Dura Ace Di2; Green Light System Freeze...?

[TheDarkInstall]

Hey,

Has anyone else had this issue I am currently losing sleep over...?

Here it is;

1. At fairly regular intervals, say once every 30-50 mins, the whole system will freeze. Pressing the up/down buttons on the front and rear shifters does nothing.
2. The green battery light on the stem junction box stays on, during this freezing.
3. After between 2-10 seconds, the green light turns off, and the system starts working again.
4. Sometimes the freezing only affects the front mech, and sometimes only the rear mech, rather than both at the same time.

Things checked / eliminated...

1. Battery fully charged and displaying a solid green light on the stem junction while holding shifter button down.
2. Whole system error checked down the local shop. No errors reported, according to the Shimano software.
3. Replaced the stem junction and internal junction. Issue still occurs. No water damage or rust present when swapping these parts out.
4. System firmware updated to latest version, and returning no errors when plugged into my rig at home.

So, has anyone else had this issue, and if so, how did you fix it?

It is well annoying, and cost me a KOM the other day as I was charging up a climb. Couldn't shift down into the small ring to Froome my way up the last 12% bit and was actually full on livid for well over an hour after. Haha.

[glepore]

No idea, but is there any way you could swap in another fd to determine whether it was an issue there? Sounds like something, who knows what, is launching the battery check mode.

[kode54]

have you had a recent crash? isn't this behavior based on crash. need to reboot?

i've had this happen early on. i found that one of the e tube wires were loose. on the work stand and riding it outdoors on smooth roads, the Di2 worked fine. but once i hit a few bumps here and there...and turned the front wheel a certain way, the system shut down. i rechecked all the wires and did find one that wasn't 'clicked' in. worked flawlessly after that. not saying that's what it is...but just my experience.

[mrlobber]

Before turning to voodoo, there are 3 other things I would do:
First step, find another buddy with Di2 and then:
1) borrow his RD
2) borrow his FD
3) borrow his battery
.. and see if that problem persists.

[ms6073]

Since the issue can randomly effect both the front and rear deraileurs, I am thinking there is an issue wth the battery.

[TheDarkInstall]

Thanks for the replies.

I don't think this is crash recovery mode, as that makes a red light appear on the junction box. This is the green battery light locked on solid for a period of time.

Cables; I replaced both junction boxes and checked the cables where they connect to these two parts, so there is no issue there. I will check the cables at the battery and shifter connection points for sure, and see if anything is out of line there.

Will see about borrowing some Di2 parts too, to isolate the issue.

Cheers.

[TheDarkInstall]

Right, I haven't changed the mechs yet, but a further observation in case anyone else has the same issue...

-When holding a shifter button down to check the battery life, and when the green light appears as a result, this does not affect shifting. I can shift straight away after checking the battery life, even while the green light is still on.

-When the system locks up, the green light stays on and the shifting does not work. It only starts to work again when the green light goes off.

-The lock up occurs when a shifter button is pressed. The green light goes on at the same time the system locks up, even if the shifter button is only tapped; under normal operation the green light comes on, displaying the battery life when the shifter button is held down. This is not the case when the lock up occurs, and it all happens immediately upon tapping a shift button.

[TheDarkInstall]

Updating this mainly to keep a record of progress. If it helps anyone else, then that is an added bonus

-Checked all cable connections. They all click in fine.
-Changed battery to a new one.
-Checked the stops and indexing on FD and RD, manually and in eTube software; no issues and nothing is jamming / reaching the limit.

Problem still occurs.

More info about the issue.

-Holding down a button on any shifter causes the green battery light to appear as normal, but after this goes off, a millisecond later the red adjustment light AND the green light come on again, then disappear. This second light display is exactly the same as the lights you get when you exit adjustment mode... Could it be that something is forcing the system to go into adjustment mode momentarily, which locks up the system, and if so, what?

Elimination testing...

-Unplugged the RD and held down FD shift button. Light issue remains. Did the same with the FD unplugged, and RD plugged in. Same.
-Unplugged left then right shifter cables from stem junction box and tested. Same.

Next step, I am going to take it down the bike shop and start swapping bits of the system out to see if I can isolate what is causing this.

Well annoying, but also quite interesting, in equal parts. Well... 95% annoying, and 5% interesting, let's be fair.

[TheDarkInstall]

The riddle deepens...

-Took the battery out of the seat post, and connected it directly to the stem junction box with a spare cable.
-Unplugged the cable that runs from the stem junction box into the frame, effectively removing both mechs, the internal junction, and all internal cables from the system.

Held the up/down buttons on both shifters, and the sprint shifters too. Each time, this Green, then Red/Green light combo appeared on the junction box.

-Unplugged one shifter at a time, and it still happened, using each shifter.

This is a new junction box, a new battery, and as you can see I have eliminated various parts of the system, so I am sort of coming to the end of what I can rule out by myself, without swapping in different shifters, etc. to test it.

So...

Can anyone who has Di2, with the latest firmware do me a favour? Just so I know for sure, can you press and hold a shifter button to test the battery life and tell me what you see on the junction box?

Does it just show the green battery light, which disappears after a few seconds, or does it first show the green battery light by itself, then quickly show the green battery light AND the red adjustment light? I want to rule out the idea that this might be a new (and undocumented) feature added as part of a system update.

Cheers

[Ritxis]

http://si.shimano.com/php/download.php? ... 00-ENG.pdf

[TheDarkInstall]

http://si.shimano.com/php/download.php?file=pdf/um/UM-71J0A-001-00-ENG.pdf

I am not sure what this is supposed to show me...

Nothing in the user manual addresses the issue I am having here (unless I am missing something obvious?)

[glepore]

Dark...pressing the shifter to go to adjustment mode just lights the green... no green red flash when its done.

My instincts, and nothing else would tell me to swap in first an fd, then an rd...just connect, obviously, not install...I think you have a logic problem somewhere. I'm wondering if the system isn't "seeing" the derailleur, thus why it still does it when they're unplugged. If you want, I'll later unplug mine to see if I can get your light combo.

[Ritxis]

http://si.shimano.com/php/download.php?file=pdf/um/UM-71J0A-001-00-ENG.pdf

I am not sure what this is supposed to show me...

Nothing in the user manual addresses the issue I am having here (unless I am missing something obvious?)

Sorry, I'm wrong forum

[TheDarkInstall]

Dark...pressing the shifter to go to adjustment mode just lights the green... no green red flash when its done.

My instincts, and nothing else would tell me to swap in first an fd, then an rd...just connect, obviously, not install...I think you have a logic problem somewhere. I'm wondering if the system isn't "seeing" the derailleur, thus why it still does it when they're unplugged. If you want, I'll later unplug mine to see if I can get your light combo.

Hi,

You get a green light only, when pressing and holding a button on the shifter, you mean? OK thanks, so the subsequent green and red light combo is not usual behavior on mine. Got it.

Well, my system can see the mechs as they shift. They just lose connection a lot of the time for a few seconds.

Yeah I would really appreciate you unplugging yours and testing the light combo resulting from pressing and holding your shifters in. That would be useful, thanks. Also, if you could press and hold the button on your junction box too, to see what happens that would be handy.

Cheers!

[glepore]

cannot seem to duplicate your symptom-holding shifters with either mech disconnected just gives me a green (fully charged) light, without the red/green flash

pressing junction and holding first puts it into adjustment mode (steady red) then it gives me the double red reset flash

Sorry... mystified. Firmware bug?