I've had continuous troubles with running my Varia alongside my Garmin Edge 1030 Plus, but lately, with firmware 6.75, I've reached a state that is much worse than the usual bad. Garmin support suggests this is currently unfixable and I'm waiting on a software update but there's no timeline for the update. I thought I'd post to the forum in case other users had come up with troubleshooting steps that worked that they could share, and to share the troubleshooting steps I've taken.
Current state:
- If my Edge 1030Plus is paired with my radar, it cycles through connecting and disconnecting. After it connects with the Varia, it usually turns it off. If I stop and turn the varia on again, it turns it on again. If I then test it while stopped alongside the road, it works. Sometimes I can even adjust the blinking mode. If I start my ride again (unpause), it immediately disconnects the varia. When I look, the varia is actually turned off (worse yet). This happens even if the varia is just attached as a radar to the garmin and is being paired to a watch (I've tried w/ and w/o the watch). This is leaving me not wanting to troubleshoot much at all on rides, since the minute the Edge connects it is liable to turn off the light as well as not register radar, so not only don't I get the benefits of the Varia but I lose the rear running lights I've always ridden with.
- Added data point: on about half my rides, the Edge loses track of my HR sensor from my watch. (I usually double-record rides since I can't trust the edge, so in that case I just delete the ride from the Edge, which is mostly annoying if I'm doing a workout, since I only run the workout on the computer).
- Other data point: to simplify this round of testing, I've only connected the essentials: varia, HR, power meter. I have a front blinky light that is usually part of a light network, but I didn't tell the Edge about it to avoid adding variables to the troubleshooting process.
- The closest to a usable experience I can get is deleting the radar sensor off the edge entirely and then just running it from my Fenix watch -- then it works fine.
Troubleshooting steps (this round):
- I contacted Garmin support. The first guy had me manually delete folders (Courses/Activities/Workouts/New Files/etc) from the device, then power cycle the device, meaning of course I lost all my routes. Then he had me delete all sensors from the device and re-add them. No dice.
- I contacted Garmin support again. They told me they knew there was an issue with sensors with the current firmware, but they had no timeline for a fix. Basically, I'm SOL.
*Previous states/troubleshooting, for reference:*
1. In the recent past (with this same firmware) I thought the issue was entirely related to the light network, and it would seem my watch and the edge would fight for control of the lights (I have a front light as well as a rear light). For a long time I had the varia working reliably by turning *off* the light network on my Edge so it wouldn't try to control the lights; then I could control the varia from my watch (it would start/stop it with the ride) and hear it from my Edge, which would beep and register cars for me.
2. One time before several months back I had the folder deleting trick work, so that's worth a try at least if you're experiencing this.
3. In the more distant past, I had bizarre issues where my power meter would only talk to my watch or my Edge and they'd fight over the light network. In that case, I'd have rides where the data would clearly show I'd have power data on one device for the first and last third of the ride say, and power data on the other device for the intermittent third. This led to me believing the two garmin devices could interfere with one another, which is why I've done testing with only one or the other device in this round, though I like to double-record rides since I don't trust Garmin, and I use my watch as an HR monitor anyway.
