Powertap Compatibility Questions

Triathlon Forum
1

I’ve been given an older (2003?) Powertap. It has an all-metal body with a yellow plastic end cap, a non-shark fin wiring harness, a black head unit, and a USB downloading dock. It all works fine on the bike, and provides me with sweet, sweet wattage numbers, but I have questions:

  • I can’t download data to PowerAgent on my Mac. I read somewhere that the old black head unit isn’t compatible with the USB download dock. Can anyone confirm that? Does anyone have a recipe for making this work?

  • Will the old hub and head unit work correctly with a shark-fin harness, if I get one and put it on my other bike?

  • Should I just drop the $$ for a new wireless model, because I’ll be insanely happier, if rather poorer?

2

  • Mac, no idea

  • Sharkfin - yes

  • spend money on wireless? Do you hate your money?

3

Call cycleops and ask them what or if you can upgrade that hub for a new one, they do not support that hub anymore.

4

Um, what support does one need? If it works, great…if not - then spend money if it is worth it to the OP. Why fix something that isnt broke? I have the old black style, the Pro and the 2.4…cant say I prefer one over the other if not for the fact that one bike has no wires on it.

5

I had on older one and the bearings went out of it, I called them to get it fixed. They offered an upgrade from my old one to new wired one for $350, hub and wheel.
I sent them the old one and they sent a new one. Why pay retail for an upgrade.

6

I have a serial docking station if you need one. PM me if you are interested.

I thought there were Mac issues with the early yellow hub units. That was a long time ago though and my memory could be incorrect.

Upgrading the wheel for $350 is a lot in my world. I can buy a good condition used PT, head unit, docking station, hub, and harness for less than that.

7

  • Should I just drop the $$ for a new wireless model, because I’ll be insanely happier, if rather poorer?

    You should not. I achieved a very nice routing of the “wired” PT on my P2C with some helicopter/leading edge clear tape, some diligent work and time. Real easy to get a nice, clean look to a wired setup. The Wireless is nice but, not worth the extra cash - and I speak from experience. And sometimes that Wireless setup will drop - not a lot - but it will from time to time.

8

As I recall there is/was a driver issue for Mac. Check the Saris website under support and there is info on what drivers you have to have.

9

Even with my PTpro (yellow) head unit I had to download the latest firmware from Saris before it worked right on my mac. I would try that first and see if it works.

http://www.saris.com/t-firmware.aspx

10

An update:

Thanks to everyone for all your advice and hints. I’m busy asking Saris some dumb questions, and I hope to figure all this out in the next couple of days. Once I have a working recipe, I’ll share it.

I’m actually very pleased with how the unit works on the bike. I seem to get believable numbers, and I’ve finally mastered how to log intervals…

11

Further update:

Saris customer support (thanks Jerrod!) were very helpful. You can’t download data from a black powertap head unit using a usb connection. I don’t have a computer with a serial port. A new wired head unit is 200 bucks, so I’m going to get myself one. Then I’ll be all set.

Thanks everyone for all your hints and comments,
Bigshoes.