Pixio Status

You may have noticed that there has been a lack of Pixio videos despite having received it back in November. Part of that is because I just haven't been riding much. Mostly it's because it hasn't been working properly.

The first two times I used it back in November I didn't really have any problems. The camera/robot was set up outside the riding surface at about E. I had to adjust one beacon forward which I figured was due to the metal scaffolding that was between the robot and the original beacon placement in the corner.

It only lost tracking of me in one corner, and then only when the tracking watch was on the outside (ie. tracking right as I had the watch on my right wrist). I figured it had to do with beacon placement and just needed to play with it.

Then everything sat for the 6 weeks that I didn't ride. On the first ride back I tried to set it up with the camera in the center of the arena. And discovered a big problem.

The robot won't rotate more than 180 degrees.

It's supposed to rotate a full 360. When tracking me it would hit the edge of the 180, then turn somewhere else. When I came back into the zone it would track me with no issue. I couldn't spin the robot on its base past that point either - it would stop at the same point every time.

Where did I go?

As has been well noted by other Pixio users, their customer service has been very good. It just takes a while to get things sorted out because of the time change - all their emails back to me have been around 3am my time.

My robot has to go back to France for repairs - there is a motor issue. I'm not sure if it was there right from the beginning or not. The first couple of times I used it the robot didn't have to rotate fully due to where I had placed it. But that might have been the reason that it wouldn't track me in that corner on my first ride with it.

It sounds like if I use their recommended method of shipping (Canada Post in this case) that I will be refunded the shipping charge since it is under warranty. The expected turn around time once they receive it is 7 days. If I get it out this weekend, hopefully, it will be back sometime mid to late February. It would have been nice to have been able to send it out before the recent cold spell, but I wasn't able to get the data that they wanted because it was too cold to set it up.

Be prepared for Pixio video spam. Eventually.