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Bontrager bike light mode and battery saver

Patryk
over 3 years ago

I have Garmin Edge 530 and and Bontrager Ion Pro front light and Flare RT backlight. 

Garmin 530 edge has some support for those lights out of the box. However the thing it lacks it a datafield that shows both lights battery state.

I managed to make a datafield that shows both light states and current modes using LightNetworkListener and also periodically reading the state and battery.

The only problem I'm experiencing is when the battery is critical the light automatically changes it's mode to some kind of power save to but does not report it to Garmin.

I wonder if there is a way to check this somehow but I'm afraid that it's the Bontrager lamp fault. I've heard that some higher models of Garmin have Connect IQ apps for Bontrager lamps.

You can see here that the battery is critical but the selected mode is 100%/Override but actually the light does not have this mode. I was planning to have a timer started the moment the light enters this battery saving mode because it lasts about 30 minutes until complete shutdown.

   

  • over 3 years ago

    I don't know what the Bontrager light is doing but it seems that the device should properly set the mode field to advertise what mode it is actually in. It is possible that the bike light ANT profile has some guidance about what should happen, but I kinda doubt it.

    I'm curious to know if the light is sending invalid status information, or if it just stops sending some information altogether. You should be able to display an indicator that light data is being passed to your listener and you're not just displaying stale data (just a count of the calls to onBikeLightUpdate would be enough).

    Honestly, the best way to debug this is to use an ANT+ dongle on your PC along with software like SimulANT+ to decode and display the data sent from the light. I haven't done this kind of thing in a long time, but it is definitely possible.

  • over 3 years ago in reply to Travis.ConnectIQ

    I've done some more tests and it seems that the light does not report the true state. It reports the mode in which it should be. When I push the button in power save mode the reported mode changes but obviously the LED has the same state. So there is communication is happening but the reported state is the state that the light should be in.

    When the mode changes to battery save mode, the onBikeLightUpdate is not called.

    I was wondering if there is some documentation for those lights? 

  • over 3 years ago in reply to Patryk

    You might find something at thisisant, but it could also be why there is an "Edge 1030, Bontrager" 

  • over 3 years ago
    Patryk said:
    I was wondering if there is some documentation for those lights? 

    I doubt you'll find documentation for the ANT+ behavior of these lights anywhere. I would think you could find protocol information for Bike Lights on thisisant.com, but I'm not seeing it.

    Patryk said:
    When the mode changes to battery save mode, the onBikeLightUpdate is not called.

    If onBikeLightUpdate is not called then it sounds like the device is no longer sending updates? How are you seeing that the light is changing reported states but is not actually changing? Are you polling the light state and seeing that it has changed but the callback is not invoked?

  • over 3 years ago in reply to Travis.ConnectIQ

    Also pooling does not get me the actual state. I try to get the states of lights every 60s just to be sure I don't miss anything.

    Here is the operation when the battery is not drained. When there is "s" prefix the information is from pooling every 60s. "u" means it's form onBikeLightUpdate listener.

    So when I push the button and change the mode/state it's gets it way to Garmin and everything works OK. Below when the battery is full.

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/eJq4utQTsDAj8FQy9

    When the battery is almost drained i think that the light reports back the desired state but actually switches back to power save mode.I'll post the the video as soon as the battery drains.The led does not change when buttons is clicked.

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/rjSo3WnHKZMLvkLn8

  • over 3 years ago

    Yeah, it is pretty easy to see that the headlamp claims it is in state CUS2 and CUS1 but it is not flashing like it did when the battery was charged. i.e., the ANT+ data is not reporting the actual light state.

    Given what I'm seeing, it appears to be an issue in the light software/firmware in that it isn't properly reporting the light status. I'm not personally familiar with the bontrager lights, but I'm guessing that the software can be updated.

  • over 3 years ago in reply to Travis.ConnectIQ

    Maybe it's possible to update but I doubt that I can get in contact with someone from Bontrager and report this error. Or maybe it's a feature ;-)

    It seems that there is no official way to update firmware although I read that there might have been another version for those lamps where the blue led was occasionally flashing all the time indicating that ANT+ is enabled. Not it only flashes when turned on. 

  • over 3 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    Unfortunately, some profiles are free. Others require a FREE upgrade to Adopter status (Shifter was like that). But the BIKE LIGHTS profile is MEMBER only and that cost $1500 to join. Ugh.

  • over 2 years ago in reply to Patryk

    Interesting, I have the old firmware which always flashes, I'd love to upgrade them to get rid of that. Did you ever find a way to upgrade them?

  • over 2 years ago in reply to winfij

    Maybe there is some way but I'd rather have a blinking led than a faulty battery indicator. I tried to contact Trek/Bontrager but they never responded. Some lady from support promised she would try.