Anyone else get a Cobi

[eoghan]

Mine is finally on the way, should have it sometime today

 

[opimax]

I have been watching , reading and waiting for someone else to get one 1st and tell me it is a trouble free device without too many glitches..watching this thread, Thx!

 

[The Front Ranger]

I have one, but haven't put it through the wringer yet (it's on my wife's Haibike).

 

[Jeff Backes]

Mine is finally on the way, should have it sometime today

I ordered mine yesterday.

 

[eoghan]

I ordered mine yesterday.

Don't you have a dongle too, I was wondering how they might work together

 

[eoghan]

Just set it up, it took a little while, maybe 30 mins, haven't figured out how to attach the urban style kit yet but thats a minor detail. The included manual design in minimalistic as is the in app tour. I got both the mount case for my phone and the universal holder but I don't think I could ever use the mount case, needs more design effort if you ask me. Once you put the phone in it, you can only charge it via the Cobi as there is no charging input, it also makes the phone much longer, so I'm just going to use a regular phone case and the universal holder. The included manual refers to a battery that it says you need to install, I did not get a separate battery, but I think its already installed and screwed in, either way the instructions are unclear about that too.

I have not used the app much yet, it looks nice but in a effort to be simple & intuitive, it actually is not that obvious how to do simple things like turn down the light. My guess is I will get used to it. Leading the bike to someone so they can it try out seams unworkable, the Bosch display easer to quickly understand. I really like the cafe lock although I wish it was louder (maybe it has hidden setting?) and the map app is nice too, not as good as google with their bike path overlay but the choise of routes is well thought out .

Looking forward to trying it out tomarrow

 

[eoghan]

Well my first ride with the Cobi was a bit of a disaster, the cobi kept losing contact with the bike, and when that happens the motor cuts off. I still had access between the phone and the Cobi unit itself. I had no issues connecting to the bike at home but once I hit a small bump on the road it cut off and it was very difficult to reconnect and when it did it would only connect for a few seconds. I had to lock my bike up and walk home to get my old Bosch controller and swap them out, so my advise is to keep the bosch with you until you are sure its all working well. I tried removing and reseating the Cobi many times and it seamed like it had a secure physical fit.

I still find the app very unintuitive, it looks nice and clearly a lot of thought and design chops went into it but to me it looks like they needed m0re user feed back from people using it for the first time.

• I have no idea what the button on the right side of the unit itself is for
• The in app refers to using the walk assistance button on the operating unit however pressing it just produses some beeps and when I held it down for a few seconds, it hung the app, had to restart it.
• holding down the main button n the operating unit is meant to switch you into full screen mode, but it did not work for me today, I had it working last night

 

[Over50]

Wow. This thread had me very interested in COBI until that last post. Hope to hear you get the issues resolved and follow-ups as to its long term reliability.

 

[eoghan]

No doubt its my fault, but they clearly tried too hard to to keep the instructions minimalistic. Its an example of aesthetics wining at the cost of functionality or clarity if you ask me, rather than form follows function. I will see if they have better info online over the weekend and I sent support a email.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Well my first ride with the Cobi was a bit of a disaster, the cobi kept losing contact with the bike, and when that happens the motor cuts off. I still had access between the phone and the Cobi unit itself. I had no issues connecting to the bike at home but once I hit a small bump on the road it cut off and it was very difficult to reconnect and when it did it would only connect for a few seconds. I had to lock my bike up and walk home to get my old Bosch controller and swap them out, so my advise is to keep the bosch with you until you are sure its all working well. I tried removing and reseating the Cobi many times and it seamed like it had a secure physical fit.

I still find the app very unintuitive, it looks nice and clearly a lot of thought and design chops went into it but to me it looks like they needed m0re user feed back from people using it for the first time.

• I have no idea what the button on the right side of the unit itself is for
• The in app refers to using the walk assistance button on the operating unit however pressing it just produses some beeps and when I held it down for a few seconds, it hung the app, had to restart it.
• holding down the main button n the operating unit is meant to switch you into full screen mode, but it did not work for me today, I had it working last night

I had a very similar, frustrating experience at the Interbike. It wasn't intuitive at all and I test rode the Haibike Urban Plus with COBI on it. It felt like a half baked addition to an otherwise nice bike.

 

[eoghan]

After working on it for about 90 minutes I got it to the point where I was willing to ride it down the hill, with my trusty Bosch controller in my pocket as backup. I could not get the universal phone holder to talk to the bike at all, so I switched to using the phone case instead. After a coffie stop it took 15 minutes to get it going again, only to lose connectivity after 200 meters riding on a smooth road. Got it working only to fail again right in the middle of a busy crossroad after just 50 meters. At that point I gave up and swapped it for the Bosch.

The problem seams to be with the contacts just to connect the phone holders to the Cobi unit, at least thats what I suspect. They are much smaller than what Bosch uses to contact the controller to the cradle, and therefore everything has to line up just right. That connection may only be used to provide power for the phone but it seams like once the phone gets power, the cobi can talk to the bike. Anyway lets see what Cobi support says.

The App design still bugs me, can't lock the bike while the Cobi is controlling the bike. Even if everything works as advertised it takes much longer to get the bike going compared to the factory controller.

At this point it feels like I bought pre alpha product where the development budget was put into fancy packaging, videos and not into QAing the design or usability of the app.

 

[Jeff Backes]

I got mine this evening. I am unable to ride today as I just had Bilateral L3-L5 Transforaminal Injections this morning. Probably no biking for a week.

I was able to pair and start using the app here are my current bugs:

• Entering my height in Feet and inches 5' 10"displays as 5.8'
• I have to enter boulevard instead of blvd when entering an address
• I have to enter East instead of E or E. for east when entering an address

Feature Request:

• A big gigantic turn off your bike button somewhere

 

[eoghan]

Cobi support has not offered any help yet, they say I "should receive feedback this week, before Friday perhaps" that will be two weeks.

Anyone else using one, am I the outlier or is this the typical experience?

 

[Jeff Backes]

As you, I have been having problems with my COBI. I am hoping it is just a matter of being on the bleeding edge. I left support three messages and have not heard a single solution coming back.

There have been a few "major" updates since I first installed the product, the tail light works now, and I can save offline maps, so there is some development going one. I just think they must be focused on feature development instead of bug fixing.

I looked at my iPhone's logs the other day and there were four crash files I sent to COBI, but again didn't hear anything back.

Things I have tried:

Removing/Re-installing onto the handlebar
Put the unit into recovery mode
Remove the battery
Reboot the phone​

There is much that is working, the button interface is able to control the phone "perfectly". Lots of fun animations, and beep and pops. The system is correctly distinguishing between short and long holds. The map seems to work very well.

The two times I got it working it was very fun. But I have no idea what I did those two times to get it to work.

I'm in a difficult place, the "Stand Alone" system would probably be working fine for me, but because mine replaces the intuvia remove and it unable to select power levels it makes the product worthless for me.

I'll keep you posted if I find a solution.

jeff

 

[eoghan]

Well it sounds like they are going to replace the hardware, don't know when I will receive the new unit, will provide a update on how it goes

 

[Jeff Backes]

I sent COBI four crash files from my iPhone and they replied that the next firmware update will fix the problems I'm having. The waiting begins again.

Also I purchased a Bosch Nyon Upgrade Kit from Europe. It should arrive soon. A local bike shop posted a YouTube video of it "Just Working" so we shall see.

I'll write a review/comparison when I have both up and running.

jeff

 

[Observation Drive]

Eoghan, I did a lot of research and bought the Haibike Urban Plus with the COBI integrated into the bike and have been riding it for the last two months. I do enjoy the design and the bike is fun to ride, but the COBI is taking much of the joy out of the experience.

There are definitely glitches with the COBI integration where the motor intermittently turns off and then turns back on going up hills. The bike can also completely shut down in the middle of the ride, losing the connection with the COBI. There seems to be a communication issue with the COBI and TranzX motor as the motor registers an error. One thing I think is really odd is how there is a charging cable for the phone but the cable is not used for the connection to the COBI head unit, that's left to Bluetooth and I think that is a mistake. A hard wired connection to a device in my opinion and experience is always more stable.

I've had the bike for almost two months with no resolution from Haibike. I've documented and communicated all issues to the dealer and they say Haibike is working on it. I'm not sure how long I want to wait to get these issues resolved and feel like the integration is not quite "ready for prime time". I've hear other owners have the same issues and Haibike is working to resolve the issues with no time table on when this will actually occur. It's been disappointing to buy an expensive bike and not have it work the way it's supposed to. We are dealing with three manufacturers too, Haibike, COBI, and TranzX for the motor. I'm surprised that they released the product with these issues.

Did you ever get your issues resolved? I'm getting ready to give up and get a controller that is not dependent on a smart phone or bluetooth.

 

[motostrano]

Let us know how you like your Nyon. I love it.

 

[eoghan]

It did get significantly better but not nearly good enough and I use the regular Bosch controller now. I had a sense that the company was in denial about the issue, and that the design is fundemantally flawed.

 

[hurricane56]

I've have a Cobi unit for and ran it on my Bosch powered commuter for 2000 miles. The plastic rails that connect it to the Bosch mounting plate cracked off, that was the start of March. Working with their support has been horrible, they take days to respond and want me to send the unit back to the Netherlands via DHL. They keep insisting on scheduling a pickup which is extremely inconvenient. I'm going to be selling this unit as it doesn't fit my bike after installing a new m99 light.