Wireless cateye interference.

[cyclop]

My friends cateye wireless keeps zeroing and I,ve read that a flashing light can interfere with the signal.Anybody had this happen?He has a recumbent trike.

[rjb]

It's a common problem with led lighting whether in flashing mode or not for it to interfere with electronics involving counting. I've experienced this in the past with a wireless computer and cateye light.
Mrs rjb keeps tropical fish with led lighting on the tank. She tried an electronic 13 amp plug in timer to turn the lighting on but it kept gaining several hours a day. She reverted to an older mechanical timer to get it sorted.
The electronic timer worked faultlessly when moved away from the lighting supply plug.

[cyclop]

Thanks ,will relay that info.

[simonhill]

What do you mean by "zeroing"?

Does the whole thing reset to zero including odo, or just current speed show as zero?

I've had it stop working, ie remain at zero speed for a period, but then carry on working once free of interference.

Total zeroing as in a reset was usually a battery fault. Either getting low or due to cold (often overnight) conditions.

.........but then again I don't have a flashing light.

[Greystoke]

It's an EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) issue, I've dealt with issues like this at work .
You could shield the light....tin foil etc but after having similar issues on my bike I now use a wired bike computer and not had issues since.

[simonhill]

Yes I've had problems with interference. The worst was in China where it repeatedly went haywire. Usually recorded max speed of over 100, etc when close to a telecoms box. Not zeroing. Sometimes not showing any speed when riding - this could be called zeroing.

Zeroing?

[Redvee]

I've experienced speed spikes on cheap wireless computers, Aldi/Lidl, in the past. This was triggered by one particular set of traffic lights in Bristol but not others and I also had a reaction from the security barriers as you leave shops.

[xerxes]

I had this with my cateye wireless when I mounted a Garmin GPS on the handlebars right next to it. Moving the GPS a few inches further away seemed to cure it.

Other external things can also interfere with it. A certain shop I used to go in always caused it to register 'wheel revolution' signals.

If, as someone else asked, it is completely resetting the whole device, this could be caused by the battery connection. I fixed this problem on mine by inserting a tiny wad of paper under the metal clip which touches the battery, to ensure the clip was kept in place and would not break the circuit due to vibrations when, say, riding over a rough stretch of road.

[freiston]

It's not just lights that can interfere with them. I used to use a Cateye Micro Wireless computer . My LED dynamo fork crown mounted front light didn't affect it but my [smart]phone did if I had it in the handlebar bag. I first noticed that when I slowed down or sped up, the current speed indicator was not changing accordingly and was reporting obviously incorrect speeds. After a trip, the distance, average and maximum speeds were obviously wrong (it was rare to have a ride with my maximum speed showing less than 60mph). I never experienced it resetting anything to zero.

Other than that, I found it really difficult to use on account of the very fiddly button pushes - so fiddly that I gave up using it. I replaced it with a wired Cateye Velo 7 which I find much better and not affected by interference at all.

[LittleGreyCat]

For me it was the other way round.
Lidl wireless speedo sent my mobile phone crazy when I tried it out in a bar mount.

[Psamathe]

I've tried several different wireless cycling computers.

Analogue wireless: Used to take the computer round supermarket with me whilst sensor remained on bike outside. Yet despite bike being stationary and way out of range, leaving supermarket computer would have increased it's trip distance by over half a mile! After ride, bike in hall, computer on table and speed would be 0 ... 0 ... 3.7 ... 0 ... 0 ... 4.2 ... 0 etc.. I always guessed it would be Wi-Fi signal doing something.

Digital wireless: sometimes stoped at a deserted junction miles from anything, magnet way away from sensor and computer would suddenly be reading 46 mph!

Garmin GPS with wheel sensor: seems to be fine.

Virtually all my riding in daytime without lights of any sort.

I switched back to wired which was cheaper and worked. Though current bike has to have wireless so currently thinking as I do like having an old small basic computer in addition to GPS (even with wheel sensor).

nb: neither of the above cycle computers were Cateye.

Ian

[Percy]

My friends cateye wireless keeps zeroing and I,ve read that a flashing light can interfere with the signal.Anybody had this happen?He has a recumbent trike.

I have two bikes with identical Cateye Padrone wireless computers on them. One night I put different handlebars on one of the bikes. When I took a test ride, the computer didn't work at all. I swapped the two computers and put the 'good' one on the bike, and that didn't work, either. So I swapped the two sender units, too, and it still didn't work.

I then rode it again without turning the rechargeable light on, and it worked. So I separated the light from the computer by several inches and it was fine. The other bike had a different make of rechargeable light and I could set that right next to the computer with no problems.

[JohnW]

It is a common enough problem.
I've solved it (for myself) by changing my flashing front lights to Hope Vision 1 (metal body) for lights that I occasionally put to flash, and an 'E-LUME 1600 HEADLIGHT' which is always in flashing mode.
Neither the above interfere with my CAT-EYE STRADA WIRELESS computers.
I do find that passing under low power lines, riding close to Lidl big fluorescent illuminated signs (and some others), kerb-side electronic control boxes for traffic lights also affect the computer, but momentarily just as I'm passing.
Many,very many plastic cased flashing lights do interfere with my computers.

[JohnW]

For me it was the other way round.
Lidl wireless speedo sent my mobile phone crazy when I tried it out in a bar mount.

That's a lesson for us all then, LGC - but the way you told it made me smile.....I suppose partly in sympathy because these little incompatibilities occur quite out of the blue. I keep my phone in my back pocket - perhaps that's why I've not had that particular problem.

[simonineaston]

It is a good job we can't see all these bloody radio waves otherwise we would all fall down in surprise, innit... Only today I walked past my radio with a bt headset on, and R3 went all wubbly bubbly. Also, Led Zepplin drop out and go away when I nuke my baked beans - modern life, eh! Wos' can do??