Posted on 38 Comments

LifeFitness 95Ri Battery?

Recumbent Bike
LifeFitness 95Ri

You may think that you need to replace your battery because the electronic control panel lights up only briefly and then turns off with only brief flickerings thereafter. Many people on ebay purchase another battery and it solves their problem. The real issue is that most likely the battery has been completely depleted of it’s charge and you need to run the bike for a while (2-3 minutes), let the flywheel come to complete stop, then restart the pedaling and there may be enough charge on the battery to allow the control panel to stay light, if not keep pedaling a little longer since the battery may need more of a charge. Once you get the control panel to light up, do a good workout for a considerable amount of time as it will charge the battery even longer and it will most likely retain enough of a charge for the next time you need to exercise. If on the other hand you fail to get the display to stay on ever even after doing the start, pedal a while, wait for it to stop spinning several times, it may very well be time change the battery.

Also, most of the offerings on EBay are very expensive. Most sell for $40.

Sportsmith has them for a very reasonable $21.00 ea + shipping.

Also on Amazon for a more reasonable price of $24.58, free shipping.

EDIT: Here are some updated photos so that there is no confusion as to which model I am referring to. I have also added Parts manual and operators manual. I am unable to find the service manual except for a a site that wants my CC. Not willing to do that.

Posted on Leave a comment

ESP8266-03 Wifi Board

Day 2 – I have come to the conclusion that I need a level shifter. Ordered 2 from Cali. Hmm, investigating using a usb-serial cable with a 3.3v ps. http://playground.boxtec.ch/doku.php/wireless/esp8266 has German instructions. Giving that a go. Scratch that, I think maybe I blew my ESP8266, I had it hooked to the USB-Serial cable without a level shifter for some time. I did try a resistor voltage divider, but get no response. I will have to try another board, I have to solder it up. I did find some really good beginner instructions here: http://www.esp8266.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=521#p3110

Day 1 – Soldered some resistor legs to the SMT spots. The method I used was to insert the snipped legs from the resistors into a 16 pin dip socket, then wedged the board in place. This had the effect of getting the pins to be held against the board. This is the final result. I have not found any helpful links about this version of the board yet.

ESP8266-03 Top view
ESP8266-03 Top view

ESP8266-03 side view
ESP8266-03 side view