After repurposing the home cinema to acommodate the rowing machine, it was decided that as we rarely use the room as a cinema any more, we could shuffle the furniture around and perhaps make room for my turbo trainer and even set up the treadmill.
The erg (rowing machine) will still take pride of place in front of top the sixty five inch television.
We installed EXR on the Apple TV (ATV) and could use that to connect to the machine.
Using the ATV requires the use of the Apple Remote which is really difficult and awkward to use. A better solution is to run EXR on an iPad and ApplePlay (cast) the app to the Apple TV. We later discovered that we can send the image directly to the TV.
After shuffling the furniture around, we were able to set up and leave up, the rower, the turbo and the treadmill.
App-wise, we use the aforementioned EXR for the rower and Zwift for the cycling and walking (using Zwift’s run mode).
We can use any trainer on the big tele but the bike and treadmill work fine directly on an iPad.
To use an iPad on the turbo trainer, I have purchased a cheap (£15) music stand.
Below the shelf of the stand, I have installed a USB power hub to power
- iPad
- iPhone (running Zwift companion app)
- Zwift Play controllers
I must tidy up that rats nest of cables (someday).
The treadmill will also be used with an iPad (the same as the bike – we’re not made of iPads).
The treadmill designers added a ‘handy’ shelf at the bottom of the control panel for a phone / tablet BUT when anything is sat there it obscures the display and covers the buttons – so not very handy !
The solution I came up with was to add some additional switches, wired in parallel with the existing On, Off, Minus and Plus that can be accessed when using a tablet.
This configuration works fine and I can do a walk using Zwift on the iPad and still adjust the speed. I don’t need to see the display as the speed is shown in the Zwift app.
To keep us cool while exercising, we are using a mix of …
- Desk Fan (Sue’s rowing)
- Tower Fan (treadmill)
- This baby for the bike and rowing when it’s my turn
We can open the windows in what is now the home gym but that needs the blackout blinds lifting which causes reflections on the TV.
When just using the treadmill or turbo this isn’t a problem as they both use a local screen.