I want to be clear here: I’m not an experienced rower. I’m also not an experienced software or hardware hacker. But I do enjoy rowing workouts (although I’ve found them rather boring compared to Zwift’s indoor experience.) And I do enjoy a useful tech hack (but if if requires much research or testing, I usually don’t have the time to complete the project.)
So when I first heard of a few Zwifters who had figured out how to row in game (that is, use their rower to power their Zwift cycling avatar) I was intrigued. This was early in my Zwift life, and I spent some time poking around online, tried to get myself hooked up… and gave up after a couple hours. It was all doable with little or no extra hardware/software needed–but it would require too much time and learning on my part to implement. Not worth it.
Fast forward a couple years, and astute Zwift Insider reader Victor Bastiaansen emails me with news about a new feature in the PainSled app which makes it easy to connect your Concept2 to Zwift. It got my attention, so I headed down to the garage and spent 15 minutes setting it up. Viola! I was rowing on Zwift.
What You Need
- A Concept2 rower with the PM5 head unit
- An iOS device (iPhone or iPad) to run the PainSled app
- A device to run Zwift. This device must either support Bluetooth in Zwift (so you are limited to iOS devices, Apple TV, and Mac) OR you can use the Zwift Companion app to pick up the Bluetooth power signal and send it to your Zwift session, so you can Zwift on a PC or other device.
Getting Started
- Make sure your PM5’s firmware is up to date. (If you’re like me, you never updated it after purchasing the rower.) I connected the PM5 to my Windows laptop via USB, downloaded the Concept2 Utility, and updated the firmware. It’s a simple process.
- Install the PainSled app on your iOS device, then enable the ZWIFT option in the PainSled Log Settings page. (Click on the log icon, then “Settings” in the upper-left corner of the display.)
- Connect PainSled to your Concept2’s PM5. To do this, click More Options > Turn Wireless On on your PM5. Make sure Bluetooth is enabled on your iOS device, then your PM5 should quickly connect to PainSled. If you start rowing, you will see your wattage on the iOS device.
- On your Zwift device, connect to your PainSled iOS device as your power meter. You can also pair other sensors on your Zwift device (such as your HR monitor).
- Get Zwifting!
And that’s all there is to it. For me, I’m running PainSled on my iPhone, and Zwift on my iPad. It’s quick and easy to jump on whenever I’d like… faster than signing into Zwift on my PC, in fact.
Note: there are other ways of hooking this up (via Zwift Companion, the CABLE ANT to Bluetooth bridge, etc): see comments below for some of these ideas.
The Future of Rowing on Zwift
While rowers have had “Zwift-like” software available for years, bringing rowing into Zwift would surely take virtual rowing to a new level. ZwiftHQ has been toying with rowing since its early days, but chose (wisely) to concentrate on cyclists and runners first.
My hope is that we’ll see actual rowing avatars in Zwift within the next 3 years. But until that happens, rowing my bike up a hill is quite fun anyway. And while I can’t pull 1000 watts to win a sprint, I can sustain decent power (130-210w) for a good 30-60 minute workout which includes my upper body and keeps my avatar putting along nicely. And that’s a win in my book.
Row on!
Rowing on Zwift, in my messy garage.
Nice solution if you have multiple iOS devices available. Otherwise you can use CABLE from NPE to grab the ANT+ FE signal from the PM5 and have it convert to Cycling Power Service on BLE. It does heart rate too.
Can you give me an idiots guide? I’ve got my Concept2 hooked up to a Windows PC running Row Pro – no iOS devices in the house at all….
I didn’t realize the CABLE could convert it to a cycling power service. I’ll have to give that a try! Thanks, Rick.
The Viiiiva HRM also acts as an ANT+ to BLE bridge!
The NLE CABLE requires an iOS device to configure but Viiiiva offers both iOS and Android apps for managing it. (tbf to NLE, once you configure the CABLE, provided your hardware doesn’t change, you wouldn’t need iOS on a daily basis – borrow a friend’s iPhone)
I haven’t tested this config yet but I have the Viiiiva device on order – will report back in detail once it arrives and I’ve tested it with Android, Windows, and an AppleTV, and a C2 model D with PM5.
Following this up: Viiiiva is a big old NOPE. The hardware may (or may not) be capable but there’s no support to connect to a Concept2 rower Performance Monitor so it’s a dead end.
Just get the NLE CABLE (North Pole Engineering’s “Connect Ant to Bluetooth LE” and configure it to “tweak” the signal from the rower so it appears as a power tap to apps like Zwift.
The magic seems to be in NLE’s firmware/software/apps. iOS only right now but they hinted at an AppleTV and Android version way down the line – for now, borrow a friend’s iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or buy a cheap one to use solely to configure the CABLE device.
thanks – I’ll give this a go – I’ve written to Zwift and Concept2 a couple of times asking them to get their heads together – could easily imagine rowing up the virtual Thames in the London world…that said, not sure how they will simulate the Tideway 🙂
So, basically, unless you own iOS devices, it’s a no-go…. shame as I love my rower and love Zwift
PainSled has an Android app in beta… not sure when that’ll be done.
I will try this tonight. I have the PM5. Although I guess I will be rowing my bicycle……… LOL
I was using DigitalRowing.com but was paying $8.00 per month and hardly using it. So canceled it.
On the “A device to run Zwift. This device must support Bluetooth in Zwift, so you are limited to iOS devices, Apple TV, and Mac.” front, have you tried using Zwift Mobile Link as a Bluetooth bridge? That should enable PC users to play too.
https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/206576683-Bluetooth-LE-BLE-Support
I’ll have a go this evening if I can.
I’m so close but not able to get it to work. My phone connects to PM5, PainSled app works just fine. I can’t get Zwift to acknowledge the phone though…I run Zwift on surface pro 3, the little Bluetooth thing is pinging a circle on the paired devices screen, so I know my surface is connected to my iPhone, but it just searches unsuccessfully for a power source.
Any ideas what to do?
Don’t pair the Surface to your phone at all. The only connection will be to the phone in Zwift… if you’ve paired it outside of that, Zwift can’t pair with it.
Hmm. Ok I ‘forgot device’ so surface pairing to phone has been cut off. I’m back to original problem again where the ‘paired devices’ screen just pings the phone Bluetooth icon (I opened Zwift mobile app, it auto found my phone, without that I have the exclamation point warning on the phone Bluetooth icon.
Power source continues to be grayed out option, when selected it searches unsuccessfully ie nothing shows up.
Maybe the CABLE option is what will have to be done, bummer more money is involved.
I had problems until I followed instructions that are now available.
http://painsledsupport.com/
Thanks Eric. This will be very useful! and I hope to share with my rowing colleagues for winter training. I updated my firmware on my PM5 monitor to the latest version (25.001). I also have Painsled on my iphone 6 running with the Zwift tongle in settings turned on as directed. The Painsled monitor in the painsled phone app picks up all the data. Zwift on the ipad also picks up the iphone as a power source and connects, but then does not show any watts. Any suggestions?
Hmmm…. no idea. It sounds like everything is working and connected properly. If you’re seeing watts on your PainSled device, and you’re paired to that device in Zwift as the power source… that should be all you need.
Tried again and seems to work now! Thanks!
I looked into rowers as I wanted more gamified workout equipment and was amazed that Concept2 are basically the only option if you want ANT+ connectivity. I remember simple rowing games from 20-30 years ago and imagined it to be much further ahead but actually nothing much has changed since.
It seems like an industry ripe for disruption if Zwift were to enter backed up by cheaper rowing machines from a company like Wahoo (who seem to be the most likely trainer company to make such a move).
Agreed.
TOTALLY CONFUSED ON #4… DEVICE FOR BOTH.. ????
Not sure what you’re confused by, Keith? You need two iOS devices… one for running PainSled, one for running Zwift.
Eric, I got it working. Sorry for the confusion. Tried it last night on the London Greatest Loop. Climbed up Keith Hill. You have to pull harder/more watts to climb, which is like riding the bike up the hill. I stayed at 200 watts to see what it would do on both hills and flats. Was just making it at 4mph up the hill at 200w, but if you stay at the 200 watts going down, you really fly. So you still get the same effect just like riding a bike. In the login of Zwift, I have to tap on the 77×25 for some reason, but it all works. Thanks!
700×25 (mistake in above post
You don’t need to do the 700×25 thing… because you’re not pairing this as a trainer at all. You only need to pair it as a power source, and that’s it.
If you’re running Zwift on a pc (not Mac), you’ll also need zwift mobile link on a third device to act as a middle man between PainSled and Zwift on your pc.
I have the following working: PainSled app on iPhone, zwift mobile link on android tablet, zwift on pc laptop. Zwift quickly sees PainSled as my power source and heart rate and more reliably than zwift running with my milestone pod. I was on vacation over the holidays and figured out how to capture the 3 screens into a YouTube clip, albeit bad quality: https://youtu.be/xKX0VNPMeZM
I may do a follow-up post which explains other ways to get this set up. This is a good alternative which I haven’t tried. It sounds like you can also use the CABLE device instead of needing to have a device running PainSled… I need to test that. Thanks for sharing!
That would be fantastic if you could – I’m planning on trying to get it setup over the weekend, so all the info I can gather before then will help! Thanks for all the help so far Eric
Any chance of a setup that does not require an Apple product (i.e. works with pc and android phone)?
There totally is. You need a bridge device to “translate” the signals from the Concept2 rower PM5 to a signal format Zwift will accept.
The NPE “C.A.B.L.E.” (Convert Ant Bluetooth LE) and the Viiiiva HRM have similar capabilities to bridge ANT+ and BLE. (the Viiiiva is additionally an HRM – DCRainmaker writes about this if you Google his write-up)
Each of these requires a smartphone app to control them since they’re just tiny, CR2032-powered pods.
NLE only offers an iOS app to configure the CABLE pod but the Viiiiva HRM has both iOS and Android apps.
In fairness to NLE/CABLE: you could *borrow* an iOS device to configure it but then you’d need another one every time you make a change – just easier to get the Viiiiva I think.
I’m still waiting on the Viiiiva to arrive but will post detail results of the experiment once I do. If the bridging function works, I’m considering getting an Apple TV 4k to use as a “head-unit” since it reviews so well for Zwift play.
Following this up: Viiiiva is a big old NOPE. The hardware may (or may not) be capable but there’s no support to connect to a Concept2 rower Performance Monitor so it’s a dead end.
Just get the NLE CABLE (North Pole Engineering’s “Connect Ant to Bluetooth LE” and configure it to “tweak” the signal from the rower so it appears as a power tap to apps like Zwift.
The magic seems to be in NLE’s firmware/software/apps. iOS only right now but they hinted at an AppleTV and Android version way down the line – for now, borrow a friend’s iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or buy a cheap one to use solely to configure the CABLE device.
Thank you for sharing this, I was struggling to sort this out on my own. Did you notice any error messages on your rower? I got one, but it worked so I am not too worried.
Yes, I got error 22291-36 on the PM5 a couple times after writing this article. But it was still working, as you said.
I do not like it. Use non-cycling equipment for racing. now I know where the times of some segments of 4s where the bike goes for 20s
Are you serious? Have you ever tried sprinting on a rower?
There’s no way I’m beating my cycling times using my rowing machine.
Absolutely… there is no way in hell that a rower is sprinting as hard and as for long as a bike… typical daft comment from someone who obviously knows nothing about this subject!
If someone is beating your times Bikeman, I’d put money on it not being a Rower! laughable.
Why use a rower to cycle? Why not use program that has rowing on it? I would not want to use my cycle trainer to row on a rowing program although I have done this just for a laugh.
For me it’s because I’m a fan of Zwift. I’d rather row there than in some other virtual environment. And honestly, once I get going, it doesn’t feel strange to be rowing a virtual cyclist… I just row along and ride with others.
Same for me. Sliding up and down, starring at the PM(5) and the wall, day by day, can be very boring over time. Since I use Zwift with my RowErg (and SkiErg too!) with Zwift, I have fun again. Love it too.
This sounds awesome! Thank you Eric for the experimentation and the detailed post!
Any Android apps?
Eric, how about starting a FB Page called: Zwift Rowing. See who else has the Concept2 on Zwift. Maybe set up a group rowing (ride) and row places. Just an idea if there are other’s doing this……
Sounds like a great idea… for someone else! I’ve got enough Facebook pages to maintain. 🙂
Makes me think about getting a new Concept 2 just to vary workouts with cycling. Does anyone know if you can just get the new PM5 head unit for an older machine? I’d have to get it back from my ex wife. haha
Yes, I believe you can get just a PM five unit itself. Contact The company.
Finally got round to trying this today – simple 40min 10km easy row, ie 2min splits at a steady 21 strokes per minute; I chose the Watopia flat route – I do a lot of on and off water rowing and currently training to do the Marathon on the Concept2 (about as interesting as it sounds…)
Overall I love the idea of this and any efforts to get closer to rowing within the Zwift world are to be applauded – at the moment we only have RowPro, which is very good technically but quite fiddly interface and the graphics are not what you would expect
Positives:
*Very easy to connect up to Zwift IF you have the right kit (I used an iPhone 6 to connect to Concept2 and PainSled, and an iPad to connect Zwift to PainSled)
*Responsive to changes in effort on the Concept
*Gives you something else to look at
*A bit weird but possible I assume to set up real time racing
Negatives:
*Completely wrong distance – 10km row = 26km cycle 🙂
*I normally cycle at around 2.6w/kg – using the rowing machine I averaged 3.1 – ie screen feedback is obviously for cycling, perhaps changing the feedback to be closer to the Concept data?
*PainSled is not as comprehensive as ErgData as an app – it simply mirrors the Concept2 screen – ErgData has a separate screen for other in-row data
This is definitely a step in the right direction but a long way to go…pls keep going!
I agree also, Rowpro is not that good on Graphics. Boring to say the least, and I can get the same information on my PM5 and ERGdata.
It would be nice have the ability in Zwift to row and be on water, just like cycling on the road, and running on the side of the road.
PainSled is not that great as well. I stopped using it.
IF ever you can find the DVD it’s called ” Rowing Machine Companion”, it is really a great DVD. BUT very hard to find anymore.
You can get on YouTube and get 2 of the 4 workouts. On the DVD, you are sitting behind a 3 man team. You can hear the calls on the S/M. And you almost feel like you are right there rowing with them. Anyway, just a thought.
Thanks – I’ll take a look
Yet another C2 to Zwift connector.
I do have a working PoC to allow riding in Zwift with the Concept2 rower.
When I say *working* what I mean is I rowed 1179 Km in Zwift with it until Mar 18, 2018,
completing the Everest challenge and completing the 7 stages of the Watopia tour.
Go to
https://diana.bib.uniurb.it/pyRide/pyRide.html
for further readings.
Have fun 🙂 PaoloC, at1839paolo at gmail dot com
I have been using Netathlon Rowing software for years I have a water tower. Netathlon would give Zwift a run for their money if they did more advertising and more upgrades.
I went with a raspberry pi based solution detailed here: https://diana.bib.uniurb.it/pyRide/pyRide.html
Once set up, you don’t need to monkey with anything and it just works.
I did make some changes to the code to make everything work with the rower’s (Concept II PM5) interval sessions. Minor quirk is that in resting intervals, the PM5 stops updating power, so I just had it drop to an approximation of what I normally do during those paddle sections.