calibraton questions

marianne

Calibration

my procedure has been to turn on the Garmin 310xt, scroll down in mode to "bike 1" and then press start to record my ride.  I have not calibrated my powertap before each ride. My last power test numbers were "low" and I had some admin during it with stoplights and also have been having fatigue so it could either be me or it could be something I am doing wrong.. which raised the ??  to the coaches and to y'all.. do I need to calibrate anything?  I had my buddy David set it to average power and to what I would call on the spot power, so two different screens... but nobody here locally has Garmin/powertap combo.

 

m

delesh

I have the exact same setup 310xt+powertap. Love it. Once the powertap has been paired to the 310xt, if you go into "Mode > Settings > Bike Settings > "Bike Name" > ANT+Power > Calibrate" it will calibrate and display a number if succesful (the number is the hub id). I have gotten in the habit of doing this before each ride and find that my power numbers have been good. Also, make sure you are not pressing at all on the pedals when you do the calibration. Hope this helps.

marianne

my new best friend... David Lesh!!!

I have never done this before! doh.

okay I got all the way to "calibrate" but it won't highlight it so I can't press it I can press "restart scan" though which just takes me back one screen

dumb ?? do I have to be on the bike?? right now I am just sitting in the back of my element with garmin in one hand and next to bike. I am so close!! please respond! I might can do another power test tomorrow! cuz my legs are sorta kinda fresh!! lol

my new BFF! m

delesh

Awesome! I need all the friends I can get Yes, you need to be within range of the powertap and have the 310xt detect it before the calibration can be done. It actually sends some sort of "calibrate" command to the powertap. If you are near the bike and the 310xt isn't picking up the powertap, it might have gone to sleep and you will need to give the wheel a spin to turn it on.

carls10

M-

I'm going to follow you through the forums because once my power tap arrives, (hopefully soon), I will have all the same questions as a power noobie!!  Thanks for paving the road

marianne

okay got it David, so glad you responded, cuz I might have the legs to do the power test tomorrow!!! No, I didn't have it recognize it, and yes it hums, the garmin that is, and not me!, and nope didn't spin it either. okay will do.

Carly, paving the road. uh huh glad somebody else can learn from my
"Power for dummies"...!

next up, to the others reading this with some time on their hands...
mac portable and I don't have WKO, vmware or parallels cuz I have read so much about it slowing down that I am lost....

but first the calibration,...

will report back.

OOOHHHH>> David, I am seriously thinking about doing AZ next year!!!

okay back to power, I have a bad habit of getting off track! m

mancona

M, its been a bit since I used a power tap, but I know that mine would automatically calibrate every time I coasted and I believe this is turned on by default on all PTs. As long as this is on you don't really need to calibrate before every ride, just make sure you coast every once in a while.

That said, the best practice is to calibrate before a ride, and I always do prior to a race, but the majority of the time you will be just fine even if you don't calibrate.

marianne

"Calibration successful"... thanks

Matt, last week my power average was 105... you have seen my numbers before.. so you know I was discouraged... saw doc on Monday but hoping retesting will be better number

mimsrd

@Marianne - Did you decide how whether to pull the trigger on WKO? I had similar concerns being a mac user and asked a couple questions on here. However, I have been running parallels for a while. Before I got the Quarq, I was using a polar RS800 for everything, and they are notoriously Mac unfriendly. Decided to go with WKO and have been extremely happy with the software.

As long as you have the intel (not powerbook) Mac, parallels will work great. It does take a couple extra steps since WKO doesn't seem to like talking directly to the garmin, but I've figured out a way to manage the admin side of it. Let me know if you decide to go this route. Since I'm pretty "Windows Illiterate," and still figured it out, I' be more than willing to help you out.

delesh

@Marianne - Glad you got it working. Matt is right. you probably don't need to do it every ride. I do find that it gets off more quickly when using it on a trainer. Would be cool if you did IMAZ too Hopefully I can get a slot for IMAZ.