MOORMANSD2

I have an older cateye that I love, and really do not want to replace. Rather suddenly it is not transmitting as powerfully as it used to. I determined this by placing the display a foot away from the sender, (the part on the fork that picks up the magnet on the spoke.) and it works great, but when I put it on the handlebar where it has been for a couple years and always worked, it does not detect the signal. And of course I put fresh batteries on both sender and receiver. Nothing has changed on the bike. And a suggestions would be greatly appreciated .

Iride01 

I'll be no help with making it work well again. But I will say that change is good. Maybe you need to change to new things. Maybe another will have some ideas for you to try.

Welcome to BF.

Tourist in MSN

Getting a bum new battery is quite rare, but maybe try a different new battery in the sender?

cuevélo

I think it's pretty common if you get batteries from Amazon or eBay. I'd get them from Walmart (fulfilled by Walmart) or a physical store.

Tourist in MSN

I should have mentioned this in my previous post, but forgot. I just had to change a 2032 battery in one of my devices (non-cycling device), and I learned over a decade ago that when I change batteries in that device, I need to wipe off the battery contacts. I do that with a bit of rubbing alcohol, there appears to be a bit of corrosion that forms on the contacts. Since I do that every time I change a coin type battery, I forgot to mention it as it is standard operating procedure for me.

VegasTriker

If you have a multi-meter, the best way to verify if the battery is good or bad is to measure the voltage on the batteries. The one in the sending unit should be at least 12V. If it is much below 12V you got a bad battery. I keep a supply of A27 and A23 batteries around for use in remote controls and always test the replacement battery before I install it to make sure the battery is up to snuff. The coin cell batteries like 2023 or 2016 should register slightly more than 1.3V when new. Even a cheap multi-meter like the ones that used to be given away by Harbor Freight Tools (currently sold for $4) is good enough to measure the voltage on batteries, I throw away alkaline batteries such as AA or AAA when the voltage reaches around 1.4V

jon c. 

Have you added any other lights or devices? I've seen situations where a new light can interfere with transmissions to the computer.

Atlas Shrugged

A few brands of coin cell batteries have a coating to prevent children from putting them in their mouths. These coatings can interfere with the contacts and cause problems. Try to sand the surfaces and give it a try.

Tourist in MSN

I never heard of a 2023 (which was last year), perhaps you meant 2025? Both CR 2025 and CR 2016 should have over 3 volts, same for CR 2032.

This sheet is specific to the 2016 from this brand:
https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/cr2016.pdf

Tourist in MSN

Thanks for posting.

Perhaps that is why I need to clean off the contacts with rubbing alcohol when changing batteries.

Bald Paul

I'll second that. I bought a 10 pack of 2032 batteries for my HRM, cadence and speed sensors, etc. from Amazon. 70% of them were DOA, and the other 30% didn't last long. Lots of counterfeits out there, too.

samar67

repositioning sensor might help

steelbikeguy

Probably not the problem, but let me just offer it "just in case"...

If you are using a headlight, it might generate electrical noise when it is running. Turning the light off will be sufficient to test this hypothesis.

Other than that???
You mention that nothing has changed (which shoots down the headlight idea), so the suggestions about the battery contacts certainly seem like the best option.

There is some chance that there is some gradual failure inside the Cateye transmitter and head units themselves.
I've got some very old Avocet computers that recently experienced strange failures. It seems to be in the silicon integrated circuit itself, as everything else checked good. For your Cateye, it might be worthwhile to check the big auction site and see if you can find a spare set.

Steve in Peoria