Right pedal disconnecting - true reason found.

Hi all,
I am suffering from the "right pedal disconnecting" issue as well as "right pedal doesn't rotate freely". Yesterday night I've found the reason. Now I don't know if it is only applicable to me, but let me share my 2 cents.

So, my right pedal has a small gap between the black housing and the "metallic base" (I do not know the technical term), see photo.
This means that all the insides of the pedal are shifted by roughly 1/4mm (gap width). And this means two things:

1. The contact board rubs against the housing, creating additional friction.

2. The contact board sits 1/4mm deeper than it should, hence bad contact between the contacts and the batteries.

It's quite hard to explain so I've made a video about it. Check it out.

https://youtu.be/g63Bm3hnt88

Unfortunately there is no self-made fix for that so I'm calling Garmin on Tuesday. However, if Garmin representatives here could comment, I'd be happy to hear.

Cheers
Artyom. ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1350330.jpg

0 ironplums over 7 years ago

Ok, went to the store today (the one I bought the Vectors from), had a chat with the guys there. They are also aware of the probpem and wouldn't mind exchanging the pedals for me via Garmin, but...

According to the shop guys, Garmin has acknowledged the problem with Vectors and has re-organised the whole manufacturing process. The quality control is now better, perhaps Garmin even did something to the contacts design, but the latter is unsure. What is sure - the "replacement" pedals are supposed to have MUCH higher chance to be fault-free (unlike it was for people receiving 2nd, 3rd, 4th pair and all were faulty). That's good news.

Now, the not so good news. Garmin has quite a few orders in queue for the pedal purchase / replacement. Some say that in Switzerland alone there are about 300 orders "pending", waiting for the "new" version.

I've explained that I'm racing in 3 weeks, and then again and again, and I need a power meter. My vectors currently show ok'ish power, the cycling dynamics are crazy (right PCO for instance) but I can live with that for a while. Basically, the shop will speak to Garmin, show them this thread, the video, and this should be enough to place a "replacement"order, while i keep my pedals and use them as they are. Once the replacement comes, the shop will just swap them for me.

Oh..

0 Zoli over 7 years ago

My vectors currently show ok'ish power, the cycling dynamics are crazy (right PCO for instance) but

Hi,

How did you mean "ok'ish power" and "crazy right PCO"?

Thanks

0 t_smit over 7 years ago

Its actually not funny , this soft must be filtering data, hardware cannot be fixed with new software. I am glad that "cork fix works with my pedals" , now I am waiting for new replacement with new hardware. I ll stay with 3.30 soft and I will never upgrade because of that.

I would like to emphasize, again, that the 3.44 beta is intended to address communications issues that were inadvertently introduced in version 3.00, and that persisted through the 3.15 beta as well as the 3.30 release. Quite a few of the "power drop" reports were in fact due to communication issues (especially on the Vector 3S systems) and not due to battery connection issues. The nature of the fixes generally involved making sure that the power messages do not get starved out regardless of what else is going on. No filtering is being applied.

If you have data problems due to intermittent battery contact then the 3.44 firmware will not fix that. Still, the 3.44 firmware may improve your overall experience because it does fix known faults in the 3.30 release.

0 ironplums over 7 years ago

Hi,

How did you mean "ok'ish power" and "crazy right PCO"?

Thanks

For instance, yesterday's TrainerRoad session.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2718418474

The power chart is legit, even though had some strange noise here and there. The PCO charts - well, see yourself :)
Also seating / standing position.

Another ride was this weekend - even worse
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2712951372
Look at the L/R balance. You see Right pedal disconnecting all the time. PCO, power phases and seating/standing position is rubbish as well.

The power numbers are trustworthy though (I know myself and know roughly which FTP% I am pushing. Thus this is better than nothing.

0 t_smit over 7 years ago

ironplums the issue with PCO going away on the right (as a result of disconnect/reconnect) is fixed in the beta firmware 3.44 .

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

got zero gaps on both of my pedals but still had dropouts till i corked them. been faultless since. received the pedals mid March. running version 3.30

0 wwtsui over 7 years ago

t_smit, do the new battery holders do anything to reduce the amount of battery fretting? I just started having the dreaded "right pedal missing" errors on my 10th ride on the pedals (received them on May 7th), and sure enough, there was some fretting on the batteries on both sides, so I'm hoping that's the culprit. (Here's the ride file: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2729001798) It seems odd that we're supposed to apply mineral oil or whatever every time we change batteries for the rest of the life of these pedals -- are there any fixes in the works to address that? Thanks!