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Getting the Garmin chest strap to start working

So, I have been a very happy 530 owner for the past several months. I use the Garmin chest strap with it for my HR.. and so far this has worked very well. No issues.

However, lately.. when I power on the unit and get ready to clip in.. I notice that my HR is not showing.. it often takes a round of power cycles, or going into settings and "enabling / disable" the HR sensor for it to come back online. Or, I will need to manually click on "connect". This am, I did all of this.. and finally got it working.. and started to cycle. I kept getting drop outs until my HR was around 100bpm.. and then it seemed to work just fine.

After each ride, I be sure to wash the strap.. I have it snug. All the FW is updated. Thoughts?

Top Replies

Wongataa over 5 years ago +2

Are you wetting the sensor areas of the strap when you put it on? That helps it pick up your HR.

All Replies

0 7828711 over 5 years ago

PS. Will the Edge 530 let me know when the battery is low on one of my sensors? (Speed, Candace, HR etc?)

0 Kurev over 5 years ago

When you say firmware is updated, do you mean latest official (5.10) or latest beta (5.44)? Official SW is already like 5 months old, and betas have fixes for sensor connections.

530 will alert you of low battery of sensors, if the sensors themselves provide battery status information.

0 7828711 over 5 years ago in reply to Kurev

Yes non beta. Do the Garmin sensors offer the battery notice? Thats all I use.

0 Wongataa over 5 years ago

Are you wetting the sensor areas of the strap when you put it on? That helps it pick up your HR.

0 7828711 over 5 years ago in reply to Wongataa

Oh, this is a good tip. I will for sure give that a try. I have not done that.

0 WalterB over 5 years ago in reply to 7828711

The sensor should work without the strap if you take it in both hands by the metal buttons, one hand on each side.
This way you rule out contactproblems in the strap.

0 bikepc01 over 5 years ago

More than once I've cured a faulty heart rate chest strap by taking the coin battery out, put it back in upside down (the normally wrong position) for a short moment and re-inserting the battery in the normal position. To be sure it is not the battery itself that's causing the failure, take a new one (at least while testing). Maybe it's not what Garmin supports, so do this at your own risk.

0 rrr over 5 years ago in reply to bikepc01

In many cases, inserting a battery "upside down" can damage electronics. Not sure if this can damage a 530. My 2 cents.

0 af0002 over 5 years ago

Use electrodes gel.

I started using it about 5 years ago, and found it eliminated any issues I had with the strap not transmitting at the start of a workout.

www.parkerlabs.com/spectra-360.asp

It usually only lasts about 1 hour, but after then I rarely have issues.

0 bikepc01 over 5 years ago in reply to rrr

rrr said:
In many cases, inserting a battery "upside down" can damage electronics. Not sure if this can damage a 530. My 2 cents.

It's the battery of the heart strap where I'm talking about, not the 530! What is intended and factually happening while inserting the battery upside down is shorting the plus (+) and minus (-) terminal. This should be harmless. However, applying real power with reverse polarity can harm the electronics - you are right in that.