edge 500 problem?

pantani

i have a garmin edge 500 for nine months now and lately the gradient has been showing some crazy gradients,today it said i was going up 514% when i was actually on the flat .has anyone had the same problem or do i need to get it looked at ?

Magilla Gorilla

Mine started to give erratic speed readouts e.g. 29.9-31.2-27.6-30.4 all in the space of a few meters. I reinstalled the firmware and did a hard reset, all to no avail. I brought it back to Cycle Superstore and they gave me a new one, no hassle as it was less than a year old. Well pleased with the service.

I would recommend you try the resets, otherwise get it replaced before your warranty runs outy.

Plastik

Mine has been a bit hit and miss lately recently, but only after I recently updated to the latest firmware. There may be a bug that needs to be ironed out.

Raymzor

pantani wrote: »

i have a garmin edge 500 for nine months now and lately the gradient has been showing some crazy gradients,today it said i was going up 514% when i was actually on the flat .has anyone had the same problem or do i need to get it looked at ?

mine started doing exactly the same as above Tuesday this week. i thought it was to do with the howling wind and rain! it was grand on wednesday for a while! thursday the heart rate readings were nuts at times! keep us posted on your progress:rolleyes:

lennymc

mine has also started showing 900 odd % inclines only this week. Used it on Thursday and it was fine. Will check it again tomorrow. Maybe the aliens have taken over the gps....

TheBlaaMan

Same here. I was climbing a 950% gradient hill yesterday ! Also, it is over recording my HR and beeping warnings that it is too high.:D
Also the barometric altimeter seems very erratic: I've begun to expect it to be 'out' by 200-300m. Garmin Connect will correct this when I upload the track, but Strava doesnt ,so its a bit of a pain

I'm not too concerned about the HR issue, I think it does this occasionaly (though on both rececnt rides this week). I've also seen the wild gradient figures before, but generally only for a brief spell. This time, it was consistently way-off for about 2hrs on a reasonably flat ride...........strange.

I've firmware version 2.8 and not recently upgraded it (got the Edge500 last July from Handtec) but its disappointing to see it (and others apparently) going AWOL.

Zen0

Thanks lads. Between this thread and the one on HR problems, I think I have been cured of Garmin envy.

Does anybody have an Edge 500 that works properly?

Raymzor

any update lads? did anyone contact garmin? i just deleted a lot of files on the unit, stayed out of the mayo wind and it appears better:D

TheBlaaMan

I contacted my retailer. Here's the reply:
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Thank you for your email.

We advise that you contact Garmin directly regarding this issue. It will still be under warranty so I'm sure Garmin can have your device looked at and repaired.

Garmin: 0808 238 0000

I hope this is of some help.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us by replying to this ticket.
[/FONT]
Not yet been able to reach Garmin...

brasshead

A friend of mine had a similar issue with a 305. He recorded it in a stationary position for 2 mins, posted the blank ride to Strava showing the decrease in elevation, and emailed the link the Garmin. They got back to him and agreed to replace the unit.

sled driver

Zen0 wrote: »

Thanks lads. Between this thread and the one on HR problems, I think I have been cured of Garmin envy.

Does anybody have an Edge 500 that works properly?

I'm in the same boat.

There seems to have been a number of threads/posts recently regarding Garmin edge problems. I was in the market for an Edge 500 aswell, but I'm having doubts now.

Can anyone alleviate my doubts or is it just hit and miss with these things

Dermot Illogical

sled driver wrote: »

Can anyone alleviate my doubts or is it just hit and miss with these things

It could be a firmware issue. In any event it doesn't happen to everyone, so a common bug is likely behind it.
I've one for the last 11 months or so and it hasn't given any problems yet. The unit can be slightly off regarding accuracy (something which is never perfect at the best of times) if I place my light too close to it but I've come to expect that.
The cadence sensor is a POS though.

Dermot Illogical

moonviolet12 wrote: »

Mine started to give erratic speed readouts e.g. 29.9-31.2-27.6-30.4 all in the space of a few meters. I reinstalled the firmware and did a hard reset, all to no avail.

I get that if I'm stopped, but only when I have my Cateye light mounted next to it.

seamus

I find that GPS only speed reading can be erratic if there are coverage problems. When going up the Templeogue road outside bushy on the commuter, my speed drops by about 5km/h and starts going mental. I can only reason that it's due to the extra tree cover there. Never have any such problems with the speed/cadence sensor on the road bike because it gives a more stable and definite signal.

It does the same thing when I pull into the work carpark (under cover); the speed jumps up and down by a few km/h even though the bike is stopped. A symptom of the GPS signal fading.

Actually got a forerunner (watch) last week which can give a display of the GPS signal strength, even tells you how many metres it's accurate to at the moment (more satellites = more accurate).
When it first picks up satellites, it's accurate to within 200m. So this would explain why speed readings go a bit mental when coverage dips even for a second - at worst you could theoretically appear to have moved by 200m between one reading and the next.
So if the Edge saw a difference of just 1.5m between one reading and the next, it would assume that you're moving at 5km/h.

The actual power of the GPS signals is quite low, which is why it takes most receivers a few minutes to lock on accurately. A high-powered light (or more accurately it's battery) has an electromagnetic field around it which will disrupt the unit's ability to pick up these signals accurately. This field should be quite small though, so a separation of a few cms should be enough to avoid this.

MediaMan

RT66 wrote: »

The cadence sensor is a POS though.

What kind of issues have you had? I haven't noticed any problem, but haven't been looking at the numbers closely. Biggest problem I've had with cadence readings is forgetting to switch between bikes in the Edge settings. Then I get home and find I have no cadence readings. I should just enable cadence for both bikes I guess...

seamus wrote: »

The actual power of the GPS signals is quite low, which is why it takes most receivers a few minutes to lock on accurately.

Another reason is that on startup the receiver has to download the current absolute satellite positions etc. from the satellites themselves which takes bloody ages as the data bandwidth is very low. I think this is also why the receiver can establish position quickly if it hasn't been switched off for too long.

Magilla Gorilla

moonviolet12 wrote: »

Mine started to give erratic speed readouts e.g. 29.9-31.2-27.6-30.4 all in the space of a few meters. I reinstalled the firmware and did a hard reset, all to no avail.

You copied my wording exactly. Any reason?