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Most stable Edge 530 FW version?

I am about to obtain a 530, and since i see problems with FW versions (looks like modus operandi for Garmin), i was wondering what would be the most stable version you would recommend?

I am interested in good battery life, reliable turn by turn navigation, ClimbPro, HR and cadence sensors with no dropouts, ambient temperature, HR zones, basicaly to have a reliable cyclocomp.

thanks

0 L.Rouge over 3 years ago

Thing is not everyone has the dropouts and those that do have them in many different ways. Some people identify version 8 as the start of the "recent" dropouts while version 9.40 has flushed out a new round of dropouts for people who have not had them before. If you do some searching on this forum you will find a round of dropout complaints in version 3 & 4 going back 3 years, these seemed to have then subsided.

Garmin seems (?) to be of the opinion that dropouts don't exist but does not provide any guidance as to what WE are doing wrong to cause them. Many people have sent copies of fit files with gaps and debug logs etc but no solution seems to come back.

I have only had a 530 for 16 months (after a 200, 510, 520 in the previous decade) and it came with version 6 FW. I had no dropouts with 6 or 7 but they started after version 8 and continued in 9 BUT only with my Garmin/Tacx Smart trainer, never on the road with my speed and cadence sensors, I never use a connection to phone while riding. The trainer became unusable with the 530 due to dropouts which in my case were betwen the garmin and the resistance control unit, the resistance would disappear and I would find myself "motoring" up a 10% slope at 35kph for 20-30+ minutes, impressive but not real, could only be cleared by turning the 530 off (turning the trainer off did not fix it). So I have gone back to 7.10 (which is still available on the 530 forum)

Otherwise the 530 is a good device with some great features (great screen and great battery life) and it is mystifying why so many people have dropout issues and Garmin can't help

So if you are happy to get a 530 it will likely come with a recent version 9 and I would run (ride) with that until you have the problem, you might not or you might acquire it in some future version update. Some people say 9.10 did not have issues (for them) others like me identify v8 as the start,

Good Luck

0 Peraklo over 3 years ago in reply to L.Rouge

I also use Tacx Trainer, but with my laptop through bluetooth, because i like to have nice videos and stuff to see, so i dont think that could be a problem for me.

Other than that, yeah, i will just have to see :) I have Magene sensors which are working perfectly with Edge Explore and Vivoactive 4, so im guessing, if no dropouts, should be fairly ok with 530 too.

Thanks for comprehensive answer.

0 Cranky K. over 3 years ago in reply to Peraklo

I just bought my 530 a month ago, directly from Garmin to have some assurance that I had the very latest internal hardware. I've been through FW 9.30 and 9.40 without any dropouts (Speed Sensor, HRM2 and Remote). I have had LiveTrack issues where it works only intermittently, but that could be a Garmin Connect app issue, so that is still being sorted. I'd do as L.Rouge recommends and try it with the current FW. You can always roll back later if needed.

0 L.Rouge over 3 years ago

Just a PS to this, don't want to give a wrong impression. My trainer sessions are typically following a variable fairly hilly course (as hills are one of my weaknesses), they are mostly one or two hours and in version 8 & 9 I would get the dropout to the resistance unit about 1 or 2 times in 5 sessions. Turning the Garmin off and back on clears the issue and all is back to normal for the next few sessions but of ccourse the data from the failed session is incomplete, the speed, cadence and power continue to be reported but unrelated to the reported grade which has no effect on resistance, ( but the effect remains in my legs so not a great disaster, just an annoyance). Back to 7.10 again (3rd time, I keep getting tempted to upgrade by some feature only to be disappointed) now for a couple of weeks and no dropouts.

The user reports of dropouts are spread across all x30 units so could be some common hardware component or the common software, but still a mystery to Garmin. Recent issues including clear cases of bad source code control (ie features from releases that disappear in later releases) do not inspire confidence they are on top of this.