Two-way communication

Submitted by Soepkip on #1

Hi,

I am trying to use VirtualHere to connect a ANT+ USB sensor to a server. The VirtualHere server runs on a laptop with the USB device connected, and the client runs on the server.
The connection between the two works fine, but it seems to be only one way communication from VirtualHere server to client.
Is there a way to have a two-way communication (i.e. send and receive data from the USB device)?

Submitted by Michael on Sun, 2017/11/12 - 05:48

#2

I think what you are saying is that you want to use the ANT device on two machines as once, i.e on the server at the same time as the client. This is not physically possible. VirtualHere is like a usb extension cord and because a USB device only has one plug it will only work with one client machine at a time. This is they way USB devices are physically designed.

Submitted by Soepkip on Sun, 2017/11/12 - 21:31

#3

No, the trainer sends the power, RPM and speed signal through the ANT+ antenna to the PC. The PC sends the 'resistance' signal (slope) back to the trainer.
However, using VirtualHere the resistance of the trainer does not change, so my guess is that no data is send back from the (USB) client to the server.

Submitted by Michael on Mon, 2017/11/13 - 04:27

#4

OK so you have a setup similar to this ? https://zwift.com/hardware/ Instead of plugging the bike into usb into a computer you are plugging into a laptop. And your PC is remote and you are using virtualhere to bridge to two and the resistance doesnt change via virtualhere.

It sounds like it might be bug in the ant+ driver. I think it might be worth double checking the ant+ drivers are up-to-date for your dongle. VirtualHere will pass the usb signal back and forth without dropping packets or restricting it in any way.

If the OS where your client is running is not windows 10 i would recommend trying windows 10 at the client

Submitted by Soepkip on Tue, 2017/11/14 - 04:20

#5

Thanks. Yes, it is a setup similar to the 'smart trainer' on that website. Initially, I tried it with both a Windows 10 client and server, but for some reason the resistance did not change. I now tried it with a Linux server and this time it does work :).
I might have done something wrong the first time. It didn't make sense to work the way it did so I thought it might be a design choice or something. But now everything works as expected.