Vector 3 design and production problems:
1) The root problem is poor carriage design.
a) The PCB negative contact must be redesigned.
b) The carriage system itself might contain other flaws but focus on those trivial flaws is simply masking the main problem with the battery contact and what that system actually requires for tension while in actual use on the road.
The preload on the batteries is insufficient for the application (IOW, while out on the road cycling). This causes the "spikes" and "dropouts" not because the pedal hardware can't properly measure but because of voltage dropouts in the PCB itself. This leads to the second problem.
2) The secondary problems are caused by inability of the firmware to gracefully recover from the communication problems caused by inconsistent PCB voltage. Hence, firmware enhancements can improve "recovery" from internal PCB voltage problems but obviously can not compensate for inadequate voltage supplied to the internal circuit itself. The firmware can not fix the PCB/battery problem but can help to mask some of the problems and recover in between internally caused DC circuit problems.
Conclusion:
Garmin is using paying customers to complete engineering and QA work that should have been done during alpha and beta (internal and external testing before going in to production and charging customers for their unfinished products). We can't go back in history but Garmin MUST take an active role in the forums, stop hiding the problems, fix the hardware, and inform the paying customers what is really happening now and what Garmin is doing to fix these problems.
I could go more in to detail but the firmware will mask the user experience. The root problem is the internal voltage supplied by the cells and the mineral oil/insulation tape "fixes" are really just a distraction from the main problem where the carriage design is not sufficient. The negative (battery) contact on the PCB must be redesigned for additional preload and possibly the battery cap can also include some kind of spring or "memory" tension enhancer once the PCB is tested for the new preload/tension standard.
I have been in contact with Garmin USA and Asia. Nobody that is in contact with customers knows anything other than triage protocols. The entire way that tech support is organized must change. Garmin is wasting a lot of man hours and this ends up wasting a lot of time of paying customers while discouraging new customers. The basic designs are good. Garmin process QA is horrible. I can't say if the QA engineers are any good because there's no way for me to communicate with them.
Even after diagnosing and documenting these problems I still must waste hours playing around with the stupid RF and firmware problems in order to get my pedals to work properly. I'm not going to get in to details here because that is a distraction that will change every time there is a firmware change. The root problem must be fixed with power and then I also suggest verbose modes as an option for communicating with the pedals and must better tools to help users figure out exactly what is going on after the battery carriage problem is temporarily recovered and until the pedals are properly paired with each other and then with head units and working again as designed. By rights Garmin already "owes" me thousands of dollars for my consulting work that nobody even gains from because that is how dysfunctional the customer feedback ---> QA process is at this time.
