AeroPod, PowerPod and Newton

I just put a brand new battery into my iAero and it's showing a voltage of 260. However on my digital multi-meter it reads over 3 Volts. Is there a problem with my iAero?

mlennox wrote:I just put a brand new battery into my iAero and it's showing a voltage of 260. However on my digital multi-meter it reads over 3 Volts. Is there a problem with my iAero?

The voltage you see on the multimeter is unloaded. The iAero is showing you what it is with it's load placed on the battery.

But the question still remains why a brand-new battery that is putting out 3V is being reported by the iAero as less than 2.75V, thus not acceptable for use with iAero.

mlennox wrote:But the question still remains why a brand-new battery that is putting out 3V is being reported by the iAero as less than 2.75V, thus not acceptable for use with iAero.

As Isaias said, battery voltage is a function of current. The right way to measure a battery is when it is delivering current.

Personally, I've managed to find bad "new" batteries two different ways:

* I tried buying batteries off Ebay that were bad from the get-go.

* After that lesson, I started ordering the Panasonics from Velocomp, but one time most of the batteries got bumped out of the plastic tray and I ended up with a heap of them laying in the bottom of a plastic bag for several weeks. It turns out that it is easy for the batteries to short each other out when piled up that way. I lost 5 batteries. Each of them still had enough juice to turn the unit on, but all where lower in voltage than they should have been.

Travis

I guess I need to have a conversation with John then since the batteries that are causing me problem ARE the Panasonics (brand new) that came with my iAero and wireless mounts.

maybe a related issue but 7 my iAero (installed new batteries last night) was down to 2.75 this morning.

I noticed that it has not powered own although it was not connected to any mount.


Thoughts?

I'm seeing this also. New batteries are initially showing just under 3V but quickly deteriorate to 2.75 range.

I always placed my iBike Pro and now the iAero in an "undocumented" hibernation mode by going to Set Up->batt and then pressing the center of the red button. Everytime I wake it up (by pressing any area of the red button) the voltage starts out high and settles down into some "steady state" value. As long as the "steady state" value is greater than 2.75vdc, I'll use the battery, otherwise I'll replace it taking out the old one and putting it aside--sometimes they reconstitute over time... sometimes not.

Anyone else experienceing this?

It has ALWAYS been the case that battery voltage drops rapidly from the "new" state of 3V. In tests we did last year battery voltage dropped from 300 to about 280 after 15 minutes, then held stable for many many hours thereafter (at spring/summer temperatures).

All is well...

Velocomp wrote:It has ALWAYS been the case that battery voltage drops rapidly from the "new" state of 3V. In tests we did last year battery voltage dropped from 300 to about 280 after 15 minutes, then held stable for many many hours thereafter (at spring/summer temperatures).

All is well...

OK, so as long as the steady-state value settles at something larger than 275, the battery is fine for use and once below 275 it's time to replace?

mlennox wrote:

Velocomp wrote:It has ALWAYS been the case that battery voltage drops rapidly from the "new" state of 3V. In tests we did last year battery voltage dropped from 300 to about 280 after 15 minutes, then held stable for many many hours thereafter (at spring/summer temperatures).

All is well...

OK, so as long as the steady-state value settles at something larger than 275, the battery is fine for use and once below 275 it's time to replace?

History (what I remember)
-- -- -- -------------------------
In the past, 2.75 vdc was good enough to start a ride at. That recommendation was before the wireless mount, which now assists the iBike/iAero by having it's own battery. Before the wireless mount, the iBike's battery had to supply power to the iBike and all of the sensors.

Probably, no one has re-characterized the point at which the battery becomes useless. It may be different between the Pro and the iAero since the hardware is slightly different. My wireless Pro, last winter, showed a great improvement over the wired version. I suspect that the iAero will be equivalent.