LTWOO ER9 & ERX - Electronic groepsets

[mrpercussive]

Woohoo! 80 Design Store replied back and they are sending me a replacement ER9 rear derailleur! It's definitely worth paying a little extra to get customer support from them on products. They've definitely earned my future business.

Hell yeah... I definitely check their store when Im looking for stuff nowadays before going anywhere else!

[Sebastian]

So, after roughly 40.000 shifts of flawless performance, my groupset is finally showing issues: I'm experiencing battery drain. I came home from a vacation trip and the bike was stored on the wall for a week. The RD was dead because the battery was fully drained. I recharged it to 100%, went out on a 90min ride and it was down to 82%. After leaving the bike for another day it's now at 59%.

Has anybody with these kinds of issues found a cause and/or solution? The batteries have given me zero trouble so far. I doubt that that's what's causing the problem. I'm gonna clean the plugs and connectors and weatherproof them and see if that does anything.

[jonathanf2]

So, after roughly 40.000 shifts of flawless performance, my groupset is finally showing issues: I'm experiencing battery drain. I came home from a vacation trip and the bike was stored on the wall for a week. The RD was dead because the battery was fully drained. I recharged it to 100%, went out on a 90min ride and it was down to 82%. After leaving the bike for another day it's now at 59%.

Has anybody with these kinds of issues found a cause and/or solution? The batteries have given me zero trouble so far. I doubt that that's what's causing the problem. I'm gonna clean the plugs and connectors and weatherproof them and see if that does anything.

That's what happened to me. I rode my gravel bike for 2 weeks straight, decided to ride my SPCycle ER9 road bike and it just died. After reseting the RD like 30-40 times in a row while plugged into the charger, it finally woke up. My FD was still working the whole time, it was just the RD that was dead.  Though I had already messaged 80 Design Store and they sent me a replacement RD since I'm not sure what's going on with my current one. Strangely enough LTwoo issued a firmware update on the app for that RD once it woke up!

Get this, between my two ER9 groupsets both RDs and both FDs all have different firmware versions. I can only presume each one has slightly different internal hardware, because you'd think they'd all have the same FW updates applied.

Though my TFSA ER9 road bike has zero issues with battery drain even if I let it sit for awhile. This one has taken the most abuse as well and no issues using the same exact batteries. I can only surmise the issue stems from the RD or battery holder causing drain issues if they pop up.

[Sebastian]

Well, I cleaned all connections and sealed the plug on the RD with silicone grease again.
The battery level went up again to 60% when checking on the app. Whatever that means.

I have a theory that dirty connections on the RD can cause drain issues. I noticed for example that if the magnetic connector on the RD that the charger plug goes onto is dirty, then the charger can actually drain the battery instead of charging it. I dunno if dirt can cause some sort of shorting issues? Anyway, when that happened, I just needed to wipe everything clean and it went back to normal.

Well see what happens, I guess. I'm kinda glad that I bought my groupset at 80 Designer Store as well. So hopefully they'll step in if my RD decides to die.

[mrpercussive]

So, after roughly 40.000 shifts of flawless performance, my groupset is finally showing issues: I'm experiencing battery drain. I came home from a vacation trip and the bike was stored on the wall for a week. The RD was dead because the battery was fully drained. I recharged it to 100%, went out on a 90min ride and it was down to 82%. After leaving the bike for another day it's now at 59%.

Has anybody with these kinds of issues found a cause and/or solution? The batteries have given me zero trouble so far. I doubt that that's what's causing the problem. I'm gonna clean the plugs and connectors and weatherproof them and see if that does anything.

I had the same thing happen to me after being caught in the rain. 80 Designer store sent me a new rear derailleur. While waiting for the new one to get in, the old one did start to hold charge a little better over time but I went and swapped out the derailleurs anyways and everything was running good. No idea how the old one is doing now as its been sitting in a box since all this went down

[Sebastian]

Cleaning everything didn’t do much apparently. The groupset works but the battery went from 60% to 44% over night. So still considerable battery drain.

[Queen of Skulls]

So, after roughly 40.000 shifts of flawless performance, my groupset is finally showing issues: I'm experiencing battery drain. I came home from a vacation trip and the bike was stored on the wall for a week. The RD was dead because the battery was fully drained. I recharged it to 100%, went out on a 90min ride and it was down to 82%. After leaving the bike for another day it's now at 59%.

Has anybody with these kinds of issues found a cause and/or solution? The batteries have given me zero trouble so far. I doubt that that's what's causing the problem. I'm gonna clean the plugs and connectors and weatherproof them and see if that does anything.

 have you tried replacing the batteries...  they can get weak and break down from constant drain... Kinda like phone batteries dont last as long as they used too after a year or more.

[Sebastian]

have you tried replacing the batteries...  they can get weak and break down from constant drain... Kinda like phone batteries dont last as long as they used too after a year or more.

I’ve been using the groupset for something like 8 months and around 5.000 km. I must have charged it less than 20 times throughout that period. So I can’t imagine that the batteries already show that kind of behaviour after just so few charging cycles. Also, the drainage kind of started from one day to the next. It used to hold the charge for a long time. And there was no drainage when the bike was stored and the groupset asleep. So I think there’s another issue going on.

[Sebastian]

I contacted 80 Designer Store. They too suggested that the batteries might be the problem. So I agreed to swap them out and see what happens. I bought a set of 14500 cells with high capacity and discharge voltage, as recommended by rockerplates. Let’s see what happens.

[jonathanf2]

Double check your app if there's a new FW for your RD. The ER9 RD version that was being problematic for me, recently updated to version 1.4. My other ER9 which isn't having issues is on version 1.1. I'm testing to see if the ER9 RD with FW ver 1.4 will have less problems, before I install the replacement RD that's shipping to me.

I'm wondering if LTwoo is issuing separate firmware versions on units with different internal hardware?

My ER9 groupset FW:
SPCyle ER9 - RD ver. 1.4 / FD ver. 0.0
TFSA ER9 - RD ver 1.1 / FD ver. 1.12

[Sebastian]

I check for updates every time I connect the groupset with the app. I received two updates in short succession after I set the groupset up. Nothing since then.
My RD is on FW version 0.1.1, my FD on version 1.12

I replaced the batteries. But my hopes are very slim. The strange behaviour continues. Contrary to earlier, the app reports 100% charge after just about one hour. The green light stops flashing and is on continuously. It did that with the old batteries too. When it was still working normal, charging usually took at least a few hours before it was full. And now, after just a few minutes the charge dropped to 96%. I’ll leave it over night and see what happens. But something seems off with the circuit. Charging doesn’t work properly and it drains the battery even when the groupset is asleep, apparently. It started doing that from one day to the next. I didn’t do a particularly wet ride before that.
Luckily, the new batteries have a built in protection circuit that prevents shortages, zero discharge or overcharging.
I’ll see what happens but I think the RD is fishy.

[Sebastian]

Sure. But regardless of how much the batteries are charged, it shouldn’t drain them when the bike is sitting idle. Historically it never has. The battery level remained largely unchanged even when the bike was left for a week. Now it’s fully drained when I do that.

[jonathanf2]

My ER9 RD replacement RD arrived this morning. Big props to 80 Design Store. They definitely get an A+ for customer service. They definitely should earn our support.

Though I've been riding my revived ER9 RD (happened after like 30+ button resets) and after the surprise FW update to 0.1.14, it's been working quite well! This FW seems to only apply to certain ER9/X RDs though, so not sure how LTwoo ascertains the FW process? If LTwoo's hardware wasn't so quirky, the shift performance and app are actually well done. It seems like Wheeltop is stealing a lot of their thunder.

[klindsey00]

So what is the consensus on the ER9/ERX? I'm looking into buying it (ER9) since it is a great price at the moment. Seems like it works well when it works but has some downfalls. I don't mind tinkering with it to some extent and don't really want to mess with full internal routing with a mechanical group.

• Waterproofing issues- Grease the plugs seems to be a consistent solution
• need to buy decent batteries- What are the current demands on this to justify a specific battery over another

if you do these things it seems like it is a reliable group. Especially if you get it from a reliable seller like the 80 designer store and can actually get warranty support.
I can't justify spending almost 120% on the wheeltop eds group so this would be the limit in my budget, the next choice would be mechanical 11/12speed from ltwoo... What would be your guy's opinion?

[jonathanf2]

So what is the consensus on the ER9/ERX? I'm looking into buying it (ER9) since it is a great price at the moment. Seems like it works well when it works but has some downfalls. I don't mind tinkering with it to some extent and don't really want to mess with full internal routing with a mechanical group.

• Waterproofing issues- Grease the plugs seems to be a consistent solution
• need to buy decent batteries- What are the current demands on this to justify a specific battery over another

if you do these things it seems like it is a reliable group. Especially if you get it from a reliable seller like the 80 designer store and can actually get warranty support.
I can't justify spending almost 120% on the wheeltop eds group so this would be the limit in my budget, the next choice would be mechanical 11/12speed from ltwoo... What would be your guy's opinion?

Buy from 80 Design Store, protect your plugs and spend extra $ on quality batteries. That sounds about right. Also once you get your fine tune adjustments done, I think it's a good idea to write them down somewhere just in case you need to reset the groupset.

I probably would have stayed mechanical if it wasn't for the LTwoo price point. It does work well when working and just be ready to figure stuff out on your own. Now that the 80 Design store has stepped up on warranty service, it's definitely helped and replacement parts are also available for purchase.