Cycle computers
Discussion
Mazinbrum said:
The only time I plug mine in to my iMac is if I’ve downloaded a route from Strava to use.
You don't need to plug it in for that if you're a Strava subscriber - just star the route as a favourite and it syncs over the air.I assumed that you needed to plug it in to download the large map file updates and firmware updates - are you saying that both of these sync over the air as well?
smn159 said:
You don't need to plug it in for that if you're a Strava subscriber - just star the route as a favourite and it syncs over the air.
I assumed that you needed to plug it in to download the large map file updates and firmware updates - are you saying that both of these sync over the air as well?
You have to connect it to the PC/Mac: https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/edge530/EN...I assumed that you needed to plug it in to download the large map file updates and firmware updates - are you saying that both of these sync over the air as well?
530 updates (uploads) activities to Garmin Connect / Strava etc via wifi. To update software or maps or load courses on the 530 you need Garmin Express on, in my case, a Mac.
I create courses using https://www.plotaroute.com/routeplanner download a .gpx file and load that to the 530 (and/or my 735XT) via Garmin Connect and Garmin Express.
Works for me
I create courses using https://www.plotaroute.com/routeplanner download a .gpx file and load that to the 530 (and/or my 735XT) via Garmin Connect and Garmin Express.
Works for me
smn159 said:
Mazinbrum said:
The only time I plug mine in to my iMac is if I’ve downloaded a route from Strava to use.
You don't need to plug it in for that if you're a Strava subscriber - just star the route as a favourite and it syncs over the air.I assumed that you needed to plug it in to download the large map file updates and firmware updates - are you saying that both of these sync over the air as well?
I can’t see the option to star someone else’s ride as a favourite?
Edited by Mazinbrum on Sunday 21st June 19:50
Just wondering about people's longer term experience of the Garmin 530. Mine started off well - mapping is great! - but is going downhill on the reliability front with two main issues.
1) Recently it started refusing to sync rides to Garmin Express. There's several Garmin forums that talk about a problem syncing when it's connected both by wifi and via the phone BLE connection, eg it can't decide which connection to use. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me and doesn't explain why it used to sync automatically. It's a problem whether I try to save the ride out in the wilds or within home wifi range. Anyway, not a big deal as I found it syncs cleanly if I simply usb cable it to the laptop.
2) Increasing random drop outs of sensors, affecting almost 1 in 4 rides now. Eg this morning I rode a couple of miles to join thjre club group, stopped for 10 mins (never left the bike) yet the heart rate sensor disappeared and never reconnected (from past experience the only way to reconnect a dropped sensor is to power off and restart). Slightly annoying. Then I did a short afternoon ride having powered down after the morning ride and synced the data and changed the heart monitor battery just in case. After about 1 hour the gear display went blank (I hadn't stopped) then shortly after I noticed the heart rate and cadence readings were 'stuck' (Strava trace afterwards is totally flat from that point). Speed was continuing to register but I imagine the unit automatically switches to GPS speed/distance if it's lost the sensor. About that time a message flashed up "phone disconnected". Then about a mile from home the whole display froze and wouldn't respond to any buttons. I stopped and the only way I could restore anything was top do a hard reset (15 sec power off) at which point it asked to save the ride.
As I said, the drop outs are getting more frequent. I doubt it's a hardware fault as most times everything works - just possibly the Bluetooth /Ant module is weak? Perhaps it's relevant that I'm not using Garmin sensors - heart rate and speed are current Wahoo sensors while cadence is a cheapo Taiwanese unit (the Garmin often says at the start of a ride "cadence battery low" when it's demonstrably not, but it's easy to clear that error message). But I thought they all use standard protocols and anyway the gear selection is Sram's own.
Any ideas what's causing all this aggravation? Is it worth trying a factory reset? Is there some conflict between ANT+ and BLE communications? I think I'm using the latest software - version 5.50. And is there anyway of bringing back a dropped sensor without doing a power off (which stops recording the ride)?
In contrast my previous Wahoo Bolt was a model of reliability in this respect and I find it hard to understand why a company of Garmin's reputation and resources can't make a device that just works!
Thanks!
1) Recently it started refusing to sync rides to Garmin Express. There's several Garmin forums that talk about a problem syncing when it's connected both by wifi and via the phone BLE connection, eg it can't decide which connection to use. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me and doesn't explain why it used to sync automatically. It's a problem whether I try to save the ride out in the wilds or within home wifi range. Anyway, not a big deal as I found it syncs cleanly if I simply usb cable it to the laptop.
2) Increasing random drop outs of sensors, affecting almost 1 in 4 rides now. Eg this morning I rode a couple of miles to join thjre club group, stopped for 10 mins (never left the bike) yet the heart rate sensor disappeared and never reconnected (from past experience the only way to reconnect a dropped sensor is to power off and restart). Slightly annoying. Then I did a short afternoon ride having powered down after the morning ride and synced the data and changed the heart monitor battery just in case. After about 1 hour the gear display went blank (I hadn't stopped) then shortly after I noticed the heart rate and cadence readings were 'stuck' (Strava trace afterwards is totally flat from that point). Speed was continuing to register but I imagine the unit automatically switches to GPS speed/distance if it's lost the sensor. About that time a message flashed up "phone disconnected". Then about a mile from home the whole display froze and wouldn't respond to any buttons. I stopped and the only way I could restore anything was top do a hard reset (15 sec power off) at which point it asked to save the ride.
As I said, the drop outs are getting more frequent. I doubt it's a hardware fault as most times everything works - just possibly the Bluetooth /Ant module is weak? Perhaps it's relevant that I'm not using Garmin sensors - heart rate and speed are current Wahoo sensors while cadence is a cheapo Taiwanese unit (the Garmin often says at the start of a ride "cadence battery low" when it's demonstrably not, but it's easy to clear that error message). But I thought they all use standard protocols and anyway the gear selection is Sram's own.
Any ideas what's causing all this aggravation? Is it worth trying a factory reset? Is there some conflict between ANT+ and BLE communications? I think I'm using the latest software - version 5.50. And is there anyway of bringing back a dropped sensor without doing a power off (which stops recording the ride)?
In contrast my previous Wahoo Bolt was a model of reliability in this respect and I find it hard to understand why a company of Garmin's reputation and resources can't make a device that just works!
Thanks!
Slightly ot... Garmin software is desperately bad so I fitted a £7 bracket to an old android phone without a sim in, added cheap accelerometer based speed and cadence sensors to the bike and now I have better capabilities than the edge 1000 for a total cost of just under £30.
How long do garmin really have left with their antiquated products?
How long do garmin really have left with their antiquated products?
Will O. Bey jr said:
I don't know if I agree. My Garmin 530 works flawlessly. I have Garmin sensors though so can't complain how well it does with other brands. I'd definitely not replace it with phone as I like the buttons (although their placement is a bit idiosyncratic).
Garmin do seem to get a lot more criticism from users for their units not working properly than Wahoo though, which I have always found odd given Garmin's position in the marketI've got an Element Bolt which has never lost any of my data over the course of over 9,000 miles. I also have a Garmin watch which has also had no issues however from what I have read online may people experience problems with their cycle computers. I wouldn't take the risk of switching from Wahoo based on that personally
Moved from Garmin to wahoo a few years ago. Never regretted it. Automatically syncs to Strava and ridewithgps for routes and automatically uploads rides afterwards. Syncs to sensors easily and linked to my di2 gears.
No need to connect to a pc as it does everything via its phone app, and the black and white screen is great in bright sunlight.
Battery lasts forever too
No need to connect to a pc as it does everything via its phone app, and the black and white screen is great in bright sunlight.
Battery lasts forever too
millen said:
Just wondering about people's longer term experience of the Garmin 530. Mine started off well - mapping is great! - but is going downhill on the reliability front with two main issues.
1) Recently it started refusing to sync rides to Garmin Express. There's several Garmin forums that talk about a problem syncing when it's connected both by wifi and via the phone BLE connection, eg it can't decide which connection to use. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me and doesn't explain why it used to sync automatically. It's a problem whether I try to save the ride out in the wilds or within home wifi range. Anyway, not a big deal as I found it syncs cleanly if I simply usb cable it to the laptop.
2) Increasing random drop outs of sensors, affecting almost 1 in 4 rides now. Eg this morning I rode a couple of miles to join thjre club group, stopped for 10 mins (never left the bike) yet the heart rate sensor disappeared and never reconnected (from past experience the only way to reconnect a dropped sensor is to power off and restart). Slightly annoying. Then I did a short afternoon ride having powered down after the morning ride and synced the data and changed the heart monitor battery just in case. After about 1 hour the gear display went blank (I hadn't stopped) then shortly after I noticed the heart rate and cadence readings were 'stuck' (Strava trace afterwards is totally flat from that point). Speed was continuing to register but I imagine the unit automatically switches to GPS speed/distance if it's lost the sensor. About that time a message flashed up "phone disconnected". Then about a mile from home the whole display froze and wouldn't respond to any buttons. I stopped and the only way I could restore anything was top do a hard reset (15 sec power off) at which point it asked to save the ride.
As I said, the drop outs are getting more frequent. I doubt it's a hardware fault as most times everything works - just possibly the Bluetooth /Ant module is weak? Perhaps it's relevant that I'm not using Garmin sensors - heart rate and speed are current Wahoo sensors while cadence is a cheapo Taiwanese unit (the Garmin often says at the start of a ride "cadence battery low" when it's demonstrably not, but it's easy to clear that error message). But I thought they all use standard protocols and anyway the gear selection is Sram's own.
Any ideas what's causing all this aggravation? Is it worth trying a factory reset? Is there some conflict between ANT+ and BLE communications? I think I'm using the latest software - version 5.50. And is there anyway of bringing back a dropped sensor without doing a power off (which stops recording the ride)?
In contrast my previous Wahoo Bolt was a model of reliability in this respect and I find it hard to understand why a company of Garmin's reputation and resources can't make a device that just works!
Thanks!
I've a 530 and have none of your issues following some initial problems BT linking to my iPhone; it's been 100% reliable since. Worth a factory reset as this solved the issue and, if still not right, contact Garmin customer service.1) Recently it started refusing to sync rides to Garmin Express. There's several Garmin forums that talk about a problem syncing when it's connected both by wifi and via the phone BLE connection, eg it can't decide which connection to use. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me and doesn't explain why it used to sync automatically. It's a problem whether I try to save the ride out in the wilds or within home wifi range. Anyway, not a big deal as I found it syncs cleanly if I simply usb cable it to the laptop.
2) Increasing random drop outs of sensors, affecting almost 1 in 4 rides now. Eg this morning I rode a couple of miles to join thjre club group, stopped for 10 mins (never left the bike) yet the heart rate sensor disappeared and never reconnected (from past experience the only way to reconnect a dropped sensor is to power off and restart). Slightly annoying. Then I did a short afternoon ride having powered down after the morning ride and synced the data and changed the heart monitor battery just in case. After about 1 hour the gear display went blank (I hadn't stopped) then shortly after I noticed the heart rate and cadence readings were 'stuck' (Strava trace afterwards is totally flat from that point). Speed was continuing to register but I imagine the unit automatically switches to GPS speed/distance if it's lost the sensor. About that time a message flashed up "phone disconnected". Then about a mile from home the whole display froze and wouldn't respond to any buttons. I stopped and the only way I could restore anything was top do a hard reset (15 sec power off) at which point it asked to save the ride.
As I said, the drop outs are getting more frequent. I doubt it's a hardware fault as most times everything works - just possibly the Bluetooth /Ant module is weak? Perhaps it's relevant that I'm not using Garmin sensors - heart rate and speed are current Wahoo sensors while cadence is a cheapo Taiwanese unit (the Garmin often says at the start of a ride "cadence battery low" when it's demonstrably not, but it's easy to clear that error message). But I thought they all use standard protocols and anyway the gear selection is Sram's own.
Any ideas what's causing all this aggravation? Is it worth trying a factory reset? Is there some conflict between ANT+ and BLE communications? I think I'm using the latest software - version 5.50. And is there anyway of bringing back a dropped sensor without doing a power off (which stops recording the ride)?
In contrast my previous Wahoo Bolt was a model of reliability in this respect and I find it hard to understand why a company of Garmin's reputation and resources can't make a device that just works!
Thanks!
I switched to Wahoo in 2016 after constant problems with Garmins. I believe the 530 is much improved but I still hear too many stories of temperamental issues and lost rides. I've never found the B&W screen to be an issue but it does help with visibility and, if anything, it's actually clearer to read than a busy colour screen and the battery savings are useful. One big advantage are the LEDs. I can use them for navigation (turn left/right/straight ahead) if I'm on an adventure or for power zones if I'm training. In the dark it means I don't even need to have the screen on.
Way beyond all of that: it just works. No fancy functions or small savings are worth the frustration of a Garmin that s
ts itself constantly.
Way beyond all of that: it just works. No fancy functions or small savings are worth the frustration of a Garmin that s
ts itself constantly.Echo the above comments on Garmin vs Wahoo. I found Garmin products the lest intuitive and I work in tech ... reliability was terrible, often turning off mid ride and failing to record rides, so the files were left corrupt. The Wahoo just works and is so simple to set up from the app. My Mrs bought one the other week, managed to set up and get working herself ... she hates any form of technology and breezed through it.
Had two Edge 200s that lasted me about 5 years. Nice little device but plagued with issues. Seemed to randomly fail to lock onto a signal at the start of a ride. I could never figure out why. Could've been atmospheric or maybe topography. Seemed to just have a lot of bad days. Several times it appeared to have not been charged despite that not being the case causing false shut downs.Reading the reviews the 200, 500 and 800 were all pretty good but things went off with the 1000 and they had some ground to make up. They were very light on batteries but using them through the winter killed them off quite quickly.
Went for a Bolt to replace it and it's a far nice device to actually use. Love the companion app and the way it updates and syncs. The way you can set your own screen up and zoom in and out is very pleasing. The light bar is also something that should be compulsory on anything like this. I do have a feeling however that the garmins were better devices for the GPS part though (when they worked). I don't know if it took more frequent readings but the display seems to have more lag on the Wahoo or maybe it just smooths the snapshot data out more aggressively.
Went for a Bolt to replace it and it's a far nice device to actually use. Love the companion app and the way it updates and syncs. The way you can set your own screen up and zoom in and out is very pleasing. The light bar is also something that should be compulsory on anything like this. I do have a feeling however that the garmins were better devices for the GPS part though (when they worked). I don't know if it took more frequent readings but the display seems to have more lag on the Wahoo or maybe it just smooths the snapshot data out more aggressively.
shouldbworking said:
Slightly ot... Garmin software is desperately bad so I fitted a £7 bracket to an old android phone without a sim in, added cheap accelerometer based speed and cadence sensors to the bike and now I have better capabilities than the edge 1000 for a total cost of just under £30.
How long do garmin really have left with their antiquated products?
I am wondering if that is a fair way to approach this....I have a reasonable Moto G6, decent battery life, but only now use a work iphone, could use the G6 for mapping....would need a waterproof case. Wonder how well google maps would go for mapping these days!How long do garmin really have left with their antiquated products?
Mind you, I have an old Teasi German unit that got us from London to Paris about 5 years ago.....haven't used it much since, but it worked okay
I've had 4 Garmin products over the last 15 years, all have been absolutely terrible in terms of the hassle getting and keeping the software working. Bought a Bolt last year and wouldn't go back.
About to send my wife's Garmin watch back, no idea why I relented and went back to Garmin. It won't get a GPS lock at all.
About to send my wife's Garmin watch back, no idea why I relented and went back to Garmin. It won't get a GPS lock at all.
Solocle said:
flight147z said:
All of the above is why I'm happy with Wahoo. If the roam was £80 cheaper id probably upgrade to that. I assume they will release something new this year though too
Bolt 2.It's in their firmware already! I'd imagine it's probably an enhanced BOLT with colour.
flight147z said:
Perfect - any tips for where I can follow news on this?
Can't say I know of any more news on that... I was playing around with their firmware, to the purpose of possibly modifying it myself, but stumbled across that little gem!Telling the capabilities of the thing before an announcement is a bit beyond my pay-grade (lowly computer science student).
As I recall that snippet made an appearance since December, but, without doing an in depth analysis of ancient firmwares, I couldn't begin to speculate about Wahoo's release cycle.
Edited by Solocle on Monday 13th July 23:01
I have a wahoo bolt and a Garmin Forerunner 245 music watch, the bolt has been very reliable with just the odd quirk, same for the forerunner.
I have been tempted to change to a Garmin MTB GPS, mainly for the fact that when riding, I have to record on both devices as the bolt has better elevation accuracy and cycling features, but I use the forerunner as my overall fitness tracker, so runs/rides/sleep/steps etc. and to get a workout from the bolt to the garmin connect, is a right faff. And I'd quite like trailforks etc on the GPS, would be really handy.
My forerunner syncs strava courses just by starring them and then syncing in connect, do the newer GPS units not do this?
Also looks like there's a way to get RWGPS to sync via a connect IQ app, has anyone tried that? https://ridewithgps.com/help/iq/
I have been tempted to change to a Garmin MTB GPS, mainly for the fact that when riding, I have to record on both devices as the bolt has better elevation accuracy and cycling features, but I use the forerunner as my overall fitness tracker, so runs/rides/sleep/steps etc. and to get a workout from the bolt to the garmin connect, is a right faff. And I'd quite like trailforks etc on the GPS, would be really handy.
My forerunner syncs strava courses just by starring them and then syncing in connect, do the newer GPS units not do this?
Also looks like there's a way to get RWGPS to sync via a connect IQ app, has anyone tried that? https://ridewithgps.com/help/iq/
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