Issues after running the in-app calibration (XR-T)

[troy.ketela]

I have a Direto XR-T that has <10,000 Zwift km on it. After a ride yesterday, I did a calibration run on the trainer via the Elite app. I did NOT adjust the set screw, nor has the set screw been touched on this unit since I received it.
Today I went for a Zwift ride, and the power being reported in Zwift was significantly off, under-reading by about 35W-40W (i.e. riding at 170W felt like 205+W, and my HR data matched the harder effort). It felt like there was significant resistance dragging on the flywheel while riding on flat sections and even downhill.
I restarted my Apple TV and unplugged the Direto for a few min, plugged back in and tried again again - nothing changed.
My understanding is that since I didn't adjust the set-screw, nothing should have changed after running the calibration. It does seem however like the resistance on the fly wheel is much higher than prior to running the calibration. Nothing changes even when setting the trainer difficulty to zero in Zwift.

Any ideas?

[steve.hammatt]

What is the value returned by the myEtraining calibration compared to the factory value on the sticker on the underside of your trainer?

[troy.ketela]

The calibration app reported the offset as 6410. Sticker on the bottom of the instrument says 6413. Well within spec of +/- 5 according to Elite.

Again, my understanding of the Direto is that the calibration app should not change any physical setting on the machine - the offset would only be adjusted by tightening the set screw, which I did not do.

It feels like the brake is dragging very hard on my Direto after running the calibration app, and my reported power for effort is significantly lower. Previously, my tested FTP on my Direto matched (was a few watts below) my outside bike FTP with a different power meter, so it's not like the Direto was perviously over-reporting my power.

I'm currently finding that it's very difficult in Zwift to climb - on gradients of 3-4%, the brake is almost locking up the flywheel, and pedalling is not smooth. This was not the case prior to running the calibration. My FTP is ~4W/kg, and I've been cycling for a long time, so I can feel when something is wrong.

The Direto is running the current firmware (078).

The other thing I should add is that this Direto XR-T replaced an original Direto that worked fine for me. When the belt on the original snapped, I ordered a new belt along with a Direto XR-T, and gave the original to a family member. My power profiles were identical on the original Direto and the XR-T when I started using it, so there's additional evidence that whatever happened during calibration on the XR-T is not correct.

Reading through other threads, I've seen that I'm not alone in this problem - several other people have reported the exact same issue. I haven't see a fix though!

[troy.ketela]

Well, since they were on sale locally for 40% off, I went and bought a new XR-T.
Low and behold, the power the new unit is reading at the same level as my old unit prior to the calibration i.e. new unit feels exactly the same as my old unit before it went wonky after running calibration.
I've tried re-running the calibration on the old unit several times, done after 10 min of steady riding, and nothing changes, it's still reading ~30W too low.

So frustrating, especially since the old unit was operating perfectly fine until that point!

[steve.hammatt]

Did you raise a support ticket?