the ANT Device Type is "0x53" or "83", the frequency is 0x3c (60) and the Period is 4096 (0x1000). Can we try changing these values in your code?

[WouterJD]

Sure, use the .py and .try😊
The numbers in the code have been tested for i-vortex and work.

[Sigfreid74]

My first time doing this - I created a fork and started to change ANTDongle.py. That should effect ExplorANT? I will check the results tonight.

[WouterJD]

Succes!
I'm curious whether you will get things work; if not we can ask TotalReverse for assistence!

Regarding constants; I tend to define things once - so it affects ExplorANT as well.

[Sigfreid74]

No luck so far. I tried changing the lines in AntDongle.py that referred to DeviceType, Frequency and Period to the Genius values - no detection of the genius. Still picking up the Speed/Cadence meter though. I think we will need a higher power to help out. TotalReverse is seem to be needed on the case.

I tried to figure out how to get Wireshark working with Ant using this
https://github.com/jovial/wireshark-ant and also using a program called USBPCAP with wireshark
but I don't really know what I am doing: I will need to try some more with this. Thee purpose was to try and capture some of the traffic the genius produces - I think this is how the reverse engineering experts do it?

[WouterJD]

Do you have a non-Tacx application that pairs with the Genius?

[Sigfreid74]

No only TTS4

[Sigfreid74]

I have just registered with ANT to log into the website so I can download ANTWARE . Don't know if it will help, but I might as well try.

[WouterJD]

I do not know. Mind that Tacx has deliberately scrambled the interface, so it's a matter of searching.

[WouterJD]

According to the TotalReverse analysis of the ANT protocol for Genius - the ANT Device Type is "0x53" or "83", the frequency is 0x3c (60) and the Period is 4096 (0x1000). Can we try changing these values in your code?

Did you try to implement this in the .py code?
What does "Still picking up the Speed/Cadence meter though." mean?

Perhaps a good idea to send the -d127 tracefile, I will then assist to interpret

[Sigfreid74]

Did you try to implement this in the .py code?

I did try to change the values in AntDongle.py that referred to DeviceType, Frequency and Period to the Genius values
So far - no luck detecting the Genius with ExplorANT

What does "Still picking up the Speed/Cadence meter though." mean?

ExplorANT finds the Garmin Speed/Cadence Sensor on my bike.

I will use the -d127 option and send the file through.