B&M USB-WERK

[digga]

Anyone have one?

I've just bought one and it's not working like I thought it would. Cache battery doesn't seem to hold a charge and sometimes when I ride well above 20km/h my iphone 4 shows charging but the % battery left falls.

On the other hand, I can ride with a mapping app (View Ranger) on and tracking and it charges 1% every 6 mins or so.

Any other experiences?

[shane]

Depends what you mean by not holding its charge.

Its a tiny buffer meant to stop things like iphones whining for power at stop lights and short stops. Its not really meant to do anything more than that.

[digga]

Basically the phone stops charging when the bike stops. Not sure whether or not to return it.

[martin113]

Where have you got with this one Digga? Did you return it or get it working?

[rollinbone]

The eWerk cache battery?!
I wasted money on one of those in 2010, but didn't use it because of the weight thing mainly

the horror

I did dig it out of the cupboard recently and found it no longer worked at all!
Starbikes, who I bought it from, were helpful in that they asked me to return it for assessment.~
However thought the £5+ post to germany was like throwing good money after bad, so I just binned the thing.

The eWerk itself is excellent though- its like the battery is made by a different company-even the 'case' it comes with didn't fit right

[martin113]

Rollinbone -- So how are you now using the E-Werk without a cache battery or what are you using for a cache battery?

[andrew_s]

The eWerk cache battery?!
I wasted money on one of those in 2010, but didn't use it because of the weight thing mainly

The USB-werk is a simplified version of the e-Werk that does 5V only, but which has a small cache battery built into the main casing.
As stated, the battery is only intended to prevent loss of power at traffic lights, map reading stops etc, and doesn't hold enough to usefully charge anything after you've stopped riding. The original separate battery for the e-Werk was a fair bit bigger - the initial bumf touted the possibility of using it with an e-Werk to power a Big Bang HID light, and HID lights really don't like intermittent power.

[ConRAD]

...The eWerk cache battery?!....

The eWerk cache battery (i.e. 461A) is designed to work with the "traditional" e-werk and not with USB e-werk, that's because it must be charged with 5.6V whereas USB e-werk output voltage is 5.0V only (according to USB standard).
I've been using with great satisfaction a couple of 461A cache batteries since more than two years now, permanently charged in a "rotation" fashion through dynamo+ewerk.

[digga]

Where have you got with this one Digga? Did you return it or get it working?

I got it from bike24.

When I'm moving my iphone is charging but as soon as I stop the phone stops charging. Might as well have got an e-werk. I've also noticed that even when I'm moving the iPhone shows its charging but the % goes down - that could be the iPhone 'tho.

I'm going to return it but am doing a tour in a couple of weeks so didn't trust German mail to get it to and from Australia in time.