There is some interesting powermeter firmware news from Favero.
EDIT: There will be more detailed news on this subject on 24 April. I guess you are here because of Favero’s teaser email!
It looks like their OVAL/ELIPTICAL firmware mods, which are now in beta, will go live in April 2018 (Source: AC @favero).This will be a free firmware update for the ASSIOMA made by your ASSIOMA app.
Specifically, Favero are saying that the new firmware gives
- A slight increase in precision across all use types
- More notable improvements in precision where the are irregular angular velocities/pedalling cadences which includes OVAL chainrings or non-uniform pedalling styles (piston-like, Favero call it)
This adds an interesting dimension to the pedal powermeter battle as previously only the PowerTap P1s supported oval chainrings. Vector and ASSIOMA ‘work’ with oval chainrings…they would just currently give distorted (wrong) readings.
As well as price, this would give the ASSIOMA another slight edge over the Garmin Vectors.
I’ve had the beta firmware since early December. On the occasions where I used an eliptical chainring (large front oval with small circular) There seemed to be a closer match to a Wahoo KICKR in a controlled indoor environment ie less of a divergence when swithcing from circular to oval chainring. There was still a divergence, so hopefully my old beta firmware (from November) will have been improved further by April.
I also played with elipticality here (link to: the5krunner.com )… aka ‘wasted some time’ or ‘had a bit of fun’, depending on how you see it.
