Stages Power Meter - battery draining?

andy_from_embsay

I bought one of these after favourable reviews on dc rainmaker's site, but quickly found I was using a battery pretty much every day. After the usual "we've never seen it before" and "is the battery in properly" Stages now seem to believe there is/was a firmware issue that's causing the unit to keep transmitting a bluetooth signal all the time.

They say this is very difficult to replicate and that it requires "specific environmental conditions" (which I assume means "Yorkshire"), but they have released some new firmware which fixes it.

Only it doesn't - not for me.

Has anyone else experienced this problem, and has the firmware update fixed it for you?

Cheers

davem399

My mate had this problem too. A battery was lasting just a few days. He was sent a new battery cover by the supplier, but this didn't make any difference so the whole unit has gone back to them and he is awaiting a replacement.

If this doesn't work, he is considering a Powertap hub and wheel build instead.

andy_from_embsay

I think the "it's the door" was their first go, so they were sending new doors out. They've now accepted there's a firmware issue with shutting off the bluetooth or something, so they released an update - which seems to have fixed some people's problem.

I put mine on a radiator to fully dry it with the door off, and put a new battery in. I've not been out today, but 7 or 8 hours later it's still showing full. I'll have a look in the morning and see where we are, but it may be sorted now - if not, i think I'm on a new crank (this is already a replacement).

j_82wilson

Hello,

I have just experienced the same issue with the stages PM using the most recent firmware version: 2.037

Did you manage to fix the problem. My batteries are lasting maybe a day only!! I noticed the door plastic cover doesn't seem to fit too well either so I am wondering if a new door would help on the device?

Please let me know if you have any ideas, this is very annoying!

Thanks, James

andy_from_embsay

I don't think it's the door - i put duct tape over the door on mine last week and it ran a battery down in about three days.

I'm expecting my third one to arrive early next week...

j_82wilson

Hi,

Thanks for the help above. I am really very frustrated for having chosen a stages PM in the first place, what a mistake on my behalf!! I previously owned an entry level Powertap and I didn't experience any problems for the two years I've owned it. This stages battery bug issue is really very annoying and it's totally unacceptable especially because so many other customers are experiencing the same problem. I don't want to be forced to send cranks back to stages every time they keep breaking either. Therefore, for this reason I'd rather have my money back so that I can invest it in a power meter that's more reliable and tested. It's unpleasant starting your 2014 season off with continuous stages PM issues.

I have e-mailed stages and I will let you know what response I get from them...

Anyway, thanks for your reply above.

Cheers!

andy_from_embsay

I think it's a relatively unusual issue (doesn't help when it's affected you, obviously!) - but if it had been widespread I'd have expected to see more "noise" on forums etc. Even on DC Rainmaker's site there's probably only half a dozen people with this issue. What makes it bizarre is that I've had three of them!

j_82wilson

Hi,

Yes, the fact you've had three problems is very unusual. Today I reset my edge 500 from scratch (adding all new user data) and I replaced another brand new high quality battery (CR2032). I went out on the bike and came home about 3hrs later and the power data seemed to be displaying normally. I immediately connected to my iPhone stages app and it said the battery was still full (complete green bar). I am not sure if the problem is when I connect via Bluetooth and it's not disconnecting properly so I turned turned off the Garmin edge 500, disabled the Bluetooth on the iPhone and then I removed the battery because I'm not back on the bike now until Sat. The fact the battery status is still green (on the stages app) has given me some slight amount of hope... maybe resetting the Garmin helped?? I will let you know but I am not keeping my hopes up tbh.

I will keep you posted on the reply from stages and if they or I manage to find a solution?

I also found another post on the same topic which you might find useful: http://www.tritalk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=93866

Thanks, J

napoleond

We'll see how good they are after next season when a certain british pro cycling team use them.

amaferanga

NapoleonD wrote:

We'll see how good they are after next season when a certain british pro cycling team use them.

Only if they run them alongside a SRM or other proper power meter....

andy_from_embsay

J - I'd seen that thread, it was the first place I saw there were other people with the same problem!

The icon in the iOS app for battery usage isn't a lot of help in my experience - it seems to go from full to amber (sort of half full) then nothing. My battery was on full when I put my bike away yesterday and today it was flat. Tested it with a multimeter and it's reading 2.6V, which I under stand for a 3V battery in an open circuit is to all intents flat.

What was interesting is when I took the battery out to replace it I'm certain it was wet - so whatever they've done about waterproofing doesn't seem to have worked - but as I said upthread mine had the same problem with duct tape over the battery door.

napoleond

amaferanga wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

We'll see how good they are after next season when a certain british pro cycling team use them.

Only if they run them alongside a SRM or other proper power meter....

I meant in terms of reliability.

j_82wilson

A - Thanks for the information above! Stages support have recently got back to me but they misunderstood my battery draining issue so I've replied again and hopefully they will get back to me soon with a solid solution. Taping the battery cover can't be a bad idea but thankfully I don't think I've had any water inside even though the weather at the moment seems persistently bad but typically British!! I've removed the battery completely but I'll re-insert it on Sat morning. Hopefully it will last the weekend??

Thanks and I'll keep you posted with any progress on this issue.

Cheers, J

trickyg

I too suffer the same issue with my Stages PM. When I spoke to Stages support they initially suspected a faulty arm so sent a new one out. However the replacement also suffers the same issue. Battery appears to drain overnight. The latest email from them recommended the latest release of firmware (3.7) but I upgraded to this and next morning battery was flat again (put it into a weight scale to test). However not sure if this was an old battery so put a fresh one in yesterday and will monitor. What firmware are you having the issue with?

trickyg

Just checked this morning and the brand new battery I put in last night is now flat. So looks like v3.7 does not fix the issue

andy_from_embsay

I'm on 2.0.37, tricky - I've just got another new crank (my second) so we'll see - I do think it's a problem with water ingress at the root of it, but it seems that once it's "gone" it doesn't need water to make it "go" again. I've wrapped this one in electrical tape, but as I said to Stages in an email, that shouldn't be necessary - Garmin appear to be able to make waterproof battery compartments for their cadence meters.

I'm taking my new one out for a ride tonight, when it will doubtless get very wet indeed - so we'll see how it fares...

JPJ001

My pm was working fine until, ironically, I updated the firmware to 2.0.31 to get the battery feature. Since then it has been draining batteries daily. I've updated to 2.0.37 but the issue persists.

I emailed Evan at Stages who asked for more details and suggested a replacement is required as it is not firmware related.

It's a bit frustrating as everything was working well up to the first firmware upgrade.

trickyg

JPJ001 wrote:

My pm was working fine until, ironically, I updated the firmware to 2.0.31 to get the battery feature. Since then it has been draining batteries daily. I've updated to 2.0.37 but the issue persists.

I emailed Evan at Stages who asked for more details and suggested a replacement is required as it is not firmware related.

It's a bit frustrating as everything was working well up to the first firmware upgrade.

Yes this was the same for me. Not sure what version the original arm was running but it's replacement was pre 3.1. It had been working OK for a couple of weeks and it was the day after upgrading to 3.1 that I started to get the issue again. It was at this point that Stages support suggested upgrading to v3.7 but as mentioned issue still exists.

JPJ001

I put a new battery in this morning and did an hour turbo session only using ANT+ connection.

I'm going to see if there is anything left in the battery tomorrow morning on the assumption connecting via Bluetooth starts the transmission from the PM which then doesn't get turned off.

I've also ordered another 10 batteries

trickyg

Stages do not believe my issue to be firmware related so are sending out a second replacement

JPJ001

JPJ001 wrote:

I'm going to see if there is anything left in the battery tomorrow morning on the assumption connecting via Bluetooth starts the transmission from the PM which then doesn't get turned off.

Battery was dead when I got home last night. I'm going to follow up on my earlier email to Stages now.

Trickyg, are Stages sending a replacement to you from the US? Who did you speak to?

Thanks, Jon

trickyg

Hi Jon Yes it is coming from the US.

andy_from_embsay

Jon - I think most of us have been dealing with Evan Gaspar in tech support.

I'm thinking this is rather more complex than simply a firmware thing. They told DC Rainmaker there was a dodgy batch - which I don't buy as I've had three units with some sort of battery draining problem. I wonder if there's a actually a number of issues that have the same symptoms? My last one was very definitely wet inside, I never noticed that with the others.

JPJ001

andy_from_embsay wrote:

I do think it's a problem with water ingress at the root of it, but it seems that once it's "gone" it doesn't need water to make it "go" again.

Andy, I'm coming to the same conclusion.

The things that changed with mine were 1.the firmware update and 2.a very wet ride. I can't see any water in the battery compartment and had tape over the cover during the ride but some moisture must have got in.

I've sent Evan another email so let's see what happens.

davem399

Home page today of Bikeradar has a long term review of a Stages Dura Ace PM. In the review it it says that Stages say that the the battery problem has been solved and those affected have been given replacements. Mmmmm..... this thread might fly in the face of that statement, and my mate is still awaiting his replacement from before Xmas!

andy_from_embsay

Took my replacement #2 out for a very, very wet ride tonight, so we'll see if the battery has survived! I have wrapped the cover in electrical tape though, so I'm hoping water won't have got in (although it got everywhere else!).

JPJ001

Andy, sounds like the perfect test, let us know how much power there is left today.

I got an email from Evan last night saying he will ship a replacement crank to the UK distributor who will then send it on to me. How long have others had to wait for replacements to arrive?

Jon

trickyg

Jon

My last replacement took about 4 days to arrive from US

andy_from_embsay

Morning all - went out in a bloody deluge last night (which is the second ride for this battery) and this morning it worked fine.

All good so far - although I must say the last one worked pretty much perfectly for a month!

I am sensing a new "air of confidence" from Stages that they know what this is and they've sorted it - Evan emailed yesterday and said categorically that the battery compartments are now fine.

We'll see!

ddraver

They re also the new PM sponsers for Team Sky....

xscreamsuk

hope so, pick up mine tomorrow.