Will Boomerang V2 Cyclo Trac ever come back? It looked promising.

I was pretty satisfied with my V1 for a year or so. It recorded trips well, consistently showed the location of my $4k bike and the battery lasted a long time because it went to “sleep” shortly after finishing a ride. Then it suddenly stopped working last fall. I quickly contacted Boomerang and found that they were no longer getting data service from Verizon because they refused to pay for data they weren’t using (it would have been nice to be informed of that when it happened) but that Boomerang was working on a V2 version that would be ready in 90 days (by Feb. 1st). So I continued paying my quarterly fee for data I wasn’t using and waited - and waited. In March I received an email saying that they had gotten a substantial investment from a public company who was assisting in the release of the V2 but was requiring it to be run through their quality and reliability program causing the release date to be pushed back until May. In May I received a message with a “secret link” to order my V2. In July I got a message saying there was a delay in getting the outside cases, which i assumed might be due to the Covid fiasco.

In September, I finally received my V2 unit and excitedly got it mounted and activated only to find that I could no longer log into my Dashboard. After some back and forth, I finally found that my username was no longer simply my last name but now consisted of my first and last name combined. Now I could log in but when I did, i found that the battery had run down even though I hadn’t ridden in a few days after it was fully charged. When i looked at my dashboard I found there were a bunch of phantom trips that had been recorded showing various locations all around my neighborhood even though the bike had been sitting in the garage the whole time. This, in turn was causing the battery to run down since the unit apparently does not stay in sleep mode. I have to say that if this is supposed to be an improvement over the V1 unit, the investment company needs to investigate their “quality and reliability” team because I sure want to avoid any of their other products. In fairness, I have to say that when I actually do take a trip, it is recorded accurately as is the current location of the bike (or at least the general neighborhood where it is). I wonder if anyone else is experiencing the same type of problems or do I maybe just have a bad unit ?
 
@Muffets, I also was expecting longer standby and was surprised by how quickly the battery level dropped. I have about 10-20 days standby in sleep mode, which isn't 4 months, but nor is it less than a full commuting day. I don't think it is a wiring short or anything like that, more likely settings/software. I note in the app software it does seem to "check-in" with regular pings on device/bike location, even when it is presumed to be asleep. Location accuracy and telemetry data are fantastic where I am. If you have lots of cell towers and weird weather, it might pick a stronger signal from somewhere else and affect accuracy (just a theory). Bump sensitivity is great. We are the first early consumers to take delivery of this brand new IoT device. The V2 was a total redo once Netgear got involved. When you think about it, it is pretty amazing they got this thing repackaged, with brand new guts, new suppliers, and partners, inside a calendar year during a global supply chain shutdown/nightmare. Like any brand new gizmo with hardware, software, and connectivity dimensions, I'm cutting them a lot of slack, and hoping the 3.0 app software Kevin emailed us about on 23rd will resolve a lot of these ad-hoc teething issues in January. I think back on drawers full of early-adopted small consumer gizmos that needed firmware and software updates in order to hit their useful stride - point being that it wasn't uncommon for there to be big initial, and small maintenance updates. I expect this will be no different.
 
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I expect this will be no different.

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Can users please provide an update on their experience with this device? Have bugs been worked out? Are they delivering good service?
Most importantly, has your stolen bike been recovered with the help of this device?


Thanks
 
Can users please provide an update on their experience with this device? Have bugs been worked out? Are they delivering good service?
Most importantly, has your stolen bike been recovered with the help of this device?


Thanks
Boomerang support has been positive. Several software updates and battery swap about a year ago. We haven't had any bikes stolen, so can't comment on that. The flashing "armed" LED is a better visible deterrent than just a lock on its own.
 
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