Tacx Neo sudden death! Expert sought!

After three years of perfect service, yesterday my Tacx Neo decided enough was enough. No lights, no ant+, no Bluetooth. Luckily it still functioned as a dumb trainer and my power meter pedal meant Zwift could go on!

There is a facebook page for the Tacx Neo and it seems there are a number of people experiencing the same issue. Garmin (Tacx) say that it is a fault on the power board and it cannot be fixed and there are no replacement parts.

Anyone else had this happen and more importantly, has anyone found a way to fix it?

Hi

Not exactly the help your hoping for but…

As an professional electronic repair guy for many years, taking a look at the power board makes me think it should be possible to repair it. Especially power failures tends to be easier to locate than many other types when you’re stuck without documentation.

And from what I read around the response you got from Garmin ( I guess Tacx had another policy on repairs and customers ? ) is pretty much the standard reply to anything with expired warranty :thinking:

If you could find a small electronic repair shop with “that nerdy guy” in the workshop or perhaps a local radio amateur ( club ? ) I would think it would be worth asking if they would give it a try - a Neo is far to good to throw out - and buying a new Tacx(Garmin) might not be that interesting if they don’t support a 3 year old high end trainer :wink:

Let me know if you get any luck with it ?

BooX

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Well, Garmin offer an exchange/repair service at a standard flat rate of ÂŁ646.15 plus shipping, but only offer a six month warranty. So that would give me an old part worn and obsolete trainer, for almost the cost of a new unit. They also offer a discount on a new unit. No wonder we live on a polluted planet with such a disposable item philosophy!
Anyway, with nothing to lose I decided to take it all apart and have a look. The pcb had no sign of fried components and when I started to remove it the red power light came on. That told me two things. First to disconnect it and secondly something had changed for the better!
So I disconnected and reconnected all the internal cables and put it back together. It is working again, but no ant+. Tried Zwift and everything is perfect via Bluetooth. No idea how long it will last. Hopefully until we are back to a situation where trainers are available again (maybe even a glut of used ones!) and I can get a KICKR!

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Hi Neil,
great to hear that you have a Neo you can use again.
Garmin’s response is very poor. As a Neo owner, it doesn’t give me much confidence.
“Ride On”

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I’m in a similar situation. My partner’s Neo just stopped working entirely while unplugged the other day, and didn’t even offer any resistance for use as a dumb trainer. Interestingly, on plugging it in the fan came on and stayed on at full blast.
An email to Garmin revealed that there was no way to fix it, there were no parts available, and they would sell me a reconditioned unit at a slight discount. Having ridden Tacx smart trainers for well over a decade now that is not the response I would have got from Tacx, and obviously it gives me no confidence when considering spending another $2k on a Tacx (now Garmin) trainer that they will not support beyond the minimum warranty period.
This weekend’s tasks are, in order:

  1. UNPLUG THE TRAINER.
  2. Pull it apart and see if I can fix it, and then most likely:
  3. Buy a new Wahoo Kickr.

@Neil_McGurk I’m glad you learnt point 1 the easy way!

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Hi Rowan

were you able to fix your Neo?
mine went also bust recently and am desperate for amateur repair service -

Anyone who was able to replace the driving belt, as mine has completely lost resistance. Lights, fans and equipment detection is still working when starting up Zwift.

thanks and cheers,
Jay

Hi Jay,

I opened mine up and could see damage on the pcb. I probably should have fixed it myself but I’m time poor so I just posted that pcb to someone overseas to fix. It took much longer than I hoped and cost many times more than what I think their costs would have been, so next time I think I would look more carefully for someone to do it (or do it myself) but the trainer works now and it was cheaper than buying a new one.
You may have the same problem or it may be something different, but there is no belt inside a neo so it isn’t that! There at least two people online advertising that they can repair the pcbs. Hopefully one of them can help you!

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This chap seems to be pretty good at getting Neos working again:

He is.

Just used him for a neo with no lights and all the fans spinning.

Turned it around in under a week.

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