AeroPod, PowerPod and Newton

Hi Guys,
definetly interested in purchasing a Gen 3 IBike was just wondering what the average battery life for the head unit is ? I think I read somewhere that it is around 10-15 hours ?

many thanks

I've found battery life temperature dependent, maybe 10 hours winter and 40 hours in summer.

In the winter the batteries will deplete faster due to the voltage dropping in the cold. . .but save the batteries because they will come back to life in the warmer weather.
Since April I have gone through 3 or 4 batteries, so they last quite a long time in the warm.

In the summer 40 hrs seems about right on my wired unit. With temps ~50F they last 10-20 hrs, but the life falls off quickly after that. If your iBike is wired (and you are handy with electrical stuff) you can get an external battery mount and hook up a CR123a that will last a long time.

I've been using an iBike for two years now (3 different models) and upgraded to an iAero G3 when it first came out. Generally I have been quite happy with the different models and battery life was never an issue, but lately I've become extremely unhappy with battery life. I do not know what the difference is (maybe the batch of batteries I got from VeloComp was a bad batch; maybe iAero 3G processing is much more power hungry), and I have not done a careful systematic study, but over the past 6 or so months, I have been going through batteries at a much higher rate than I have before. It seems I get about 5-12 hours of use, and I'm replacing once a week, occasionally twice a week. Now I go for rides in fear that it'll get too low during a ride, I will not notice, the PM will shut down, and I will lose my data. So I have had to become much more careful about checking the battery before riding. I've had days where I turn the unit on indoors and get a battery "good" message (say 185). I go outside where it is 71-75 degrees and check the battery again, and it is down to 175. Then I ride up into the Santa Cruz Mountains along shady roads, and it is now down to 165, the danger zone.
I live in sunny California--San Francisco Bay Area--so my riding weather is just about ideal. However, it seems like now I can rarely go for early morning rides (say 55-65 degrees) without getting low battery readings or without changing the battery every other day. Now I often wait until mid-day so I can squeeze a little more life out of a given battery or so I do not get a low battery warning and shut down. This is really limiting the opportunities I have for training as well as exposing my skin to the highest levels of UV radiation. I do everything I can to save battery life, too: I set the screen brightness to be barely visible, and I always use 5-second recording intervals, unless I'm doing sprint interval workouts.
I must say that I am dreading the onset of our mild California winter. I really like everything else about my iAero G3, but this battery issue is a major pain in the neck, and I am seriously considering a different solution.

I also have a G3 iAero, and I would say I am getting a good month or more out of batteries, riding about 12 hours per week. Have you been changing the mount batteries also? Low battery in the mount will drain the head unit. The only time I have had very short battery life it turned out I had a corroded contact in the mount. Other than that, I am happy with battery life, and I haven't really noticed a big difference vs. my previous gen1 iBike..

PJBoyle

I also recently upgraded from the Ibike GEN I to the IBIKE Pro.
In the summer with high temperatures it was not an issue but now it is getting cooler and I get very short battery life compared to the old model.
In the past I never had to worry about the batter in the mount now it seem like they are eaten away by the new Pro. Don't know if it is the design of the unit that changed that (it used to be "protected" by the button or the new firmware.

Really hope the will be firmware update to help with battery life.

I am interested in buying the iAero as well, but would like to know if you can rig an external battery to the wireless mount like you can with the wired mounts. I am thinking of this one.

http://www.duke.edu/~aah3/DSCN2685.JPG
http://lists.topica.com/lists/iBikeProP ... start=1742

The second link explains how it is hooked up. Are the contacts on the wireless mount the same as the wired mount, so I know where to put those contacts?

I've built that rig for a Gen III iAero, contact points are the same as in the diagram. As the GEN III mount interface is tighter than previous models I had to use very thin copper sheeting which I purchased from a hobby shop. I obtained a CR123A battery holder which lives inside the end of my handlebars, this way it's easy to pop of the bar plug and replace the battery when required (make sure you wrap you tape starting at the stem). The cable is routed under the bar tap and you would hardly notice it is there, will try and get some pictures up tonight. I don't even think about Battery life any more, problem solved.

When you say very thin copper sheeting, how thin? .010"? thinner?

Looking forward to some pics.

racerfern wrote:When you say very thin copper sheeting, how thin? .010"? thinner?

Looking forward to some pics.

Sorry, didn't get a chance to take any pics last night, am away for the weekend so will be next week. Anyway, I bought a pack of copper sheets used for modeling and it came with a bunch of sizes. The thinnest was like aluminum foil and wasn't durable enough, so I went up a thickness or two, will try and get an exact measurement for you.

Update: checked the packet and the foil size is .001 , not sure if that is Inches or mm, but I'm in Australia and we are metric so assume it's mm. It's pretty thin, ie a sheet won't support itself. Also, it's brass not copper, but that doesn't seem to matter.

Looking forward to some detailed pics!!! It is going to be getting colder out this time of year and I sure would like to keep battery problems from interfering with my rides and training. It sure seems simple enough though. Thanks in advance.


Clint

One more question, which is probably a dumb one, but when using the external battery set-up do you take out the internal battery? If not I would worry about too much voltage and then whenever you take the unit off of the bike you loose date settings etc. if there is no internal battery right????

The internal battery would definitely remain. The external battery will be in parallel and will basically act like a UPS.

racerfern wrote:The internal battery would definitely remain. The external battery will be in parallel and will basically act like a UPS.

correct, in parallel the voltage remains the same but the overall capacity is increased.

Sounds good. I almost have my setup done then. Found the copper sheets at an electronics parts warehouse store with adhesive backing, along with the 3v battery and holder. I was just concerned about the battery issue. Normally when you link 2 or more batteries it increases the voltage that amount which is why I was afraid of too much voltage.

GWPOS wrote:Sounds good. I almost have my setup done then. Found the copper sheets at an electronics parts warehouse store with adhesive backing, along with the 3v battery and holder. I was just concerned about the battery issue. Normally when you link 2 or more batteries it increases the voltage that amount which is why I was afraid of too much voltage.

Take your time and do it right or you could damage something.

To build amps hook the positive to the positive and the negative to the negative.

Use a DC volt meter to make sure you do not increase the volts.

I will be riding all winter so I guess I better hook something up as well.

Thanks for the idea,

Positive to Positive and Negative to Negative will increase capacity without increasing voltage, assuming of course that your second battery is the correct one.

Ok I got it. Now I am using an adhesive backed copper sheet for repairing traces on circuit boards, however it does not stick so well to the plastic that the wired unit is made from. What are you guys using...super glue maybe?? Oh I have a GenIII unit and Morocco Mole is right on how tight the unit fits on the mount. The sheets I have are nice and thin , but not like foil and the tear if not positioned just right.

GWPOS wrote:Ok I got it. Now I am using an adhesive backed copper sheet for repairing traces on circuit boards, however it does not stick so well to the plastic that the wired unit is made from. What are you guys using...super glue maybe?? Oh I have a GenIII unit and Morocco Mole is right on how tight the unit fits on the mount. The sheets I have are nice and thin , but not like foil and the tear if not positioned just right.

Superglue is what I used, careful not to get it everywhere as the thin film can stop the contacts from conducting (found out the hard way). I also folded the copper over slightly into the battery compartment, and used the lid to help secure it. You will find with a bit of use you get a nice track in the foil where the contacts points on the iBike run.

I bought a CR123 battery, soldered on thin 24 gauge wire. The problem is I can't find thin brass shim stock. I have some 16gauge soft brass wire that I'm going to warm and try hammering flat. That seems to be my limitation at this point. Has anyone else had luck with this DIY project?

I was wondering if you could use aluminum foil instead of copper foil to do this, or what the problems would be with doing that. The local electronics stores here, don't even know where I could get copper foil. I like the idea of hammering the wire flat.

biker2000on wrote:I was wondering if you could use aluminum foil instead of copper foil to do this, or what the problems would be with doing that. The local electronics stores here, don't even know where I could get copper foil. I like the idea of hammering the wire flat.

Aluminium foil would work, but I don't think it would be durable enough. I've used the copper foil and it looks like it will need to be replaced soon after 6 months use, I don't think aluminium foil would last more than a couple of weeks.

I was thinking of cutting a tiny groove on the outside diameter just deep enough so 24 gauge wire would sit flush with the surface. It would go from the edge to the pin and then solder it to the pin.

Several ideas I haven't tried

1. contact your local machine shop, they may have or know where to get shim stock near you.

2. Radio Shack may still have some cheapish kit like circuit board that isn't coated so possibly peel off some of the circuit land pattern material.

3. Someone on this board found suitable brass ( I think it was) material at a craft supply.

4. Try burning (somewhat) an old computer circuit board and peel off.

Russ

That is a great idea Racerfern. I will try that on my cheap wired mount before attempting it on the wireless. I think it will also have to run down the side of the mount a little too because of the tight fit of the ibike on its mounts. I will try this tonight hopefully, and post comments on how it works. I love the ibike, but the battery really makes me mad, because the unit freezes up when it has a lowish battery, and totally drains it.

Morocco Mole wrote:I've built that rig for a Gen III iAero, contact points are the same as in the diagram. As the GEN III mount interface is tighter than previous models I had to use very thin copper sheeting which I purchased from a hobby shop. I obtained a CR123A battery holder which lives inside the end of my handlebars, this way it's easy to pop of the bar plug and replace the battery when required (make sure you wrap you tape starting at the stem). The cable is routed under the bar tap and you would hardly notice it is there, will try and get some pictures up tonight. I don't even think about Battery life any more, problem solved.

Do you have any details for the CR123A battery holder and was it hard to get? I found one but it definitely wasn't big enough to fit inside my handlebars, so I just soldered on the wire and stuck the battery inside the handlebars.

For those thinking about it, I would definitely recommend this mod if you do a lot of winter riding.

racerfern wrote:I was thinking of cutting a tiny groove on the outside diameter just deep enough so 24 gauge wire would sit flush with the surface. It would go from the edge to the pin and then solder it to the pin.

Unfortunately, I can confirm that this does not work. At least not with the soldering iron I have now. The pin gets too hot, the plastic melts and the pin begins to push down into the wireless head.

I was wondering about a "spreadable" contact cement or glue that has conductive properties. I vaguely remember seeing or hearing about something like that.

The other thought was micro thin copper wire (there's certainly no amperage concerns here) laid down from the edge to the pin with a coating of crazy glue. As long as it contacts the pin...

I've got some thin foil headed my way and I'll see if I can get the same results as previously shown in some screenshots.

BTW, it was easy to solder the wires onto the CR123 battery. Then a thin piece of foam around the battery to keep it from rattling in the bar end. This part is easy.

Something that no one is thinking about is mixing sizes of batteries and brands. The button batteries are not re-chargeable. The weaker battery can leak or even blow up from being over charged from the more powerful battery.

How I did mine:
Kids, don't try this at home you could damage your IBike head unit and cancel your warranty and really get mad at me. So it is at your own risk.

What I did was removed the clear plastic water seal ring from inside the mount on the head unit. Then drilled a hole using a 1/16 (.0625) inch drill directly in to the side of the head unit mount directly outside the spring balls. Then used my die grinder with a small ball shaped bur and made a trench over to the spring ball. I used the same small bur to grind a small spot on the spring ball to clean it up for soldering. Use .050 dia. Rosin Core Solder (RadioShack # 64-006 E). Or just a good Rosin Core solder like you would use on a computer/PC board.

While you are at the shack getting the solder get battery holder # 270-414 for two AAA size batteries. It has a red and a black wire and will give you 3.02 volts with cheap batteries. Get a bag of 9 volt snap connectors (you need 2 but have to buy 5) # 270-324. Hook a 9 volt connector red wire to red wire on the battery holder, solder and tape.

Take a second 9 volt connector and fold the end of the bare part of the red wire in half and tin it with solder. Slide it through the drilled hole top left when looking at the back of the head unit. Till it touches the spring loaded ball and super glue the red coating of the wire to the IBike unit so the wire can't move. (check the voltage with a meter to make sure you do not hook it backwards and fry your unit)

Here is the tricky part,
You need a really nice soldering iron with bright lights and good eyes and steady hands. I use a Bernz0Matic Propane type iron and a glass of Brandy, you need fast hot heat and get out of there before you melt the plastic and the brandy just taste good. Using low heat makes you stay there too long which heats the metal from one end to the other and melts the plastic. Use a rock on your die grinder and smooth the solder lightly, then do the black wire.

Take the button battery out of the unit while you do all of this, but put the cover back on to keep junk out of the electronics.
Now you can put a button battery in the unit while you switch the AAA batteries so you don’t lose your programming. I put the battery pack in with my cell phone. Or you could strap it to your stem?
I have pictures but not sure how to post them.

Here is a couple of views of my setup.

I'm not sure why it looks so dirty in the back side view because it is clean and has no red marks in there?