AeroPod, PowerPod and Newton

After adding a new static trainer to the profiles on my PowerPod, then using it on my mountain bike, I've put it back on my road bike.
I did about 20 mins of my ride before concluding that my Garmin wasn't going to read anything from the PowerPod, so as I can't turn it off and on, I set it to calibrate while riding. I had also tried this in the morning, but it failed twice.
I stopped, held the button down, it flashed and went red/green, and the power counted up from 0.
I stopped at 50, turned around, and went back to the start, where it counted up to 100.
After a monumental amount of faffing about when I got home, I was able to track down where it was in the total ride, (although it wasn't showing my Garmin anything, it was apparently recording), only to find that when splitting a ride, the minimum distance to calibrate a calibration ride is 1 mile. The calibration ride I took was half a mile there and back.
Please only read the next part if you'd like to listen to a rant, I'm not expecting any response or help...
I'm trying my hardest to hold back my tirade of frustration at paying over $400 for a device which after using for six months, I've yet to be convinced has ever given me a correct reading. This is after recently discovering that if my weight differs by just 1kg, it throws the estimated power way out, and resulted in my purchasing a set of scales which I now get on every morning so I can get a half-descent estimate of what I'm starting to discover is at best a finger in the wind estimation of my actual power. If I had a DFPM I'm sure I'd be able to calibrate it so it was spot on, and would only have to re-calibrate every time I switched a bike, or attached it to my computer, but if that were the case, I'd use the DFPM instead of the PowerPod.
I maintain computers for my job, and have used countless applications for the last 20 years, but Isaac software has me scratching my head in confusion every time I use it. There was a time when I thought I had a handle on it, but it seems to want to do too much with devices I don't have, for example if I turn certain menus off which I shouldn't need, I can't then adjust the profiles I do need. I think I've spent more time on it, and this forum than I have on the bike in the last six months.

Wow, lots to respond to!

1) If your Garmin wasn't picking up power, then either your PP was not paired to your speed sensor, or your PP wasn't paired to your Garmin. PP status light is solid green when successfully paired to the speed sensor; did you click PP button to confirm it was solid green? PP won't transmit power information unless status light is solid green.

2) If your PP has been properly set up, and you see a solid green light when clicking its button, there is no reason to recalibrate

3) The length of a calibration ride is determined automatically by time and distance. If your ride was only 1 mile long that is OK--the new cal ride is only about 1 mile long

4) During the calibration the Garmin will slowly increment from 0 to 100. The cal ride data is not recorded in PP ride file

5) It is incorrect to conclude that a 1 KG weight change will result in meaningful changes in watts. We do not say this anywhere in our instructions and I don't know how you reached this conclusion.

6) If you would post a ride file we can see if anything else is going on that is out of order.

7) I don't understand what your specific problem is with Isaac. If you can be more specific about the problems you are having I am sure we can help.

1) If your Garmin wasn't picking up power, then either your PP was not paired to your speed sensor, or your PP wasn't paired to your Garmin. PP status light is solid green when successfully paired to the speed sensor; did you click PP button to confirm it was solid green? PP won't transmit power information unless status light is solid green.

1a) I usually click the button, the Garmin says 'Found Power Meter' after a few seconds, and away I go. If it doesn't find it, the Garmin shows <blank> for the power meter part, so I'll wait a minute and press it again, which usually fixes it. On this ride, I pressed the button, it found the PP, and displayed 0w. Experience told me to wait and not mash the PP button, but after 20 mins riding, I felt that something had gone wrong... again.

2) If your PP has been properly set up, and you see a solid green light when clicking its button, there is no reason to recalibrate

2a) Although recalibration wasn't my initial intention, I didn't have much option as it wasn't showing watts.

3) The length of a calibration ride is determined automatically by time and distance. If your ride was only 1 mile long that is OK--the new cal ride is only about 1 mile long

3a) If I do a 'proper' calibration ride, I'll block out three hours on the weekend, and follow the instructions to the letter, using ISAAC software to set the profile settings with my exact weight, guessimate the road tubeless tyre drag based on Google searches, note the wind direction and pressure, save that to the PP, go out on a ride, plug the PP back in and analyse the calibration ride. In this instance I was hoping to calibrate 'on the fly' which apparently was not a good idea. I was hoping to be able to stop, hold the PP button, go out and back, then continue with my ride, with the hope of extracting the calibration ride from the whole ride at the end.
I did this, by slecting the part of the ride which was the out and back part, and saving just that to a new ride file, but the calibration ride was less than 1 mile, so it wouldn't let me use it.

4) During the calibration the Garmin will slowly increment from 0 to 100. The cal ride data is not recorded in PP ride file

4a) The calibration part of the ride was recorded but as stated I couldn't use it.

5) It is incorrect to conclude that a 1 KG weight change will result in meaningful changes in watts. We do not say this anywhere in our instructions and I don't know how you reached this conclusion.

While attempting to back up my claim, I found that you're absolutely correct, if you tweak the weight by 3kg, it only changes the power by 1w while checking a calibration. However, I was basing my assessment on my perception of previous power, after changing my profile from 89 to 93kg, a very slow considered commute now shows I'm throwing 300w out, as opposed to an expected 200w. I expect something else contributed to that bump, not just my totally awesome legs.

6) If you would post a ride file we can see if anything else is going on that is out of order.

6a) The attached file is this mornings' ride, which to my perception was much higher than it should be. Seeing as it shows 20mins at 341.6w, on a commute with five stops.

7) I don't understand what your specific problem is with Isaac. If you can be more specific about the problems you are having I am sure we can help.

My rant did come with a warning, it was a rant, but the take home from it is it's waaaay too complicated if you want to do something like get an accurate power reading from all the variables. I would have expected a series of easy to input questions on a web page which can be automatically updated with my Garmin weight, and new bike as soon as the device is plugged in. Not (to take but one of dozens of examples) Device Menu | Send profile to device | Get from iBike (what is iBike? Is my PP iBike? Is it another device you support? What happens if I send it? Will it overwrite my current profile, or create a new one? All I wanted to do was send my new profile to my PP, this is too complicated, I'll get a cup of tea and come back to it. etc. etc.) all in a graphically oblique environment. The fact that I (and it would appear everyone else) has to post multiple ride files on this forum is evidence enough. That was another rant, because I don't have enough money to buy a DFPM. please ignore it.

You have a big problem in your ride file: your Crr is way too high, set to .0211. PP thinks you did your commute riding on a soft sand beach!

With Crr set to a more reasonable value for a road bike on an asphalt road, 0.0054, your 20 minute watts drop to 231W, very reasonable. Modified profile and ride file attached.

The default value of Crr in PP, as shipped from the factory, is 0.0054. So, Crr was changed somehow when you used Isaac.

The wake-up sequence is :

1) awaken your sensors. Speed sensor being awake is critical
2) Awaken PP. Confirm that its light is solid green; if it is, then PP is transmitting power
3) If you have done 1) and 2) and you don't see any power on your Garmin, then your Garmin is not correctly paired to PP, or your Garmin power setting is wrong

Regarding Isaac and a calibration ride:

1) The factory default values in PP are close to your ride conditions. In other words, you could remove PP from the box, NOT attach it to Isaac, do a calibration ride, then ride! Isaac is an option, not a requirement.

2) If you are using FW 641, you can most definitely calibrate on the fly, without using Isaac. You press-hold the button for 4 seconds, to do a new scan (make sure there are no other bikes close by). The scan will force PP into an O&B calibration.

3) Isaac is a pretty advanced piece of software--with lots of "knobs and buttons". Isaac also has a pretty extensive instructions manual that answers many of the questions you are asking.

4) "iBike" is our original product. Anywhere you see "iBike" replace it with the word PowerPod. We haven't yet fully updated Isaac with these kinds of edits.

The "out of the box" experience with PowerPod does not require Isaac. That said, we know lots of customers want to dial-in their devices. When people get stuck, or have questions, this is the place to ask, and we are glad to help.

First of all, thanks very much for the information, I have completed some further research on each point, and can hopefully push a bit further into each remaining question...

You have a big problem in your ride file: your Crr is way too high, set to .0211. PP thinks you did your commute riding on a soft sand beach!

I think might know some of what happened here. One of the four profiles on the PP is my Mountain bike, which I calibrated the Crr to 0.02107 a few weeks ago.
I put the PP to it on 12th, and went for a ride... that ride didn't want to pick up power either, so I mistakenly held the button, and it attempted an 'on the fly' o&b calibration which failed (I was with friends, and didn't want to turn around). I expected the watts from that ride to be incorrect, and they were. I don't know why the PP didn't automatically pick up my MTB 'profile', as it has different sensors? (This may be the one and only question which needs answering).

Since then, on 15th, 16th - it appears to have picked up my MTB profile for my road bike. Not sure if this was my fault as I started the ride, then realised my mistake, and switched the profile on the Garmin 'on the fly', I don't know how the PP reacts to this or not. I would have expected it wouldn't care, instead switching automatically based on the various speed and cadence sensors after being offline for a few days between rides. I would like to know what I should have done in this instance.

The default value of Crr in PP, as shipped from the factory, is 0.0054. So, Crr was changed somehow when you used Isaac.

Since yesterday, connecting the PP to Isaac on another PC 'seems' to have somehow reset it to the correct profile.
I say this, as the sequence of events went thusly:
1. Ride to work (Crr of 0.0211) (presumably thinks it's the MTB)
2. Connect to a fresh install of Isaac, Edit Profiles | Extract from device (did not push or save anything to PP) it extracted my 'road bike' profile.
3. Ride home (Crr of 0.0054).

Regarding Isaac and a calibration ride:

1) The factory default values in PP are close to your ride conditions. In other words, you could remove PP from the box, NOT attach it to Isaac, do a calibration ride, then ride! Isaac is an option, not a requirement.

This much I knew, as I used it for several weeks without calibrating it, after doing a full calibration, my watts increased measureably, but I couldn't know if the new calibration was correct unless connected it to Isaac. When I did, found I knew NOTHING about Crr, Cda, Cm etc. so it was a steep three week learning curve of Youtube videos, and countless sites, including the outdated 80 page instructions which seem to tell me 'about' the settings, rather than how they relate to what I want to do <mini rant>.

2) If you are using FW 641, you can most definitely calibrate on the fly, without using Isaac. You press-hold the button for 4 seconds, to do a new scan (make sure there are no other bikes close by). The scan will force PP into an O&B calibration.

This seems to be where the instructions end also... does this mean that it adjusts the PP to the new settings immediately after the calibration? Do I then have to connect it to Isaac to see if it worked, and if I did out of curiosity, what would I be looking for?

3) Isaac is a pretty advanced piece of software--with lots of "knobs and buttons". Isaac also has a pretty extensive instructions manual that answers many of the questions you are asking.

I coulndn't agree more with the former, but have to disagree with the latter, for example if I already know my Crr is off, then the instructions are great, but if all I know is the power appears to be temporarily mis-reading, I wouldn't know where to start looking.

4) "iBike" is our original product. Anywhere you see "iBike" replace it with the word PowerPod. We haven't yet fully updated Isaac with these kinds of edits.

Thanks for letting me know this, it should clear up a small part of the plethora of the issues I have with the software. <tertiary rant complete, please ignore>.

The "out of the box" experience with PowerPod does not require Isaac. That said, we know lots of customers want to dial-in their devices. When people get stuck, or have questions, this is the place to ask, and we are glad to help.

For this, I can't thank you enough. The issues for me just keep coming, and I fear this is the tip of the iceberg.

1) If you have multiple bike profiles stored on your PP, make sure each profile has a unique speed sensor ID. From what you have posted, I'm worried that you have the same speed sensor ID in your MTB and road bike profiles. If so, PP will not switch--it will continue to use the profile currently active.

2) It is really risky to do sensor pairings when on a group ride. You have a high probability of picking up someone else's sensors!

3) Assuming your speed sensor IDs are unique for each profile, before starting the ride do the following:

A. wake up your speed/cadence sensors on the bike you plan to ride. MAKE SURE YOUR OTHER BIKES DO NOT HAVE SENSORS THAT ARE AWAKE.

B. wake up PP. MAKE SURE THE LIGHT SHOWS SOLID GREEN (not flashing green). If the light does not stop flashing green, then you do not have a profile stored in PP with the sensor ID of your current bike.

C. Now, check your Garmin to confirm that all sensors are paired to it

4) Isaac "reads" the profiles that are stored and active in PP. If you attach PP to Isaac in a different computer, that computer does not do anything other than report the current settings of your PP.

5) If you use the "Device/Setup Device" wizard in Isaac, CdA and Crr are automatically set. You don't have to know what the parameters are and how they work. If you want to change these parameters manually you can do that, too. 99.9% of our users don't manually adjust their profiles.

6) Every calibration ride automatically adjusts the parameters at the end of the ride (that's what a calibration ride does). No, you don't have to connect to Isaac. If you want to see what changed, connect PP to Isaac, go to "Edit/Edit Profiles/Extract from Device/Advanced" and look at the wind scaling factor. That is the item most likely to have changed.

1) If you have multiple bike profiles stored on your PP, make sure each profile has a unique speed sensor ID. From what you have posted, I'm worried that you have the same speed sensor ID in your MTB and road bike profiles. If so, PP will not switch--it will continue to use the profile currently active.

Upon connecting to my original Isaac installation, I can see the other two profiles. There should be three, as I recently added the static trainer, but I'll get to that in another post.
It appears that when I attempt to retrieve the sensor information from the PP when I switch the 'Active profile', it gives me the incorrect sensor details.
I'd love to say that I could simply overwrite the sensor details, after having manually gone through all of them and put in them in a spreadsheet for future reference with such issues, but it would appear that typing one of them such as '563816' when tabbing away, results in '66535' being shown in the field. I don't know if this is by design, or an(other) issue with the software. Please advise where i should go from here, or should I start from scratch again?