Device Impressions & Help
Answered
Hey guys,
Just thought I'd consolidate my views on K2 and put them here - for two reasons
1. to see if there are any fixes for these issues
2. to get help in case there are workarounds or to be corrected if I was doing something wrong
use case: I don't have a trainer and I don't do workouts. I don't ride in bunches or race. My use case is fairly simple: go out for a solo ride everyday - between 1 to 2 hours - and all I want to do in that time is look at and record my speed, power, cadence, elevation, and a map (if I'm navigating to someplace new). I'm coming from a Garmin Edge 1030+ - didn't use the device to it's full potential, it was buggy on it's best days, and I felt like a beta tester with Garmin.
Issues I've found (and hopefully someone can help here...)
- brightness - it's either too bright (5AM before sunrise ride) or not bright enough - (12PM sun on top rides). Yes, the brightness for the morning ride is at 0% and for the afternoon ride at 100%.
- no auto-brightness - I hate that I have to adjust brightness just to the right level every time I go out. basic feature but taken out of k2. why? every other head unit in this class has this small yet necessary feature.
- speed/distance/elevation tracking - figures are inconsistent with strava, hammerhead's own dashboard, and other platforms. never had this problem with Garmin. And yes, Garmin auto-calculated my wheel circumference as well. The bike hasn't changed, the wheel hasn't changed, just the head unit has and the numbers are all different. I'm at least 1-2kms less on strava for whatever reason and elevation is all over the place. Strava time/distance calc is different too with the k2.
- mount...oh dear - the included Garmin adapter doesn't hold up. hit a physical button and the device just moves making it impossible to adjust things mid ride
- battery - unpredictable at best. I have recalibrated the battery and yet with all settings being same, some rides it drains at 10% per hour, and others, at 20% per hour.
- phone pairing - unreliable - latest iOS - sometimes it connects, sometimes it just doesn't. I have it off now because I couldn't be bothered anymore.
- power meter calibration - calibration has never ever worked the first time around. I typically have to hit the calibrate button at least 4 or 5 times before every ride
- laggy/slow interface - boot up takes over a minute. hitting start ride takes another 10 seconds before the ride metrics come on. ending a ride similar issue - the screen goes blank and it takes 5-10 seconds for the ride summary to come up. sometimes the in-app ride crashes. One time on boot up it kept trying to retrieve a ride and got stuck - I had to reset the device to fix that.
- dashboard - routes have to be manually synced to be fetched from strava. so, it's a two step process - create a route in strava and the come into dashboard and manually sync
seems like I'm beta testing this device too. I agree it's a great looking device with an excellent screen - but what's the point if it can't do the basics right? I'm not using bluetooth, sim, phone pairing, live tracking - none of the more advanced features.
all I want to do is go for a ride and come back with some reliable data and a relatively decent non buggy/laggy experience....any feedback/help would be appreciated here
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Timed it just now - from the time I press the power on button to the time it's ready to ride, it's 1 minute 49 seconds! That's a minute and 49 seconds for it to only boot up and show the ride screen.
Attaching an image of the screen even when brightness is at 100%. This is what I see when I ride with my K2. It's only when the sun is completely blocked can I actually see anything on this damn thing...afternoon rides are a big no no it seems
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@ GB: First of all, we thank you for your detailed feedback and for sharing your experience with us.
>Adaptive brightness is not available on Karoo 2 in the absence of an ambient light sensor. It proved to affect the battery performance by a significant margin. You have to manually adjust the brightness on Karoo 2.
> As you know, the Elevation is measured based on Barometric pressure on the Karoo 2 while Strava uses the GPS data. We already have a fix for this issue and the expected outcome of the fix is that you should see a closer value for Elevation when you compare it with Strava. It is already out to ATG for testing and we have received positive feedback so far.
With regards to the discrepancy with Speed and Distance, this is more prominent for indoor rides. Also, the reason for the discrepancy is that different platform uses different sources to calculate the elevation. The Fit file is uploaded in different third-party applications and they have their own algorithm and method to calculate the parameters out of the FIT file.> Our hardware team is aware of this issue and are working on redeveloping the adapter, here is a workaround for you to enable a better fit on the Garmin mount
Follow this link: Wobbly Quarter Turn Adapter> 20%/hr drain rate is not acceptable as per our standards and we would like to investigate the issue. Could you please share the FIT file at support@hammerhead.io for us to analyze the behavior of the battery drain?
> We are already working on improvements around phone connectivity and this will be fixed within the next couple of releases. As a workaround, please unpair Karoo 2 from your iPhone and pair it again.
> We have received a couple of similar reports from other users about the trouble encountered while calibrating the Powermeter. Simply unpairing and repairing the Powermeter has turned out to be helpful in this case and we are looking forward to a permanent fix.
> For the issue with lag and App crashes, performing the factory reset as you stated is a workaround and I assume you are no longer facing this issue.
> We are scoping out ways to sync the Routes automatically from the linked third-party platforms in such a way that the Routes can be easily managed on the Dashboard.
Again, thank you for your support and attention to detail which is really helpful for us to make improvements in the coming days.
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I think the lack of adaptive brightness is a MASSIVE miss on the Karoo 2. I appreciate that your implementation of adaptive brightness might have been draining the battery but hundreds of Android based phones manage it well and even Garmin manages to make adaptive brightness work!
Is adaptive brightness something which might come to the Karoo 2 in the future or is it a hardware limitation that Hammerhead has chosen?
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I say a massive miss because you're most likely to need to change the brightness when the world goes from being dark to bright (nighttime to daytime). It is colder at nighttime... you'll be wearing gloves... that makes it not as simple as just a few swipes on the screen... Big miss.
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@Hari Thanks for your response.
Update #3:
- I've reset the device 3 times now.
- @Judah - I agree. Adaptive brightness is a big miss in my opinion too. My ride started at 530AM this morning in complete darkness and ended at 8AM with the sun shining bright. Having to fiddle with a tiny slider with gloves on mid-ride is not acceptable. And taking a feature out because the team couldn't manage battery drain seems like a pretty bad excuse. All of your competitors have this feature and android phones (if that's what Hammerhead is more comparable to) have this feature as well. Not having a day / night mode adds to this issue.
- Battery drain this morning was 17% for a ride that lasted close to 2 hours and during wait time, I had the screen off. Only thing on were sensors - bluetooth, phone connectivity, etc. all turned off. This seems to have improved considerably after the reset.
- Power meter calibration is still a problem. It never calibrates the first time around.
- App crashes have stopped after the reset but the interface is still laggy / slow. Boot time has improved but hitting go to start a ride or stop to save a ride still presents a blank screen for about 10 seconds. If this is expected behaviour, let me know and I'll reset my expectations.
@JanZ - I'm ok to wait if the rest of the things worked. It's just that the wait, the laggy interface, and the rest of the issues (which really are the basics in my opinion) all add up. I would've traded the SIM card capability for accurate data capture and non-crash interface any day. More importantly adaptive brightness should've been given a priority.
Here's hoping the next software release actually fixes some of these issues. If not, I'll be calling it a day with this..
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I can agree with all (read as exactly every issue) that he is reporting and have the exact same issues with mine. The battery drain is unacceptable and screen brightness adjustment is a joke. The minute to turn on and 30 seconds for the screen to come "alive" when you select trainer mode. How is it that the 2 is so much worse when it comes to hardware than the original?
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Looks like adaptive brightness is off the table. Very very very disappointing.
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Update #4:
- 20% battery drain happened again. Started ride at 83%. Ended at 59%.
- sensors dropped out a fair bit during the ride - mostly the power sensor
- iOS pairing still not fixed
- sorry to hear adaptive brightness is a device limitation - I can’t think of a single reason why on an outdoor device it was left out
- the device has potential, but I can no long beta test this
- I’ll come back to the Karoo - version 4 or something -
Issues with uploads has been resolved at Strava's end.
https://support.hammerhead.io/hc/en-us/community/posts/1260801725030-Strava-Upload-error
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