Battery Life in PowerTap Hub
I was going to place this in "Gear" and probably should have, BUT since this forum requires a power meter, I thought there would be a good number of folks with some experience here.
Question is simple - How much battery life do you get out of your power meter? I changed my battery in the G3 at the end of December and had it died on me mid ride today. Granted, it had been sending low power warnings to my head unit, but I didn't really take it seriously. I am riding three time a week for probably 1.5-2.5 hours per ride.
Is two months all I should expect from the little watch battery in the hub?
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With that said, neither of yours (Dino or Doug) seemed to last as long as mine do.
My first PowerTap battery change came after about 6 months of steady use. I am now into about 6 months on the second set as I start the OS. "Steady use" means the EN training protocol. I have no road bike, so all my miles are on my TT bike wheel, whether on the trainer or road. 2-3 months does not sound right. Maybe there are some settings to be tweaked to conserve power, like an auto shut down after a certain time? I have mine set @ 5 minutes and 30 minutes.
Not sure about settings. The thing has no buttons, and no lights. The is a USB port under the cap near the battery. I checked the owners manual and there nothing accept the vague forecast "200 hours of battery life".
I have a 2.5yr old PT Pro+, batteries in the hub last about 6mo of solid use.
I spoke with Sawiris yesterday about the G3 battery thing. He said it's a problem with the firmware, Saris nows about it and will issue a firmware update in March. Dino, suggest you call/stop by WB if you continue to have issues.
Lauren: here's a youtube video on how to change the batteries. I think it was done by en ENer, Greg V. For batteries, try batterybob.com. Cheap batteries via USPS.
First interval, no problems with power reading. Second interval, one minute I am doing 300 watts out of the saddle and the next minute I am doing 16 watts. WTF!?! I stop and recalibrate, but it didn't work. Unit would only show 20-40 watts if I stood up and hammered. Otherwise, It was blanks, like I was coasting.
So today, back to Wheel Builder we went. Those guys there are just so cool!!! Rich S. totally hooked me up with a new "brain" for the G3 and was out of there is less than 3 minutes. I have not tested it again, but I am sure I squared away. If you are looking for a meter, work with Coach Rich to get one from Wheeler Builder!
As he explained to me, the brains of the unit are outboard of the axel and easily swapped without the need to take the spokes apart, remove the hub, etc. If you want to train with power, I would do it now. I really have enjoyed it since December and feel it has measurably improved my training. Connect with coach Rich and he can hook you up.
Ok, I just called Rich. He said that Dino's issue was hardware (the hub) not software related. He said he's sold over 250 G3 hubs and has had to warranty repair (this fix he did for Dino) 2 = <1% failure rate. </p>
It's electronics getting bounced around in a wheel on a bicycle...so stuff happens but <1% is pretty damn good!</p>
Not sure how to start a new thread...newbie here. I just got a power tap pro from wheelbuilder.com and I can't get it to communicate with my garmin edge 500. I've googled and youtube'd but still can't figure it out. Can anyone help? Thank you much.
You should only need to do all this once.
Hope that helps....
Is it ok (or not) to go for those above??
Tks
Juan
Lithium batteries supposedly have a longer shelf life than silver, but silver maintains its voltage output longer. The trade off is that when it goes... it goes suddenly.
So if you can't find silver oxide, either order online, or get the locally sourced lithium and be mentally prepared for the possibility that you'd have to replace the batteries more often.
Unfortunately, I don't have much input as to whether the voltage drop over time of the lithium batteries would affect the PT's hub ability to transmit data reliably.