Etap rear derailleur "sleeping"
 

Hello , I installed etap wifli last month.

I've been having a weird issue. the Rear derailleur seems to "sleep" mid ride, and the only way to get it working again is to shift the front derailleur once (press both shifters).

I also noticed yesterday that it stopped working in the middle of the cassette. (it did it twice)
Also when it stopped I got off the bike and tried the little button on the derailleur , it wasn't working.

Later at home I checked the lights and it was flashing Green so I assume is not a battery issue

Any one had similar issues and solved it ?


PS.I beg you , if you can add to my issue I welcome all comments, but don't make this thread into an argument (Mechanical Vs electronic). Before posting I tried google, and every single thread I found had half of the discussion arguing if mechanical is better. I DO NOT CARE .

Assuming you purchased the derailleur from an authorized source, just go right to warranty replacement. If you screw around with this, you will just drive yourself nuts.

fixed

And well done.

Ha! This forum is filled with people who care more about what you ride than you do. Your opinion is irrelevant.

Definitely sounds like a bad unit. Time for a warranty replacement.

Out of curiosity, if you take the FD battery and put it in the RD does the issue persist?

I had a similar issue (only it was the FD) and swapping the batteries resolved the issue. Interestingly enough, if I switched the batteries back it would crop up. It was intermittent though, like 1 out of every 50 shifts.

Ultimately I convinced SRAM to swap the battery and they did so via an authorized retailer (where I also bought the group from) with zero hesitation and it went away.

Did you ever fix this issue or did you go the warranty route? I just installed my etap wifli and it's doing the same thing where the rear derailleur stops working and only comes back after shifting the front derailleur. It goes to sleep in about 25 seconds, so it's really quick and really annoying.

I tried switching the battery and also repairing.

Did you try CTRL-ALT-DEL?
 

Seriously, it sounds like a software bug or perhaps an option of 25seconds? Hard to imagine this could happen though, we are talking about some very nice and expensive components. I've only heard glowing terms about eTap.

You may not have noticed, the OP was a one post and done. If they receive email notifications there is a chance they will reply if quoted.

Hello people , I did receive the notification in the email and here I am ;)

bad news ...
I actually exchanged it twice , right now it is the third groupset I get on the bike.
the problem persist.
Its either
A. SRAM has defective software
B. something on my bike is causing the derailleur to go into "safemode"
C. all of the groupsets came from amazon.co.uk so maybe the entire batch is defective.


To describe the problem again ...
at the same gear (somewhere in the middle of the cassette) the derailleur would not shift into easier gear,
the only way to eradicate the problem is to shift into harder gear and try again , or change gear in the front .

note that on my garmin if I have the field that shows the gears , it shows that the change did happen even if the derailleur didn't move
but I'm guessing this is irrelevant since it communicates with ANT+ with the head unit , and with something else with the derailleur

switching batteries didn't work
at a race one time out of frustration I unclipped and hit the derailleur with my shoe and it worked but I'm guessing my shoe just hit the button on the side.
Thank god is not happening often enough to regret buying the group set, I'm just hoping a firmware update sometime soon will resolve it completely


also SRAM , if you are reading this **** you


edit:
I have the wifly derailleur as well

I have the same set up and ride in two states. In NJ I rarely use the FD and no problems. In Pa. lots of shifting again no problems. If the unit is communicating a shift, doesn't that mean the electronics, software, transmission "thinks" it shifted so the command was received by the RD? I would guess some mechanical problem??? Can you duplicate the problem with the back wheel off as shifting up requires overcoming more resistance. In any event keep us posted and agree, although I do love the system, at this price point nothing but "perfect" it acceptable.

cables! thats where its at. the pinaccle of shifting.

It doesn't happen often enough to be able to duplicate it at will . But it happened with my race wheels and my training wheels which have a different cassette on them.

Also let me elaborate on the communication bit . Let say I have the gear field on the garmin and it's showing 5/11 , and I shift down but the RD malfunctions and nothing happens , the garmin is now showing 4/11 and the RD didn't move .
If I keep clicking to shift down , at some point the garmin will be showing 1/11 but the derailleur will still be at the middle (5/11) of the cassette. To fix the problem I have to either go back and "pick up" where it left, shift back to 5/11 and try again, or shift the front
derailleur .

ps. despite all these I'm still drooling and waiting for the XX1 etap system :P

I thought the gear reporting to a Garmin was only available on DI2? Never used this with my 1030.Could that be interfering??? I'll need to set this up on mine and see.

Please excuse the brainstorming . . . but could it be that the B-adjustment screw is set with the pulley just a little too close to the cluster? Maybe the contours of the bigger cassette when using the WiFli rd have a spot where the cassette is closer to the pulley than it is at the extremes of the cluster -- but just BARELY too close, so that it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. The condition described seems to be what would (logically) happen if the rd encountered some resistance when trying to make the shift.

Shifting the fd would change the length of the chain / distance of the pulley from the cassette, thereby freeing the rd. And shifting just the rd would register a shift electronically, but the rd would physically back away from the obstruction. Are all your chainrings, cassette, and chain length within recommended specs?

I don't know if this makes sense -- just trying to help. It's a theory.

Don't brainstorm or try to come up with any other ideas. It's a known issue with some of the RD's. It needs to go back to sram to be replaced. Or waste your time and ruin rides, end up with more aggravation than you ever needed trying to figure it out.

Thank you for this post.

Interesting. So I take it it is not just a WiFli problem?

scott s.
.

Thanks. I'm perfectly aware of what WiFli is, running WiFli Force setup myself. My question (not a joke) was based on all the complaints about "sleeping" I've seen said they had installed the WiFLi RD, leading me to wonder if maybe there was a firmware difference since WiFLi version was released about a year after the original short cage version.

scott s.
.