high solar intensity, 0% measured

I have the same issue with mine. When turning on Edge 1040 Solar, there is a chance that the solar collection will be disabled for the entire time, no matter how much sun there is. I monitored the solar intensity within a ride by creating a simple data field that displays the solarIntensity field and it was "-1" for the whole time. After finishing the ride I restarted Edge and the solar collection started to work again. I am using firmware version 12.15.

Also happened to me one time, after reboot it work flawlessly.

This happened again today and is now becoming a pattern.

While I get ready I leave the 1040 solar outside and on so it gets a correct temperature reading and GPS signal. 20 minutes or so.

Then I come out, turn the 1040s off, and turn it back on, and make sure it's connected to all the sensors.

Today, no solar again despite plenty of sunlight to at least make the measuring field move.

What's interesting is in the summary, it doesn't even mention solar at all. Instead of showing solar: 0% intensity and 0 time gain, it just isn't there at all.

A reboot fixed this for the last 20 mintues of the ride, but this is no solution.

cycleanalyze said:

A reboot fixed this for the last 20 mintues of the ride, but this is no solution.

We agree that this is not a suitable solution long term, and are sorry that you have seen this multiple times. 

Would you be willing to provide us with some information from your device if this occurs again? With your permission, I can reach out directly and list what we would need, and what format works best. This would be most useful after you have seen the 0% report when in direct sunlight. 

This information would allow us to escalate this experience for investigation. 

Sure happy to provide whatever you need 

Having the same issue… obviously it’s frustrating to say the least! Reboot wouldn’t even fix for me, it’s odd though, when I put the device to sleep it will give me an intensity reading for those 5 seconds, just not when the device is on and the solar graph is pulled up. I thought maybe I had to have ‘started’ a ride for the average intensity and time gained to show up but my last ride returned zero intensity and time gained. 

Same thing for me and I have sent a few emails to the edge email address with the fit files. It works or it does not an a reboot sometimes fixes it.  It has to be a firmware issue. Definitely not a heat issue as I am riding in 70 degree weather.

Well, you know what they say, misery loves company! I’d rather nobody was having this issue but it’s nice to know I’m not the only one… bummer that it’s really the main feature to set the unit apart from the 1030, and a couple hundred dollar difference from the 1040 (non solar), and all the sudden seems unreliable. I just updated to 12.16 and that made no difference. It seems that maybe a recent firmware update, maybe 12.14 or something has bricked the solar charging. Here’s hoping for a fix soon. Hopefully more people come forward and Garmin finds a solution. 

Yes for sure. The battery without solar is quite amazing but I bought the solar for the extra $$ as I would rather not have to charge it as much. I realize putting it on the charger for 15 minutes is way faster but that is not the point of this unit. I could have saved the $150 and got the non solar.

I did sent some FIT files with a couple examples a few days ago but have not heard anything yet.

Happened to me again yesterday, no solar power and 'sun' completely black, it's the third times in two weeks.