Getting Edge 800 to display speed/distance on turbo trainer

pprendeville

Is there any way of getting a Garmin to measure speed and distance when it's on an indoor trainer. I can't get either although I vaguely remember getting them before but may be wrong. I may have messed with settings.

Raam

With a cadence sensor.

fat bloke

I have it set up on a 500. Well, for speed at least, in not interested in distance.
Turn off the gps setting -which has to be done everytime you turn it on it seems. I have the garmin speed and cadence sensor at the back with a magnet on a spoke on the wheel.

Garmin should pick it up automatically but if not you can go into settings and tell it to scan again for one.

uphillonly

Bizarrely my Garmin 705 is picking up an old Cateye cadence & speed sensor I left on the old frame I use for turbo. So much for ANT+ matching.

pprendeville

Raam wrote: »

With a cadence sensor.

Dry humour is your speciality.

Fatbloke - I turn off the GPS alright but still not getting either. Will keep fiddling around.

Raam

pprendeville wrote: »

Dry humour is your speciality.

I was trying to be helpful this time! I think.

mossym

i think you need to go into settings, into ant+, go into the bike kit option, and in there set the wheel size manually, i just tried it the other night and not been back on the turbo since so can't confirm, but this is the link i used

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId=%7B8c7b7b10-0424-11de-76c5-000000000000%7D

Beasty

Raam wrote: »

I was trying to be helpful this time! I think.

I suspect a speed rather than cadence sensor (and on the back wheel of course!!) is what is required

Assuming the GPS is switched off and the speed sensor is properly paired and wheel circumference properly set it should work fine. I use a Garmin 500 on Manchester Velodrome with no GPS signal without problem (when I remember to do the above!)

However you do have different settings when pairing the sensors, and if there is no cadence sensor attached you need to change the sensor setting within the Garmin to speed rather than speed/cad

Raam

Beasty wrote: »

I suspect a speed rather than cadence sensor (and on the back wheel of course!!) is what is required

Assuming the GPS is switched off and the speed sensor is properly paired and wheel circumference properly set it should work fine. I use a Garmin 500 on Manchester Velodrome with no GPS signal without problem (when I remember to do the above!)

Are they not the same thing? This is what I mean...

mossym

it needs two magnets to do anything. one on the pedals gives your cadence, how fast you turn the pedals, regardless of gear. the other one is on the wheel, and gives the rotational speed of the wheel, which is a gearing multiple of the front pedals, unless you are freewheeling downhill. the same sensor, the one pictured, is used for both magnets. the circular bit on front is for hte pedal magnet, the bar on the right is for the wheel magnet. to get cadence and spped, you need both magnets, the garmin can't figure one based on the other

doozerie

Are you sure that you have a magnet on the spoke of the wheel you are using on the turbo trainer, as fat bloke suggests? I spent a few weeks scratching my head over why my Garmin wouldn't report speed or distance while on the turbo until I realised that my turbo trainer wheel had no magnet on it. It was a bit of a Homer Simpson moment.

Or maybe the sensor isn't detecting the magnet for some reason. If you hit the button on the cadence sensor then for the next minute or two it'll flash green every time it detects the magnet on the crank and red when it detects the magnet on the spoke (or maybe the colours are the other way around, I can't recall). It's worth checking that regardless, just to make sure that the sensor itself is working.

Beasty

Raam wrote: »

Are they not the same thing? This is what I mean...

You can get Ant+ speed sensors without the cadence or which can do either by flicking a switch on them.

Raam

Anyway, speed and distance on a turbo are useless metrics. Time, along with HR or power, if you have it, are what you want. Maybe the speed can be used as a target but not much more.

mossym

Raam wrote: »

Anyway, speed and distance on a turbo are useless metrics. Time, along with HR or power, if you have it, are what you want. Maybe the speed can be used as a target but not much more.

can understand that arguement, but surely they have some use in a relative sense. i mean, if you do 60 mins, at resistance level x, in the same gear in two sessions, , so keeping all variable constant, then the greater distance would count for greater effort?

Raam

mossym wrote: »

can understand that arguement, but surely they have some use in a relative sense. i mean, if you do 60 mins, at resistance level x, in the same gear in two sessions, , so keeping all variable constant, then the greater distance would count for greater effort?

Yeah I guess. That said, to be effective, your sessions should be measured based on a response from your body whilst in the middle of the session. So for HR you aim to be in a pre-determined range for 10 or 20 minutes or whatever you have planned. The distance might be handy at the end of a workout to say this is what I might have done if I were on a road, but during the workout it is of no real use.

pprendeville

Raam wrote: »

I was trying to be helpful this time! I think.

Ha, I though you were taking the piss. fairly obvious i need that thing alright.

pprendeville

mossym wrote: »

i think you need to go into settings, into ant+, go into the bike kit option, and in there set the wheel size manually, i just tried it the other night and not been back on the turbo since so can't confirm, but this is the link i used

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId=%7B8c7b7b10-0424-11de-76c5-000000000000%7D

Will give this a go so. Cheers.

I have the speed/cadence sensor on the chainstay. also have the magnets on crank and turbo wheel. I'd like to have distance as I upload files onto Strava and it's annoying knowing I've ridden 160k in a week instead of 100k. Like to have average speeds when comparing the same workouts but cadence is probably more important which I already have.