Welcome to my documentation of the “Bowflex Console”! (what Nautilus calls Vantron).

Vantron is the base of most of Nautilus Inc.’s “smart devices.” Basically, an Android tablet running proprietary software. Additionally, there are some hardware-related things that piqued my curiosity.

I relied heavily on previous work I found on Reddit (thanks xasmx!) to gain a deeper understanding of the machine’s software and hardware.

Compatible Devices (Android Jailbreak)

After playing with the decompiled applications, I can confidently say that the following documentation could be extrapolated in one way or another to the following Bowflex devices:

Treadmills

• Treadmill 22 / Treadmill 56 (same treadmill. The 56 has a 220v AC input, the 22 has a 120v AC input)
• Treadmill 10 / Treadmill 25 (same treadmill. The 25 has a 220v AC input, the 10 has a 120v AC input)

Bikes

• VeloCore

Max Trainer

• Max Total 16
• Max Trainer M9

I don’t have a Max Trainer or a VeloCore, but it should work as long as you have a USB port available based on the code findings.

Confirmed to work with the following versions of NautilusLauncher:

• 5.0.0.350
• 5.0.0.382

The jailbreak has already been patched by Nautilus.

Documentation

General Information

• Android Jailbreak

• Backing Up Your Console’s Contents

• Decompiling

• Bowflex Quirks

• ROM Dump (updated 2024!)

Work in Progress

• Treadmill Motor Controller

Final Goal

Enable as many future updates for my treadmill as possible.

Nautilus, Inc. only offers a 1-year warranty on the electronics, and as soon as I saw that the mechanism to turn off the machine (and therefore the Android tablet) was basically “cutting the AC power via the rear switch,” it scared me. Every Linux-based device should be safely shut down to avoid OS corruption, and this Android tablet is no exception. So while it’s still working, why not have a little more fun with it?

In the end, I want to intercept, understand, and recreate the communication that goes to the motor controller in my treadmill so that if the tablet dies, I still have a functioning device.