Just purchased Tacx Vortex - Zwift? Do I need a dongle for PC?

[jinkler]

Could someone clarify what I need to buy, if anything else extra?

I've got a Tacx Vortex Smart coming on Saturday. I want to use it with Zwift running on my laptop.

My laptop has bluetooth built-in.

Do I need to buy an extra bluetooth dongle? Or do I need to buy an ant+ USB dongle?

Thanks!

 

[stumpy66]

I've no experience of the turbo, but from reading user reviews (Wiggle) it looks like you will need an ant + dongle

 

[theboxers]

If your laptop is bluetooth smart it should work with the tacx softwate and some others, I am not sure about zwift. An Ant+ dongle can be bought relatively cheap, from about £20. I would get one just to open up other software platforms.

 

[jinkler]

Thanks for the responses.

As I've zero experience with an ant+ dongle, it looks I can get one from Amazon for just under a tenner:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anself-Bla...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482441268&sr=8-1&keywords=ant+

I assume one ant+ dongle is the same as another, it all supports the same standard?

 

[uclown2002]

This one works well with zwift.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suunto-Mov...TF8&qid=1482442975&sr=8-1&keywords=ant+suunto

You might need a usb extention cable depending on the proximity of your laptop to turbo.

 

[gbrown]

This one works well with zwift.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suunto-Mov...TF8&qid=1482442975&sr=8-1&keywords=ant+suunto

You might need a usb extention cable depending on the proximity of your laptop to turbo.

this

 

[fossyant]

Suunto or the Garmin one - I went with the Garmin sensor and an extension lead - means the sensor can be near the turbo.

 

[Garry A]

I have the Anself stick (£9.99) and an extension lead (£2) both from Amazon. Both work. Bluetooth on myTacx (while I had it) and laptop bluetooth did not talk to each other, Ant+ was fine though.

 

[Milkfloat]

I use a cheap as chips eBay version, no extension required. I think it was about a fiver - does exactly the same as the £30 Garmin version.