Tacx Fortius tripping RCD post power cut

[rutteger]

Morning all, wonder if anyone has experienced similar and was able to resolve.

Whilst training with the old motorbrake fortius last night there was a power cut locally.

Once the power came back on it was clear the RCD had been tripped in the shed in which the turbo is located and the fuse had blown in the motorbrake power lead (not unit). Replaced fuse, reset RCD, switched back on, RCD tripped again

Opened the unit, nothing obviously fried. Any suggestions based on similar experience?

[mcorn]

Morning all, wonder if anyone has experienced similar and was able to resolve.

Whilst training with the old motorbrake fortius last night there was a power cut locally.

Once the power came back on it was clear the RCD had been tripped in the shed in which the turbo is located and the fuse had blown in the motorbrake power lead (not unit). Replaced fuse, reset RCD, switched back on, RCD tripped again

Opened the unit, nothing obviously fried. Any suggestions based on similar experience?

I had a lot of experience with failing Fortius power supplies many years ago. Often, when they go bad, they end up with a dead short and are no good. They are not repairable as they are an unbelievably complicated device. I am guessing that your power failure caused damage to the electronics. One of the very quirky design aspects of the Fortius power supply is it sends the power generated by your pedaling back into the grid. The grid failure probably made a big mess of things.

Occasionally the wiring in the plug from the power supply that screws onto the brake has a wire come loose inside the plug due to excessive strain. It is easy to partially disassemble the plug and inspect to see if there is a problem. Honestly, I would be surprised if this is the problem, but it is worth checking.

If the damage was caused by loss of power, you might have a claim against your utility provider.

[rutteger]

Thanks for the response.

Picked up a second tacx locally on eBay. Power bank swapped in and works fine. Sounds like the power bank is indeed fried, do recall reading about the forties feeding power back into the grid, guess the scenario of losing power mid ride makes some sense in the context of the failure. No clue how to mitigate this in future, in the uk so hopefully I’ll not be unlucky enough to get a power cut mid ride again.

[mcorn]

Thanks for the response.

Picked up a second tacx locally on eBay. Power bank swapped in and works fine. Sounds like the power bank is indeed fried, do recall reading about the forties feeding power back into the grid, guess the scenario of losing power mid ride makes some sense in the context of the failure. No clue how to mitigate this in future, in the uk so hopefully I’ll not be unlucky enough to get a power cut mid ride again.

I think you found the best solution. I think it is pretty hard to guard against a power loss while riding. It is a random event and the chances are probably quite low. One thing it teaches, though, is not to accidentally pull the plug out of the wall while riding. It would probably be the same result. In terms of repair of the power supply, I was looking through my files and had a picture I took of the front side of the 220 volt circuit board. What a mess. The 220 volt was actually a lot more reliable than the 110 volt for a variety of technical reasons.

220 Volt Front - Web.JPG (43.38 KiB) Viewed 7326 times