AeroPod, PowerPod and Newton

Hi there,

I recently got my powerpod through today and I am having trouble calibrating it.

I paired it with the speed sensor without any trouble and the Garmin connects to the power meter. I can see the power on the data screen when cycling. When I try to calibrate with the garmin it tells me to unclip from the pedals then says power meter calibrated successful with 0 underneath.

The light on the power meter looks more orange/red than yellow during this phase and does not flash.

Any help would be great.

Regards Graeme

Several things are going on:

1) Even if your Garmin shows bike speed while riding, and your PowerPod is paired to your speed/cadence sensor, this does NOT mean your ANT+ speed sensor is working properly. Garmin (cleverly) masks problems with its speed sensor by showing GPS speed data whenever speed data from the sensor is not being sent.

2) Though your PowerPod (PP) is paired to your ANT+ sensor, before calibrating your PP you need to confirm that your speed sensor is working properly. With your bike at rest (not riding down the road) spin the rear wheel, and confirm that you see bike speed displayed in your Garmin window. If you don't see bike speed this means that your speed sensor/magnet are not properly aligned and that your speed sensor is not sending speed data. The PowerPod won't calibrate until it receives speed data.

3) Make sure your Garmin display is set to show Power/3 sec. Garmin makes things VERY confusing with all of their various power options, most of which are intended to encourage the cyclist to spend $1200 for a set of their power pedals. You'll have to dig a bit to find the "normal" power screen options.

4) If your speed sensor is working and your Garmin screen is set correctly, then about 10 seconds after you start riding your PP light will turn from solid yellow to flashing yellow. It will flash for 5 minutes, until the calibration is complete. It's OK if it looks a bit "orange"; the yellow light it produces is a combination of green and red LED. You should see the power level slowly increase from 1W to 100W.

5) You do NOT need to calibrate the PP with your Garmin "calibrate" screens. The Garmin calibrate screens are intended for traditional power meters, which DO require manual calibration. Once your PP is calibrated you're done. if you do calibrate PP with your Garmin screen, PP will return a value of "0". Sorry, but the "0" doesn't mean anything; it's there only to get your Garmin to exit its calibration screen

Thanks for the quick reply. I forgot to say that I changed it to indoor mode to do it on a trainer. Is it still possible to set up this way because I am in Scotland and there is a good bit of snow .

I will give that a try.

Thanks again Graeme

Make sure you've upgraded your PowerPod to FW 607 before using your PowerPod in indoor trainer mode.

If you have questions please contact technicalsupport@velocomp.com