GoldenCheetah – Smart Trainer software can be free!

Ok, I’ve got a bunch of old (but still Intel) mac hardware that I have been using to run my Wahoo KICKR generation 1 trainer, Wahoo Tickr heart rate monitor, and a Wahoo cadence sensor. For a long time I’ve been having to pay an average of $10 a month for a service to run my trainer. I have either used or tried;  Trainer Road, Zwift, Sufferfest, and Bkool. While they all work well I do not find that any of the services are worth $10 a month. Then I happened on GoldenCheetah. GoldenCheetah did everything I wanted it to do. What I’m really looking for is something that will run my trainer setup, have configurable workouts, have analysis intelligence, link to upload/download from Strava, and be free as in beer. The only issue was that it crashed constantly on all the hardware I tried it on. I tried 3 different Macs; Mac Mini 2,1 core 2 duo, a Mac Mini 6,2 and a Macbook Pro 9,2. I tried a Mac Mini 2,1 that I had converted from MacOS to Ubuntu 16.04. I tried setting up an Ubuntu 16.04 VM on the i7 Mac Mini 6,2. All attempts either crashed or did not see the ANT adapter on the USB port.

I am happy to say that I believe I have figured it out. The one pain in the rear is that you have to spend some time installing libraries, compiler, etc… and compiling the code on your trainer machine.

I’m working on a modified walk-through for installing all the necessary components. I plan to post it here soon, but my main goal is to get the app appropriately updated on their website. So you won’t have to compile it yourself… :)

Remember to never email me at support@eviltyrant.com as that is not a real email address…. :)

 

2020 update. I’ve stopped using the Mac for GoldenCheetah, since the Raspberry Pi is cheaper, but the latest 3.5 build of GoldenCheetah for MacOS fixes the issue with the usb driver library. So you don’t have to compile your own code anymore. :)

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