power meter cuts out during ride

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jboot
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 1:47 am

power meter cuts out during ride

Post by jboot »

everything worked great last time i was using the unit. recently i have started training again and am having problems with the power function only. typically i do a tilt cal and a wind off-set (at riding temperature). when i start riding the power output randomly stops working, i.e., reads 0. i checked the connection to the device and appears fine. the cadence connection has recently been severed... does this somehow interfere with the power reading? when i download the ride, the speed, elevation, and slope% look fine... just the power is affected. battery is fine.
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iodaniell
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Location: Essex, MD (MABRA Cat 4/50+)

Re: power meter cuts out during ride

Post by iodaniell »

If you have a mount with cadence and the cadence wire is making intermittant disconnections, this could cause power to drop out.
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jboot
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 1:47 am

Re: power meter cuts out during ride

Post by jboot »

iodaniell wrote:If you have a mount with cadence and the cadence wire is making intermittant disconnections, this could cause power to drop out.
The cadence wire is completely severed, should i use a different mount (no cadence)? Is there a way to disable the cadence function so it doesn't try to read it??
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MultiRider
Posts: 97
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 5:53 pm

Re: power meter cuts out during ride

Post by MultiRider »

If you have no cadence, the iBike figures you aren't pedaling and therefore shows 0 watts. This would typically be true.

BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO LOSE THE DATA FROM YOUR RIDE. My cadence quit during a race this past Saturday. I really, really wanted the results to analyze. So . . .

I opened the CSV with Excel and entered "65" in the cadence column and dragged (copied the value by clicking on the lower right hand corner of the cell and dragging down) it all the way to the bottom so every row had a cadence of 65. I went back into the iBike 2 software, opened the ride, and hit Auto Analyze. It calculated watts for the entire ride and the graph looks like it accurately corresponds to what I thought was happening -- started out too hard, settled into a nice pace, but had a lot of trouble keeping the power up towards the end.

Of course, the cadence chart is flatlined all the way across and totally inaccurate. But I was able to rescue my watts.

I must add that it would be helpful to add a line of code or two that says "if the bike is going up a 10% grade at 6mph, he's probably pedaling even if the cadence shows 0, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt and calculate watts." I'm not sure how you express that in C or whatever language is being used, but something like that would have been good on Saturday at the races.
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chrispy
Posts: 22
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:00 pm
Location: Austin, TX

Re: power meter cuts out during ride

Post by chrispy »

My iAero cut out during a ride a few days ago. It had been raining very hard, and the iAero kept recording through the heavy rain, but when it ended, I guess road spray from the front wheel finished the job--it stopped working until I dried the water from the contacts.

I do not have a cadence sensor, nor do I have my iAero set up for one, so that's not it in my case.

My iAero doesn't snick up positively on my mount the way my iBike did, although it snicks up nicely to the USB adapter and to a 2nd mount that I have.
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