I've started using the PowerPod 3 on a mountain bike paired to a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt, cadence + speed sensor. Wattage is displayed as I start my rides, but during some downhill sections wattage drops to 0 and never increases when I start pedaling again. I'm assuming the unit goes into sleep mode?
On one ride after the zero watt display, I press the PowerPod to turn it on and the light shows green, however the computer still show zero watts. Pressing the button (and showing green) is done several times, without any luck and after the 4th or 5th time frustrated, I just leave it. About 30 seconds later the watts start registering again. On the next ride similar behavior of the watts displaying zero some time after the ride starts and repeated presses of the PowerPod do nothing. However, the watts remain zero for the rest of the ride.
A few questions:
1. Is it normal for the unit to go to sleep on downhill sections? I'd assume the speed sensor would keep it awake.
2. Is there are way to adjust the sleep settings specifically for mountain biking where there could be a lot more periods of non-pedaling during downhills?
3. Are there connectivity issues known between the PowerPod v3 and the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt?
Attaching the ride files for the past 2 rides. Interestingly, the last ride produced 2 ibr files.
Zero watts on mountain bike rides after downhills and stops registering watts afterwards
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northbaymtb
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2020 2:35 pm
Zero watts on mountain bike rides after downhills and stops registering watts afterwards
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- Velocomp_02_08_2020_0726_12_Miles.ibr
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- Velocomp_02_16_2020_0945_3_Miles.ibr
- (166.18 KiB) Downloaded 207 times
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- Velocomp_02_16_2020_0735_4_Miles.ibr
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Re: Zero watts on mountain bike rides after downhills and stops registering watts afterwards
You've got a bunch of things going on here:
1) You are climbing really steep slopes, 14% and more! It's not a surprise that you are climbing slowly. However, when you climb slowly enough, less than 4 mph, PowerPod assumes you are walking the bike. PP will force speed to zero, and it will stop recording data. There are speed dropouts in all your ride files.
With your wheels, at a speed of 3 mph, it takes over 2 seconds for your wheel to make 1 complete revolution. This is too long a time
A workaround for this problem is to use a conventional, magnet-based speed sensor, with TWO speed sensor magnets on your wheel, positioned on your spokes about 180 degrees apart. This "tricks" PowerPod into thinking your wheel is turning twice as fast, and therefore not walking the bike! ` Of course you're not, so the other part of the workaround is to divide by 2 the wheel circumference stored in your profile--in your case, from 2326 (current value) to 1163 (value to use with 2 magnets). This workaround will get rid of your speed sensor dropouts
2) The speed sensor dropouts are screwing-up the automatic calibration routines for the accelerometer. This is contributing to your zero watts problem
3) I can see places where you are button pushing. When you do this you are likely rebooting your PowerPod mid-ride. This breaks up the ride file and causes calibration problems for the first couple of minutes afterwards.
4) You are braking on downhills--not a problem--but when you start pedaling at the bottom of a downhill, it will take PP about 90 seconds to recalibrate itself.
5) There are no issues with Wahoo Bolt of which we are aware.
6) Button pushing during a ride is not recommended. It's the equivalent of unplugging your desktop computer in the middle of working on an important written document...when PP reboots, you should not expect it to just start working.
I think the thing to do is to get your speed measurement going. This will likely improve the other issues you're seeing, too.
1) You are climbing really steep slopes, 14% and more! It's not a surprise that you are climbing slowly. However, when you climb slowly enough, less than 4 mph, PowerPod assumes you are walking the bike. PP will force speed to zero, and it will stop recording data. There are speed dropouts in all your ride files.
With your wheels, at a speed of 3 mph, it takes over 2 seconds for your wheel to make 1 complete revolution. This is too long a time
A workaround for this problem is to use a conventional, magnet-based speed sensor, with TWO speed sensor magnets on your wheel, positioned on your spokes about 180 degrees apart. This "tricks" PowerPod into thinking your wheel is turning twice as fast, and therefore not walking the bike! ` Of course you're not, so the other part of the workaround is to divide by 2 the wheel circumference stored in your profile--in your case, from 2326 (current value) to 1163 (value to use with 2 magnets). This workaround will get rid of your speed sensor dropouts
2) The speed sensor dropouts are screwing-up the automatic calibration routines for the accelerometer. This is contributing to your zero watts problem
3) I can see places where you are button pushing. When you do this you are likely rebooting your PowerPod mid-ride. This breaks up the ride file and causes calibration problems for the first couple of minutes afterwards.
4) You are braking on downhills--not a problem--but when you start pedaling at the bottom of a downhill, it will take PP about 90 seconds to recalibrate itself.
5) There are no issues with Wahoo Bolt of which we are aware.
6) Button pushing during a ride is not recommended. It's the equivalent of unplugging your desktop computer in the middle of working on an important written document...when PP reboots, you should not expect it to just start working.
I think the thing to do is to get your speed measurement going. This will likely improve the other issues you're seeing, too.
John Hamann