Cateye Computer Adds Miles Overnight Mystery

[deliquium]

Have noticed the last 3 days that when I open the locked bike shed and get the bike out, the trip mileage has increased by approximately 2 miles

How come?

Cateye Velo Wireless, warm pampered bike shed with cosy CH boiler, Longstaff bike, locked door!

[hamster]

Interference! Hard to track down these days as with mobile phones and wifi there are radio transmitters practically everywhere.

[Psamathe]

I've all but given-up on wireless cycle computers.

Mine old one (returned and cost refunded now) was terrible. I'd get home from a ride and it would be sitting on the kitchen table and it would be reading 0.0, 0.0, 15.7, 0.0, 7.4, 0.0, etc. It would accumulate a little distance but the main problem is that it would still be recording ride time, mostly stationary ride time so the average speed would drop - significantly. So I'd have to get home and immediately write down the data from teh computer.

Then I discovered that when I stopped part way through a ride at a supermarket, wandering round the supermarket with the cycle computer in my pocket would cause the same. I noted one day that I went into the supermarket with an average speed at 13.9 and came out with an average speed of 12.6.

And what was really annoying was that my particular model has two pins on the computer and a shorting metal plate on the mount - so the computer knows when it is not on the bike. So how come the software keeps recording interference even when it "knows" it's no longer on the bike. Poor software and a major susceptibility to interference.

I can appreciate that there will be issues when people ride as a group, different non-digtal wireless sensors interfering with each other. But off the bike at home ... poor unit design/implementation.

Ian
(p.s. mine was not a Cateye cycle computer)

[Mick F]

Did you have the wheel magnet near the detector?
Even a magnet a few inches away could effect the device.

Can you switch it off?
I have a wireless unit that I use when riding the rollers, but if it isn't used for a while, it switches off completely and you have to switch back on before it works at all.

[deliquium]

Did you have the wheel magnet near the detector?
Even a magnet a few inches away could effect the device.

Can you switch it off?
I have a wireless unit that I use when riding the rollers, but if it isn't used for a while, it switches off completely and you have to switch back on before it works at all.

I'll pop down now and make sure the magnet is as far from the sensor as possible ✔

[gaz]

Have noticed the last 3 days that when I open the locked bike shed and get the bike out, the trip mileage has increased by approximately 2 miles

How come?

I think I've got this right. The mileage as you wheel it out of the shed door is two miles more than the mileage when you wheeled it in.

Do you have a mile long shed with your bike locked at the back? Or is your shed a Tardis?

[Psamathe]

Did you have the wheel magnet near the detector?
Even a magnet a few inches away could effect the device.

Can you switch it off?
I have a wireless unit that I use when riding the rollers, but if it isn't used for a while, it switches off completely and you have to switch back on before it works at all.

In my case (and I'm not the original poster), the computer kept occasionally recording distance when I was over 100m away in the supermarket, bike locked-up outside; or computer on kitchen table bike in another room magnet well clear of sensor.

Mine (not Cateye) had no way to switch it off manually). It had to wait for a period of inactivity.

But the occasional interference causing occasional bursts of speed would prevent the unit from auto switching-off as it was seeing more activity. I'd get low distances (maybe 0.1 miles every few hours); it was the effect of keeping the ride timer going which had a big effect on the average speed.

That said, I now have a digital one but that has its own issues and I'm not particularly happy with it. So I'm fitting an old cabled one on the bike.

Ian

[Ayesha]

Extra terrestrials....

Your bike was abducted.

[NetworkMan]

So far my analogue Ciclo altimeter computer has been OK but I do make sure the tyre magnet is well away from the transmitter when parking. Having said that I hate and avoid mobile phones whenever possible!

[deliquium]

4.2 miles added overnight - with the magnet as far from the sensor as possible.

I wonder if the dynamo and standlights have anything to do with it? Can't think of any other interference down in the bike shed/bunker?

[Psamathe]

4.2 miles added overnight - with the magnet as far from the sensor as possible.

I wonder if the dynamo and standlights have anything to do with it? Can't think of any other interference down in the bike shed/bunker?

Could be coming from anywhere. Next door's DECT phone, any nearby Wi-Fi. Maybe a nearby mobile phone mast.

There is so much radio noise these days, so many sources. e.g. around midday, at home I suffer from massive interference around 2.4GHz, which goes on for several hours (far too long to be a microwave oven).

I would think the "phantom miles" problem is actually going to cause you two problems. Obviously your odometer will be badly out. But also, the signals the unit is getting from somewhere is preventing the computer from switching off (through inactivity). so it is staying on which will significantly shorten its battery life (instead of running only a few hours a day (duration of your rides) it is running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

Ian

[deliquium]

I've removed the computer head and brought it upstairs, out of the 'bunker' to see if that makes a difference.

What's strange is this is only a recent phenomenon, as in the last 2 weeks

[nirakaro]

Suggests that some new radio device was installed nearby a couple of weeks ago?

[deliquium]

With the computer head off the bike, in a separate room divided by thick stone walls, there has been no gain in mileage overnight

With regard to interference - there is none from my hub dynamo on this Cateye, unlike a cheaper wireless computer used previously which would go completely bom boms if the headlamp was turned on

[mercalia]

do u have some fairies at the bottom of your garden who are into cycling , maybe? well they have to keep fit also?