Garmin 530 power drops

As chance would have it, I have another dual-sided-dual-radio PM (Pioneer). It's not as bad, but I still see drops on the 530 that I don't see on the other head units.

I also see drops with my Di2, ANT+ lights, and ANT+ radar devices on the 530. It's possible that your testing protocol just isn't robust enough to cause the issues to surface. More devices equals a noisier space.

What that indicates to me is that there's an issue with the 530. If it was just the PM, it would reproduce on every head unit. If it was just the PM, it wouldn't happen with everything that I put on my bike that has a radio.

What's also interesting is that, as I'm sure you know, ANT+ is a one-to-many protocol. If the PM wasn't sending the samples, or they were corrupt, etc. the other head units that I am recording the session on at the same time would also see drops. But that doesn't happen. I'll see the drops only the 530, where the other computers, which are located in roughly the same physical space, don't stop receiving and displaying the data.

As I said before, it's quite possible that the issue is worse with the Specialized PM than other PMs. Which if true could indicate a couple different things (at least):

1) The Specialized PM has a weaker radio than other PMs, which in concert with the 530's receiver, causes the issue to occur more frequently.

2) The Specialized PM does something with its implementation of the ANT+ power protocol that the 530 doesn't handle well (e.g. race conditions)

As an expert with almost 10 years of experience with a power meters, you are naturally free to disagree with my conclusions, but you'll have to forgive me if I conclude that it's pretty clear that there's an issue with the 530 given the permutations (multiple PMs, multiple 2.4GHz devices, multiple head units) that I've played with here. 

Did You try to make a factory reset on your 530 (without any backup , so starting from default state) and pairing only the Speci cranks to this and test? Maybe it helps and/or the too much ANT+ stuff kills the Speci's signal, these ANT+ radars and ANT+ lights are probably (signal) killers ... 

yes, these 2 options could be true:

1) The Specialized PM has a weaker radio than other PMs, which in concert with the 530's receiver, causes the issue to occur more frequently.

2) The Specialized PM does something with its implementation of the ANT+ power protocol that the 530 doesn't handle well (e.g. race conditions)

This is my second 530. The first was RMA'd for other reasons. Both have this problem...

Yes, extra devices add extra noise, but the other computers deal with it fine...

Then need to swap to another model or brand :) like Wahoo , with defective LCD panels... (none of them are perfect unfortunately...)  Hard to find the best devices for sure , lots of people bought/tried so many cr.p powermeters without proper knowledge which one is good and which not and struggled with them months/year/s/ and lost their hairs...

Yes, nothing is perfect. On balance, the 530 is my preferred device at the moment. There are some really interesting new entrants in the market though, so it's important for the current leader to pay attention and nail the basics. Innovation and service are massively important. It would be very unfortunate if Garmin followed Nokia's path...

The point in discussing this here is to raise the volume in the hope that Garmin notices. As I mentioned before, it does seem to be at least somewhat dependent on the firmware version, so it is likely that they can make it better.

Thanks Luko. Yes, from 5-15 minutes it was me causing the power drops. I was performing single-sided leg intervals which created pauses between switching. After 15 minutes the ride was continuous. Attached is the TR file. Disregard from 5-15 minutes.

.Ericsson -1.zip

Any news regarding the dropouts ?

My 530 with fw 9.1 still drops the 4iiii PM (4.2.0 firmware). sometimes for 1 second, sometimes for 10 sec (after 10 sec garmin shows that PM has been reconnected).

What I notice today, that when I disconnect the speed sensor  (Garmin v2, setup: fixed wheel ratio) form 530, the crashes (more than 10 sec) gone - and the small dropouts scientifically less...  i think it's something with algorithms in software, which are responsible for counting ratio between power, cadence and speed. Tomorrow will test without speed sensor. 

Changing the battery in 4iii - with no success - still dropouts

Changing powermeter for PowerTap P1 - also dropouts

Changing PM for Quarq - no dropouts - clear!

Tacx Neo 2T - conneted as speed meter - also dropouts

My 530 has been replaced with new one by Garmin - no success, still dropouts

And recording the same activity with 530 and FR945 - no dropouts on F945 at all.

Garmin, please do something with the sensor of 530!!