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Garmin Edge 520 Plus Woes

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Garmin Edge 520 Plus Woes

Old 03-13-19, 10:30 AM
  #26  
Steve B.
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Originally Posted by daoswald
I have an Edge 820. The first day things were a little tricky. The Connect app on my phone kept telling me that the device needed an update before I could add anything to it, and to check the Connect website. The Edge 820 would tell me to check the Connect app to turn on Wifi. There seemed to be no provision in the app itself to upgrade the GPS's firmware. ...those sorts of oddities.

But then something cool happened: I plugged in my phone to charge, and plugged in the Edge 820 to charge. While they were charging the phone app sent an update over to the GPS. The GPS, once fully charged, displayed a message that to complete the upgrade I needed to unplug the device. I followed that instruction, and the device updated. After that both the phone and the GPS needed to have the bluetooth paring removed, and then they needed to re-pair. At that point they were both using the latest versions of the software, and were fully compatible.

Now everything works as expected; as it should. ...maybe even better than expected. I discovered just yesterday that even if I create a route using the connect.garmin.com website, I can then tell my phone to send it over to the GPS. I don't have to install software on my computer. Any ride info that gets recorded automatically syncs with my phone's Connect app, and then up to my Garmin Connect account. Strava also just works. The on-device routing works well enough, too.
FWIW there's isn't any device that I would allow to get OS updates via WiFi. Sometimes the stuff getting updated is the WiFi part and trouble develops. Always a smart move to update via a hardwire. I do all my Apple devices via iTunes as it effortlessly backs up. I do my Di2 system (rarely) via the hardwired PC connection as many, many reports are out there about bricked systems on a via BT update. And I do my Garmin via the PC and USB cable to Garmin Express.

Just good practice.
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Old 03-13-19, 10:32 AM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by seajaye
Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. Can you choose which rides from RWGPS get synced to Bolt? I have hundreds of courses but only need a handful for a brevet. If this Edge 520+ keeps giving me headaches I will re-consider a Bolt for France.

In any case, the original questions still stand. I'd like to develop a streamlined system to get this thing functioning like my old 500.
Do some research on this as last I recall one bit*h about the Wahoo/RWGPS interface is there's not a lot of control over which routes are downloaded to the App. I think all get sent but you might be able to select only which ones desired to the device.
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Old 03-13-19, 10:41 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by seajaye
What does Garmin Connect do, slash solve? I don't really want my unit to be tied to my phone, because now I'll have two things to worry about charging.

I initially wanted to get a Wahoo, but after reading a lot of the reviews, it seems like it needs to be tethered with your phone. Even if not needs, then maybe it's just simply designed to heavily lean on your phone. One of the things I love(d) about Garmin is
that they can be totally stand-alone units. I don't want navigation to fail because I went out of cellular range or something silly like that.
Garmin Connect is the Garmin online version of RideWithGPS. It tracks data from a lot of different Garmin devices in one place (I use a Garmin Swim watch as example). As well you can easily create new navigable "courses" (RWGPS equiv. to Routes) in Connect that can easily be sent to the device. I tend to use this instead of RWGPS as I don't have to hard wire via USB to to a PCF to transfer a RWGPS route (I think there's a 3rd party app that can do this via BT, never tried it).

If you have the Garmin Connect Mobile app on a smart phone, GCM will do a one button sync of a navigable course to the device. At the end of the ride you can save a completed track, it'll automatically upload to the GCM app, then will go to online Garmin Connect. That can then automatically send it to Strava, RWGPS or others, if you desire to have an cloud based record of your rides.

And no, you do not need the Wahoo app to use a Bolt/Elemnt after initial setup. You can leave the phone at home if you want. They are stand alone devices that record the tracks and save internally. The smartphone app is used to send the competed ride data somewhere else.
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Old 03-13-19, 10:47 AM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by seajaye
Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. Can you choose which rides from RWGPS get synced to Bolt? I have hundreds of courses but only need a handful for a brevet. If this Edge 520+ keeps giving me headaches I will re-consider a Bolt for France.

In any case, the original questions still stand. I'd like to develop a streamlined system to get this thing functioning like my old 500.
Hey SeaJaye, I'd have to check. I've never had a reason to do it so can 't say for sure. I pretty sure you can "pin" the routes that you want in RideWithGPS and all of them should be displayed first with a black "star" next to the route name in the Bolt.....followed by all the others (if that makes sense). Again...I'd have to check, no way to do it now as I'm at work.
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