FortiusAnt for using old USB trainers with modern software (TDA) needing Ant+

[BTacx]

Hi all, Bryan here.

I've had both a i-Magic since 2001 and a Fortius since 2005. These old trainers are obviously not supported by Tacx anymore. However, there is a decent 3rd party solution called FortiusAnt that is relatively easy to install and get these trainers to work fine with modern trainer software including TDA (tacx desktop app) via Ant+ signals instead of USB. This includes the old i-Magic, Fortius, iFlow (and maybe some other type) and can connect these USB trainer head units to virtually any 32 or 64 bit of Windows or Mac, or Linux. Your trainer software is independent of where FortiusAnt is running and so the trainer software can be either colocated on the same PC or a different device and OS altogether... whatever is supported by your trainer software. Obviously I would like to have one of the flagship direct drive (no wheel) trainers out there, but I guess for now this will suffice.

There is an existing thread on this Forum from earlier this year under the title "Ant+ dongle for Fortius ?? T2028" that has some discussion of this topic embedded in it. For reference:
viewtopic.php?p=2047#p2047 . However that thread does not get into the ability of running TDA along with your old USB trainer.

The "FortiusAnt" USB -> Ant+ bridge software works well to allow the old trainers to appear as Ant+ FE-C trainers for Zwift and even the current Tacx Desktop app (have not yet tried the Tacx Android app).

For my use with the Fortius trainer, I am running everything (a colocated setup) on a single Windows 10 64 bit laptop that is nothing special. I added a 4 port USB hub, then connected 2 x Ant+ USB dongles ($15/ea sold on Amazon) and connected the Fortius USB head unit to the hub as well. My Fortius shows up in TDA as a Neo 2T along with a Ant+ HR monitor (sent from the Fortius head unit, though you can use a real Ant+ HR directly instead of the head unit pick up) and seems to work well in that app to ride the videos.

Other than installing some generic libusb drivers as detailed in the user manual provided, I just run the FortiusAnt.exe (executable for Windows, or otherwise a different OS would need Python installed to run .py scripts), it picks up the USB info and rebroadcasts it using one of the Ant+ dongles... and away we go. The 2nd Ant+ dongle is used as a receiver by whatever trainer app you run (TDA, Zwift, Trainer Road, Rouvy, RGT Cycling, etc).

The only tedious part about this setup is the need to sufficiently warm up our cold bikes and trainers that reside in a cold garage, prior to getting a good and stable trainer calibration before heading to the more fun trainer applications like TDA and Zwift. This warmup & stabilization period can take upwards of 10-15 minutes. It's a pet peeve of mine regarding virtually any tire & wheel trainer type - even the modern ones, whereas some quiet direct drive trainers like Neo don't require a pre-ride calibration at all. Otherwise, I have ridden both TDA and Zwift for hours without any hiccups at all and they both had a very good, typical Fortius ride feel whether descending or groveling up a long +14% grade. The Fortius trainer, computer & TV noise is deafening in the garage, but luckily we have not yet been served with any complaints by neighbors

For more information and great support help from Wouter the FortiusAnt creator, please refer these direct links to the manual and the wiki issues section:

https://github.com/WouterJD/FortiusANT/ ... Manual.pdf
https://github.com/WouterJD/FortiusANT/issues

Alternatively, if you can't RTFM, then perhaps this is not a solution for you

---
Supported tacx trainers

USB: Tacx Flow, Fortius, i-Flow, i-Flow, i-Magic with T1902, T1904, T1932, T1942 head units

ANT: i-Vortex
---

Also found this existing thread: "Fortius and Zwift/Trainer Road!" viewtopic.php?f=16&t=342

Lastly just for reference, the 2 Ant+ dongles I have are 1) a Sunnto Movestick Mini from 2016, and 2) a recent "Anself" labeled stick from Amazon which actually reports as a "Dynastream". What you DO NOT want is a Cycplus Ant+ stick. Try whatever Ant+ stick you have laying around as long as it isn't a Cycplus. If you are using a trainer app on a device that has Ant+ built in, then you should only need one additional Ant+ stick for use with FortiusAnt.

[mickyduck]

Thanks for the link to the manual, I have been looking at this on and off for quite a while now there is a simple manual I will give it a go. Ordered 2 dongles going to try with Golden Cheetah see if this is more reliable than the direct USB connection method.

[mcorn]

Bryan-

Thanks for the detailed description of your successful FortiusANT experience. This really does sound like a good solution to giving old Tacx hardware a new lease on life.

[mickyduck]

Thanks to Bryan for bringing this update to our attention and I note it is now a sticky EXCELLENT

Driver install simplified ? Links to install driver packages for different TACX head units. This seems a very "active" thread ATM

https://github.com/WouterJD/FortiusANT/ ... -745473013

[mcorn]

Thanks to Bryan for bringing this update to our attention and I note it is now a sticky EXCELLENT

Driver install simplified ? Links to install driver packages for different TACX head units. This seems a very "active" thread ATM

https://github.com/WouterJD/FortiusANT/ ... -745473013

That is an interesting link. There are several installer packages shown, including for Imagic 1902 and 1904 handlebar controllers. The T1902 is all yellow-green and has always been described buy Tacx as only compatible with a 32-bit OS. The T1904 is white with a yellow ring and was both 32-bit and 64-bit compatible. On the link above, the discussion involved someone using an Imagic trainer with a T1932 controller (white with a blue ring) which is also both 32-bit and 64-bit compatible. So, I remain curious whether there is anyone who has actually used FortiusANT with a T1902 on a 64-bit OS. T1902 controllers are getting to be a fairly scarce item.

[mickyduck]

I will ask ....

Response

This is again a case of the Tacx software/drivers being obsolete, rather than the device itself. They just never bothered making a 64-bit compatible drivers. Since we are using the libusb driver, this is not an issue. I don't have a T1902, but I have just used a T1942 running the T1902 firmware (which is basically the same with a blue case) for development purposes on a 64-bit Windows 10 machine with no issues at all.

[mcorn]

I will ask ....

Response

This is again a case of the Tacx software/drivers being obsolete, rather than the device itself. They just never bothered making a 64-bit compatible drivers. Since we are using the libusb driver, this is not an issue. I don't have a T1902, but I have just used a T1942 running the T1902 firmware (which is basically the same with a blue case) for development purposes on a 64-bit Windows 10 machine with no issues at all.

But as far as I can tell, no one has actually tested the T1902. I had some direct conversations with the Tacx dev's years ago and they were very adamant that the T1902 issue was not just a driver problem. I was repeatedly told that the T1902 is a device that is not compatible with a 64-bit OS. So, unless you have an actual test of the T1902 working on a 64-bit OS, I will stay with my original statement. Unlike the T1902, the T1942 was always marketed by Tacx as 64-bit compatible.

I am not trying to be unduly disagreeable, I am simply looking for someone who has personal experience of successfully using the T1902 on a 64-bit OS and so far, I have not heard of anyone who has.

[mickyduck]

No problem Michael

I am just reporting what I was told... maybe someone will come along and tell us they are actually using it OR they tried and cant.. Not a real issue for me either way as I have the White with blue ring... T1932?

[mcorn]

No problem Michael

I am just reporting what I was told... maybe someone will come along and tell us they are actually using it OR they tried and cant.. Not a real issue for me either way as I have the White with blue ring... T1932?

Yes, I see you were just passing along some information. I changed my post to be clearer on my reply.

[BTacx]

I will ask ....

Response

This is again a case of the Tacx software/drivers being obsolete, rather than the device itself. They just never bothered making a 64-bit compatible drivers. Since we are using the libusb driver, this is not an issue. I don't have a T1902, but I have just used a T1942 running the T1902 firmware (which is basically the same with a blue case) for development purposes on a 64-bit Windows 10 machine with no issues at all.

But as far as I can tell, no one has actually tested the T1902. I had some direct conversations with the Tacx dev's years ago and they were very adamant that the T1902 issue was not just a driver problem. I was repeatedly told that the T1902 is a device that is not compatible with a 64-bit OS. So, unless you have an actual test of the T1902 working on a 64-bit OS, I will stay with my original statement. Unlike the T1902, the T1942 was always marketed by Tacx as 64-bit compatible.

I am not trying to be unduly disagreeable, I am simply looking for someone who has personal experience of successfully using the T1902 on a 64-bit OS and so far, I have not heard of anyone who has.

There are some, just that they prefer to ride rather than post. Like the Tacx Neo FB group... you'll mostly see complaint issues rather than the 1000s of happy people using it.

Since we dusted off our Fortius, I haven't pulled the i-Magic out of storage to test it myself. Here's one recent post in the FortiusAnt site's discussion thread...

---
sorry for my late response. I'm now on Fortius Antifier V4.1.1 and it seems to work fine for me. I'm using T1901 brake and T1902 (green) headunit.

For BLE-support I use CABLE
The two ANT+-Dongles called "Onlyesh Zwift ANT+ USB-Transmitter" I bought at Amazon

For right power calibration I tried to get to a runoff-time of 7 seconds. Any other suggestions for my config? If I can test anything for you with my config please let me know.

Thanks again for your great work!

Stay healthy
Eike

just started to use FortiusANT on my old Macbook last week with Tacx iMagic, two ANT+ dongles and CABLE as a bridge to my iPad running Zwift.
---

^^^ Should be enough to be confident this answers your question regarding the T1902.

[mcorn]

Since we dusted off our Fortius, I haven't pulled the i-Magic out of storage to test it myself. Here's one recent post in the FortiusAnt site's discussion thread...

---
sorry for my late response. I'm now on Fortius Antifier V4.1.1 and it seems to work fine for me. I'm using T1901 brake and T1902 (green) headunit.

For BLE-support I use CABLE
The two ANT+-Dongles called "Onlyesh Zwift ANT+ USB-Transmitter" I bought at Amazon

For right power calibration I tried to get to a runoff-time of 7 seconds. Any other suggestions for my config? If I can test anything for you with my config please let me know.

Thanks again for your great work!

Stay healthy
Eike

just started to use FortiusANT on my old Macbook last week with Tacx iMagic, two ANT+ dongles and CABLE as a bridge to my iPad running Zwift.
---

^^^ Should be enough to be confident this answers your question regarding the T1902.

Thanks for the update. To be clear, I was asking whether it works on a 64-bit OS. I am assuming those comments are from users with a 64-bit OS, but none of them indicate whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit. 32-bit is getting fairly uncommon these days, but I do have one PC with W10 32-bit.

[mickyduck]

As an extension to the initial FortiusANT posting after sending the link to the user manual to one of the Golden Cheetah developers a spin off project was launched to fix the broken Fortius implementation in GC.

I have just posted the below on the GC forum so for all the people with old trainers and no TTS there are now 3 options

Fortius software
FortiusANT
Golden Cheetah

"Hi I have been using this for the last week or so and it now really does work.. it includes calibration and works well in slope, ERG and plays video with TTS synchronisation.. I am not capable of really pushing this but works for me. Speed and power are down on what TTS would give for the same ride but there is probably some variation just because of human variances and it is well reported that TTS overestimates the power and speed values. I am about 10 % faster in TTS with less power and lower HR on the same 8 km test ride.
It is not yet available in the current snapshot build but can be downloaded from the GitHub group pages.
Huge thanks to Eric and Matt for implementing this is a very short time frame. "

[BTacx]

Since we dusted off our Fortius, I haven't pulled the i-Magic out of storage to test it myself. Here's one recent post in the FortiusAnt site's discussion thread...

---
sorry for my late response. I'm now on Fortius Antifier V4.1.1 and it seems to work fine for me. I'm using T1901 brake and T1902 (green) headunit.

For BLE-support I use CABLE
The two ANT+-Dongles called "Onlyesh Zwift ANT+ USB-Transmitter" I bought at Amazon

For right power calibration I tried to get to a runoff-time of 7 seconds. Any other suggestions for my config? If I can test anything for you with my config please let me know.

Thanks again for your great work!

Stay healthy
Eike

just started to use FortiusANT on my old Macbook last week with Tacx iMagic, two ANT+ dongles and CABLE as a bridge to my iPad running Zwift.
---

^^^ Should be enough to be confident this answers your question regarding the T1902.

Thanks for the update. To be clear, I was asking whether it works on a 64-bit OS. I am assuming those comments are from users with a 64-bit OS, but none of them indicate whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit. 32-bit is getting fairly uncommon these days, but I do have one PC with W10 32-bit.

I tested my i-Magic (1902 head unit) yesterday with the libusb-win32 drivers and FortiusAnt bridge software. It worked fine in Zwift as an Ant+ FE-C trainer, so I can confirm unequivocally the original "green" Tacx i-Magic 1902 ("so-called 32-bit only") head unit DOES indeed work fine on Windows 10 64-bit OS using this FortiusAnt bridge approach.

So now I have 2 older Tacx "smart trainers" confirmed... the Fortius 1942 (all blue) with motorbrake, and the i-Magic (all green).

While the "FortiusAnt" project name may infer it is an "ANT" only solution, it also has the ability to broadcast the trainer using Bluetooth. This means that these older trainers can now emulate either Ant+ or BLE as FE-C smart trainers AND it works with a variety of OS environments (including Raspberry Pi devices, Linux etc). For further information, refer to https://github.com/WouterJD/FortiusANT/wiki

[mcorn]

Great news. Thanks for the additional information.

[mickyduck]

There has been some cross pollination from FortiusANT developers and Golden Cheetah... so it is no longer necessary to use FortiusANT (no ANT dongles required) to use the Fortius with Golden Cheetah.

An unreleased version which I have been using for a couple of weeks is available to download at the link below. Any feedback would be appreciated.

https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Joern-R ... /artifacts

[mickyduck]

Installer for USB drivers has been moved to the location below.

https://github.com/switchabl/t19xx_usb

[jkleider]

@BTacx Hi All, but this is a reply to Bryan's post about his colocated setup.

Bryan, I have essentially the same setup you described, the only difference is that I am using one USB port for the Fortius wired USB connection and two other USB ports for the 2 ANT+ dongles. I can't seem to get communication to occur between the ANT+ dongles (FortiusANT/Fortius Trianer to the TDA). I'm also using FortiusANT.exe (not the python version). I've tried with FortiusANT 5.0 (and prerelease of 5.1) with the same results (although 5.1 does the calibration that 5.0 didn't do). In reading the description of your system, I noticed you bought a 4 port USB hub and wondering if this might be my problem.

Did you go the 4-port hub route (with all the devices plugged into the hub) because you didn't have enough USB ports or because you couldn't get it working using separate USB ports on your laptop?. FortiusANT seems to work with the Fortius trainer just fine. TDA seems to work fine without FortiusANT, but when I try to use TDA while FortiusANT is running, TDA grays-out the ANT+ connection. Without FortiusANT running, the ANT+ connection in TDA is enabled (green).

All libusb devices show up in the Device Manager on my Windows 10 Laptop and are indicated to be operating properly.

I followed all the instructions on the FortiusANT github, including the libusb drivers and read the manual in detail.

Curious if you have any insights?

Thanks for you post,
John

[Gaizka]

Hello, first of all sorry for my English.
I have a Tacx Fortius Multiplayer and I would like to know if someone has been able to connect this device to the RGT, and if so, what do I need to buy or know in order to do so.
I do not understand very well how it is done, does anyone have a diagram or a photo where they explain to me how it is done?
Thanks!

[Landmine Pete]

I'm in the same boat as Gaizka above; I am by no means computer illiterate, pretty good at reading, and generally competent on getting things to work.

So I went through all the steps with my (Fortius Multiplayer) driver installation but FortiusAnt executable does not start on my Windoze 10 box. So I guess I'm SOL.

Nut I *kinda* object to the 'if you can't read this may not be for you' comment buy the OP.

I guess I'll have to buy another trainer. SWMBO is not going to be happy.

[Landmine Pete]

OK Computer,

I have now spent several hours trying to get my T1932 connected via USB cable to a PC, and then via bluetooth to a tablet with Rouvy.

Between Python, nodejs, libusb-win32, git for windows, Zadig and whatever else I was close to losing the will to live. I tried posting on the Github page of the maker but beyond 'where are you from and what hardware do you have ?' and 'it could require some time to make it work' I basically drew a blank.

I'm putting the fortius back to TTS4 and will probably be ordering a new trainer, after which the fortius will be recycled into its constituent parts.

I feel it's simply had its day.

Pete

[BTacx]

Hello all,

I have not been monitoring this thread for quite some time and see there has been some people with difficulty getting this solution to work, or if/how it can be made to work with RGT.

The intent of this thread was to present the solution information and provide links to the applicable resources needed to be successful. At the time I was involved in posting information here, I had active configurations in use and could confirm a couple different Tacx trainers (iMagic green, and Fortius blue) ran perfectly on my Windows 10 64-bit OS. As I no longer have these trainers in my possession (gave them away for others to use), I cannot do any more testing in this regard.

Please direct any ongoing issues/questions to the project, located at: https://github.com/WouterJD/FortiusANT/issues

Cheers.