My L crank Stages power meter had a low battery level reading on the TR app, but the Stages App suggests power is good?
ANy ideas what’s going on?
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I’ve noticed that a number of BLE peripherals report a “default” battery level of 100% when they first connect to your iPhone/tablet/etc.
Then after a few minutes of operation, they report a different number.
Depending on the software, the battery level may be read only once when the peripheral is first connected (which may then report 100%). Or, the software may check the battery level periodically while the peripheral is connected - which will give a more representative reading of true battery level.
In your situation above, I’d go with the TR 15%.
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I’ve had the same issue for quite some time. The TR battery level seems to always be low, even soon after I changed the battery. Now I just ignore the TR battery level.
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It’s a pretty new battery and hasn’t been used a lot over winter, but I know Stages PMs can ‘eat’ batteries sometimes. I’ll do an experiment with a new battery!
I generally don’t “trust” any displays of battery health on an app vs. the device itself, be it via BLE or ANT+. There are just too many factors at play like distance, interference and how the sending unit calculates it’s battery, etc… Since I use all my devices (speed, cadence, HR) at the same time, I generally replace all batteries at once (all CR2032). I just replaced them all last month with brand new “name brand” and TR just tells me they’re all at 50%…always, all the time. If the batteries make it a year, I replace them. If it’s less than a year and I start to experience lots of unexplained dropouts, reading errors, etc…I’ll replace them all at that time.
Also using Stages L-only (version 2).
I think it was mentioned somewhere in one of the podcasts (sorry not sure which one) that the battery level in TR app is a proxy of how strong the signal is. I’ve seen mine go from 70+% to 30+% another and then back up to 60% the next. I tend to ignore it now unless its critically low.
Sorry I don’t have a solution or anything, just thought to share my experience.
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I’d be surprised if this is how they did it, as battery level would then vary with distance. This method is sometimes used by apps to estimate distance from a device.
Many BLE devices actually broadcast battery level data that the device estimates using its onboard electronics. I’d be surprised if any app doesn’t just take this broadcast data and report it.
When battery level looks off, it’s likely to be less the app, and more the device itself. And like you point out, this can be a little all over the place. I usually ignore it until the reported battery level is consistently in the 20s or below.
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Thanks for all the replies
I’ve put a new battery in and both stages and TR apps are reading 100% now…
Doesn’t matter that much, tend to put in a new battery every so often anyway, but it would be nice to understand what’s going on, given that the apps can measure watts/Calibrate without any difference.
I ignore the TR battery level now. I had the same issue with a new battery showing less than 100% at the start. I seem to remember that Stages knew this was an issue and were going to fix it one of these days - not sure. I usually wait to change the battery when the Stages app starts showing anything less than a full green color, e.g. half green.
Many users have the same issue and there are a number of threads about it.
I think it has to do with bluetooth being able to connect to only one device. I always initialize and zero with Stages app and ignore what TR app says…cuz it always says 18% no matter what.
Ain’t technology great!