lightbulbjim

Went for a ride yesterday, had my phone with me as usual. When I started out all the numbers on the Mini display looked normal and it seemed to be recording properly. About twenty minutes later I noticed that the ride time and distance were at zero. Speed was still working although I'm sure whether it was coming from the GPS or wheel sensor. The Bluetooth icon was displayed on the Mini screen but the phone app wouldn't detect it.

I ended the ride on the Mini and, after restarting it and the phone app, got them connected again. About 3/4 of the previous section seemed to have saved, but distance and time only. No GPS track. I started recording again and continued my ride and that section saved correctly (as a new ride) with the track and all stats.

When I got home I happened to notice that the Mini system menu showed 0% free space. Not sure if that was a cause or effect of the problem I saw (or totally unrelated) but I ran a factory reset and fingers crossed it won't misbehave again.

One thing is for sure, the next computer I buy will have its own GPS.

John_V 

The nice thing about the Mini is that you can use any decent cycling app with it. The only reason I can see for using the companion app is to pair it to the phone so you can set up the Mini or to change something later on. Since you don't receive notifications on a Mini, the companion app is sort of useless once the setup is done.

You can pair your speed (or any other dual band) senor to the Mini via Ant+ and also pair them to your phone, through the cycling app, via BTLE. You can now use your third party cycling app as you would the companion app but with all the features of the third party app not found in the companion app.

lightbulbjim

The Mini does display call and text notifications.

If I was to use another app then that’s more hassle. The whole point of using the Mini (in my use case) is so that I can leave my phone in my backpack and never touch it.

John_V 

You are correct about the Mini displaying some notifications, it's the email notifications that I was thinking about. Either way, you can still use any good phone cycling app and keep the phone in your backpack during the ride. The only thing you have to do that you would not do with the companion app is to start and stop the ride on the phone app. Other than that, there is no difference. And if you are having connection issues between the Mini and the companion app, you can use the third party app as a backup until you correct the problem.

lightbulbjim

Makes sense. I really liked being able to do everything via the head unit though.

Anyway, I’ve solved my Mini frustrations for now. I happened to be in my LBS yesterday and they had a Lezyne Super GPS sitting on the shelf. You can guess what happened next...

John_V 

Good move! I was looking at one of the Lezyne GPS units when my RFLKT died on me. I ended up with the Wahoo Bolt only because all my sensors are Wahoo and the review were really good.

ericy

We have all been there. My LBS is renovating - everything in stock is 20-40 off just to get it out of the way. I can't think of anything I need however.

lightbulbjim

Yep, I've only played around with it on a couple of short rides so far but it seems like it does everything I want.

To give the Wahoo its due (or obituary?), it has a far nicer screen than the Lezyne. Plus, it's really nice to have one less thing to keep charged. It just seems that the Bluetooth connection is too fragile when it must stay connected without any dropouts at all (note that my Bluetooth headphones have never ever dropped their connection, so who knows).

Anyway, it's still in the drawer, and who knows what wonders future firmware updates may bring?

Visiting the LBS is hardly about looking for something you need...

John_V 

Yep!

FlamsteadHill

I found this thread because I was trying to verify that I only need my phone with me, turned on and paired to the Mini in order to create a track.

I used to use Ride with GPS (RWGPS) as my only computer, but after losing my phone due to an extremely rough patch of road (I did eventually locate it, only a little worse for the wear) I decided I didn't want to have it attached to my handlebar. Never mind that battery life is horrendous if you have the screen on all the time...

Anyways, I had read that the Mini can push data to RWGPS, but since I knew the Mini didn't have GPS I assumed I had to have RWGPS recording on the phone at the same time. However, When I push the Mini data from the App to RWGPS I end up with two (nearly) identical routes... Hence my finding this thread.

However, after reading down to this point (the quoted thread) and looking at my phone settings, I am maybe a bit more confused. I have had Background Refresh turned OFF, system wide. But, I do have Location Services turned on for the Elemnt while using the app. As I believe I saw in another post in this thread, you should be able to be in airplane mode and still know where you are, as the GPS is receiver only, not transmitter.

I am planning a century ride tomorrow and probably won't take a chance on the Mini alone, and will run RWGPS parallel.

BTW, so far I love the Mini. It does everything I want/need it to - I primarily got it to provide a constant readout of HR, Speed and Cad. I already had Wahoo HR and Cad sensors so it was almost a no-brainer after reading the reviews. The only issue I've had so far with it is that sometimes it doesn't auto-pause when I stop, and one time I was coasting at around 25-30 MPH and when I glanced down to check my speed I saw the screen flash "Auto Resume"... If at some point I need/want GPS routing I can put my phone on my handlebar, but my normal rides are all on roads that I am familiar enough with that I don't need it - I just plan my route and memorize it.

njkayaker

The Mini doesn't have a GPS. It uses the GPS in your phone.

It wouldn't use the RWGPS app to get the GPS data (the RWGPS app wouldn't know how to send the data to the Mini). It would use the Wahoo app.

The Wahoo app (while running) sends the GPS data (maybe, as distance, speed, time since the Mini doesn't display a track) to the Mini "head unit".

Once the ride is done, the Wahoo app would be able to copy the recorded ride/track to RWGPS.

Note that GPS data is produced by the phone hardware and that data is provided to apps on the phone (which could be one or more apps).

FlamsteadHill

Yes, I understood that, I couldn't figure out how the EM was getting GPS data. Thanks for explaining it.

I did have trouble on my ride over the weekend. At 22 miles in something happened. My wife was following me using Live Tracking, and the link stopped working. Additionally, the EM showed my trip distance as 22 miles for the rest of the trip, and seemed to have reset the Active Time at the 22 mile mark, as it said it was 6:11, when it was actually 7:40. The other weird thing is that it set the Start elevation as Sea Level, and it shows my minimum elevation as -457...

Lastly, it seemed to Auto Pause every time I stopped pedaling, and Resumed when I started again.

Running 1.14.6, updated 8/8/18

So I was very glad that I was running RWGPS alongside, although I didn't get any HR or CAD data because those were trapped by the EM.

Steve B.

njkayaker

Setting the elevation doesn't improve the accuracy of elevation gain.

Cyclists are generally interested in elevation gain (not absolute elevation).

​
GPS was designed for horizontal (surface) location. It's not great for elevation. A barometer improves the accuracy.

If the ride is relatively flat, the inherent errors in the measurement make a larger contribution to the gain number.

Steve B.

FlamsteadHill

Well that only makes sense, and that's the way it worked the first half dozen times I used it, other than once or maybe twice that I noticed. Next time I'm near my bike I will connect to it and see if/how AP might be configured. I would guess it's just a matter of being able to enable or disable it.