Tips & Troubleshooting

How realistic is riding with ErControl?

A good question, and not one with an easy answer. The philosophy behind ErControl’s development is to make riding as realistic as possible. ErControl therefore deliberately has no separate “realistic” setting.

That an average person can’t ride a 200 km Tour de France stage in one go is probably obvious to everyone - and it would also spoil all the fun. That’s exactly why such a mammoth profile can be tackled in several separate rides: when starting a topographic profile, you choose the start distance in the start window and pick up again where you stopped last time, see Profiles.

And if it’s still too hard going uphill even in first gear, you can shift down further (also below gear 1) or deactivate the gear shifter and set the power yourself - see the next point for that.

Riding uphill with the gear shifter – too hard even in first gear

First, shifting down further helps: with Numpad - (see Keyboard shortcuts during training) you shift down past gear 1 to gear 0, -1, -2 and so on, as long as that gear’s power is still above the minimum of the connected training device - there’s no separate setting for this anymore, see Virtual Gear Shifting. If that doesn’t help, lowering Realitätsfaktor bei Steigung (reality factor for gradient) or Leistung 1. Gang bei 0 % Steigung (power for gear 1 at 0% gradient) under Settings (Ergometer tab) reduces the power overall. All four gear-shifting values can also be changed directly during training in the settings panel (gear icon at the top right, see Training window) - restarting the training isn’t necessary for that.

If that is not enough either, you can deactivate the gear shifter via Numpad 0 and set the power yourself instead:

Normally via the ergometer’s own +/- buttons.
If these stop responding once the ergometer has been controlled by the PC, the PC-only power control setting under Settings (Ergometer tab) helps - the Numpad +/- keys then take over power control in steps of the device’s step size (default 5 watts).

Speed changes at gradient changes when riding without the gear shifter

At the points in the profile where the gradient changes, the speed is also recalculated. ErControl makes these transitions smooth: the gradient is smoothed over a 30 m window instead of jumping abruptly at profile points. On the bike ergometer, ErControl also models the inertia of the mass, so the speed gradually approaches the new gradient’s value instead of adjusting abruptly. The speed therefore changes noticeably at gradient changes, but smoothly - as when riding on the road.

Note

This also applies with virtual gear shifting active (see Virtual Gear Shifting): the speed eases into the power calculated from gear and gradient. The cross-trainer, on the other hand, has no inertia - there, speed follows power directly (though the smoothing of the gradient still applies there too).

The recovery pulse measurement is wrong

This can happen if the ergometer’s own recovery pulse button was pressed. Please don’t press that button. With recovery pulse measurement enabled (see Settings, Training tab), the measurement starts automatically at the end of the training session (cadence = 0).

Speed/distance covered doesn’t match the ergometer’s own data

The formula the ergometer uses to calculate speed and the calculation in ErControl are not necessarily identical. An ergometer, for example, determines speed solely from cadence, whereas ErControl calculates it from the power, the rider’s weight and the gradient (with an active virtual gear shifter, from the power that results from gear and gradient, see Virtual Gear Shifting). Since the distance covered also follows from the speed, the two values differ accordingly.

The ANT+ heart rate strap is not found or drops out intermittently

ANT+ has no pairing: a heart rate strap simply transmits as soon as it is in operation, and any receiver in range can hear it - a pairing mode (such as Bluetooth pairing of the strap) is not necessary for this. If the strap is not found in the device selection or the heart rate drops out:

Put on the strap and moisten the electrodes. Many straps only transmit with skin contact, and dry electrodes cause dropouts.
Keep the distance to the ANT+ stick small and place the stick freely, for example on a USB extension cable instead of directly at the back of the computer next to other USB 3 devices.
If the heart rate only drops out briefly, ErControl reconnects the strap automatically; the search runs without a time limit.

The Bluetooth heart rate monitor (watch) cannot be connected

Before connecting, ErControl waits up to 5 seconds for a message from the device. If it does not respond, it counts as unreachable and ErControl tries again. For a watch, heart rate transmission must therefore be started; re-pairing after restarting the watch is no longer necessary. A device that is currently connected to another program usually does not transmit.

The serial ergometer reports “A nonexistent device was specified”

If the log shows an error opening COM4 (or another port) with the text “A nonexistent device was specified” (German Windows: „Ein nicht vorhandenes Gerät wurde angegeben“), the COM port does not (or no longer) exist in Windows. ErControl then never reaches the ergometer; the cause lies before that.

A common cause is a USB-to-serial adapter with a Prolific PL2303 chip: Windows Update installs a newer Prolific driver on its own, which no longer supports older chips and clones. Device Manager then shows a notice such as “PL2303TA DO NOT SUPPORT WINDOWS 11 OR LATER” on the adapter, and the COM port disappears. The adapter itself is not broken.

Download the Prolific driver 3.9.0.2 (July 2021, for Windows 11) from the Prolific website and install it: in Device Manager, select the adapter, Update driver, Browse my computer for drivers and enter the folder containing the file SER2PL_1.inf. Then unplug the adapter and plug it in again; it appears again as “Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COMx)” without a warning icon.
So that Windows Update does not replace the driver again, turn off driver updates in Windows Update: in a Command Prompt as administrator, run reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f and restart the computer (on Windows Pro, alternatively use the policy Do not include drivers with Windows Updates). This applies to all devices; drivers then come only from the manufacturer. You can undo it by setting the value to 0.
A permanent fix is an adapter with an FTDI chip, which is not affected by this problem.

Even without a Prolific chip, it is worth checking Device Manager under Ports (COM & LPT): a newly plugged-in adapter may get a different COM number, which then has to be selected again under Devices in the device’s detail area.