Tried again with backlight off.
18.0 hours, down to 19% battery life left
Ritchie,
Interesting result at 4.5%/h, Looks like your 18h would amost extrapolate to Wahoo’s advertised 25h. What was your experience of readability and weather / sun during the ride?
The 5 second ON mode should have similar result and allow brief illumination when needed.
LOL the hour I did at night with no backlight was not good for readability. Otherwise it was actually pretty decent. The Roam screen is physically way better than the Ace screen, but not as clear as the Gen2 screens.
I also was using plenty of sensors and LT the entire time
Ritchie, I think we have proven, with current soft/firmware, that Wahoo’s claim of 25h for Roam 3 is (almost) achievable with no backlight. Also, that backlight level is the primary consumer of battery capacity. Other factors such as number of sensors and consequential comms activity will affect consumption but to a lesser extent. Whilst Wahoo released a UI software version to improve consumption, there is no information on change made and I personally didn’t notice any difference under the same use conditions. Also, I should comment that our tests are on Roam 3 and Bolt 3 users have reported short runtime so other factors such as smaller battery, supply batch etc could cause a different experience.
Interesting comment about Ace since I had considered upgrading from Roam 3.
I think Wahoo support are remiss in not publishing a guidance note on use of backlight settings and implication on battery consumption. Also, in respect of improving screen readability in sunlight - I found much improved after changing incident angle to my eyes. I found flat (horizontal) with 30 to 60 degrees view much better than when I’d angled for perpendicular (0 degree).
When I get a bit of time, I plan to produce a PDF Guidance Note to summarise findings and post here as a concluding contribution to this thread.
Yeah backlight is the big draw.
Some more thoughts on this:
All the Gen 3 devices share the same UX but the Max is really intended for Ace due to the crummy screen, but is less of an issue since Ace has a lot of battery life. That really shouldn’t be a choice most people make on a Roam or Bolt.
Auto backlight works pretty well IMO, and gets most of the gains of no backlight. Honestly the only reason I use always On is over the winter commuting when I’m in the dark 75% of the time and just want it on. I have consistently forgotten to switch it back to Auto in the spring. That should be people’s choice unless they’re going for maximum battery life on a long ride or always in full dark.
I also found easy to accidently touch the right-side brightness vertical bar (with light bulb icons) - Display/Sounds menu page.
In ‘Backlight ON’ mode, three different intensity levels.
In Backlight Auto and Auto Max modes, if you catch the mid touchbox of the bar there is immediate selection of Backlight ON – mid intensity. In good sun / daylight this will consume more power than Auto with backlight off / dimmed whenever sufficient light encountered.
I accidently did this some time back, took a while to realise as I don’t visit that menu often!
So, just a possible that some of the excessive battery drain reports from other users could be down to finger trouble?
Glad I didn’t go for the Ace now that you mention the screen.
I agree with you, after switching back to Auto, only changed to Auto Max after a grim overcast UK day last winter.