trainer mode-data dropouts and inaccurate watts

[NCH1]

I have just attempted a training session on my rollers and trainer mode is consistently dropping power down to about 50 watts and will not display any watts above 200 watts, despite pedalling as hard as I can. No changes have been made to by ibike whatsover. Furthermore it was working fine when I went for an outdoor ride yesterday. I have done a hard reset; changed to new batteries in the mount and ibike unit itself followed by a rescan, but to no avail. Can anyone tell me what the problem is and how to fix it?

Thanks

Nik

[racerfern]

You might have left the unit in "outdoor" mode. Being on a trainer the iBike is going to see massive tailwind unless you enter trainer mode. If the iBike is off, when you turn it on you should get a batt test if it has been off more than 4 hours, then a wind cal, then a warning that trainer mode is on. Confirm that first.

[NCH1]

Yeah I've tried all those procedures mate. Oddly enough to0, the faster I pedal the lower the watts progressively dip. For instance, if I pedal at 200 watts at a reasonable pace and then wind up my cadence and power, the faster I pedal the lower the watts continually progress. Therefore, even though I'm doing about 300 watts the ibike will display 50-60 watts.

Nik

[NCH1]

It seems to me the algorithm for the indoor trainer is somehow corrupted and operating in reverse. The higher the cadence or gear the lower the watts displayed. Unfortunately, resending the trainer profile or switching the indoor trainer mode from the software does not rectify the issue.

Nik

[racerfern]

Did you create a custom profile perchance? Take a look at the profile curve for your trainer and see if something looks skewed. Also, try an alternate but similar trainer/roller to see if it registers closer to what you would expect. Finally, copy and create a new profile based on the one in the list.

[NCH1]

No, I'm not using a custom profile. I have the standard roller profile loaded for the Kreitler 2.25 inch drums (though they are alloy and not plastic) with the fan one quarter open. I have also tried similar to what you suggested- I loaded the profile with the fan half open, but the issue still remains. I wonder if this can be fixed by reloading the ibike firmware, but I'm not sure how this can be done

Nik

[NCH1]

I have just tried using the profile for resistance level 2 of the emotion rollers whose speed/power curve look very similar to the Kreitlers, however the issue still remains.

Nik

[racerfern]

Re-loading the profile might work, I assume you did a battery reset. With on the fly updates you never get to actually save a firmware update. Hmmm.

[NCH1]

Yeah, I've reloaded the profile several times as well as doing several hard resets. Hopefully when John is online he will have an answer or enable me to load a slightly tweaked version of firmware 4.26 (so that the unit thinks it is a new update).

Nik

[NCH1]

Problem solved, I hope.

After 7 hours of tinkering I had just about given up on any training today, then I thought even if power is not displayed I could glean from the speed/power curve in the ibike software what speed I needed to reach to attain the power required and then target that speed with my Garmin Edge (which is pretty much disused these days). As I started to pedal, the same issue I was having with power on the ibike began immediately with speed on the Garmin. Therefore 2 gadgets with one problem-the garmin GSC-10. The issue is not the battery in it as I replaced that this morning. I can only conclude that after 3.5 years it has simply failed. Fortunately I have a spare on my single speed and upon fixing it to the road bike, power seems to be restored, thank goodness.

Thanks Fernando for all your help today, it was much appreciated.

Nik