# Powertap g3 problems HELP!!!



## arms_a (Dec 25, 2013)

Hi,

Got myself a powertap g3 three weeks ago so this is new.

Its been working totally fine then today I went for a ride and my garmin 800 is telling me Im doing only between 0-5 watts.

I recalibrated a few times during the ride and 512 kept coming up which from other forums I understand to be correct. However, when I got home I went inside did a bit of research into the problem went back outside to recalibrate and got '-3120' or something similar.

Changed the battery a few times now I can't even pair the devices. 

One other thing I updated this on poweragent today so the firmware is up to date, but when looking at the device details the current user was 'Joes CPU'. I have no idea who Joe is? Is this a recycled hub??

Either way I'm pretty annoyed considering this is only 3 weeks old if that and yesterday on the turbo this was working perfectly fine.

Cheers for any help.


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## nhluhr (Sep 9, 2010)

Saris is renowned for excellent customer service. What was their response when you asked them?


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## arms_a (Dec 25, 2013)

nhluhr said:


> Saris is renowned for excellent customer service. What was their response when you asked them?


Didn't contact them. I bought it from Wiggle so any problems and I'll deal with it through them especially as its so new. Although today it worked ok just needed a decent battery i think. I take it powertap have a pretty lowsy reputation?


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

I wouldn't say power tap has a bad rep, I haven't heard anybody complaining really - no problems with mine other than battery replacement - sometimes I get a warning the battery is low, sometimes I don't and it's dead when I go for a ride. The batteries don't seem to last more than a few months for me, but I do ride quite a bit and in pretty cold weather which probably doesn't help.


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## kbiker3111 (Nov 7, 2006)

Don't deal with Wiggle, go directly to powertap. They have always given me great service under warranty and I imagine wiggle will only forward you to Saris/PT. In general PTs, especially the new ones have a great reputation for a powermeter, but most powermeters are fallible. 

FWIW, most G3 problems I've had end up being battery issues though once it took a couple batteries to work it out.


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## arms_a (Dec 25, 2013)

Used it today and i seemed ok. I think its a combination of the battery and the cold. the temperature has dropped considerably over the past few days.

The number i get when calibrating has dropped from 512 to 510 to 502. Does this mean anything?


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## mikerp (Jul 24, 2011)

I had this issue with one of our PT's on the 2nd ride, stopped at a friends house and chatted when I got going again I only had single digit values.. I got with Saris and they said that some of the units needed to be restarted 2x for some reason. In my case all was fine after pulling the battery and putting it back in. The calibration value will bounce around a bit, temperature is a factor in the value.


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## kbiker3111 (Nov 7, 2006)

The offset should be within 500/524. If it goes outside this or jumps around A LOT, call power tap.


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## nhluhr (Sep 9, 2010)

arms_a said:


> Used it today and i seemed ok. I think its a combination of the battery and the cold. the temperature has dropped considerably over the past few days.
> 
> The number i get when calibrating has dropped from 512 to 510 to 502. Does this mean anything?


I believe that number is the 0 offset so it should remain within a few percent range every time. I have 3 powertap G3 wheelsets and they all read different numbers when I calibrate, but are generally within a range of about 1%.


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