Di2 Issues - Battery draining

S_D

Have a question Im struggling to sort. Di2 on the bike, all of a sudden battery is just draining really quickly. Its charging but as soon as i unplug it, it will go down very quickly. say 5-6 hours and its back to 0%. This is totally out of nowhere. Everything updated firewire wise... I logged in via my phone over bluetooth and all looks ok. The bike is 1 year old. Any ideas? If its a battery , I'd like to 100% know before forking out 120 quid!

Cee-Jay-Cee

Best bet is to eliminate parts first. Charge battery, unplug the RD and see if battery drains. If it still drains quickly plug it back in again and recharge battery and unplug FD. Then do the shifters. If anyone of them stop the quick drainage then you need to check it’s wire to ensure it’s not damaged.

How are you charging the battery? Some USB plugs are low voltage/amp ratings and while they will charge the battery they don't properly charge it. I use a 5v 2.1A charger plug to charge mine.

S_D

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Best bet is to eliminate parts first. Charge battery, unplug the RD and see if battery drains. If it still drains quickly plug it back in again and recharge battery and unplug FD. Then do the shifters. If anyone of them stop the quick drainage then you need to check it’s wire to ensure it’s not damaged.

How are you charging the battery? Some USB plugs are low voltage/amp ratings and while they will charge the battery they don't properly charge it. I use a 5v 2.1A charger plug to charge mine.

USB plug.


ok so start with the RD,FD & Shifters. Then I presume if it still drains, its the battery?

Luxman

S_D wrote: »

USB plug.


ok so start with the RD,FD & Shifters. Then I presume if it still drains, its the battery?

I was told only to ever use a laptop usb to charge it. I hosed a new battery very quickly plugging to a wall

shaveAbullock

Luxman wrote: »

I was told only to ever use a laptop usb to charge it. I hosed a new battery very quickly plugging to a wall

I don't know much about DI2 but USB devices should all be able to request the correct amount of amperage. I don't understand why it should only be charged from a laptop.

andy69

I've had an issue like this, only a couple of months ago - returned the battery for warranty and got a replacement. Had to pay for a new battery in the interim but got refunded by the LBS.

anwyays, using Di2 since 2012, and only twice in that time I had the sudden discharge issue - first was years ago, and was resolved by a Firmware Update, and I see you've checked that already....but..... with my newest bike (about a year old now) the battery was suddenly draining after a few hours just like you describe.
This one is a seatpost battery (original issue on my old bike was an externally mounted one) and I updated the firmware via my laptop, but you can only do a partial update. You need the diagnostics kit thingy to do a full update. Bike shop did that for me and all seemed ok it showed a 'general error' so they returned it to Madison UK for warranty claim.

So it might be your firmware (the part you can't check at home) or it might be a fault with the battery itself, like in my case. Not so easy to get it back to the bike shop now though...but until the restrictions lift you could make do with a recharge every other day and have your USB cable ready while you're zwifting or whatever? I had to do that on mine, mid-spin in one case...flippin' wires everywhere but worked

Blinkerz

I had a similar issue after I connected the Wifi unit. The battery seemed to drain very quickly and I became really worried that it would catch me out badly some day. I ditched the wifi and I'm back to one or two charges a year. Worth a try.

S_D

andy69 wrote: »

I've had an issue like this, only a couple of months ago - returned the battery for warranty and got a replacement. Had to pay for a new battery in the interim but got refunded by the LBS.

anwyays, using Di2 since 2012, and only twice in that time I had the sudden discharge issue - first was years ago, and was resolved by a Firmware Update, and I see you've checked that already....but..... with my newest bike (about a year old now) the battery was suddenly draining after a few hours just like you describe.
This one is a seatpost battery (original issue on my old bike was an externally mounted one) and I updated the firmware via my laptop, but you can only do a partial update. You need the diagnostics kit thingy to do a full update. Bike shop did that for me and all seemed ok so they returned it to Madison UK for warranty claim.

So it might be your firmware (the part you can't check at home) or it might be a fault with the battery itself, like in my case. Not so easy to get it back to the bike shop now though...but until the restrictions lift you could make do with a recharge every other day and have your USB cable ready while you're zwifting or whatever? I had to do that on mine, mid-spin in one case...flippin' wires everywhere but worked

Thanks ! I charged it last night from the laptop & when i came down stairs it was at 50%. I plugged it out and back in (That ole trick) and now the fault code was blinking on the charger too! I'm guessing this is a battery issue, (Its in the seat post) maybe its just knackered?! I'll just have to wait until the shop re-opens and get them to check it!

S_D

Blinkerz wrote: »

I had a similar issue after I connected the Wifi unit. The battery seemed to drain very quickly and I became really worried that it would catch me out badly some day. I ditched the wifi and I'm back to one or two charges a year. Worth a try.

I had that fitted before and it was perfect up until now, it does drain it a bit quicker but noting worth worrying about, I still had 2/3 months or so on charge

S_D

ok, I got a Dell computer and plugged it in

Firewire update required on the BCR2 (charging unit)....I cant do an error check as I need a SM-PCE1...200 quid online! Jaysus!

I hope maybe the charger was just needing updating but I doubt thats all that was wrong

Cee-Jay-Cee

Do you mean 'firmware'?

You should be able to update it in the normal way through the e-tube program.

I'm assuming you have had a read of >>> https://di2center.com/2019/12/05/how-to-troubleshoot-di2-battery-drain-issues/

S_D

Sorry I mean firmware. Typo.

andy69

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Do you mean 'firmware'?

You should be able to update it in the normal way through the e-tube program.

I'm assuming you have had a read of >>> https://di2center.com/2019/12/05/how-to-troubleshoot-di2-battery-drain-issues/

yeah but via eTube at home you can only update the shifters and the Mechs. Ye need the PCE thingy to do a full check of the firmware/diagnostic on everything. That's the thing most of us wouldn't have, as they mention in the link you gave (great link actually....I had no idea how to test the battery myself - other than the green/red light button on the junction box - but I see they specifically mention a good tip there).

S_D

So ive been monitoring the battery drain closely today, and with everything disconnected, it didnt go down for hours...as soon as i plugged in the rear dearalliur it started to drop pretty quickly! I'm going to charge it back up & take out the battery for 24 hours and see if its still 100% but im suprised the RD is draining it all of a sudden!? any reasons why ?!!

gman2k

S_D wrote: »

So ive been monitoring the battery drain closely today, and with everything disconnected, it didnt go down for hours...as soon as i plugged in the rear dearalliur it started to drop pretty quickly! I'm going to charge it back up & take out the battery for 24 hours and see if its still 100% but im suprised the RD is draining it all of a sudden!? any reasons why ?!!

If the rear mech is slightly out of alignment it can drain the battery- according to my LBS

CrowdedHouse

Limit screws maybe, are you checking it with the chain on the smallest sprocket?

shaveAbullock

I've never owned a DI2 or ETAP system but would a misaligned derailleur drain the battery?
I figured the chain would just rub like on a traditional gear system.

TerryDi2Center

shaveAbullock wrote: »

I've never owned a DI2 or ETAP system but would a misaligned derailleur drain the battery?
I figured the chain would just rub like on a traditional gear system.

Both true, actually ;-).

A misaligned derailleur won't necessarily drain the battery, but derailleur limits that are set too tight will (but only in the first and last cassette sprockets). The reason for this is that the Di2 derailleurs like to over-shift and then move back to their final position.
It is my understanding that, if the limits are too restrictive, they will keep trying to overshift for a while and then give up (after ~5-10 seconds).

This will consume more battery than a perfectly setup system, but it won't cause 'massive' battery drain when your bike is in any other gear.

To eliminate the potential-limits-cause you could plug in the RD but not attach it to the bike. The limit settings will then not do anything at all. Still, I think the problem isn't caused by the limits, but it's worth a shot.

In your case I would probably take the RD to a bike shop (if they're open) and have them check it with their SM-PCE02. As far as I know you can just take the RD, doesn't have to be the entire bike.
(the PCE units support 'single unit connection mode', but I'm not 100% sure the 'battery drain diagnosis' also works in this mode)

Cee-Jay-Cee

OP if you have a spare Di2 wire you could check and see if the problem is with the wire rather than the RD unit itself. If not it would mean having to remove a wire from elsewhere and using it to check it. If you are anywhere near Letterkenny I have a spare 1200mm wire that you could run from the junction box directly to the RD to check it.

S_D

S_D wrote: »

So ive been monitoring the battery drain closely today, and with everything disconnected, it didnt go down for hours...as soon as i plugged in the rear dearalliur it started to drop pretty quickly! I'm going to charge it back up & take out the battery for 24 hours and see if its still 100% but im suprised the RD is draining it all of a sudden!? any reasons why ?!!

I started from scratch again yesterday and took the battery out for 12 hours and it didnt drop the charge which leads me to believe something is obviously draining it.

I charged it back up and unplugged everything bar the shifters.

Came down this morning and it dropped 20%. I've recharged it again and now checking the RD properly with the FD & Shifters plugged out.

But thats interesting the shifters caused it to drop 20% in that short space of time!

Cee-Jay-Cee

Possibly a frayed wire somewhere is causing the problem.

tomasrojo

I'm a real stick-in-the-mud, but I do find the idea of updating firmware before changing gear quite amusing.


(I know that's not what's really happening, but it's very reminiscent of internetof****, if anyone follows that on Twitter.)

S_D

Project find the problem is over. Not that i found the problem but I ended up pulling the battery and cable from the frame by mistake and that ends that... I cant even start to try find how to get this back together , so I'll just wait for the bike shop to open haha!

Cee-Jay-Cee

S_D wrote: »

Project find the problem is over. Not that i found the problem but I ended up pulling the battery and cable from the frame by mistake and that ends that... I cant even start to try find how to get this back together , so I'll just wait for the bike shop to open haha!

If you pulled the battery wire out along with the battery then you can connect them directly to the junction box...just unplug one of the shifters and plug in the battery. You can then rule out that shifter if the battery continues to drain. Then plug that shifter back in and unplug the other one and plug the battery into that port. Di2 doesn’t care what is plugged in or where. Everything will work regardless of where it’s plugged in.

Also if you want to refit the battery then there is most likely a cover on the underside of the bottom bracket. Remove it and junction box B is most likely behind it. Drop the wire down the seat tube (you may need a straightened coat hanger to pull a string they first then tie the wire to end of string and pull it back through) refit the battery and start your search again. Di2 is such a straight forward (a little fiddly) set up to install yourself.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Any update on your problem?