Wahoo computer compatibility with Levo/Kenevo

Stretch

Member
Feb 11, 2018
33
23
UK, Fleet
I was looking at getting a cycling computer. One make that seems good value for money is the Wahoo. The question I have is does anyone know if it's possible to get Levo/Kenevo Battery and Motor Mode (Turbo/Trail/Eco) information to display on the Wahoo? I know it's possible with some of the Garmin.
 

AndyDuk

Member
May 17, 2018
9
6
Swinley
So the Wahoo will show the battery % left , but not the mode. I get round this by using blevo with voice prompts and having my mobile set to full volume . Drives my non emtb riding partner nuts but it's so much easier than looking at a display . I've got the ELEMNT but it's quite chunky so go with the Bolt, smaller screen, 2hrs less battery life and £50 cheaper!
 

AndyDuk

Member
May 17, 2018
9
6
Swinley
So the Wahoo will show the battery % left , but not the mode. I get round this by using blevo with voice prompts and having my mobile set to full volume . Drives my non emtb riding partner nuts but it's so much easier than looking at a display . I've got the ELEMNT but it's quite chunky so go with the Bolt, smaller screen, 2hrs less battery life and £50 cheaper!

Whoops forgot to add it shows the battery percentage left via the fake channel setup in the Mission Control App :)
 

Rob Rides EMTB

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Staff member
Subscriber
Jan 14, 2018
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Surrey, UK
I was looking at getting a cycling computer. One make that seems good value for money is the Wahoo. The question I have is does anyone know if it's possible to get Levo/Kenevo Battery and Motor Mode (Turbo/Trail/Eco) information to display on the Wahoo? I know it's possible with some of the Garmin.
HI Stretch,

Battery yes, other stuff no, but @Cyclejunkie has messaged them regarding the ability to partner with the Levo, like the Garmin does, here's their response:

"Thank you so much for taking the time to get in touch. Although I cannot go in to specifics, this is on our product road map and timeline for future firmware upgrades. We hope that you will stick with Wahoo whilst we continually update our products in order to better service you, our customers."
 

diver

Member
Aug 1, 2018
10
8
Germany
Hi,
i am using the Wahoo Bolt with the 2018s Levo with Levos own sensors.

Displaying speed, cadence, Hearthrate and Power works fine.
But the distance and average speed are always wrong.

Anyone else having similar problems or know a workaround?

Greats.d.
 

khorn

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Patreon
Jul 19, 2018
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Denmark
Hi,
i am using the Wahoo Bolt with the 2018s Levo with Levos own sensors.

Displaying speed, cadence, Hearthrate and Power works fine.
But the distance and average speed are always wrong.

Anyone else having similar problems or know a workaround?

Greats.d.
In order to get the correct speed displayed you will have to set up the rear wheel circumference in Mission Control. If you have upgraded to version 2.0 you are doomed as it is now a fixed number and cannot be changed...... Crappy software ☹️

Karsten
 

diver

Member
Aug 1, 2018
10
8
Germany
In order to get the correct speed displayed you will have to set up the rear wheel circumference in Mission Control. If you have upgraded to version 2.0 you are doomed as it is now a fixed number and cannot be changed...... Crappy software ☹️

Karsten


I have still the old SW and circumference is set correct. *edit: the displayed speed is always correct*"

In the attached file you can see what happens to the recorded speed as soon as i connect the Levos "Powermeter" sensor.

wahoo.JPG
 

khorn

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Patreon
Jul 19, 2018
980
1,054
Denmark
I have still the old SW and circumference is set correct.
In the attached file you can see what happens to the recorded speed as soon as i connect the Levos "Powermeter" sensor.

View attachment 5472
I do have a Garmin 1030 and I have had no issues with power and speed indications. Maybe try and borrow another cycle computer and see if it is the ANT+ signal or your Bolt that is the issue.

Karsten
 

diver

Member
Aug 1, 2018
10
8
Germany
I do have a Garmin 1030 and I have had no issues with power and speed indications. Maybe try and borrow another cycle computer and see if it is the ANT+ signal or your Bolt that is the issue.

Karsten

I bought a Garmin 520 and everything works as it should.
It seems the Wahoo Bolt and 2018 Levo are not completely compatible.
 

m1bjr

Member
Oct 22, 2018
23
13
Plymouth, UK
It's still the same issue as of November 2019 with a Wahoo and 2019 Levo sensors.
Diver is correct of course, Wahoo app sees a powered-on Levo as a POWERMETER device.
But it clearly gets cadence and speed data from it also, even they are not shown. I think the Spesh uses a correction factor in the rear wheel rotation sensor that Wahoo is not interpreting or correcting. I think this would be a simple software fix to be honest, for Wahoo.
If you upload to STRAVA then distance is out by almost x2. So then the average speed is almost double also. It's clearly a speed signal issue - Strava takes wheel speed sensor data OVER AND ABOVE the GPS speed data if it exists in the file. The same Wahoo file dumped to other apps like KOMOOT show it all correct. Perhaps Komoot only uses the GPS data? Or KOMOOT ignores the suspect wheel speed data, who knows.
 

kellermann

Member
Nov 2, 2018
45
18
Germany
My 2018 Levo is also paired with my Bolt under a Sensor "Specialized" where i can see "Speed" and "Cadence". With "Speed" i can adjust the real wheel size, so speed and distance data are correct in Strava, Komoot, RWGPS, Garmin Connect ....
 

RipTide

Member
Sep 2, 2019
26
14
California
Does anyone know if the computer integration has improved for Specialized Turbo Levo's? Looking for a computer for the 2020 Turbo Levo and I would like to find a display that shows: Speed, Distance, Cadence, Battery Life, and Assist Mode as a base feature. Then extra would be a heart rate monitor - sounds like this can be accomplished if the device has Bluetooth.
Looking at the forum and seeing posts that say the data is incorrect, or missing, or has to use a "fake" something to connect is concerning. Anyone with experience with Wahoo Bolt or Garmin 530?
I have read DC Rainmaker Garmin 530 and Wahoo Element Roam reviews, neither said if the device is a "native" connection support for Turbo Levo. (Perhaps it could be that I don't understand ANT connections yet.)
Just looking for what other Turbo Levo riders are using for their computer displays.
 

Sepp62

Member
Nov 21, 2018
22
26
Germany
Long story short: I have owned a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt for a year and if I had to vote again today, I would take a Garmin 530.

In depth: The Levo has ANT+ and Bluetooth interfaces. Wahoo supports various Bluetooth devices as well as various ANT+ profiles. ANT-profiles provide standards for highly compatible device communication. Speed, power, cadence etc. is provided by the Levo via ANT+ profiles, which the Wahoo knows. Not so with the "support level" and the "remaining battery capacity". These values are provided by the Levo via the so-called "LEV" profile. This profile is not supported by Wahoo. Therefore the only solution is the "fake channel", where you have to sacrifice your heart rate or cadence.

Garmin supports an interface that gives programmers access to ANT data. Therefore, there are 3rd party apps (besides Garmin's own solution) that display e-bike data. A clear plus for Garmin.

By the way: I had several contacts with the Wahoo support, if the LEV profile will be implemented there. After wating for one year now, my hope is very low. Instead I built a converter module that converts the data of the LEV profile to the "muscle oxygen value" and the "gear indicator". But this is something for nerds and not a general solution.
 

RipTide

Member
Sep 2, 2019
26
14
California
Long story short: I have owned a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt for a year and if I had to vote again today, I would take a Garmin 530.

In depth: The Levo has ANT+ and Bluetooth interfaces. Wahoo supports various Bluetooth devices as well as various ANT+ profiles. ANT-profiles provide standards for highly compatible device communication. Speed, power, cadence etc. is provided by the Levo via ANT+ profiles, which the Wahoo knows. Not so with the "support level" and the "remaining battery capacity". These values are provided by the Levo via the so-called "LEV" profile. This profile is not supported by Wahoo. Therefore the only solution is the "fake channel", where you have to sacrifice your heart rate or cadence.

Garmin supports an interface that gives programmers access to ANT data. Therefore, there are 3rd party apps (besides Garmin's own solution) that display e-bike data. A clear plus for Garmin.

By the way: I had several contacts with the Wahoo support, if the LEV profile will be implemented there. After wating for one year now, my hope is very low. Instead I built a converter module that converts the data of the LEV profile to the "muscle oxygen value" and the "gear indicator". But this is something for nerds and not a general solution.

Thank you for your 2020 hindsight; i will look very closely at the the Garmin 530. I was worried when Garmin only listed the Shimano STEPS ebike system. I was hoping a manufacturer would have listed Specialized Turbo Levo too on their website.
 

diver

Member
Aug 1, 2018
10
8
Germany
Long story short: I have owned a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt for a year and if I had to vote again today, I would take a Garmin 530.

In depth: The Levo has ANT+ and Bluetooth interfaces. Wahoo supports various Bluetooth devices as well as various ANT+ profiles. ANT-profiles provide standards for highly compatible device communication. Speed, power, cadence etc. is provided by the Levo via ANT+ profiles, which the Wahoo knows. Not so with the "support level" and the "remaining battery capacity". These values are provided by the Levo via the so-called "LEV" profile. This profile is not supported by Wahoo. Therefore the only solution is the "fake channel", where you have to sacrifice your heart rate or cadence.

Garmin supports an interface that gives programmers access to ANT data. Therefore, there are 3rd party apps (besides Garmin's own solution) that display e-bike data. A clear plus for Garmin.

By the way: I had several contacts with the Wahoo support, if the LEV profile will be implemented there. After wating for one year now, my hope is very low. Instead I built a converter module that converts the data of the LEV profile to the "muscle oxygen value" and the "gear indicator". But this is something for nerds and not a general solution.


Wahoo finaly did it:
Added: ANT+ LEV Compatibility for compatible E-Bikes
All 2019 and 2020+ Turbo Bikes support ANT+ LEV.

I hope they also fixed it for the 2018 models.
 

diver

Member
Aug 1, 2018
10
8
Germany
Wahoo finaly did it:
Added: ANT+ LEV Compatibility for compatible E-Bikes
All 2019 and 2020+ Turbo Bikes support ANT+ LEV.

I hope they also fixed it for the 2018 models.

After lots of testing it looks like they sadly did not fix the bugs for the 2018 and older levos. Average speed and distance are still displayed/recorded wrong.

But they added fields for 'battery level' and 'mode'.

Battery charging cycles and total distance is now shown in the Sensor Setup.

Im disapointed by the wahoo support as they did not respond to this.
 

lloydbayliss

Member
Jun 24, 2019
22
37
UK
Getting same issues with distance data on my Bolt paired to my 2018 Levo. Great to have the Mode and Battery status displayed natively now, but with the distance being so far out it makes it next to useless. Did a geek test and logged a 12 odd mile ride with the Bolt, Endomondo on my Android phone and my Fitbit Charge 2 watch. All three devices have their own GPS receiver. Endo and Fitbit logged distances within a few tenths of a mile of each other, the Bolt logged around 9.5 miles. Downloaded the file from each device (had to convert the Bolt file to .tcx) and compared the XML of all three. All three were very close right through the ride, finishing within a few hundred meters at the end of the ride.

By the way, I strapped the Bolt onto my Scott Genius LT (non-electric) and did a similar test, the distance was very close across the board.

So obviously the Bolt is taking incorrect distance data from the Levo. I've bought the Blevo app and reset the speed limiter to standard (had been changed before I bought the bike second hand), so wheel diameter is correct but distance was still wildly inaccurate, and I've disconnected Strava from the Levo (MC) and Element. All I want the Bolt to do is to display and log the GPS signal that it's obviously receiving. Contacted Wahoo support and they came back to say that it takes data from an external sensor if one is available and you can't override that behaviour.

Now to me, this seems ludicrous. Why would you have a GPS computer, which connects and receives data perfectly, but ignore that for another sensor. Even if you would want to do that, why on earth would you not be able to manually override and tell it to use the perfectly good GPS data?

Don't understand. Was really pumped with the Bolt and the fact that Wahoo are actively developing the firmware, but now I feel I've made an expensive mistake.

Would love to hear other's thoughts on this.

(BTW, I believe things are better if you strap a speed sensor to the hub? Again, why on earth...)
 

AndyDuk

Member
May 17, 2018
9
6
Swinley
Getting same issues with distance data on my Bolt paired to my 2018 Levo. Great to have the Mode and Battery status displayed natively now, but with the distance being so far out it makes it next to useless. Did a geek test and logged a 12 odd mile ride with the Bolt, Endomondo on my Android phone and my Fitbit Charge 2 watch. All three devices have their own GPS receiver. Endo and Fitbit logged distances within a few tenths of a mile of each other, the Bolt logged around 9.5 miles. Downloaded the file from each device (had to convert the Bolt file to .tcx) and compared the XML of all three. All three were very close right through the ride, finishing within a few hundred meters at the end of the ride.

By the way, I strapped the Bolt onto my Scott Genius LT (non-electric) and did a similar test, the distance was very close across the board.

So obviously the Bolt is taking incorrect distance data from the Levo. I've bought the Blevo app and reset the speed limiter to standard (had been changed before I bought the bike second hand), so wheel diameter is correct but distance was still wildly inaccurate, and I've disconnected Strava from the Levo (MC) and Element. All I want the Bolt to do is to display and log the GPS signal that it's obviously receiving. Contacted Wahoo support and they came back to say that it takes data from an external sensor if one is available and you can't override that behaviour.

Now to me, this seems ludicrous. Why would you have a GPS computer, which connects and receives data perfectly, but ignore that for another sensor. Even if you would want to do that, why on earth would you not be able to manually override and tell it to use the perfectly good GPS data?

Don't understand. Was really pumped with the Bolt and the fact that Wahoo are actively developing the firmware, but now I feel I've made an expensive mistake.

Would love to hear other's thoughts on this.

(BTW, I believe things are better if you strap a speed sensor to the hub? Again, why on earth...)

Have you delimited your Levo ?
 

AndyDuk

Member
May 17, 2018
9
6
Swinley
If so to reset it to standard you would need the Lightblue Hack . As far as I am aware BLEvo doesn’t do this . The lightblue hack is changing the firmware on the bike with a new value ..

So reseting it to standard via BLEvo isn’t the same .
You have two choices

1) Buy a wahoo speed sensor for £30 and enjoy the correct distance at whatever mode you are sat at .

2) Reset the Levo to default via Lightblue hack .

Option 1 is the best option as you can then decide whatever assistance ratio you want or hack and the sensor is controlled outside of the motor :)
 

AndyDuk

Member
May 17, 2018
9
6
Swinley
It’s not just Wahoo that suffers with this . Garmin would as well . It’s a combination of the change in wheel size in the bikes firmware to increase the speed ..
 

lloydbayliss

Member
Jun 24, 2019
22
37
UK
Hi Andy,

Thanks for your reply.

It was certainly de-restricted somehow. Like I said, I bought the Blevo app the other day and set it back to 25kph limit, which you can certainly feel kick in now. Haven't heard of the Lightblue Hack though, I'll have a read up on it.

Having another dig around I found the option to set the wheel size in the LEV sensor on the Elemnt app, so I'll see if that makes a difference tomorrow. It didn't when I tried it on the fake channel.

So I assume somewhere in the firmware, the computer is told to favour the Levo sensor over GPS and the speed sensor over the Levo... Why would you not be able to force it to favour GPS over everything? It is a GPS computer after all! Just doesn't make sense to me. Or is that just me?

Lloyd
 

AndyDuk

Member
May 17, 2018
9
6
Swinley
Hi Lloyd
That’s worth a go ! Let me know how you get on . So when connecting my Kenevo it’s coming up as a speed / cadence / power meter and the wahoo is registering that ( I have an older Elemnt but it has the same fire ware as your bolt ) !

I guess Wahoo in their wisdom decided we wouldn’t be hacking these things , so if the bike is at a factory level, all of these settings would be correct . When it comes to distance , this is calculated from your speed (wheelsize * wheel rotations ) so if the gps signal is broken (as often in forested areas) , the bike computer can still plot your travel and fill in the gaps ..

I’ve got a Garmin 830 which is pants with its Bluetooth stack and keeps disconnecting !
Honestly the Wahoo Elemnt has been so much more stable ! Although I do have a speed sensor on the front wheel ..
Where did you find the LEV wheel size setting ? I am intrigued now !

Andy
 

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