VDO wireless computer... doesn't work in the cold?

Ron Ruff said:

Actually it isn't even that cold... about 50F.

Works fine in the house on the trainer. When I put the
bike+trainer out on the porch it takes about 6 minutes for it
to stop working. I bring it back in and a few minutes later it
starts working again... take it outside and the same thing
happens again! I just installed it yesterday and it worked for
the first few minutes of a outdoor ride, then quit reading...
but sure enough a few minutes after I brought it into the
house it was fine.

Any ideas before I send it back? It's a VDO C3 DS.

My first thought is that you're looking at either a bad battery
or a cracked circuit board.

John

Ron Ruff said:

Actually it isn't even that cold... about 50F.

Works fine in the house on the trainer. When I put the bike+trainer out
on the porch it takes about 6 minutes for it to stop working. I bring
it back in and a few minutes later it starts working again... take it
outside and the same thing happens again! I just installed it yesterday
and it worked for the first few minutes of a outdoor ride, then quit
reading... but sure enough a few minutes after I brought it into the
house it was fine.

Any ideas before I send it back? It's a VDO C3 DS.

I had the same problem.. I tried new batteries, still no good. I ended
up giving it away to someone and went back to a "wired" computer.

Friday

"Ron Ruff" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]
:: Actually it isn't even that cold... about 50F.
::
:: Works fine in the house on the trainer. When I put the
:: bike+trainer out on the porch it takes about 6 minutes
:: for it to stop working. I bring it back in and a few
:: minutes later it starts working again... take it outside
:: and the same thing happens again! I just installed it
:: yesterday and it worked for the first few minutes of a
:: outdoor ride, then quit reading... but sure enough a few
:: minutes after I brought it into the house it was fine.
::
:: Any ideas before I send it back? It's a VDO C3 DS.

I'm noticed the exact same thing with mine....seems to work well around 60
or so....drop in and out at 50ish or less.

Friday said:

I had the same problem.. I tried new batteries, still no good. I ended
up giving it away to someone and went back to a "wired" computer.

Roger Zoul said:

I'm noticed the exact same thing with mine....seems to work well around 60
or so....drop in and out at 50ish or less.

Are you seeing this with the same brand and model or something else? Is
this common with VDOs?

BTW in the house it works great... the signal extends ~1.5m as
advertised.

I had one of their new wireless digital computers and it was not reliable,
sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. Sent it back to Chain Reaction
cycles (UK) and they refunded straight away. Good service from the retailer
but it looks like the product is not yet sorted.

SW

"Ron Ruff" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Actually it isn't even that cold... about 50F.

Works fine in the house on the trainer. When I put the bike+trainer out
on the porch it takes about 6 minutes for it to stop working. I bring
it back in and a few minutes later it starts working again... take it
outside and the same thing happens again! I just installed it yesterday
and it worked for the first few minutes of a outdoor ride, then quit
reading... but sure enough a few minutes after I brought it into the
house it was fine.

Any ideas before I send it back? It's a VDO C3 DS.

On 13 Dec 2006 17:41:30 -0800, "Ron Ruff" <[email hidden]> may

have said:

Actually it isn't even that cold... about 50F.

Works fine in the house on the trainer. When I put the bike+trainer out
on the porch it takes about 6 minutes for it to stop working. I bring
it back in and a few minutes later it starts working again... take it
outside and the same thing happens again! I just installed it yesterday
and it worked for the first few minutes of a outdoor ride, then quit
reading... but sure enough a few minutes after I brought it into the
house it was fine.

Any ideas before I send it back? It's a VDO C3 DS.

Cold Battery Disease. Lots of cheap alkaline and lithium batteries
have voltage sag problems that will put a comp out of action at low
temps. I have had three comps display this same behavior. The worst
was a Nashbar house brand, whose operational temperature range was
solely above 65F. Swapping to a name-brand battery got one of them to
work for a while all the way down to 53F, but none of them worked
below that. (I haven't tried the Cateye or the Sigma in cold temps
yet.)

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 13:17:04 -0600, Werehatrack

may have said:

Cold Battery Disease. Lots of cheap alkaline and lithium batteries
have voltage sag problems

Omit "cheap" from that for a more acurate assessment. Some of the
non-cheap alkalines and lithiums have sagged too much to keep things
working as well. (I have that problem with the digital camera as
well, which caused me to build an external battery pack with a lead
long enough that I could keep the batteries inside my jacket.)

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Does it have a LIQUID crystal display? Maybe the box or website has a
recommended operational temperature.

Ron Ruff said:

Actually it isn't even that cold... about 50F.

Works fine in the house on the trainer. When I put the bike+trainer out
on the porch it takes about 6 minutes for it to stop working. I bring
it back in and a few minutes later it starts working again... take it
outside and the same thing happens again! I just installed it yesterday
and it worked for the first few minutes of a outdoor ride, then quit
reading... but sure enough a few minutes after I brought it into the
house it was fine.

Any ideas before I send it back? It's a VDO C3 DS.

"Ron Ruff" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]
:: Friday wrote:
::: I had the same problem.. I tried new batteries, still
::: no good. I ended
::: up giving it away to someone and went back to a "wired"
::: computer.
::
::
:: Roger Zoul wrote:
::: I'm noticed the exact same thing with mine....seems to
::: work well around 60 or so....drop in and out at 50ish
::: or less.
::
:: Are you seeing this with the same brand and model or
:: something else? Is this common with VDOs?
::
:: BTW in the house it works great... the signal extends
:: ~1.5m as advertised.

VDO C3DS. It consistently works for me about 60deg....I'm not sure if I'm
that bothered by it, though.

merlinnme said:

Does it have a LIQUID crystal display? Maybe the box or website has a
recommended operational temperature.

All bike computers have liquid crystal displays. Most of them work at
well below the temps suggested.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | The motor car reflects our standard of living and gauges the
_`\(,_ | speed of our present life. It long ago ran down Simple Living,
(_)/ (_) | and never halted to inquire about the prostrate figure which
fell as its victim. -- Warren G. Harding

Werehatrack said:

Cold Battery Disease. Lots of cheap alkaline and lithium batteries
have voltage sag problems that will put a comp out of action at low
temps.

Thanks for the idea... but I did a little experiment, putting the
transmitter battery (a new Sony) and a new Maxell in the freezer for
awhile and checking the voltage. They were both 2.98V before freezing,
and 2.96V after freezing... not a big difference. Of course, there
could be more of a difference with a load... so I quickly stuck the
battery back in the transmitter... and it worked perfectly... in the
house. I'm guessing that something besides the battery is effected by
the cold.

Today it was a little warmer (mid 50s) and I noticed a definite
trend... the higher the relative wind speed the more likely it was to
stop working. Today it recorded about half my ride, compared to <20%
two days ago when it was 50F. There seems to be enough heat generated
within the unit to keep it functioning in still air at ~56F, but it
stopped working pretty quickly as soon as the wind speed increased.

If it is designed to only work at room temperature and above that is
really lame... even when I lived in SCal I'd often ride early in the
morning when it was in the 40s... I'd guess that a whole lot of people
are riding in lower temps than that this time of year.

On 14 Dec 2006 19:21:44 -0800, "Ron Ruff" <[email hidden]> may

have said:

Werehatrack said:

Cold Battery Disease. Lots of cheap alkaline and lithium batteries
have voltage sag problems that will put a comp out of action at low
temps.

Thanks for the idea... but I did a little experiment, putting the
transmitter battery (a new Sony) and a new Maxell in the freezer for
awhile and checking the voltage. They were both 2.98V before freezing,
and 2.96V after freezing... not a big difference. Of course, there
could be more of a difference with a load... so I quickly stuck the
battery back in the transmitter... and it worked perfectly... in the
house. I'm guessing that something besides the battery is effected by
the cold.

Today it was a little warmer (mid 50s) and I noticed a definite
trend... the higher the relative wind speed the more likely it was to
stop working. Today it recorded about half my ride, compared to <20%
two days ago when it was 50F. There seems to be enough heat generated
within the unit to keep it functioning in still air at ~56F, but it
stopped working pretty quickly as soon as the wind speed increased.

If it is designed to only work at room temperature and above that is
really lame... even when I lived in SCal I'd often ride early in the
morning when it was in the 40s... I'd guess that a whole lot of people
are riding in lower temps than that this time of year.

Well, my Cateye seems happy in chilly air, so there's definitely at
least one that keeps on functioning at low temps.

The Nashbar house brand was the worst offender, and I had the
misfortune to buy two of them; at 63F, they would start to kick on
when the magnet strobed the switch, and then would go nutcase haywire
with the display flashing on and off, after which it would swap to the
"Hi, I've never been set up before, enter your wheel size" screen.
Worthless. The $9 one that I got from a local big-box store was more
reliable, functioning well all the way down to about 55F before it
simply stopped coming on. When it warmed back up, it hadn't lost its
settings, either.

Mostly I ride without a comp now. The distance is the same whether I
know how far it was or not, and it takes as long as it takes, and I go
at the speed that I want to pedal.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Ron Ruff said:

Actually it isn't even that cold... about 50F.

Works fine in the house on the trainer. When I put the bike+trainer out
on the porch it takes about 6 minutes for it to stop working. I bring
it back in and a few minutes later it starts working again... take it
outside and the same thing happens again! I just installed it yesterday
and it worked for the first few minutes of a outdoor ride, then quit
reading... but sure enough a few minutes after I brought it into the
house it was fine.

Any ideas before I send it back? It's a VDO C3 DS.

I bought that same VDO wireless computer last year, after I retired my
old Avocets. The display stopped working several times during my very
first ride, and it was summer. Maybe riding near high voltage power
lines messed up the signal. I decided right then and there that
wireless wasn't for me.
I sent it back to Performance for the VDO MC 1.0, which is the
top-of-the-line wired unit. I've put about 6K miles on that one since
then, and it has performed flawlessly, even below 40°F. So what,
there's a wire wrapped around the brake housing.

Werehatrack said:

Mostly I ride without a comp now. The distance is the same whether I
know how far it was or not, and it takes as long as it takes, and I go
at the speed that I want to pedal.

I hear that! I've been riding without a computer for quite awhile
now... but I *do* like to know how long certain routes are so I can
objectively gauge my performance when I'm going hard. Once I know the
mileage, I just need a stopwatch... but my watch quit working, too. I
also moved to a place where it gets cold in the winter, so I bought a
trainer... and I need some sort of distraction on that thing. Besides
the insanely expensive Cateye, the VDO is the only wireless comp I know
of that will (pontentially) work on the rear wheel. I don't mind a wire
going to the front wheel so much but can't figure a clean way to route
it to the rear.

Oh well....

"Werehatrack" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]
:: On 14 Dec 2006 19:21:44 -0800, "Ron Ruff"
:: <[email hidden]> may have said:
::
:::
::: Werehatrack wrote:
:::: Cold Battery Disease. Lots of cheap alkaline and
:::: lithium batteries have voltage sag problems that will
:::: put a comp out of action at low temps.
:::
::: Thanks for the idea... but I did a little experiment,
::: putting the transmitter battery (a new Sony) and a new
::: Maxell in the freezer for awhile and checking the
::: voltage. They were both 2.98V before freezing, and
::: 2.96V after freezing... not a big difference. Of
::: course, there could be more of a difference with a
::: load... so I quickly stuck the battery back in the
::: transmitter... and it worked perfectly... in the house.
::: I'm guessing that something besides the battery is
::: effected by the cold.
:::
::: Today it was a little warmer (mid 50s) and I noticed a
::: definite trend... the higher the relative wind speed
::: the more likely it was to stop working. Today it
::: recorded about half my ride, compared to <20% two days
::: ago when it was 50F. There seems to be enough heat
::: generated within the unit to keep it functioning in
::: still air at ~56F, but it stopped working pretty
::: quickly as soon as the wind speed increased.
:::
::: If it is designed to only work at room temperature and
::: above that is really lame... even when I lived in SCal
::: I'd often ride early in the morning when it was in the
::: 40s... I'd guess that a whole lot of people are riding
::: in lower temps than that this time of year.
::
:: Well, my Cateye seems happy in chilly air, so there's
:: definitely at least one that keeps on functioning at low
:: temps.
::
:: The Nashbar house brand was the worst offender, and I
:: had the misfortune to buy two of them; at 63F, they
:: would start to kick on when the magnet strobed the
:: switch, and then would go nutcase haywire with the
:: display flashing on and off, after which it would swap
:: to the "Hi, I've never been set up before, enter your
:: wheel size" screen. Worthless. The $9 one that I got
:: from a local big-box store was more reliable,
:: functioning well all the way down to about 55F before it
:: simply stopped coming on. When it warmed back up, it
:: hadn't lost its settings, either.
::
:: Mostly I ride without a comp now. The distance is the
:: same whether I know how far it was or not, and it takes
:: as long as it takes, and I go at the speed that I want
:: to pedal.
::

And that why I don't get upset if mine doesn't work in cold temps....I don't
need to keep track all the time...sometimes, it's good enough just to be out
there. Now once it gets warm, the damn thing had better work! 🙂

Ron Ruff said:

Actually it isn't even that cold... about 50F.

Works fine in the house on the trainer. When I put the bike+trainer
out on the porch it takes about 6 minutes for it to stop working. I
bring it back in and a few minutes later it starts working again...
take it outside and the same thing happens again! I just installed it
yesterday and it worked for the first few minutes of a outdoor ride,
then quit reading... but sure enough a few minutes after I brought it
into the house it was fine.

Any ideas before I send it back? It's a VDO C3 DS.

Suspect batteries don't like cold weather.

BUT. is it one of the buggy batch ? There was a batch last spring which
had some of their internals wired wrongly. I had mine replaced FOC, the
replacement has a small plastic cylinder on the upper right at the rear,
which the original lacked. I believe the problem was something to do with
the wireless receiver.

Can't tell you that it works in the cold. Firstly its been incredibly warm
in the UK for winter, and secondly the VDO is on my best bike, which doesn't
come out on the mucky winter roads.

- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

"Ron Ruff" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:1166160554.548220.76950
@n67g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

Quoted message said:

don't mind a wire going to the front wheel so much but can't figure a
clean way to route it to the rear.

Try running it down to the downtube along with the front derailleur cable
(if not using downtube shifters) and from there use silicone (or if
you're in a hurry clear packing tape) to hold it to the bottom of the
downtube and over to the chainstay.

On my older bike, I have a special version TTT stem that has a hole in it
and an extra slot in the expander to allow the computer wires to route
down the headtube. I realize that this specific stem is vintage (and was
even fairly rare when I bought it.) So if you have downtube shifters, you
might try routing the wire along with the rear brake cable.

I posted some photos of my installation with both a fork mounted speed
sensor and a cadence sensor in the back: http://tinyurl.com/y6pp47

I posted the details of the installation process in another thread.

Cheers,
David

In article <[email hidden]>,

Ron Ruff said:

Are you seeing this with the same brand and model or something else? Is
this common with VDOs?

i don't know that model, but i use the wireless mc1.0 (now the 1.0+, i
think) and went out last week when it was 20 degrees F. no problems
at all.

I have a 1+ and it works fine. I don't ride in really cold weather but
it works fine in the 30 degree to 40 degree range.
This sounds like a defective unit.

Alan Acock
[email hidden]

H. Guy said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Ron Ruff said:

Are you seeing this with the same brand and model or something else? Is
this common with VDOs?

i don't know that model, but i use the wireless mc1.0 (now the 1.0+, i
think) and went out last week when it was 20 degrees F. no problems
at all.