Why do I need to disable and enable my heart rate monitor at the beginning of each ride? Edge 530 & Garmin HRM.

If the sensors are not within range of the 530 at startup, it will soon stop looking for them and then they will need to manually connected via the status screen.

I will try staying close to it when I turn it on.  I wondered if that might be an issue.  Although it does the same thing with my Cadence speed sensor on my road bike and I turn it on when I put it on the bike.  Do you think it makes a difference if the 530 is all the way off or just in sleep mode?

I use one of the old plastic Garmin HR straps which must be about 12 years old and no problems with connecting to the "530".

Likewise, with the Cadence and speed sensor, I can be a good 10 yards away from the bike and the 530 will detect it. After a ride, my bike can be out in the shed downstairs and I'm upstairs with the 530, and its constantly beeping telling me that it has detected my speed / cadence sensor as they have not yet gone to sleep. So the distance is quiet a good one for it to detect things and connect.

Likewise, I will start my Garmin in the house to set it up and it can be just thrown on the coffee table or on a window sill getting a good GPS signal and stabilising itself waiting for me to get ready, it does not detect my sensors on start up but when I get close to my bike later, it will detect them or as  soon as I move my bike.

Also on a ride, I can leave my bike outside a shop and go inside and when I get back to my bike, my HR monitor just reconnects on its own. And likewise, if it's not safe, I will remove the Garmin to go into the shop and once when when back at the bike, the Garmin reconnects with speed and cadence sensors.

So I cannot see why, you have to connect the sensors manually if they are not connected on start up or lose connection. My 530 seems to be searching all the time for sensors it has been bonded with to connect too and long after Start up.

Something is amiss.

Update to earlier reply - The searching stops a couple of minutes or so after an activity starts. Until then the sensor icon on the status screen will blink if the 530 is looking for a sensor. After that it will grey out and then needs to be manually enabled. (which is what happens if I forget to set the watch/HRM to broadcast mode at the start).

Perhaps install fresh batteries in the sensors.

I see the problem now as I have just experimented with mine, it's a situation that I have never come across.

But, if you have pressed start and your sensors have not been detected and you have not started to ride, no need to manually add your sensors. Just stop the device, discard the ride instead of saving, the 530 will start searching again and find your sensors and then just carry on.

I went out Tuesday to do an interval workout.  I tried to everything just right.   I stayed within two feet of the 530 and it immediately picked up the HRM.  Since I was home, I did wet the strap to make sure it was sending a signal.  I will find that step hard to do when in a hurry getting dressed in the back seat at a CX race.

The signal stayed connected but was intermittent until I got warm and was sweating a bit.

I will try a trainer workout soon and see if it picks up my speed sensor when on the road bike.

If I put my heartrate strap on and I am getting an intermittent reading, I will wet a finger and just run it underneath the strap where the sensors are, or take it off and give it a lick or just tighten the strap.

Before putting it on, sometimes if I think I might not get a good reading I will once again give it a lick or use electrode gel used for ultra scans etc. You can buy it in a chemists.