This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Bad experience with Bontrager ANT+ light and Edge 25

I just got Bontrager ION 700 RT light (Flare RT is on the way). These are ANT+ lights.

Regarding Edge 25's support of ANT+ light in 3.30 firmware: there's more less none. And very poorly implemented. Once you power on the Edge, it will automatically power on the light on high beam. It's not possible to change this behavior. And the only thing how you can actually control the light via Edge is to power it off and on again. When you hold the Edge power button (top left button), you get small context menu where you can choose whether you want to power off the light or the Edge. That's it.

Now, this was not the bad news, this was good news. Now the bad news:

You actually cannot use the Bontrager ION 700 RT light as stand alone light, not controlled by the Edge via this stupid simple mechanism described above. Because whenever the Edge detects the light around, it FORCES you to pair the light. How? Whenever the light gets close to Edge (within 10 meters), Edge shows pop-up message "Light detected, do you want to connect to it? Yes/No". And when you choose "No", you immediately get the same pop-up message again. Indefinitely. There's some deadlock in the Edge that when it detects light, you simply cannot refuse the pairing. You have to agree with pairing to break the vicious cycle of the pop-up message asking to pair it.

And the worse: suppose you're charging your Edge via external USB charger. You have the light paired, because you cannot have it not paired (see previous paragraph). You have the light powered off via the Edge command to power it off. Btw you cannot power it off via the button on the light, because if you do that, the Edge will immediately power it on again. So you power it off via Edge command. You leave the room with charging Edge to do something else. You return to the room 1 hour later only to find the light powered on, on high beam, slowly cooking itself.

:mad::mad::mad::mad:

To make myself clear, the light works perfectly fine alone, it does not power on by itself. It's only when it gets to range of Edge 25 and Edge starts meddling with it, forcing it's only light mode upon it and randomly powering it on. And you can't avoid that, because you have to pair the Edge 25 to be able to use it because of the vicious cycle of "light detected" infinite pop-up message.
  • I am having the same problem.  Can I disconnect my Edge 25 from my lights? 

  • Any updates on this? I am having the same problem - and this was 4 years ago.

  • I have the exact same problem.  Just spent over $100 for better lights but cannot use because Edge 25 will do nothing but ask to pair and if pair I cannot turn light on in daylight.  

  • I had a similar problem.  I bought the Ion Pro RT / Ion Flare RT a couple weeks ago to put on my urban bike, which has my Edge 25 attached.  The Bontrager owners manual indicates that the lights come with ANT+ and Bluetooth enabled.  As long as this is enabled you will have the challenges described above.  I don't think there is any value controlling the Bontrager lights via the Edge 25.  Too slow and the lights do not turn on in the mode I like.  The easy solution is just to disable ANT+ / Bluetooth on the lights.  I followed the Bontrager owners manual as follows:

    "To disable, with the light off, press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.  The main LED will flash once at 8 seconds, and again at 15 second.  Release the button after the second flash"

    I did this and the lights are completely unpaired from the Edge 25.  Works fine!

  • Exact same with me. Except it's my wife's Bontrager light for her bike. Whenever we ride together (often) the Garmin display would shut down if I said "no" pairing her light and my Garmin. So I finally gave up and said "ok". Now whenever my Garmin is on and my wife's light is nearby - like when they are charging - my Garmin turns on her light, and it won't go off no matter how many times you push the button. I have to shut down my Garmin to turn off her light! Stupid!! It is really no hardship to turn the light on/off by pressing the buttons on it. Has Garmin published a solution to this?