Suunto Race 2 does not receive power from Decathlon D500 V2 smart trainer – possible FTMS compatibility issue?
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Hi everyone,
I’m trying to find a way to record cycling power from my Decathlon D500 V2 smart trainer directly on my Suunto Race 2, but so far I haven’t been able to get it working.
The problem
When I try to connect the Suunto Race 2 directly to the D500 V2, the watch detects it only as a speed and cadence sensor. It does not receive or record power in watts.
My suspicion is that this might be related to the Bluetooth FTMS (Fitness Machine Service) profile used by the smart trainer. Perhaps the trainer exposes power through FTMS, while the Suunto Race 2 expects a standard Bluetooth Cycling Power Service (a conventional external power meter/sensor). I’m not sure whether this is actually the cause, so I’d appreciate confirmation from anyone familiar with these protocols.
I tried with QZ app
I use QZ on an iPad and wanted to use it as a bridge between the trainer and the watch:
The D500 V2 would connect to QZ using FTMS.
QZ would control the trainer’s resistance and read its power data.
QZ would then broadcast that power as a standard Bluetooth power sensor.
The Suunto Race 2 could pair with this virtual sensor as a Power POD and record watts during the workout.
I enabled the relevant Bike Power Sensor option in QZ and searched for sensors on the Suunto Race 2.
The watch detected a device called “QZ”, and I was able to select it. However, when I tried to pair it, my iPad repeatedly displayed a Bluetooth pairing request asking me to enter a code shown on the Suunto Race 2. Cancelling the request did not solve the issue; it kept appearing again.
I therefore haven’t managed to confirm whether QZ is actually broadcasting a compatible Cycling Power Service that the Suunto can use. The fact that the watch detects “QZ” does not necessarily mean that it is receiving power data correctly.
My questions
Does the Suunto Race 2 support receiving power from a smart trainer over FTMS, or does it require a standard Bluetooth Cycling Power Service?
Has anyone successfully connected a Decathlon D500 V2, or another FTMS smart trainer, to a Suunto watch and recorded power directly?
Is it possible for QZ on iPadOS to broadcast trainer power as a standard Bluetooth Cycling Power Service while still allowing Zwift to control the trainer’s resistance?
Has anyone encountered the repeated Bluetooth pairing-code request when trying to connect QZ to a Suunto watch? Is there a way to prevent the iPad from trying to pair directly with the watch?
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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@Maryn Suunto watches do not have FTMS, you need to pair it as BLE power meters with QZ, but that works only if you run QZ on a Mac (not iPad or iPhone).
Watch: Suunto Vertical 2 Titanium Black
Blog: isazi's home
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@isazi thanks! Finally, something that might actually work—but I don’t have a Mac
Android will work?
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@Maryn Android it would work on Garmin using an ANT+ dongle, unfortunately as far as I know Mac is the only solution, unless it works also on Linux if you self-compile QZ yourself.
I am using it that way, however I did not investigate further since I manged to have this work a year ago, so maybe something change. The author of QZ is very responsive.
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I have the same issue with a Van Rysel D500 V2 smart trainer and a Suunto Race S.
The D500 V2 supports only one Bluetooth connection, so I bought an ANT+ USB dongle to connect the trainer to MyWhoosh via ANT+. I then connected my Suunto Race S directly to the trainer via Bluetooth. The watch detected the trainer, but it did not display any power data.
I now have MyWhoosh integrated with Intervals.icu, so all my training data is available there. However, I would also like to get the complete activity data into Suunto.
Here is what I have tried so far:
MyWhoosh FIT export → Suunto Route Planner: I uploaded the exported activity through https://routeplanner.suunto.com/, but the activity in Suunto only contains detailed speed data.
Intervals.icu export → Suunto Route Planner: This time, I get detailed heart rate and speed data, but no complete power data.
FitnessSyncer: I tried https://www.fitnesssyncer.com/, but the synchronization did not work properly and some data was missing.
So far, I haven’t found a reliable way to transfer all the data from MyWhoosh to Suunto, especially power data.
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@sunter there is also quantified-self.io that can send to suunto from wahoo , coros and garmin. If one of those can get your data you might manage.
Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
Creator of quantified-self.io — a next gen training dashboard with MCP access, cross-service activity and route sync
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@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos after exporting the data this way, will Suunto App take into account the power zones set on the watch to calculate TSS correctly?
Suunto Race 2, Edge 530, Suunto Wings, Polar H10&Verity Sense, Suunto Smart Belt
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@Maryn unfortunatelly no . That is a limitation from the app it self
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Same with Van rysel RCR trainer and Vertical 2. The trainer has only one channel and can´t send power only while connected to PC with BT. Even if I read somewhere that it has three channels :-). Tacx Flux S did that but only with ANT+ while BT connected to PC or ANT+ to PC and BT power to watch.
Suunto Vertical 2 titanium
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Intervals.icu export → Suunto Route Planner: This time, I get detailed heart rate and speed data, but no complete power data.
I think, that Suunto can import only HR and speed. Because even direct export Rouvy to Suunto contains HR and speed charts only. Power is imported as the average value and normalized power. It´s a shame but better than nothing
Suunto Vertical 2 titanium
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@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos after exporting the data this way, will Suunto App take into account the power zones set on the watch to calculate TSS correctly?
Suunto is working on that:
https://forum.suunto.com/topic/15957/feature-request-user-defined-hr-zones-for-imported-activities
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@HonzaS it has two bluetooth channels. My forerunner 970 see two channels and in the same time edge 530 is connected via ant+.
Support for BT FTMS would be nice. Amazfit recently added it. Coros did so earlier. It’s been available on Garmin for a long time.
Suunto Race 2, Edge 530, Suunto Wings, Polar H10&Verity Sense, Suunto Smart Belt
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@sunter if you import it it uses the suunto zones not what your bike computer might have. For example if not mistaken garmin has 7 power zones and those dont map to suunto especially for TSS if it makes any sense.
So yes tss comes but uses your Suunto zones
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@HonzaS they import hte power -> the apps cannot show it due to a missing implementation. Its known. And TSS as I replied before is gotten via the Suunto Zones
Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
Creator of quantified-self.io — a next gen training dashboard with MCP access, cross-service activity and route sync
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@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Just to be sure
Will the Suunto power zones I’ve set for cycling on my watch—for example, Race 2—be taken into account when calculating TSS from data exported by Quantified, Syncmytrack, etc.? -
@Maryn I was mistaken just checked my rides -> its HR tss
based on Suunto hr zones -
@HonzaS it has two bluetooth channels. My forerunner 970 see two channels and in the same time edge 530 is connected via ant+.
Your D500? You’re lucky. I just tried my Van Rysel RCR and it has only one BT FTMS channel and ANT+ FEC plus ANT+ power and cadence.
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@HonzaS yes, I have D500 V2.
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@isazi how can I run QZ on a Mac? In the App Store it is only for IPhone or IPad.
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@mareeeeeel I downloaded (paying) from the app store on MacOS
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