Fobo

[jaherbst]

BTW my BMW M/C has factory FOBO and it is always at least 5-7 pounds off. Only time it is correct and remains true is on a standard day. (59* and same altitude as when I filled the tires) After checking your FOBO Check with a gauge and you will see the difference. This is only for those nit-pickers. You know who your are. Always running around asking tire, oil and PSI questions! [/SIZE]:joke:[/QUOTE



The question is, which is misreading? Your gauge,or the Fobo reading???

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Well it is certainly not the gage as it does not change with temp and altitude as does the air inside the tire. As JCThorne pointed out the FOBO

themselves give different readings and are not accurate using different FOBOS on the same tire. They would be useful for an extremely low

pressure and give you a pressure warning. Thats how three of my cars work and my BMW motorcycle. On start up in the morning and almost every

morning you will get a different reading. Then again after driving or riding you will get yet another reading.

Jack

 

[finless]

My only small gripe with the FOBO system is the sensors are not all calibrated the same. They can be off by several psi.

I can set my two fronts at exactly 19psi each using a highly accurate gauge. I don't have a problem with the FOBO being a psi off, the trouble is the right reads 18.2 and the left reads 20 when I KNOW and verify they are the same. If I temporarily swap left and right sensors, the high reading follows the sensor. We own 7 sensors. 3 on my bike and 4 on Louise. I have tested them all against a common source and they range over 2psi between them. They really should all be calibrated equally. Or at least provide the calibration setting in the software.

Lesson here is do NOT use them to adjust tire pressures in the front to obtain even pressures. Simply will not work. They are only useful to let you know when pressures are changing, not the actual pressure.

Makes me wonder if there is now possibly some quality control issue. As you know I was one of the first to get this setup and my sensors are highly accurate and totally match! I can move them around and they all read the same pressure on the same tire within about .2 PSI.

Bob

 

[jcthorne]

Makes me wonder if there is now possibly some quality control issue. As you know I was one of the first to get this setup and my sensors are highly accurate and totally match! I can move them around and they all read the same pressure on the same tire within about .2 PSI.

Bob

Among the 7 I have, they are not even grouped tightly together with a couple outliers. They are spread over a 2.2psi range and no two are the same. Not even close. Its either a QC problem or they are just not bothering to calibrate them at the factory. If they would at least provide the ability to calibrate in the software, I could work around it. As it is, the numbers are meaningless, its just an indication of 'yea you got air' or 'nope you better fill them'

 

[robmorg]

Makes me wonder if there is now possibly some quality control issue. As you know I was one of the first to get this setup and my sensors are highly accurate and totally match! I can move them around and they all read the same pressure on the same tire within about .2 PSI.

Bob

That is my experience as well. My three sensors are all spot on with my digital tire gage. :thumbup: FWIW, I got mine right after you did, Bob. It was your initial review that made me want to get the system.

What I have noticed, though, is that the sun shining directly on a tire can make a difference as high as 5% (or about 1 full psi) while the Spyder is parked. I often start out with the FOBO reading .4-.8 psi difference on the front tires, with the tire that is shaded by the bike always the lower reading. But by the time the tires heat up from road friction, the FOBO tells me they are exactly equal.

 

[jcthorne]

Well I reached out to FOBO to see if they have any ideas on how to calibrate these sensors. I'll follow up if anything comes of it.

 

[Wazoo]

Wheel Balance

Anyone know if the FOBOs affect wheel balance. I'm installing new front tires and FOBOs and trying to decide if balance should be don't with the FOBOs on the wheel.

 

[jaherbst]

Also if you have an Apple Watch you can check your FOBO app on it and get alerts,no finding or getting out your phone:yes:

Now that I like! I am a big Apple Watch fan.

Jack

 

[robmorg]

Anyone know if the FOBOs affect wheel balance. I'm installing new front tires and FOBOs and trying to decide if balance should be don't with the FOBOs on the wheel.

They are very lightweight and won't have much effect on wheel balance. They weigh 10 grams each - or about one third of an ounce.

 

[greybeard]

tire valve extender

Just google tire valve extenders. 3 inch would be great for rear tire. My truck tires can change 4# when sitting in the sun in winter

 

[Hypurone]

Makes me wonder if there is now possibly some quality control issue. As you know I was one of the first to get this setup and my sensors are highly accurate and totally match! I can move them around and they all read the same pressure on the same tire within about .2 PSI.

Bob

Sounds like it. I have recently (about a month ago) purchased the FOBO setup from Lamont and they are all perfectly accurate and match my digital gauge right down to the xx.5 I set them to....

 

[jcthorne]

I did contact Fobo. I learned a few things. First, mine are outside the normal distribution of error. There should not be a 2.2 psi difference between two sensors. The other thing I learned is that they are calibrated to be within 0.6 psi. The net result is that the 0.1 psi resolution shown on the app display is meaningless. They either measure 19 or 20. 19.2 and 19.8 mean the same thing within the limits of calibration of the sensors. They should never have included a 0.1 psi display resolution on the app when the sensors are not that accurate.

For my experience I am pretty much back where I started. They are not accurate enough to fill the two front tires to the same pressure. They are only good enough to let you know at a glance if you are 'good to go' on your ride. IE has the tire leaked down. You still need an accurate gauge to fill the tires and they will indeed read different side to side in the tenths of a pound digit when they may very well be the same pressure.

And don't get me started on the false dead battery readings. If the batteries are cold, it will tell you they are dead, even if they are new. They do not even need to be that cold. I have one that shows a dead battery on a 50 deg morning and within an hour at speed and the tire temp at 80 deg, the battery shows full scale. Again, pretty much useless unless the sensors are at operating temp.

Its a nice system. About the best on the market for this application. But there are things that still need work. Perhaps Fobo 2.0 will be in the offering one day.