Haveing just been burned with a Sigma 1606L DTS wireless bike computer which appears to be pants[1] I'm after a decent cycle computer - it's to fit a Dawes galaxy, so it's fairly normal. I liked the idea of wireless and cadence but the unreliability of the Sigma (repeated re-pairing with the sensors and erratic readings - regardless of sensor position) have put me off. Can anyone suggest a decent system that's accurate and just works without all the pairing parlarva?
Thanks,
Tim
[1] Winging it's way back to the supplier. I lost an afternoons' riding timetrying to get it to work, and £6 for replacement batteries... grrrr...
-- Sent from Birmingham, UK timdunne at blueyonder.co.uk 'God's electrician sparked up the heavens once again, heading northbound on the 7:10. And the lord said let there be commuters...' - Thea Gilmore Look, mum, an anorak on a bike! Check out www.nervouscyclist.org
Haveing just been burned with a Sigma 1606L DTS wireless bike computer which appears to be pants[1] I'm after a decent cycle computer - it's to fit a Dawes galaxy, so it's fairly normal. I liked the idea of wireless and cadence but the unreliability of the Sigma (repeated re-pairing with the sensors and erratic readings - regardless of sensor position) have put me off. Can anyone suggest a decent system that's accurate and just works without all the pairing parlarva?
Well yes, I could recommend Sigma, which I've used happily for years, but I guess you wouldn't be interested. So I would recommend Cateye, which I've also used on one of my bikes for about three years now. The (wireless) model I have isn't now listed, but there are several models available, both wireless and wired. Of course, a bit of care is needed with the initial setup, but I haven't hadn't any real problems with mine (except for splintering the face cover when I went over the bars one time and the bike landed down side up, but that's generally avoidable).
Haveing just been burned with a Sigma 1606L DTS wireless bike computer which appears to be pants[1] I'm after a decent cycle computer - it's to fit a Dawes galaxy, so it's fairly normal. I liked the idea of wireless and cadence but the unreliability of the Sigma (repeated re-pairing with the sensors and erratic readings - regardless of sensor position) have put me off. Can anyone suggest a decent system that's accurate and just works without all the pairing parlarva?
Hmm, I was looking at Sigmas to replace my Union 9W which has decided to act funny (new batteries both ends didn't help). Wasn't aware of this "pairing", what's the reason for that? Don't they just work out of the box?
Anyway, I think that I may as well go the whole hog and get a speedo/cadence/heart rate computer but have since found these are few and far between.
I just found a Blackburn Delphi 5.0 which fits the bill but I've never heard of them. I suppose there's always the Polar and Garmin Edge 305 <fx: sucks teeth>.
"rothers" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]
Quoted message said:
VDO, I've had one of these for about a month now and it's superb. You still need to pair the transmitter and receiver but it's very simple.
Cheers. Does it need to be paired for every trip, or just at battery changes?
Tim
-- Sent from Birmingham, UK timdunne at blueyonder.co.uk 'God's electrician sparked up the heavens once again, heading northbound on the 7:10. And the lord said let there be commuters...' - Thea Gilmore Look, mum, an anorak on a bike! Check out www.nervouscyclist.org
Haveing just been burned with a Sigma 1606L DTS wireless bike computer which appears to be pants[1] I'm after a decent cycle computer - it's to fit a Dawes galaxy, so it's fairly normal. I liked the idea of wireless and cadence but the unreliability of the Sigma (repeated re-pairing with the sensors and erratic readings - regardless of sensor position) have put me off. Can anyone suggest a decent system that's accurate and just works without all the pairing parlarva?
Hmm, I was looking at Sigmas to replace my Union 9W which has decided to act funny (new batteries both ends didn't help). Wasn't aware of this "pairing", what's the reason for that? Don't they just work out of the box?
Anyway, I think that I may as well go the whole hog and get a speedo/cadence/heart rate computer but have since found these are few and far between.
Polar do such things. I haven't used one, but I have friends who have them and think highly of them.
"mb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]
Quoted message said:
I just found a Blackburn Delphi 5.0 which fits the bill but I've
never >> heard of them.
Quoted message said:
Neither have I...
American specialist design house, been in cycling fifteen years at least, well known for (among other things) their 'airstick' pumps, their 'series X' lights, mirrors, racks, and so on. See, I knew you'd heard of them.
"mb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]
> I just found a Blackburn Delphi 5.0 which fits the bill but I've > never heard of them.
Neither have I...
American specialist design house, been in cycling fifteen years at least, well known for (among other things) their 'airstick' pumps, their 'series X' lights, mirrors, racks, and so on. See, I knew you'd heard of them.
Lifetime guarantee... Maybe worth a try, certainly a bit cheaper than the competition.
My LBS is selling these for 165 ukp. They look pretty good but that's a lot of money compared to my Electron halogen pair. I've got a Blackburn MARS 3.0 red flasher which I'm really happy with. It's much brighter and more noticeable over a wide range of angles than a lot of others I've seen.
I can recommend GPS; I log my routes using a garmin 60CS and Memory Map; it's fantastic and I don't have to consult paper maps as often.
GPS combined with mapping software is great. I have a small computer which is wired up on my road bike and I haven't bothered using it since I got a gps. For off road stuff there is no contest unless you need a cadence reading.
My current new work toy is a HP iPAQ 6515, which is a pocket PC cum phone cum (remarkably good quality) camera cum GPS cum pretty much anything else under the sun. It doesn't, sadly, have a cadence sensor... But apart from that it's going to be (at least, it will once I've written the software) a remarkably interesting addition to cycling expeditions,.
Sounds interesting. What do you expect the battery life to be like while it's running bluetooth and GPS receivers throughout a trip ? Can you run it off an extra cell in a pannier, or do you want the ipaq to be fitted to you rather than the bike ?
If you don't mind doing a bit of electronics as well as software, maybe you could use a Bluetooth mouse as a cadence sensor. A mouse is designed to count pulses so it's quite close to what you need, and will auto-power-down when there are no pulses. Since it has two counting axes, you could use it for wheel pulses as well (even though GPS gives you speed etc.). You might need some bodgery to provide the necessary quadrature signal : a single pulse input probably won't work. An interesting enhancement might be to run the mouse off rectified dynamo power and use a signal extracted from the dynamo's AC to provide the wheel signal.
My current new work toy is a HP iPAQ 6515, which is a pocket PC cum phone cum (remarkably good quality) camera cum GPS cum pretty much anything else under the sun. It doesn't, sadly, have a cadence sensor... But apart from that it's going to be (at least, it will once I've written the software) a remarkably interesting addition to cycling expeditions,
Sounds interesting. What do you expect the battery life to be like while it's running bluetooth and GPS receivers throughout a trip ? Can you run it off an extra cell in a pannier, or do you want the ipaq to be fitted to you rather than the bike ?
Well, we're (or my customers are) currently using them with a plug-in bar-code reader which runs off the iPAQ battery, and so far it seems to do an eight hour duty cycle with GPS and bar-code reader and GPRS all powered up without any difficulty. HP sell aftermarket batteries with twice the capacity of the standard battery, and people in Hong Kong sell aftermarket batteries with a claimed four times the capacity of the standard (with a bulge in the rear cover). So I don't particularly see keeping Bluetooth powered up for the length of any reasonable ride as being problematic.
Quoted message said:
If you don't mind doing a bit of electronics as well as software, maybe you could use a Bluetooth mouse as a cadence sensor. A mouse is designed to count pulses so it's quite close to what you need, and will auto-power-down when there are no pulses. Since it has two counting axes, you could use it for wheel pulses as well (even though GPS gives you speed etc.). You might need some bodgery to provide the necessary quadrature signal : a single pulse input probably won't work. An interesting enhancement might be to run the mouse off rectified dynamo power and use a signal extracted from the dynamo's AC to provide the wheel signal.
That's an interesting idea but a long way beyond my competence.
"rothers" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]
Quoted message said:
VDO, I've had one of these for about a month now and it's superb. You still need to pair the transmitter and receiver but it's very simple.
Cheers. Does it need to be paired for every trip, or just at battery changes?
Just at battery changes.
Only complaint about the VDO is that you have to press something on the computer to wake it up after 30 mins inactivity. Doesn't matter what, and the display does tell you, but its not totally automatic.
My current new work toy is a HP iPAQ 6515, which is a pocket PC cum phone cum (remarkably good quality) camera cum GPS cum pretty much anything else under the sun. It doesn't, sadly, have a cadence sensor... But apart from that it's going to be (at least, it will once I've written the software) a remarkably interesting addition to cycling expeditions,
Sounds interesting. What do you expect the battery life to be like while it's running bluetooth and GPS receivers throughout a trip ? Can you run it off an extra cell in a pannier, or do you want the ipaq to be fitted to you rather than the bike ?
Well, we're (or my customers are) currently using them with a plug-in bar-code reader which runs off the iPAQ battery, and so far it seems to do an eight hour duty cycle with GPS and bar-code reader and GPRS all powered up without any difficulty. HP sell aftermarket batteries with twice the capacity of the standard battery, and people in Hong Kong sell aftermarket batteries with a claimed four times the capacity of the standard (with a bulge in the rear cover). So I don't particularly see keeping Bluetooth powered up for the length of any reasonable ride as being problematic.
My experience with laptop batteries is that the compatible ones have a dire lifespan even though they start with lots of capacity. I have a Dell laptop battery which is 6 years old and still gets 80% of the life it had when it was new. My year old Chinese copy ones (including baddly OCRed copies of the warnings on the panel) have either failed or are down to 25% of original capacity.
I have daydreams of doing this kind of thing, probably with a PIC chip with built in bluetooth, but it's a silly idea for me really. Like you, I'm more of a software person.
