Powertap Drama's

[toolonglegs]

Mystic Meg sees a set of SRM cranks in your future...

Maybe you haven't seen what I can do to cranks

[toolonglegs]

Powertap is home safe and sound....new torque hub,axle,bearings,freewheel body etc etc...fingers crossed!.

[twizzle]

Sell it while it's new.

[toolonglegs]

Complete new 32 hole SL+ (Open Pro Rim) on the way.

[twizzle]

I checked the batteries on my expensive tester/charger... and they both came in at 70% charge. I'd already bought replacements, so I chucked them in and I'll see what they get down to before the icon starts flashing again.

Fugit. Icon started flashing again today, ~5,390km. Tried to check the batteries in my $149 tester/charger... and it smoked itself. Luckily it comes with a three year warranty and I still have the receipt.

I've swapped the batteries from my spare hub in, I'll try and get a refund for my tester/charger tomorrow and get a new battery tester. Battery life in the comp hub is not looking good. I'd better stock up on spare batteries tomorrow as well.

[twizzle]

Got about an hour into the ride today on the battery pack from the 'spare' hub and the transmission icon started flashing again.

I've got new batteries and have bought a battery tester (my expensive unit has gone off the be examined/repaired/replaced/something), so I'll check out the situation tonight.

[toolonglegs]

So far I am good...touch wood.

[twizzle]

Even more bugger - you can't test a silver oxide battery with a standard tester. They have a flat discharge curve right up to the point they go flat, you need a specific tester that measures the internal resistance of the battery.

*sigh* I'll throw some new batteries in and see what happens.

[toolonglegs]

Never had a powertap hub work long enough for the batteries to go flat .

[twizzle]

O.K. - new batteries for *both* hubs. Both sets of batteries reading 1.36v, down from the initial 1.5v they are supposed to put out. So I'm going through a set of hub batteries every 2 - 3 months. The head unit battery is currently showing 30%.

No idea why the unused hub had flat batteries, the batteries are supposed to be good for five years of storage...

[Nobody]

No idea why the unused hub had flat batteries, the batteries are supposed to be good for five years of storage...

Has the hub got an on/off switch? If not, obviously take the batteries out when not in use.

[twizzle]

Batteries are in a carrier which also has the antennae loop, under a double o-ringed cover and uses a PCB edge connector to attached to the main board inside the hub. It is definitely something which you do NOT want to be touching unless absolutely necessary as it will wear the contacts out and the unit becomes dead. The original batteries in my first hub lasted slightly longer than the new ones that I fitted in Jan. Whatever the standby draw is, it's pretty small.

[twizzle]

New problem tonight, gear selection problems in the race, chain skipped under power and I had to fiddle with the cable tension to try and sort it. Discovered after the race that the wheel was moving on the axle and the freehub was shifting around as well.

The locknut on the non-drive side had come loose (blue loctite showing on the threads) and was allowing everything to move a couple of mm. Pulled the axle, cleaned out the ratchet mech and re-greased it then loctited the locknut back in place. Had a bit of fun doing up the locknut as I don't have a 17mm cone spanner, but I used two allen keys as spacers for an adjustable wrench on the flats and was able to tighten it that way.

[toolonglegs]

Are they different in the other models?...my free hub just pulls off,no nuts holding it.

[Bruce]

Got about an hour into the ride today on the battery pack from the 'spare' hub and the transmission icon started flashing again.

I've got new batteries and have bought a battery tester (my expensive unit has gone off the be examined/repaired/replaced/something), so I'll check out the situation tonight.

were you checking batt voltage in the ohms resistance setting, thatl cause them to blow a fuse or burn out

[twizzle]

Got about an hour into the ride today on the battery pack from the 'spare' hub and the transmission icon started flashing again.

I've got new batteries and have bought a battery tester (my expensive unit has gone off the be examined/repaired/replaced/something), so I'll check out the situation tonight.

were you checking batt voltage in the ohms resistance setting, thatl cause them to blow a fuse or burn out

Nope - power supply blew.

[twizzle]

Are they different in the other models?...my free hub just pulls off,no nuts holding it.

Probably - it has the 12mm steel axle which is threaded on each end, and the freehub just slots into the end of the hub then the axle goes through and hold it all together. When I rocked the wheel on the bike, you could see the cassette moving relative to the hub - I though I had broken the axle! Very distracting in the race, first I had gear selection issues and a couple of times when cornering hard it felt like a flat tyre.

[toolonglegs]

Are they different in the other models?...my free hub just pulls off,no nuts holding it.

Probably - it has the 12mm steel axle which is threaded on each end, and the freehub just slots into the end of the hub then the axle goes through and hold it all together. When I rocked the wheel on the bike, you could see the cassette moving relative to the hub - I though I had broken the axle! Very distracting in the race, first I had gear selection issues and a couple of times when cornering hard it felt like a flat tyre.

OK,the 15mm axles models must be different then...similar to older DuraAce 15mm set up with only the quick release holding the free hub body on.

[twizzle]

Put ~80km on it today. All good! Except the Garmin lost speed/cadence.... and when I checked the logs it went intermittent last week. Battery at 50%, new battery plus multiple resets and re-learn and all of a sudden it's working again.

I've stuck to using the Garmin for cadence as the PT cadence from the hub is pretty unreliable (stopped at lights with a foot on a pedal and it shows cadence being recorded) so I think I'll fit the wired cadence sensor to the Giant and switch off the hub cadence. I have wired on the Bennett, but I don't trust that it's using it all the time.

[twizzle]

O.K. - new batteries for *both* hubs. Both sets of batteries reading 1.36v, down from the initial 1.5v they are supposed to put out. So I'm going through a set of hub batteries every 2 - 3 months. The head unit battery is currently showing 30%.

No idea why the unused hub had flat batteries, the batteries are supposed to be good for five years of storage...

And the transmission icon started flashing on the trainer tonight at ~6250km, and then it started cutting out on the transmission altogether. One battery at 1.4v, the other at 1.26v. New batteries again... cheapo brand ones are obviously NFG. I'll get some decent ones on the weekend.

[twizzle]

Dropped the spare hub and a rim off at the bike shop on Saturday, picked up Tuesday rode for the first time today. And the f'in transmission icon was flashing. This hub had new batteries fitted one month ago and only hit the road today.

Fitted a different brand battery, I'll see how I go.

[Ant.]

Well at least the batteries are CHEAP, and at least you can replace them yourself.

Negative SRM here for one month. Incompetent manufacturers and/or incompetent techs, and I'm starting to get pretty p'd off.

[twizzle]

Well at least the batteries are CHEAP, and at least you can replace them yourself.

Negative SRM here for one month. Incompetent manufacturers and/or incompetent techs, and I'm starting to get pretty p'd off.

Ouch! I have a feeling they send everything back to Germany. The potential time taken for warranty work was one of the main reasons I bought a second powertap hub. Having a power meter is addictive!

[twizzle]

Well, apart from the non-driveside locknut on the axle coming loose on both of my PT wheels and regular battery replacement - it's been pretty trouble free. Until last night, when I decided to put a new battery in the computer and when I opened the battery cover two of the three locking tabs on the body of the computer came out with the battery. Still works fine, battery cover locks into place, but I've put a piece of gaffa tape over the back of the computer and I'm keeping my eye out for a cheap replacement computer now. I've had the cover off about five times in the last year, the last time was a couple of weeks ago when WKO+ caused the computer to lock up. So - be really gentle when opening the cover, the locking tabs are fragile!

Oh, and 'Happy Birthday" to my first powertap. Between my two wheels, I've clocked up ~ 12,330km in 12 months. My original DT Swiss RR1.2 based wheel became the 'race' wheel, and my 'spare' PT hub was built into a DeepV rim for everyday usage about five months ago. The correction factor the original wheel was 516 and the 'new' wheel was 515 when I checked them the other night. (512 nominal, anything from 500 to 524 is considered normal).

[toolonglegs]

Hope mine still work ...well it did a month ago when I got a week of riding in...never rang up and found out what was wrong with the last one.