Wahoo Kickr Core in Homeassistant

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1

I recently bought a home trainer (Wahoo KICKR Core) to keep in shape over the winter.

For the uninitiated: this device lets you mount your bike onto a trainer by removing the rear wheel. The trainer then controls resistance at the hub.

I’m mainly using ERG mode, where you set a specific power target and the trainer ensures you hit that target regardless of cadence—perfect for riding while watching some TV show.

Changing the resistance can be done primarily using:

  • the Wahoo app
  • a virtual game such as Zwift

Zwift also developed their own physical controls, but they only work with Zwift. There’s a project that makes them usable with other software, but since I mostly care about ERG mode (which is managed by the trainer itself), I don’t really need much software at all. Using the Wahoo app works fine, but I’d prefer a physical button.

The obvious solution was controlling the KICKR Core through Home Assistant:

Luckily, thanks to this repository (github DOT com/elfrances/wahoo-fitness-tnp) reverse-engineering the protocol (and a bit of AI), an integration was quickly written:

The integration supports:

  • autodiscovery
  • sensors: power, cadence, speed
  • controlling: ERG wattage, Gradient

It also allows controlling the grade if you don’t want to use ERG mode.

With this + Home Assistant, it opens up a wide variety of options:

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2

This is great! Just what I was looking for! I want to automate my fan, heatpump and other things when I start riding.

Is it possible to use this integration and at the same time use Zwift/MyWhoosh? Or can the trainer only have one connection at a time?

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Hey @nedberg,

I just tried this, and unfortunately it doesn’t work with MyWoosh, only one client can connect at the same time. I will investigate it some time.

What I tested so far and can confirm to work.

  • controlling the Kickr through the Wahoo app
  • home assistant can still read out all the values

So I know that two devices can connect, not sure why it doesn’t work with MyWoosh. (I don’t have Zwift)

Best

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4

@nedberg what I just tried and works is connecting the kickr to homeassistant via Wifi and then MyWoosh through Bluetooth.

Note: the integration anyway only works with Wifi.

I will debug a bit to check why MyWoosh can no longer connect through wifi (it just says pairing) when the HA integration is already connected.

5

Yeah, I just did a ride and noticed that it worked just fine. I use Mywhoosh on an Android tablet, and Android only connects with bluetooth.

I’ll set up some automations later!

Thanks a lot!

By the way: I reported an issue on Github. I was not able to install via HACS. I had to upload the cusom_component manually. No problem, but just thought you should know.

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6

I reported a new issue on GitHub. The integration seems to spam the database and use up alle available disk space.

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Thanks for the report :pray: I pushed some changes for smarter and better configurable sensor updates.

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The issue was resolved. It was due to the integration constantly forwarding the sensor updates at full speed to HA.

To mitigate, the integration now has a:

  • button to connect/disconnect from the device
  • automatic sleep detection (e.g. after x seconds of inactivity, only a heartbeat signal is forwarded to HA every y seconds)
  • also added throtteling (deactivated by default) to control the number of updates per second

I recommend using the connect/disconnect button whenever starting a training session though.

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