Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

[Patt0]

I have a couple of lipos near 20 years old and still in service. My galaxy note 1 is 5 years old and the original battery is still servicable. That would be in excess of 1500 cycles. I have 6 lipos with documented life of 1100 cycles each. They are discharged at 10-20c, ie discharged in under 5 minutes, and are frequently get to 60degC. My shimano cam and gopro are at 400 cycles and still have no apparent decrease in capacity. I have also put plenty of lipos are in the bin too.



My point is lipo tech is mature enough that dischaged at <1c(one hour) A quality lipo should last a long time . Obviously the lipos used in the FLy's are not good quality or their installation at time of camera manufacturing is poorly done.

[CKinnard]

The largest manufacturers of lithium batteries in the world are in order:
Samsung SDI, Panasonic, LG chem, Amperex Technology (ATL), Sony

Amperex was a Hong Kong based company and was bought by Japanese firm TDK in 2005. TDK "Japanised" ATL's manufacturing processes and plants, and it has paid off in buckets. Their growth has been stellar. Amperex is the only Chinese manufacturer with a consistently high quality reputation. They are the major supplier of batteries to Apple, and increasingly Samsung who turned to ATL during the Samsung Note 7 crisis last year.

The best quality 18650 sized lithium batteries in the world by consumer reviews are Panasonic and LG.

Batteries produced by any other company, especially Chinese, apart from the above is very very risky business. Hopefully, Cycliq are aware of this, now, and have plans to stop using anything else but the best quality batteries.

[Dodgy-Knee]

+1 safe, +1 informed, +++1 skeptical of sales pitches and 'flat-earth' warnings

I wouldn't view it as a sales pitch regarding external battery power, more along the lines of liability and responsibility if used in an unintended matter and ensuring compatibility.

If your mod works - good stuff.

Yep ... that's fair enough. I just based my decision on the fact that firstly it's 5V DC and secondly, you actually plug it into a powered USB port and power it up when you download footage or write the config file ... the Fly6 wasn't working anyway so i thought nothing ventured, nothing gained ... fortunately for me, it powered up ... I'd be the biggest liar is i said I wasn't surprised!!

[Dodgy-Knee]

Dodgy, I was interested to see how you keep water out.
Also, if you have the details of the cable you bought. I'm interested to know if it is a host mode cable variant.

Ahhh ... water ... yes well .. I use a super-secret and quite fiendish device to do that ...

BLU-TACK!!!!!

Just roll a nice ball and use it as a sealant around the base of the Fly6 and the USB battery. The cable is your standard no frills USB cable ... one end fits the Fly6 (not sure what it's called... micro-USB??) ... the other end is the normal sized flat USB connector that plugs into a standard USB charger. The blu-tack also stops the cable from accidentally coming loose (happened to me on a stretch of very bad road so it stopped recording).

There is NOTHING clever or super-special about any of this ... go to Officeworks, buy a USB rechargable battery (I use a Comsol because it's tube-shaped and can be velcro'd to my seat post), buy some Blu-tack and use the USB cable that came with your Fly6.

I have no idea what a 'host-mode cable variant' is .

[CKinnard]

OK. I didn't realize you were running a 'charge only' cable.
Someone reported earlier in this thread that the Fly 6 doesn't turn on when you try to charge it with an external source.
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=91083#p1362963
And this is also the case with Garmin computers.

[Dodgy-Knee]

OK. I didn't realize you were running a 'charge only' cable.
Someone reported earlier in this thread that the Fly 6 doesn't turn on when you try to charge it with an external source.
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=91083#p1362963
And this is also the case with Garmin computers.

CK
That's interesting to know ... I found that I have to keep the ON button pressed in for about 2 seconds before the Fly6 will start up. Just pressing it in the normal manner wont start the unit... I can't remember how I stumbled on that .. I think I was just so fed up with it I just pressed the blazes out of the On button and yelled 'Start ya Bast*rd!!!' and it suddenly lit up

One thing I forgot to mention is that I accidentally broke the two wires connecting the Fly6 to the battery so the light is now effectively a hollow shell... the battery is sitting on my workbench (and inching closer to the bin every day). Whether this has anything to do with it being able to start up with an external power source, I don't know... other than that, it's a standard cable and commercially available USB rechargeable battery.

I get my bike back tomorrow afternoon so pics soon (I hope).

[sclyde2]

fly6 owners fall into about 4 categories:
(1) those that haven't owned and used their fly6 for very long, so haven't had it fail yet. who here has a still-well-functioning fly6 that they have used a lot for more than 2 years? please share usage and time frame.
(2) those that had it fail and got it replaced
(3) those that had it fail and got little to no support from cycliq. like $21 discount off a new unit. really. now go away.
(4) those that are affiliated with cycliq

those in category 1 & 2 are still happy. these are the majority of reviewers, at least presently. give it bit more time, and these owners will migrate to category 3. it seems that cycliq's policy on support-beyond-1yr has changed in the last few months - to bad.

most of those in cat 3 aren't that happy. the ones in that category that aren't happy usually have a bunch of other electronics, and have a bit of experience with that kind of stuff, and have formed some expectations - i.e. other similarly priced stuff they have usually lasts a long time (>3yrs), and if it didn't, the manufacturer has supported them, by either fixing their broken gadget (for a nominal charge) or replaced it for free or at cost (even outside of warranty, when the manufacturer is a stand up outfit).

those in cat 4 can't be impartial, and probably shouldn't contribute to the discussion as they are too biased.

i laugh that people on here have described cycliq as transparent. could someone point me to somewhere that cycliq has acknowledged that they a have a battery problem, and that there is a good chance that a fly6 (1st or 2nd gen, dunno about 3rd gen) won't last 2yrs with normal use. i'm not talking just reduced run time, i'm talking a complete failure (so that the unit doesn't work without one of the workaround mentioned here, such as using an external battery).

have a look on cycliq's forums. anyone notice that you cannot post a comment until it has been "approved"? i am not sure how long this setup has been in place, if it got added when cycliq realised that they have a systemic problem on their hands, relating to less-than-expected durability of their products, especially given the price of the things.

also notice that no comments have been added to cycliq's forums (especially the "Report a Problem") in 3 months? go try and add a comment. you can't. could someone offer a reason for cycliq's recent change to stop comments on their products on their forums, other than the one i am suggesting.

it is pretty damning.

[Dodgy-Knee]

have a look on cycliq's forums. anyone notice that you cannot post a comment until it has been "approved"? i am not sure how long this setup has been in place, if it got added when cycliq realised that they have a systemic problem on their hands, relating to less-than-expected durability of their products, especially given the price of the things.

I posted my USB battery fix for the Fly6 on the Cycliq forums and it wasn't approved ... There are heaps of people on that forum all complaining about the non-existent battery life of a Fly6 but I have yet to see a post from the powers that be acknowledging the fact.

[AUbicycles]

Thanks sclyde2 for your first post in the forums - based on your rules, I shouldn't contribute as I am too biased although can clarify that I am not affiliated with them in any way which would give me personally or BNA a financial benefit.

Certainly can add a few things to the comments you made - however if I shouldn't, then ok.

[outnabike]

Hi sclyde2, and welcome but a dissapointing first post, just to have a whine....

I don't know where I fit in as you post is a sort of attempt at disuniting cyclists on the forum and generally a bit harsh.
Whilst personally I don't have a cycliq cam and due to my posts on the matter might appear negative to them, they are getting a good following overseas, and to me that is a good thing.
If you read the answers from cycliq to members here they have been very good at responding and many a new cam has gone out to a client.
My view is that I can not afford them and having a dynamo already, don't see the need for a light in the cam.

But that is only my scene, clearly they are popular and fill a need. I mean no one is forcing you to get one.

[Comedian]

Hi sclyde2, and welcome but a dissapointing first post, just to have a whine....

I don't know where I fit in as you post is a sort of attempt at disuniting cyclists on the forum and generally a bit harsh.
Whilst personally I don't have a cycliq cam and due to my posts on the matter might appear negative to them, they are getting a good following overseas, and to me that is a good thing.
If you read the answers from cycliq to members here they have been very good at responding and many a new cam has gone out to a client.
My view is that I can not afford them and having a dynamo already, don't see the need for a light in the cam.

But that is only my scene, clearly they are popular and fill a need. I mean no one is forcing you to get one.

Nor do I think that anyone should forget that Cycliq effectively invented the whole camera light thing designed for bikes. Sure various combinations were around.. but putting it into one tailor designed package has change the landscape.

Further, before Cycliq while cameras were around, the Fly6 really popularised them in Australia. When the batch of kickstarter ones hit the road I noted at the time, that if a motorist close passes a group there is now a good chance that it will be recorded by possibly multiple cameras. That just wasn't the case before.

Of course, we now know that the police don't give a rats arse but that's not their fault.

[CKinnard]

If I was a significant shareholder of Cycliq (CYQ on the ASX) I would be asking questions of the directors about the ongoing social media noise regarding faulty batteries, and insisting an internal review of the problem be carried out, and the report and consequent solution be made public.

[defy1]

Doesn't the CEO of Cycliq read these forums?

[Comedian]

If I was a significant shareholder of Cycliq (CYQ on the ASX) I would be asking questions of the directors about the ongoing social media noise regarding faulty batteries, and insisting an internal review of the problem be carried out, and the report and consequent solution be made public.

Well companies have been sunk by this kind of thing.

I know lots of people who have bought fly6, and I can't think of any of the originals that are still working. When were they mailed out? Mid 2014? Does anyone here still have one of the originals that still has anywhere close to the battery life they had when new?

As I've said before if I were cycliq I'd be making battery longevity my very top priority. We should be aware that they may have already addressed this, and we just don't know yet as it's too soon to tell with the Fly6v3 and Fly12.

How do you address the problems with the earlier version? I can certainly understand why they wouldn't want to put a lot of resources into addressing this.

[CKinnard]

A recent response from Cycliq in relation to the Fly 6 battery issues

"thanks for your message. Just like many other large brands like Apple, Garmin & others, we source our batteries from China. We certainly did find that some of our batteries from our previous supplier did not perform the same as others which is why we replace them when we find these issues. The challenge for us is that it was not an issue that affected every product. This can be evidenced by some our fist models made 4 years ago still working today. What we have done in each new model we have made is sourced better and more reliable suppliers which is why we get less and less issues with batteries as time goes by. At the same time tho, we always replace or repair our products when there are issues within the warranty period and work with our customers even after the warranty period as we want all of our customers to be happy with their investment. We believe we have, in our latest version, resolved the issue as we are not getting any issues with the batteries. That is not to say we won't as it is standard across all manufacturers that there is a 1% allowance for defects because there is human involvement across the manufacturing process. I think if you look across every message we get you will see that we do address genuine issues however some people are not telling the truth about their issue or using foul language and we do monitor them. I do personally try to address forums where people have issues and ask them to first go to our support team who are friendly, responsive and genuinely want to help each person. 99% of people who use our support walk away happy that we have resolved their issue be it explaining the use of a feature to replacing their unit for a warranty issue. While we are a pretty small company on the consumer electronics stage, we out perform the big boys in our customer satisfaction...especially in support. I couldn't tell from your message if you, yourself have an issue but if you do, our customer support will definitely help you out."

This doesn't reconcile with Amazon feedback being 33% critical over the last 7 months, overwhelmingly over faulty batteries.

If Cycliq are genuinely concerned about resolving the issue, and feel they have, then it would be savvy to extend their warranty beyond one year to back their belief in their product, after several years of not getting their suppliers right, at the expense of their customers.

[Comedian]

FWIW my current fly6 is about 9 months old. While that's not old, I should report that I haven't noticed any battery degradation. The original and first V2 I had were down to less than two hours by this point.

Well let's hope they have it sorted now.

[jasonc]

Still on the original fly6 most I've got lately is about 3 hours. So still useful

[Comedian]

Still on the original fly6 most I've got lately is about 3 hours. So still useful

That's better than mine.. it was flaming out at less than two hours.

[Dodgy-Knee]

Still on the original fly6 most I've got lately is about 3 hours. So still useful

That's better than mine.. it was flaming out at less than two hours.

I went for a 4hr ride on Saturday ... my trusty Fly6/USB battery combo didn't miss a beat for the whole 4 hrs ... I also filmed a dropkick driver who couldn't wait 5 seconds and kept his hand on the horn as I moved to the extreme left of the road while out of the saddle climbing on an 11% gradient hill ... grrrrrrrr

All in all, a good day.

[CKinnard]

Dodgy, what size SD card do you use, resolution? record time before overwriting?

[Dodgy-Knee]

Dodgy, what size SD card do you use, resolution? record time before overwriting?

I used to use the standard 8Gb card that shipped with the Fly6 but I accidentally lost that card so I'm now using a 32Gb card that I took out of my GoPro...

What I meant to say in my previous post is that the Fly6/USB battery recorded for the entire 4hrs on the bike ... I don't know if it filled up the 32Gb card in that time and started overwriting the footage... I don't check the footage after every ride.

I am just using the bog-standard settings that ship with the Fly so whatever the default resolution is - that's what I'm using.

[AUbicycles]

I have had a different experience with the brand. CKinnard, your stats are your preferred interpretation and you are an individual who has not purchased from Cycliq and has not experienced the issues discussed or experienced the 'bad customer service' to which you have referred.

I admire your enthusiasm and energy, it is exactly the drive necessary for questioning Australian cycling conditions and attempting to make politicians accountable and responsible for positive change. For this young Australian company who have created useful products to help cyclist safety and who have an overwhelming positive response for the quality of their customer service, the energy and criticism appears to be disproportionate.

[NhiTrac]

A bit of a hijack - considering purchasing the new Fly6 for some 'insurance' and was wondering if the light can be turned completely off - as in just the camera running?

I have an Exposure Blaze Mk2 which I think does a much better job as a light.

[biker jk]

A bit of a hijack - considering purchasing the new Fly6 for some 'insurance' and was wondering if the light can be turned completely off - as in just the camera running?

I have an Exposure Blaze Mk2 which I think does a much better job as a light.

You can turn the lights in the body of the camera off but there will always be the circular band of lights around the camera lens housing operating. I use the Fly6 in this mode as I agree that the lights are not that bright. Instead I use a Cygolite Hotshot to provide a proper rear light.

[Bunged Knee]

A bit of a hijack - considering purchasing the new Fly6 for some 'insurance' and was wondering if the light can be turned completely off - as in just the camera running?

I have an Exposure Blaze Mk2 which I think does a much better job as a light.

What biker jk says above is right. And I do have the same rear light that biker jk have too.

This thread is about Fly6 1st gen battery.

There`s more info in Video Camera who uses one? thread.

ps, added link to BNA Fly6 review of light sequences.