New Wahoo Bolt replacement

[haze513]

Okay, so last couple of races I've ended my warm up and both times the Bolt has failed to pick up my Power2Max when starting the new session (the main event!)

Anyone else getting similar?

Will try rebooting between sessions next time ...

[ChristianB]

I'm considering getting a Bolt V2, but just wanted to hear if firmware updates have ironed out the small wrinkles that seem to exist with some units. What are peoples experience now?
Thanks for the answers

[Lakal]

It is still not able to zero calibrate my Stages PM.
That is the only major problem right now.

[haze513]

Sent mine back in the end, it stopped connecting to one of my PM's - perhaps one of the many firmware updates had broken it.

The power data was very much needed heading into winter, I gave it a couple of months but Wahoo couldn't seem to sort it.

Gone back to Garmin.

[TheDoctor]

It's weird how experiences with the V2 vary. I personally have had zero issues with mine from the beginning - no pairing difficulties or dropouts between several bikes/powermeter, heart rate monitors etc., my device has been working fine and still is after the x millionth update.

[Tiaxx]

It's weird how experiences with the V2 vary. I personally have had zero issues with mine from the beginning - no pairing difficulties or dropouts between several bikes/powermeter, heart rate monitors etc., my device has been working fine and still is after the x millionth update.

Same here.
Zero issues since i bought it. Super happy with it.

[haze513]

Should probably add I was entirely happy with it up until that point, couple of minor glitches but nothing I couldn't tolerate until a fix arrived...but losing my PM connection was a deal breaker.

[robbosmans]

Digging this back up to see if all the issues have been fixed. Is the Wahoo Bolt V2 now reliable?
Looking to upgrade before the resale value of my V1 drops completely

[greycat]

My bolt V2 won't sync or connect for firmware updates over my home router.

Here's what I have to do.
I setup a hotspot on my phone
In element app add my hotspot to available connections for bolt.

Once done turn off my phone hotspot.

[thirdsun]

My bolt V2 won't sync or connect for firmware updates over my home router.

Here's what I have to do.
I setup a hotspot on my phone
In element app add my hotspot to available connections for bolt.

Once done turn off my phone hotspot.

Unless something has changed the Elemnt devices still generate a new random MAC address every time they connect to your network. A MAC address is like a unique, fixed id for network devices. Most routers use it to assign the same IP whenever a device connects. Due to Elemnt devices constantly changing their MAC address it's likely that your router simply ran out of assignable IP addresses since your Wahoo device with its rotating MAC addresses used all assignable IPs up.

I actually ran into to this problem and had to change the lease time (the time the router tries to keep the same IPs for re-connecting decices) to a much lower value. Now it discards all IP assignments daily. Depending on your router you could probably look up all those IP assignments for your Elemnt and delete them to free up IPs (on my router they show up as generic android device). However you should still shorten the lease time to avoid these issues in the future.

Let me emphasize again you insane this behavior is. I don't know why Wahoo would generate a new MAC address on every network connect. It's very easy to run into this problem and unless you're familiar with network administration you will never figure this out. And even if you do this behavior is completely unexpected. I just learned about it by accident and luckily remembered when it happened to me.

[greycat]

Thanks for explaining the issue. I will go adjust the router to clear up the ip addresses. Rather irritating

[Lakal]

It is slow to find the satellites, and it is still not able to zero calibrate Stages PM properly..
I tried the Turn by turn navigation in january in Calpe and it was useless.
I bought my V2 in may last year but I still use my V1.
V2 seems to be a waste of money.

[darrydonds]

Unless something has changed the Elemnt devices still generate a new random MAC address every time they connect to your network. A MAC address is like a unique, fixed id for network devices. Most routers use it to assign the same IP whenever a device connects. Due to Elemnt devices constantly changing their MAC address it's likely that your router simply ran out of assignable IP addresses since your Wahoo device with its rotating MAC addresses used all assignable IPs up.

I actually ran into to this problem and had to change the lease time (the time the router tries to keep the same IPs for re-connecting decices) to a much lower value. Now it discards all IP assignments daily. Depending on your router you could probably look up all those IP assignments for your Elemnt and delete them to free up IPs (on my router they show up as generic android device). However you should still shorten the lease time to avoid these issues in the future.

Let me emphasize again you insane this behavior is. I don't know why Wahoo would generate a new MAC address on every network connect. It's very easy to run into this problem and unless you're familiar with network administration you will never figure this out. And even if you do this behavior is completely unexpected. I just learned about it by accident and luckily remembered when it happened to me.

It is not an insane behavior. It's to prevent device tracking, for privacy reasons. (If a device connects to various public wi-fi using the same MAC, then it is possible for someone to determine the owner's habits, routine, where she hangs out, etc.) This is what Wahoo Support website says:

"ELEMNT/BOLT/ROAM use dynamic, randomized MAC addresses for privacy and security purposes as prescribed in Android documentation, making them incompatible with networks utilizing MAC address filters or whitelists."

Apple iOS devides now have the same feature/behavior.

One thing though is that this should be better documented.

[Lina]

But why'd you ever connect your head unit to random networks. It's one of those devices that you pretty much only need to connect to your home network. Or if you're away you can use your phone's connection.

[thirdsun]

Unless something has changed the Elemnt devices still generate a new random MAC address every time they connect to your network. A MAC address is like a unique, fixed id for network devices. Most routers use it to assign the same IP whenever a device connects. Due to Elemnt devices constantly changing their MAC address it's likely that your router simply ran out of assignable IP addresses since your Wahoo device with its rotating MAC addresses used all assignable IPs up.

I actually ran into to this problem and had to change the lease time (the time the router tries to keep the same IPs for re-connecting decices) to a much lower value. Now it discards all IP assignments daily. Depending on your router you could probably look up all those IP assignments for your Elemnt and delete them to free up IPs (on my router they show up as generic android device). However you should still shorten the lease time to avoid these issues in the future.

Let me emphasize again you insane this behavior is. I don't know why Wahoo would generate a new MAC address on every network connect. It's very easy to run into this problem and unless you're familiar with network administration you will never figure this out. And even if you do this behavior is completely unexpected. I just learned about it by accident and luckily remembered when it happened to me.

It is not an insane behavior. It's to prevent device tracking, for privacy reasons. (If a device connects to various public wi-fi using the same MAC, then it is possible for someone to determine the owner's habits, routine, where she hangs out, etc.) This is what Wahoo Support website says:

"ELEMNT/BOLT/ROAM use dynamic, randomized MAC addresses for privacy and security purposes as prescribed in Android documentation, making them incompatible with networks utilizing MAC address filters or whitelists."

Apple iOS devides now have the same feature/behavior.

One thing though is that this should be better documented.

Apple devices randomize their MAC address for each network/SSID but keep the MAC address constant within that network. Wahoo randomizes it for each and every connection to the same network. Apple's approach prevents tracking without clogging up the IP pool. Wahoo's approach is just terrible.

Furthermore I don't think anti-tracking measures should be a priority for a bike computer which most people probably only ever connect to a single network. However that's debatable and an easy fix is Apple's much more reasonable way to handle it.