Garmin Edge 810 - replacing USB + SD card board

For those riding a bit more or often, charging their 810 via dynamo hub, might observe that the USB port is a pretty weak part of the unit. After a few 10k it became bit annoying to plug in while riding. And I'm not the only one.

@firsthippy @JamesMarkHayden @Garmin I had 2 Garmins during #tcrno4 and they worked about 95% of time. The usb connectors are terrible.

— Mikko Mäkipää (@mkpaa) 11. März 2017

Since I'm not a friend of getting new stuff just because of a small worn out part I got me some spares from eBay.

Just in case.... pic.twitter.com/6R3ebNSQaj

— bemme51 (@bemme51) 10. März 2017

So that's how you change it. I tried to get every step in a pic so you can follow disassembling and putting together again also just for cleaning purposes. It really looked a bit dirty along the sealing rubber. Ah, and don't wonder bout the screen - it just looks a bit worn but that's just the protective matte foil.

The 810 and the new board. Ready to play.

Taking off the rubber case and SD-card. Unscrewing the cover rubber of the ports.

Unscrewing all 6 screws from the back panel.

Taking apart both parts, finger nail should do the job.

This step would not be necessary but I wanted to show the whole story.

Typical connector for screens, you might know from notebooks. Push the black part on both sides gently towards the screen.

The cable now goes out of the connector easily.

Take off the rubber seal. You might want to clean it with some alcohol.

Lift the mainboard with a thin tool, needle or similar.

The mainboard has a port on the backside which connects to the USB board.

Now lift the white plug from the port, small screwdriver helps.

So far easy stuff. Now you need to disconnect both remaining cables.

280°C is absolutely enough, 260°C should be fine.

It just takes two seconds per wire.

The USB board itself is glued onto the case with some sort of black silicone.

It is not really sticking to the plastic case. So just take your time and go along the edge of the board.

You don't need to win a beauty contest.

With a thin blade you should be able to lift the board.

And there it is.

Once you have cleaned the case from the remaing black stuff check if the new board fits well.

From now it's just the same stuff backwards. I had pretty good results with clear window silicone.

It's a bit better to handle in a smaller portion.

Will be way to much.

Ready.

And that's how it's done. Before you do this side, go around along the case once before (forgot to make a pic).

After you filled the gap around the board take a Q-tip with a bit soap and form a smoth surface.

Make sure you don't build up too much material. Check along the SD-card slot and USB port, take off what's sticking in the way.

After a while the silicone should start to cure. Time to solder the wires. Depending on the silicone it can take two days until cured completely. So don't rush with putting back in service.

Plug in the cable.

Put the main board back into place, press to connect to the USB board.

Put the seal in the right direction.

Make sure it is in place.

Connecting the screen.

Easy.

Once you have connected the screen and the upper case to the board remove all dust from the screen and the glass. Demin water with a Q-tip helps.

Now put the case together.

Looks familiar.

So far, everything looks fine.

...

Bingo.


That's it. Not rocket science. Just take your time. The new connector is tight as it should be. Since it is really just the USB-connector I might try to take it off the USB board and replace that one with a new one as well. Just in case... :-)

Bicycle standlight with SON Edelux II + Supernova E3 Tail Light 2

A day gives you the day and the night. So when you're busy during the day you better make use of the night too. I really like riding bike at night. There's nothing as good as cruising empty roads, passing towns and sleeping villages. People sitting inside, flickering blue TV lights behind windows, dimmed bed lights, calm and sleepy darkness. Long before daylight rises bakeries are waking up, cats and dogs are socialising.

Good lights are essential, since ever I prefer Schmidt. Best generator you can get. Whem I started travelling by bike I was bit surprised that oncoming trucks dimmed their lights before they actually could see me. It was the Edelux, still working on my black tank. On the lighter bikes I used the Edelux II as head light. Schmidt never came up with a tail light as cool as their head lights. So as long as there is nothing better desingned that the Supernova E3 Tail Light 2 I'll stick with that.

And there the confusion begins. None of the both companies ever stated anything regarding compatibility of these lights. No worries, they work excellent together. Bright ahead and behind. Only downside one might need to accept - at very low speed the tail light is blinking and once stopped it goes off. The Edelux itself will provide some standlight, but not the tiny Supernova. It does, but only if wired to the Supernova head light when it's fed by its internal supercap.

So if you bored and fancy some soldering - here you go. The Edelux is connected to the SON dynamo hub as usual. Another cable is running from the Edelux to the tail light. The Supernova got 3 LEDs, a diode for protection and 3 resistors inside its tiny housing. From the Edelux you won't get much more than the 7V.

At first we want to get rid of the flickering behaviour at low speeds. Thus we use a small capacitor eliminating the pulsing DC from the Edelux outlet. Next task is to save some energy in a supercap. They come in standard sizes, one close to the nominal 6V of the tail light is the 5,5V type. Supercaps are a bit sensible regarding overvoltage. A good way to ensure protection is charging the supercap via a fixed voltage regulator. They are cheap and come in standard sizes as well. A 5V type seems suitable. If you take a power supply (a few AA batteries will do as well) you observe that there's not much difference in illuminance between 6V and 4,5V. Just fyi - current is 70mA @ 6V, 40mA @ 4,5V and 10mA @ 3V. This leads to a setup where we charge the supercap with 5V from the voltage regulator. This will be the maximum voltage we can use for the standlight. But as mentioned before, nearby same brightness as running the Supernova directly fed by the Edelux.

The voltage regulator needs some protection from the backside, a standard diode will do the job. This is important because we also will bypass the supercap with the nominal voltage from the Edelux. The layout explains itself.

For the diodes I took some which were laying around here, think it was 2x 1N4001 and 2x 1N4148, more or less standard. Feel free to pick better suiting alternatives. First I just packed everything together an tested the setup in a small plastic bag for rain protection.

After two weeks without any problems the parts were put as close as possible together. Some shrinking tube and some hot glue and ready for its final installation. I run the cables internally in the frame, making use of the Di2 outlets. I placed this little alien in the down tube next to the bottom bracket. Some bubble wrap and you can ride cobbles without any noise ;)

It's running on two bikes so far without any problems, charged in 200...300m. Since there's no cut-off diode in the circuit it's glowing 'til the supercap is empty (>10mins).

fahrstil - der Abschied

Irgendwann bekam ich eine Zeitschrift geschenkt. Ein Fahrradmagazin. Ein Abo. Ich bin ja eher verhalten enttäuscht über dass was man da so im Zeitschriftenladen zum Thema findet. 0815 - Werbemüll. Jeden Monat der gleiche Senf in drölfzig Blättern. Da war es schon sehr erfrischend, aller drei Monate was echtes zum Lesen und Denken in der Post zu haben.
 

Der liebenswert lustige Teil begann, als ich das Abo verlängern wollte. Nach etlichen Versuchen Kontakt über Twitter und Mails zu bekommen hat dann sogar jemand geantwortet. Also auf die Mail. Twitter lebt ja von Interaktion, Aktualität und 140-Zeichen-Pointe. Ähm. Tjoa.

Also. Nachdem es die folgenden zwei Jahre nicht möglich war, das Abo per Bankeinzug zu bezahlen und man dazu jedes Mal wochenlang auf Rückmeldung warten musste war ja klar, dass die Zeitschrift und ihre Inhalte so weit weg vom adäquaten Vertrieb selbiger waren wie ein Elektrorad vom Radfahren. Das hübscheste war ja dann dass die Rechnungen als Papier kamen. Hallo, ernsthaft? IBAN abtippen weil nirgends online aufgeführt?! Kundenbindung? Service? Nun ja, auch das wäre ja noch zu verschmerzen gewesen, wenn dann nicht der inhaltliche Harakiri gekommen wäre.
 

Im Herbst 2015 mal wieder angefragt ob es denn nun endlich ginge per Einzugsermächtigung usw...das übliche Leid. Der Hammer war dann aber, dass die den Webshop über Nacht plattgemacht und die dahinterhängende Datenbank gekillt haben. Alle Kundendaten ungültig. Klar hey, Migration von Datensätzen ist ja echt schwer, so in 2016. Auf meine Rückfrage diesbezüglich wurde dann so im Nebensatz mal erwähnt dass man eh kein Abo mehr anbieten wird.

Wow.

Also mich hat ja der groß angekündigte Schwenk zu wir-erobern-jetzt-die-Welt und machen halb auf English sehr irritiert. Da is erst kürzlich das Privateer flöten gegangen und die wollen allen ernstes im Revier von Rouleur etc wildern? Naja, viel Spaß. Auf der einen Seite die Abo-Kunden wegwerfen und dann so'n move. Entweder Eier oder gaga.

Ich hab's mir nicht verkneifen können, dass die einzigen noch halbwegs rund laufenden Prints ja die mit Abos wären und mal galant auf die Blöd verwiesen, aber sowas is dann ja eh vergebene Liebesmüh.

Und dann war Ruhe. N' einsames Heftchen am Kiosk. So'n Hipster-Berlin-Lückenfüller. Nich Fleisch nich Fisch. Schade. Das letzte Heft lag keine zwei Monate in den Kiosken, da dürften etliche Paletten ins Altpapier retourniert worden sein. Selbst wenn die unten als Stapel schön sichtbar lagen - in der Masse ging das unter, im Abo war es eine Konstante der Vorfreude.

Und nun? Zwei Hefte pro Jahr. Wieder im Abo. Irgendwas in Deutsch/English. Schade. Das hätt was werden können mit uns.

Da lob ich mir doch die kleineren Brötchen die die Fahrradzukunft so bäckt.

Ich bin dann mal Radfahren.

regarding #TCR2015

Well, I'm not in this year.

@bemme51 Idea - When recovered, borrow a tracker, ride the TCR15 route. Record your best time!!! Look to the horizon ;)

— Lee Pearce (@Lee_Pearce) June 21, 2015

I must admit that Lee's idea is really nice, but I won't make it in time with recovery, being back in shape before the Alps will see snow.

But I was planning a bit on the route before I left home for the TransAm. And I wonder a bit if there's someone out there (besides Mikko - will be worth to watch his scenic ride I'd say) who would give it a try to make use of the bold NOT:

"There will be 4 mandatory checkpoints in the 2015 Transcontinental. Visit in number order is NOT
mandatory (but their scheduled operation is in order and they will close as indicated)."

One can say that using a ferry during the race is for lazy bumps and the "real shit" is riding it completely. Well, I fully respect such an approach from the sports perspective. Nevertheless, since the manual clearly indicated that specific ferries are allowed within the race (and one specific is still not ;-) ) it's worth to consider them in planning. We will see most of the riders following the number order of the checkpoints. For the part Start > CP1 > CP2 everyone will do so, we'll see a bit variation but they'll all head the same way. So far one can't gain much from choosing it's route a bit differently. Out of the Alps most riders will try to make a beeline to CP3, which is pretty flat in the first half. Italy is generally okay to ride, maybe not so nice in the Venice area with lot of traffic. Then one has to go a long stretch to Vukovar, a bit hilly and many options to pick a route. This will be by end of the first week (or second half of it), so one might not be the freshest. It's pretty warm during summer down there so having a few hours of rest might be heaven.

How about heading from CP2 down to the ferry in Ancona? This would be a downhill ride along the river Po and cost. Roads are pretty empty inlands. Okay, mosquitos are out there at night since they water all the peach and pear trees (take care where you snooze, these sprinklers start sometime in the middle of the night). So if the timing is right you can catch a ferry at early eveing in Ancona, book a cabin for yourself, either pick some food on the way or eat on the cruise. Having a 10 hours break and maybe 8 hours of babylike sleep (that ferry moves smoothly with the sea) and arriving in Split at 6 in the morning. Fresh and recovered you'll pedal along the beautiful coast, full of fruit shops along the road, no problem to get something to eat, proper road with guardrail. You will be in Kotor in the evening, refueling and then climbing the Mt. Lovcen in the darkness avoiding the heat of the day. Either you stay there and snooze at the rest area or you go down again. Next would be the part between CP4 and CP3 - a piece that requires some climbing - but no matter which way you do it, CP3>CP4 or CP4>CP3 it's a challenging section. And for those who take the ferry I would expect the first dog fights along that part, until here everything should be "dog-free". Once you make it to Vukovar the remaining part is then CP3>Finish. On the map it looks a bit weird going north from CP4 (away from the Finish) but in the end it seems less climbing in total than the way from Lovcen to Istanbul, especially the southern Greece option. But, one has to take into account the road warnings and traffic conditions. It might not be everyone's choice to cycle the Bulgarian route. So, by distance swapping CP3 and CP4 and incorporating a ferry ride probably won't be (much) shorter than the common route. The major benefits in my eyes are recovery break and less climbing.

Whoever now might start to consider this, don't throw away your initial planning. Keep both routes on your device. Once finished CP2 it's the right moment to check weather, legs and timing. That's the moment you should decide and book the ferry (if not booked already).

I don't upload or share any details or *.gpx-files - that's everyones own task. But if you feel lazy riding at the moment or it doesn't make more sense to train more - why not playing with the maps. Have fun! ;-)

wasting time

Don't get me wrong, I'm just writing this because I got the time to.

Somehow I'm sick of blogging about cycling. The whole web is full of it. It feels like running a weblog about cycling became some kind of must-have for everyone who ever rode a bike. Or owned one. Or plans to ride or buy one. Even to that weird extreme that people borrow bikes or material to blog about. Optimizing articles like companies are doing, SEO-bullshitting, scheduling weekly link-collections, video-editing-and-uploading every second round-the-block-ride-action-cam-trash. And finally - promoting every post a couple ten times via all social channels. It all has to be published, blown up to the biggest, largest, longest, hardest, what-so-ever...-est. And not just that every hour one has finally been sitting on the bike has to be exploited - even before that. To gain publicity for every planned ride - "the media machinery" has to be started with all available fancy options. Sorry, but I'm tired... yes, I'm bored to death of all this. It's all wasted time to me. I prefer riding a bike over writing about it. The only thing why I'm back on the keyboard now is that my bones will need a few weeks until I can walk without crutches. And a few more weeks until I can think about riding a bike again. Summer, or how most of these cycling-bloggers call "season", will be gone by then.

Sometimes things happen for a reason. I'm usually okay with that - if I understand the reason. At the moment I can't really see this hidden agenda. Maybe it takes some more time.

Time is what I do have more than enough at the moment. Laying in a bed, filled up with painkillers and sleeping something around 12 hours a day. Actually I should sleep less than 5h per day at the moment, somewhere along that red line across the states. This was the plan for this year. A plan which became real after last years result leaving me with a big questionmark in my head: "What would be possible.... what could I achieve if I would prepare and focus better... what could be the result of racing such a thing from the beginning?" This type of questions that leaves you restless. That makes you think it over and over again all the time sitting in the saddle. And slowly the idea was born. To do it. And to do it better. To do it with a focus on the things you've been a bit weak in. Technically, physically, mentally. And the time was right. This year I could allow for holidays for two races - the TransAm and the TransCon. Definitely a challenge. Both just 3 weeks apart, not much time to recover in between, but also both unique in their own beauty. So, preparing for each of them in parallel isn't really easy but a nice mental training for switching your focus on a specific target.

Last year I wasn't really riding with a focus on anything specific during early summer. I just tried to do a lot. Long rides mostly from A to B, visting family and friends. After the race I didn't ride for a week which was a little mistake. Back to work was no other chance than coming back to daily riding. Plus a lot of socialising with friends and family. I had to do a lot of 200+ commutes. But this gave me the chance to observe myself, improve and fine tune. It's weird to claim a 240km-ride with more than 30mins of stopping time a "bad ride" but you get the idea. I started to focus more on the gross/net-ratio than on the avg. speed. Hell, what have I been wasting time before...

I didn't really stop to ride over the winter months. It's wasn't a real winter with lots of snow and ice on one hand, but also it was more the general laziness which was to tackle. You can ride every weather. You can make some relevant miles - if it's sub zero and snow or plus one degree and rain, it's really just a mental thing. Once you're okay with that and you accept you lower avg. speed compared to those of the summer fun rides you just do what you do. If it's icy get on the spike tires and do a few hundred meter climbing in deep snow - worth a few hours of ice cream conditions. And we had wind. I mean serious wind. Wind that killed a few hundred old trees in a nearby forest, wind that forced me to pedal in low gear always jumping into the next gust and screaming for a bit mercy. Wind was a permanent coach for months. I had a weak week in February with a bit cold & fever and some coughing, but as always it takes a week with medicine and seven days without. So a nice reason to start again with a 300+ ride. And slowly you build up some mileage.

Heute vor einem Jahr angefangen aufzuzeichnen. Und da fehlen ein paar hundert Kilometer. #hpybdy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/9Ty7vxyaGi

— bemme51 (@bemme51) May 12, 2015

In the end it was just a matter of getting the kit together again, fixing some minor issues here and there and stripping the bike completely. I got me the same frame off a 2x10 105 setup, put some of the old 11sp Ultegra parts and some new stuff onto it. So I had enough time to build up the brave black mule with care. I gave it a conservative test ride over 3.5 days and 1,200km. It went all fine, smooth as expected. Meeting family on that trip and chatting a bit, spending time for cooking and such things made me quite confident being able to add another 3 hours per day without much stress if needed. So there was not much else to prepare. 11,000km in the first five months of the year seemed to be a good basis. Some more climbing than last year, generally more focused on wasting less time without moving. It all felt right.

But sometimes it all goes in a different direction. Boarded the plane in Hamburg, arrived in Portland and took the bus to Astoria. Snoozing, eating, assembling my bike the Wednesday went by. Weather was much better than normally in Oregon, with a lot of sunshine hours. So I had a look to downtown, up to the Column and out of town for a few hours. Riding was fun, bike did well, legs too. But just when you are about to feel fine because everything is just as planned, just as expected it hits you the hardest. And this time as a car with 55mph from behind. There is no warning, no time, not even to realize it directly. So the rest of the day was a simple story: ambulance, police, emmergency room, x-rays, CT, hospital bed, morphine, infusion. And being hungry and calming down from the traumatic shock your body feels just like a huge piece of pain.

160miles of fun. Then kicked off the bike by a ladies car w 55mph. Hospital. Something broken. On morphine. Season over.

— bemme51 (@bemme51) June 5, 2015

Now, two weeks later, I'm back in Germany after a while in the hospital. After been screened and checked several times every doctor was shaking the head by the mismatch of the heavy accident and the resulting damages. Still, they are painful and they will need their time to heal, but overall - the likelihood of been killed by such an impact isn't that small. Which doesn't make me happy at all. I'm looking forward to a few weeks of sorting out paperwork - laywers, insurance companies, the whole bunch of unfunny stuff.

Most annoying fact from the state police crash report: "the driver was disattracted while checking her hair in the rear mirror" Thx, beauty!

— bemme51 (@bemme51) June 7, 2015

Just to put it right, the lady who knocked me off was most likely not busy with her hair but on the phone. Which is forbidden by law in OR.

— bemme51 (@bemme51) June 7, 2015

Holiday pictures. pic.twitter.com/4S5eNgCj3D

— bemme51 (@bemme51) June 12, 2015

Coming back to the deeper meaning of what happened. I'm still lost. It's unfair. It hurts. It makes me rebel against... I don't know yet. And I don't know where I will put my focus on. Not yet. The level I was riding on was much higher than last year, my mindset much more adjusted. I don't want to speculate where I would have ended or what-if..., that really just answers a ridden competition. The only thing I can say at the moment is - I still don't know how good I really could race such a thing.

And, no worries - in case I start to put myself on a bike again - I won't bother you with writing, filming and linking 'bout. Because I do it for myself.