A day in your life with an Edge 530's unreliability.

I had used mine yesterday to follow a course on my MTB.
I also had the effect of "start" press when I accepted the "start the course" so pressing start button again actually stopped it. I pressed right after to continue.

I never had an issue of it showing me moving if I had no satellite or showing pulse w/o a sensor actually connected.

I'm with 8.2 waiting for the next beta version to fix the sensors mess, but generally except disconnection here and there, all is fine.

First of all always wait for GPS lock before starting a route.  Not doing so will confuse the device.  I find it best to load the course you want to follow and then press start.  No confusion then if the device asks you if you want to start if you are at the start point.

You will get used to turning off the device when unplugging from a computer.  You can use any USB charger to charge them as well.

Regarding deviating from your planned course.  Yes they do that from time to time.  Sometimes it is because the installed map doesn't have a valid connection between parts of your route when in fact there is one in real life so it cannot route through that particular location.  Sometimes it will put you on a close but different path because for some reason it thinks it is better.  It is one of the quirks of these units and has been for years.  You can ignore deviations.  Maybe try different maps to see if they work better for you.

Every GPS head unit out there will have quirks that are a bit annoying.  It doesn't matter what brand.  You will get used to them or have to try a different one to see if you can live those quirks.

I ignore VP as I have no interest in it.  Maybe a region of poor GPS lock in this ride or the recorded ride being used for VP caused some strange info?

The only way to have HR information is to have connected it to a HR monitor. You must have paired to one somehow.  heck the sensor listings for HR monitors.

Personally I have very little issues with mine.

Maybe contact garmin as it sounds like there is a software problem. I have had no problems with mine. Best garmin I have had and I have had edge computers since the 305

For PBP  and Audax / Randonneur type rides especially for mandatory routes I would not trust any Garmin routing but would disable "Turn Guidance" and just follow the magenta course line with the map zoomed enough to clearly see junctions, perhaps enable "Off Course" warnings in case you miss a turn and throw in a few course points for controls and a limited number of other points you want to know about. This approach provides the best reliability and least battery usage. For 2019 PBP I prepared maps and courses and instructions along these lines for various club members with 520 / 530 / 830 and no-one reported any issues while all around them Garmins using "Turn Guidance"  were crashing .

Everything you mention I have been doing for years so nothing new you mention. I never use "course's" for events and only GPX tracks with no guidance. "Course's" are the main cause of problems as a Garmin can alter them and these changes cannot be seen until you come across anomalies whilst riding, but a GPX track, they cannot, even if the map has roads etc missing. But, there are two types of GPX track, one with guidance and one without, the one with guidance built in, I avoid.

The whole point of my posting is, the 530 is unfit for purpose and most of its functions bugged. Would you buy a brand new car and be happy with it if things on it did not work, or be happy with it and make do and just find workarounds?

There is only one type of GPX track.  It does not have any built in turn guidance. It is up to the user whether they want to use the Garmin turn guidance or not.  That is a user selectable option.

Garmin's do not alter any courses you put on the unit.  If you use the Garmin turn by turn guidance it generates it's own course by following the one you put on the unit and seeing which roads etc it can use to follow it and it creates the turn instructions.  This course is created during the calculation phase and is not saved to the unit.  This is the thick magenta line you see on the map screen.  The thin magenta line on the map screen is the original course which you will only usually see if the Garmin version has deviated for some reason or you have zoomed in a long way if you are using turn guidance.

If you have turn guidance turned off you will just get the thin magenta line of the original course on the map screen and it is up to the user to navigate along it.

If you create TCX course files you can put course points in them.  These can contain any information you want but are often used for navigation prompts.  When you reach the location of a course point the text pops up onto the screen.  You can enable and disable course points on an individual course basis in the course settings  Course points are completely separate from Garmin's turn guidance and are created at the route creation stage by the route planner being used.

In my experience most of the functions work just fine.  All the ones I use have no issues.  Navigation has some quirks but does work.

I worded it wrong as I relate to everything as GPX route as there is a GPX track as well, but both formats still have the same extension of "GPX" which can cause confusion. One should have been tagged, "GPR" and the other "GPT". I have 100's of GPX files on my PC for events, and I do not know what version they are till I load them up.

From the "Ridewithgps" website:-

"GPX FILES

There are two kinds of GPX files: GPX Track and GPX Route.

GPX Track This file type contains the thousands of points used to draw the map. Your GPS will follow this track and is the next most common format we recommend for units that cannot use a TCX Course file."

You say, "Garmin's do not alter any courses you put on the unit." but then you say they do, "The thin magenta line on the map screen is the original course which you will only usually see if the Garmin version has deviated for some reason"

The truth of the matter is Garmins will change a course, I have had it on events riding with others using the same official course, when at junctions we get a disparity on which way we should go. It happened on PBP 2019, The American rider I was with said we go right by his Garmin, mine said straight on. He was using a TCX, I was using a GPX track.

Many a time in the past, my course has been changed to go across fields where there is no evidence of a track or path or anything. Which is why I do not use TCX files or GPX files with the guidance and stick to the GPX track as they never get altered.

I know you have a lot of experience in this area but just to be clear it is not the format (FIT, TCX, GPX) that determines if "guidance" is used but the setting in the Course Options on the Garmin. All of these formats will provide the same "guidance" if the Turn Guidance setting is enabled. Exporting a Course from the planning site (RWGPS or GC or other) will all have identical "track points" , same number and same positions. GPX Track or GPX Route formats slightly complicate things but I don't know anyone who uses GPX Route as these would cause the maximum route variation when the Garmin "calculates" its route.

Best results for course consistency is using OSM Maps in the Planning software as these will provide the maximum consistency between the "planned" route and the Garmin Route when calculated with the internal map.

I agree it is nice to have the "turn guidance" to provide the warning that a turn is approaching but this comes at too much of a cost in terms of possible / likely issues.

Perhaps see you at Rambouillet in a little less than two years, my preparation has been limited by an accident and lockdowns last year and lockdowns this, hopefully I am ready.

leginswal said:

During the ride, I noticed the 530 wanting me to deviate from the course that I had created on a ride that I had rode the day before and go a different way, Why? Is the 530's route planning flawed as well and cannot even copy a ride that has been ridden?

If you want to follow a prescribed course, turn recalculation off or prompted.

Settings> Activity Profile> [Profile Name]> Navigation> Routing> Recalculation> Off or Prompted.

L.Rouge said:

For PBP  and Audax / Randonneur type rides especially for mandatory routes I would not trust any Garmin routing but would disable "Turn Guidance"

It is not Turn Guidance that is the issue, but Recalculation.