Oh dear oh dear.

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cjwilber
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 7:42 am

Oh dear oh dear.

Post by cjwilber »

I have just purchased this Powerpod v3 and already I am thinking it has been a terrible mistake.
The software installation on a modern powerful Macbook is painful.
Tha Macbook software is dreadfully slow taking up to aminute to even respond to basic requests.
I'm informed that my (brand new) Powerpod is too old and I need to buy a 64bit key to use with Mac. On contacting support I get told it is manufactured in June this year, so get sent key. Meanwhile I have installed the software on a PC instead - it works much better on there.

Now onto calibration. Having jumped through the various "Use this guide, no use this one, here's a link to another one, these pictures look nothing like yours, don't worry. Ignore the bits about Aeropod" and finally find a graphical guide that looks something like it might work with my device.


So guidance "PowerPod v3 instructions" say:
4a and 4b Press hold for 4 seconds to power on in to link sensors mode. I paired the Wahoo speed and cadence sensors, and my Wahoo TickR hear rate monitor OK. Of course you don't know that at the time, you just have to hope for the best.
4c Says Click but it's not clear why I am clicking anything here.
Mine went from plashing green the momentary red, then on to solid yellow. I never clicked anything

5 Now click to pair to bike computer. That worked OK.

6 Click again? It's yellow. Is that before or after I click?
6a Somehow get it to flashing red/green.
6b Ride out. Watts start climbing and when I get to 50, I stop. Watts drops to 0. Hmmmmmm. But when I turn around and start riding back, they jump to 50 then 60 and keep rising until it gets to 100.
And now actual power is shown. Marvellous.

Get off bike, disconnect PowerPod and connect to my computer. It shows me a load of rides - probably from all the previous failed calibration attempts.

Load up the one labelled: velocomp_08-07_2020_1338_1_Miles_CalRide.ibr

That shows Average Watts 2996 with a maximum of 4000.

In short, I'm stumped about how to get this to work.
Yesterday I had to ride 13km and the calibration didn't finish.
Today I only had to do a few hundred metres, but it still doesn't seem to have worked.
cjwilber
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 7:42 am

Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by cjwilber »

Update: somewhere in the Isaac software, i find an option to change the aerodynamic parameter. When i did that, it took the power to much more sensible values.
I’m still not sure whether the calibration ride was valid. In fact I have two in the device, one of over 12km and one of just under a km.
Nothing in the software indicates whether these were successful calibration rides, and indeed the one that I think was the better ride - the 1km one - can’t even be analysed because it’s too short.
Is there an option to check the calibration?
Velocomp
Velocomp CEO
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Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 8:43 am

Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by Velocomp »

Please post your .ibr ride file and I will take a look.
John Hamann
cjwilber
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Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 7:42 am

Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by cjwilber »

Thanks John - and sorry for being so grumpy. I think I must have been having a very bad day - which is still no excuse for being so dismissive without even asking for help first :shock:

I've attached two files.
The shorter one is the one that seemed to complete even though it did some odd things with the power counting up.
Attachments
Velocomp_08_07_2020_1338_1_Miles_CalRide.ibr
(23.87 KiB) Downloaded 247 times
Velocomp_08_06_2020_1838_5_Miles_CalRide.ibr
(99.26 KiB) Downloaded 248 times
Velocomp
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Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by Velocomp »

These are both "cal rides". Please post a ride file at a time AFTER the cal ride.
John Hamann
cjwilber
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Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 7:42 am

Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by cjwilber »

Ah ok. I misunderstood. I’ll dig out a ride file when i have a break from work later.
RoadWarrior
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:12 am

Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by RoadWarrior »

Hi, I just received my PowerPod yesterday.

To be honest it is a bit fiddely to setup and there are also competitive crankbased PMs on the market now, which I was also looking at, 4iiii and Stages. However I like the thought of calculating all the influences coming to a rider into conclusion and not only the strain that hits the crank, pedal. bracket or chain. I think this technology has just started to evolve. I might be wrong, but that also Garmin will release an OFPM shows that they see potential in it.

Coming to the calibration, this video explains it best and most accurate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDvmiOjs5NQ
I did fiddle around quite some time yesterday, after watching this video I had to say that many lights I saw and things I didn't understand now make sense to me.

The short config paper you can forget. a step by step list would make more sense.

The first pairing of the device with the speed sensor failed with red LED, since the sensor was at the back. (4d)
after that I witnessed severall successful pairings without realizing that they are successful.
In my now understanding succesful pairing means: The LED is static green for 2 sec. Whatever lights have been before, doesn't matter.
I witnessed:
green blinking then 3x red then solid green = paired
green blinking then solid green = paired
I never witnessed solid Yellow, in my understanding this part (4c) is wrong and links to the status after the pairing.

After pairing I started a calibration ride with the solid yellow light. I rode several min without anything happening really, then the LED started to flash red/green. I thought what is wrong?
after a while the LED went red and then went back to yellow flashing.
After 31min I stoped and started again, saw the counter rise and then at 92W the PP went lights off and the wattage was counting down.
Same game again, same result.

After watching the video above I realized all my mistakes and did a reset of the device and started a new calibration ride today.

this is the result:
Image

Please do the following:
remove the PP from the bike computer
first 50 sec. of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR3k1uQ-z-I

then attach it to the bike, make sure the speed sensor is ANT+ and installed below the PP on the front wheel.
activate the speed sensor
click the power button for 4 seconds until light flashes green
watch the LED and notice when the green becomes steady for about 2 seconds (you realize when it goes from flashing to steady). Doesn't matter what color was before the steady green.
When steady green is off, search the PP on your f.e. Garmin and pair it.
Makre sure you have a field on the Garmin that shows 'POWER', not NP! (f.e. keep the main window and add there power) - Data Screens - Screen 1 - Field x - Power (inside the power options choose Power, not balanced or anything else)
save all and disable all other fields
turn on the PP, LED will show yellow
go out and start the Garmin
ride to the starting point of your dual way ride
at the starting point press the PP button, the LED turns from solid/steady yellow to blinking
the wattage in the Garmin starts to climb
when you reach the 50W, turn around and ride the same way back.
you will reach the calibration start point more or less again when the wattage reaches 100
the calibration has now finished and the PP is measuring real wattage.
most of this description can be found in the first link i posted.


Let me know if it worked.

Kind regards
cjwilber
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 7:42 am

Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by cjwilber »

Thanks. Really helpful. We unfortunately suffered a sudden and unexpected family bereavement a couple of weeks ago, so I’ve not had chance to look again.
I’m going to do so today and will report back.
Being Red/Green colour blind doesn’t help matters. I can distinguish red and green but really struggle with the yellow.
A thought for the designers: could you just flash different number of times depending on what stage of the process the calibration has reached?
Flash once when starting, flash twice when pairing, flash three times when ready to start riding, go solid when in calibration, flash 4 times when ready to turn, go solid when on return path, etc.
Velocomp
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Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by Velocomp »

cjwilber wrote: Sun Aug 23, 2020 3:51 am Thanks. Really helpful. We unfortunately suffered a sudden and unexpected family bereavement a couple of weeks ago, so I’ve not had chance to look again.
I’m going to do so today and will report back.
Being Red/Green colour blind doesn’t help matters. I can distinguish red and green but really struggle with the yellow.
A thought for the designers: could you just flash different number of times depending on what stage of the process the calibration has reached?
Flash once when starting, flash twice when pairing, flash three times when ready to start riding, go solid when in calibration, flash 4 times when ready to turn, go solid when on return path, etc.
I agree that the color indicator arrangement is not perfect. Unfortunately, our experience is that counting "flashes" would cause a whole new set of problems.

We will think about this and see if there is some other way to communicate things...
John Hamann
cjwilber
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Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 7:42 am

Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by cjwilber »

OK. I have a ride that I did a couple of weeks back. It shows average power as only 43W, which I am sure isn't right. Could you have a look and tell me if it is wrong in some way?
In case it's helpful, I am 184cm tall, 83kg and riding a gravel bike with fairly chunky tyres
Attachments
Velocomp_08_31_2020_1224_27_Miles.ibr
(486.34 KiB) Downloaded 245 times
Velocomp
Velocomp CEO
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Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by Velocomp »

Your ride file shows an average bike speed of 9 mph.

Also, there is a lot of zero cadence (not pedaling).

Both of these things will keep watts low.

I used aerocoach to check your parameters.

http://www.aerocoach.com.au/power-from-speed/

Assuming the weight/speed information is correct, then I think your watts are correct.
Attachments
Screen Shot 2020-09-15 at 12.50.29 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-09-15 at 12.50.29 PM.png (191.67 KiB) Viewed 8157 times
John Hamann
cjwilber
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Re: Oh dear oh dear.

Post by cjwilber »

Thanks John
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