Bontrager Flare RT battery bug

Hello

I made a datafield to show status of both Bontrager light. Flare RT in the back and Ion in the front.

I notticed that when I discharge the battery of rear light to the point that it turns off after charing the battery it still reports empty battery.

It reports empty battery through ANT+ and also the red led lights up. When I reset the lamp (15 s to turn off ANT+ and again 15s to turn it on) battery status is correct.

Does anyone have this light and can confirm it? Maybe my unit is faulty however it seems like a firmware bug.

You have to drain the battery and the connect it to charger. When the green light shows up, disconnect the power.

After that when turning the light on you should see blue and then red led (instead of green)

I tried to contact Bontrager/Trek but after initial response I didn't get any answer.

Top Replies

9671585 over 3 years ago +2

A bit of a workaround on this. While the lights are plugged in to power (and fully charged), power them on while your head unit is on, this seems to kick the status into shape as the lights LED status…
doucetp over 3 years ago +1

Hi,

Same issue for me. You have to reset the light to get back to the green status. Have a look to: forums.garmin.com/.../bontrager-flare-rt-battery-level-indicator
ManuS5 over 3 years ago +1

My first Flare 200 RT started to shows irregularities on the Garmin while decreasing the battery..5 led 4 led then jump to 2 led then Low or 5 4 3 the Low...so after a year I sent it back to Trek and send…

All Replies

2648174 4 months ago

I had an issue with mine when the ANT+ was activated, even after following the directions to reset the light it would do it again later, so I made sure the light was off, then I held the power button for about 15 seconds until the main LED flashed once after about 8 seconds elapsed, then it flashed again after about 15 seconds then I released the power button. After being turning off the ANT it's been working without a single hiccup for the last 3 years. This bluetooth technology has bugs, this light is so easy to use the ANT crap isn't necessary, so forget the headaches and turn off the ANT.

Trek corporation has gotten too big for their britches, they won't help people anymore.

2648174 4 months ago

I had an issue with mine when the ANT+ was activated, even after following the directions to reset the light it would do it again later, so I made sure the light was off, then I held the power button for about 15 seconds until the main LED flashed once after about 8 seconds elapsed, then it flashed again after about 15 seconds then I released the power button. After turning off the ANT it's been working without a single hiccup for the last 3 years. This Bluetooth technology has bugs, this light is so easy to use the ANT crap isn't necessary, so forget the headaches and turn off the ANT.

Trek corporation has gotten too big for their britches, they won't help people anymore.

tomasz.loba 4 months ago in reply to 2648174

Where do you have Bluetooth in FLARE or ION lights?

Turning off ANT+ in them makes the RT models kind of useless, as the whole idea of them is that they can be controlled from your Garmin device.

In recent months I had even more serious problem with the ION RT, as it caused some extra problems. After resetting the ION, even Varia RTL 515 would not show on EDGE's display page. It showed error 3 I think. And it took a while to get it sorted. This would happen every so often, not every time. But it started to drive me nuts!

So I've decided to get rid of Bontrager for good and get Varia UT800. All problems went away! :)

On top of that I have a longer lasting front light, and more powerful. No need to take additional one for evening rides, and when coming back home after sunset.

TimTaylor 3 months ago in reply to tomasz.loba

Gute Nachricht, das Problem lag nicht bei dem Bontrager RT Frontlicht, sondern bei Garmin.

Ich habe mein Garmin 1040 auf die neue Beta Firmware 24.08 geupdatet und das Problem ist behoben, wenn ich nun das RT Frontlicht Lade, zeigt auch der Garmin 1040 die richtige Akkuladung an, also kein ewiges Zurücksetzen oder sonstige Tricks.

Good news, the problem was not with the Bontrager RT front light, but with Garmin. I have updated my Garmin 1040 to the new Beta firmware 24.08 and the problem has been resolved, if I now load the RT front light, the Garmin 1040 also shows the correct battery charge, so no eternal reset or other tricks.