Germany_chris

So last fall I got caught in a torrential downpour that caused some localized flooding which caused the cache battery to discharge. I took the charge cap off and let everything dry for a couple days, put it all back together and it was good. No problems riding through the snow last winter so I didn’t think much more about it. Then a couple weeks ago I was on one of my afternoon rides and got caught out again in some heavy rain and it caused the same problem so I tried the same remedy, but this time it didn’t fix the problem. I contacted Tout Terrain and explained the situation and they had me send it in for testing.Hello Chris,

I’ve just checked you Plug5 plus and found that the Topcap (head) did not pass the test with our test software.

I replaced it and updated the Powermodule (battery), too. I removed most of the shrinking tube of the Powermodule as this is the current standard.

I also included 2 of the new raincaps for improved water protection.

The Plug5 plus will be shipped back to you today.



The two rain caps is because I have one on another bike. If you have one I’d probably head over to their site and pick one up so you don’t need to take advantage of their rather great customer service.

ve9vic

great service. Good to know.

Pratt

"New rain caps" interesting, I have a lot of trouble getting mine to go back in completely, and flush. I may be taking advantage of their great service myself someday.

rifraf

I made alternate purchases after reading more than a few issues with regards the various charging solutions of this ilk and their (decade ago now) often mentioned, water induced failure rate, despite my thinking that this “types” aesthetic admirable given its a visually elegant solution.
My E-werk is still going strong after all these years so haven’t had call to revisit said purchase decision.

Germany_chris

I have a USB Werk also but there's no good place to mount it.

rifraf

The mounting sure is a bit of an eyesore compared to your Cinq5 and I simply put up with the E-werk rubber banded to my bike frames head tube.
Wilst a visual irritant to me, I can’t complain about its functionality.
I favour it so much, I mirrored it for my trailer, utilising the same dynamo hub, spokes, rim and tire, as well as E-werk for my Extrawheel.
Mounting it on the trailer is even more problematic than on the bike, so I have simply used a hub to E-werk wire long enough to keep the charging system (for the trailer) inside one of the trailer mounted panniers.

Tourist in MSN

Thanks for posting your customer service experience with replacement parts.

Nothing against the USB Werk or Cinq5, but I bought a Sinewave Revolution about eight years ago. It is usually under a roof in rainy weather, but it has seen a few untimely downpours. It also saw about ten weeks of continuous outdoor use on a couple tours in rainy places. The revolution has outstanding waterproofing. It is the black box with a white label in the photo where it is attached to the handlebar bag bracket with a zip tie. In the photo, the USB port is on top, the red cable is plugged into it. Later I changed that, now put the USB port on the bottom so rain water does not collect in the port. It is less convenient on the bottom, I can't see the port when I am plugging a cable into it, but it only takes a few extra seconds to plug a cable into it.

Initially I strapped it to my top tube where I could plug things in with my left hand. Later changed that to my handlebar bag bracket which is much closer to anything I would want to plug into it, which usually is my pass through cache battery, or powerbank that is stored in the handlebar bag.



And looking close at the photo, there are a few drops of rain on everything.

rifraf

I was (and still am) impressed by the waterproofness of the Revolution, doubly so due to living coastal where salt air has the potential to quickly corrode not just bicycle parts but generally anything electronic, so I was quick to cast my eyes over it, early in the piece when it was announced.

The only reason it wasn’t an upgrade for me was that having toured with a friend who has the same bike (as I do), it quickly became obvious that my E-works charging kicked in a few km/ph quicker which much better (for me) suited my very slow style of meandering whilst on tour.

From memory there was less than 3 mph in it, but I only tour heavily laden and usually with a trailer so I stuck with what I has despite being envious of the gold plated USB fitting and superior internal component sealing of the Revolution.

I’ve had to replace a couple of the cables over the years, due to the aforementioned corrosion issues, but luckily this hasn’t been a problem due to online shopping and overseas stores like sjscycles.https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/search/?term=Ewerk

Which reminds me, I need to choose a new cache battery for my bike as the E-werk one is once again kaput and there are cheaper, larger and more technically advanced batteries now available than there was when I made my purchase decision.

I’ve replaced it with the original E-werk twice before but there are now many much more superior options available so it’s mainly about finding a no less elegant solution as the genuine article, whilst no longer as readily available, came with its own sturdy frame bag. https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/dynamos/busch-muller-cache-battery-for-ewerk

Tourist in MSN

I bought the Revolution for the waterproofing. My first USB charger was an AXA Luxx 70 Plus headlight that also had a USB charger built in. But the waterproofing on that was mostly non-existant. I wanted something better for my tour in Iceland where it rains fairly often.

Some powerbanks work as a pass through cache battery, so do not. On this forum several years ago someone commented that most of the ones designed to work with solar power systems will operate in pass through mode (can be charged and charge a device simultaneously), and he specifically named Voltaic as a brand. I bought their V44 (that model is discontinued) and am quite happy with it. At 44 watt hours of capacity, it has several days of capacity. They make larger and smaller ones. But I am not sure if they are sold where you are. It is big enough that it goes in my handlebar bag.

rifraf

Thanks for the battery tip.
I’ll be sure to explore the Voltaic offerings now I’m aware of them.

On another note I spotted that the makers of your Revolution, have come up with an updated version called the Reactor https://www.joe-bike.com/product/sin...arger-1423.htm
which at first glance appears to address slow speed charging

Tourist in MSN

Reactor has been around for a few years.

I stopped reading the articles by this guy a few years back since I was happy with my hardware, not shopping for anything better. But you might want to check his stuff out. This is his latest article. He works for Schmidt (Son hubs). Original in German, this link should give you an english version.
https://fahrradzukunft-de.translate....en&_x_tr_hl=en

rifraf

Thank you for the link.
I found it very interesting and informative.
Like yourself, having been more than satisfied with my hardware, over a decade now, I’d not kept up with the plethora of articles about the newcomers.
What I take from the article is that for my style of riding and touring, there doesn’t appear any significant advantages to warrant putting my hand in my pocket seeking an large upgrade currently.

Tourist in MSN

I do spend a small amount of time keeping an eye out for new and better stuff. The Cycle2Charge looked good to me, but not as long as my Sinewave continues to work. If the Sinewave dies, at this time the Cycle2Charge is probably what I would buy to replace it. I checked their price about a year or two ago, at that time the price was competative.

On batteries, I prefer a powerbank that I can use with any power source as my pass through cache battery, not one that is only useable with the charger. And the non-cycle variety appear to have a better price per watt-hour of capacity.

My last tour, I discovered the hard way that I had a high resistance wire in my wire collection, and I was not getting as much charge into my powerbank as I should have gotten. I was able to plug my powerbank into an outlet in a campground laundry room to charge it up again. Discarded the bad cable and finished my tour with a nearly fully charged powerbank. If my battery was only charged by the dynohub without being able to charge it from an outlet, that would have been a bit more frustrating.

On that tour, I learned a number of other things, for example if I was using my phone to get a weather forecast in the morning when it was about 40 degrees F (~~ 5 degrees C), my battery would deplete rapidly, but if I warmed up my phone and battery in my sleeping bag first, I consumed a lot less battery power. I did not buy a local sim card for that country, so my phone was only useable on wifi for internet connection, that helped force some of my frugality with my power supply.

Wiggle

Hoping to piggyback on this thread:

Are the Cinq5 Pure and Cinq5 Plus the same unit aside from the battery bank? I plant to provide my own buffer battery and looking to see if I can save some money by going with the Pure.