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Is Garmin Express supposed to work with third-party ANT+ dongles, or only the official Garmin one?

I picked up a third-party ANT+ dongle, and it works with Windows. But I noticed that Garmin Express doesn't see it when I try to add it as a device.

Does GE only work with the official Garmin ANT+ dongle, or should it also work with any third-party one?

  • It lists the Edge 840,

    Hmmm, indeed it does. I was quite convinced, that only some old watches could be synced over ANT+. If the list of compatible devices is correct, then it means I was wrong and it is indeed possible to sync an edge with garmin express over ANT+. I apologise If I caused any confusion.

    To settle the discussion I'll do the following:

    I have the original Garmin ANT+ dongle and an Edge Explore 2 (which is also on the compatibility list). I'll try syncing it with Garmin Express over ANT+ and I'll let you know if it worked.

  • I'm actually not concerned whether the Edge specifically syncs through the ANT+ dongle (it would be nice, though). I'm just hoping to find out whether a third-party dongle is compatible with Garmin Express or not.

    But, if you can confirm that the Garmin ANT+ is at least seen by Garmin Express, it would tell me that GE is still working with ANT+ sticks from Garmin.

  • I can confirm that right away. Not so long ago I synced an old Forerunner 310XT with Garmin Express over ANT+. I assume, that as long as proper drivers are installed, a 3rd party dongle should work as well.

  • Thanks for checking. I tried both the drivers supplied by the manufacturer, and the ones from Garmin. But Garmin Express simply doesn't see it :(  I think it only supports the official one, unless someone proves otherwise.

  • I have both a generic ANT+ dongle and an original one. I tried it on my Garmin Edge 130 Plus, but it does not see it with either. Having said that, the Edge cycling computers isn't designed to communicate with the computer, but to communicate with the heartrate monitor, cadence sensor etc. using ANT+ or Bluetooth. You can ONLY synchronize your Edge device via the USB cable connected to your computer. 

  • Thanks for confirming.