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

[WouterJD]

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.

• Aliexpress and Amazon and this one Some are good (check here and read this or this), don't select the CYCPLUS, see warning above!
• Bike components
• Bol,
• Elite IT,
• Futurumshop,
• Hackerstore,
• Sportsdirect See Shaun's post
• Zwift -> Amazon
• Wiggle see remark from @MeanHat

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:

• https://www.bol.com/nl/p/asus-usb-bt400-bluetooth-adapter-usb-bluetooth-4-0/9200000013979795/
  The link can be used as an entry-point for other models.

Other suppliers

• Amazon
• Aliexpress

USB-hubs

You use a USB-hub AND have connection problems? Read this

[totalreverse]

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]

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

[aegisdesign]

@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]

Any code-suggestions welcome. Please follow #65

[harveygf]

@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]

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]

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]

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

[harveygf]

@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

[mruzzon]

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