Smart Bike Lights (Data Field) / Bike Lights Control (Widget)

I've made two open source CIQ applications to control ANT+ lights:

- Smart Bike Lights (data field): https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/0d9fd828-c932-4470-9c37-fd2828881888 

      Configurator: https://maca88.github.io/SmartBikeLights/ 

- Bike Lights Control (widget): https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/fa3c2332-76e3-4ba1-8528-32a0fd617ab1 

     Configurator: https://maca88.github.io/BikeLightsControl/ 

Smart Bike Lights features:
- Automatic light control (Smart mode) based on the configured filters (sunset, sunlight, speed, ...)
- Manual light control (only for Edge devices with a touch screen or devices with CIQ 3.2 and more than 32KB memory)
- Records lights modes that are displayed in Garmin Connect

Bike Lights Control features:
- Manual light control (available to all devices)

Both applications can be installed on the same device, which can be useful for low end devices (e.g. Edge 520) where "Bike Lights Control" can be used to change light modes manually and "Smart Bike Lights" for automatic light control.

Currently registered ANT+ lights:
- Bontrager Ion Pro RT
- Bontrager Ion 200 RT
- Bontrager Flare RT
- Garmin Varia RTL500
- Garmin Varia RTL510
- Garmin Varia RTL515
- Garmin Varia HL500
- Garmin Varia UT800

in case your ANT+ light is not on the list you can help by doing the following:

1. Install Bike Lights Control
2. Pair your bike light with your Garmin device
3. Open the widget:
- Edge with a touch screen: post which numbers are displayed on the buttons and what mode each button represents when pressed
- Other devices: Select the "Light modes" menu and post which numbers are displayed in the menu and what mode each menu item represents when selected

Example for Bontrager Ion Pro RT:


1 -> High steady beam
2 -> Medium steady beam
5 -> Low steady beam
63 -> Day flash
62 -> Night flash

There are some features that could be possible to add in the future, but would require Garmin to add them to the CIQ api. In case you are interested in any of the below features, consider upvoting their feature request thread:

1. Control lights based on the ambient light sensor available on some devices:
https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/i/bug-reports/ambient-light-sensor-api-access 

  • Hi maca88, thanks for your great work

    is it possible there are other mode mappings on the EU version of the Ion Pro RT?

    I have the Ion Pro RT but as soon as I include any sort of flashing modes (63 or 62) I get Error 3 in the data field, when I remove them it seems to be working normally. Any clue if there are other mode mappings being used?

    (using Edge 1040/Ion Pro RT/Varia RTL515)

  • Hi,

    is it possible there are other mode mappings on the EU version of the Ion Pro RT?

    I doubt it, as I also have an EU version of Ion Pro RT. I had few reports regarding Bontrager lights showing strange light modes (12, 14 instead of 62, 63) and usually a factory reset solved the issue. If you clear the configuration, which numbers do you see inside the buttons?


    Try to do a factory reset by holding the power button for 15 seconds (release the button after the second flash). You need to the factory reset twice as after the first reset, ANT will be disabled and then when resetting it for the second time, it will be re-enabled.

  • Hi,

    Unfortunately it is not possible. Garmin didn't add the ability to override the flashing behavior when a vehicle is approaching. You can check the official documentation about the available flashing behaviors:
    https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-C41F445D-457F-447D-88C8-FE286BF157E9/EN-US/GUID-4587F7D3-DEE0-422D-9450-D125E15C4EA0.html 

  • Thanks for the quick response, it really was 12 and 14. 

    I will try a factory reset tomorrow and see if it changes.

  • Hi maca88,

    I have been using smart bike lights for 10 months, data field is very useful and I really like its.

    unfortunately I have recently noticed strange behaviour when cycling in bad weather conditions and drivers inf front of me signalized that I am "invisible" when my lights should be normally switched on.

    Description of problem:

    when I start the ride lights are switched on normally accordingly to my data field settings but then, for example when I stop my bike and "brake light" is run lights hangs. they are not switched off until I again open Garmin screen with smart bike lights. 

    sadly, the situation repeats randomly and I never know real state of lights. whether they are on or off.

    I tried to  unninstal other garminie datafields because I suspected problem with insufficient amount of memory or processor power - no changes:(

    i am thinking of resetting of my GARMIN 1040 unit but no additional ideas.  

    my setup is as follows:

    1,1!Start:1H]0#4587520,196641::1#7,5!TUNEL:1:2:0:0G[3!SREDNI:2:2:0:0C]8.33333Es0,r0!SLABY:1:5:0:0Es-900,r0!BLYSK:2:63:0:0Er0,s0C]2.22222!:1:0:0:0D=1#0,73404416::1#9,6!TUNEL:1:4:0:0G[3!HAMUJ:2:4:0:0C]1.94444A[-10!BLYSK:1:7:0:0I]-1]0!PULS:2:6:0:0B[5Es-600,r600!NOCSB:2:6:0:0Es-600,r600I]-1]0!:1:0:0:0D=1#7,6:Ion Pro RT:11206400:16777215!2,:-1,Wyłączone:0!1,Mocne:1!1,Średnie:2!1,Słabe:5!1,Błysk:63!1,Puls:62#5,4:Varia 510:11206400:16777215!2,:-1,Wyłączone:0!1,Stałe:4!1,Błysk:7!1,Puls:6#0::#0:0#1!:1!#0#0#B3843#1#2#0#0

  • Only today the Bontrager lights got discharged, after a month of daily use. That's fantastic. In the end, the lights started dropping off on Individual Light Network. Reinstall helped. Under certain battery level, they worked only manually. After charge, the same issue came as on Garmin Light Network: battery status wrong. After 15sec resets, they were gone from the data field. After Garmin 830 reboot, data field turn off/on, no luck. This time I didn't want to restart so I made a bogus change to the config, and the lights came back. So now I know there're two ways to recover the light network: reinstall or update config. I wish there was a reset action with such impact integrated into UI:)

  • Hi,

    unfortunately I have recently noticed strange behaviour

    How recently, are we talking in days or weeks? The Smart mode logic didn't changed recently, the only thing that was recently released (12/05) was the new Edge 1040 firmware version 17.26. If you are experiencing strange behavior after upgrading to firmware 17.26 then maybe that could have something with it.

    for example when I stop my bike and "brake light" is run lights hangs. they are not switched off

    When you stop the bike and the lights are still turned on, which group name (e.g. BLYSK, SLABY, ...) do you see for each light?

    they are not switched off until I again open Garmin screen with smart bike lights. 

    What do you mean by opening again the Garmin screen with Smart Bike Lights? Do you have Smart Bike Lights on a secondary data screen that is not displayed when you ride?

    Overall the provided configuration is fine, so I am not sure that could the issue be especially if you uninstalled other CIQ applications. I know that Smart Bike Lights do not work when "Tempe Visualizer" data field is also installed due to a bug in CIQ (ANT lights + background services), which sadly I cannot do much about it. 

  • After charge, the same issue came as on Garmin Light Network: battery status wrong. After 15sec resets, they were gone from the data field.

    That is unfortunately a known issue with Bontrager Flare RT lights, where the battery status is not always up to date. You need to do the factory reset (15sec button press) twice as the first time the ANT connection will be disabled. With the second factory reset, the ANT connection is enabled again. After I charge my Flare RT I have to do the factory reset twice to reset the battery level and to be seen by Edge again.

    This time I didn't want to restart so I made a bogus change to the config, and the lights came back.

    Are you sure that a config change fixed the issue and not something else? Did you made a bogus change to a configuration with Individual Light Network or native Garmin Light Network to make the lights come back?

  • Actually the ANT status is easily visible during reset by blue LED light. So i reset both at the same time but only one came up. I changed the Individual Light Network config. Like there was some lazy cache - I could see the light in the Garmin Network during search.

  • When the Bontrager lights are connected to EDGE, charge the Bontrager lights, and then immediately disconnect the micro usb charging cable, it seems that the power display of the Bontrager lights can be restored to the correct level