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Grade % not working in the forest

If I have on the bike, the Edge 820.

The grade on the forest trails is shown as 0 no matter if I set the GPS to GPS+Galileo or GPS only or GPS+Glonass.

In the same time, the eTrex 35 touch show the correct grade.

Both devices on the bike at the same time.

I even loaded the track to navigate thinking that if the *.gpx is loaded the elevation profile is easy to read by the device.

Could someone fix that issue because it makes the device useless for MTB where the grade is very important.

When I enter under 2-3 trees no grade is shown on the Edge 820 but on other devices is shown.

I have the Edge 820 on my bike for 2-3 competitions this year, but this issue drive me crazy because is the most needed feature among the HR on the screen.

Crazy.

  • The displayed grade is based on the barometric sensor, not GPS reception.  Perhaps the sensor port on the bottom of the unit is blocked.or filled with water.  It's a tiny half moon shaped hole just above the serial number label.  Mine has always worked.  That said, I prefer two IQ aps that respond better and more quickly to grade. Sensible Grade is one and the other is just called Gradient.

  • TY.

    I will try that.

    I thought that the issue was the GPS.

    With baro I guess the things will be back to normal.

  • I have added the Sensible Grade to my Edge 820 and the grade is now working correctly.

    Thank you!

  • I noted a problem on my road bike today. Climbing the %Grade was showing and as I went in to tree cover iit went down from 6% even though I new the climb was steeper. Eventually it got to 0%. 

    I guess the loss of satellites (or poor quality reception) means that the Garmin doesn't get a good position fix so there is a large error in distance between fixes. The Garmin is therefore unable to provide a good quality % grade even if the barometric elevation is good.  

    Nick

  • Good point.  I always recommend using a wheel sensor, especially for the tortuous tracks more common to mountain biking.  It'll make speed, distance and gradient more accurate than GPS alone can do due to GPS's inherent position noise and  in situations with poor signal reception.

  • I have a speed and cadence sensor V2 by Garmin. Even with those, the grade was not shown on Edge 820 with the default Garmin data field. I was even on open trails in the mountains surrounded by woods or where the sky was above with little trees branches. I was on 15-18% slope, with 0% shown on display. On a 15 km trail. Super frustrating on an EUR 350 unit in the moment of the purchase. The funny thing is that I add on the other side of the handlebar the Garmin eTrex 35 touch the grade is shown on eTrex, so I conclude that something is wrong with the Edge 820 design or software.

    Super weak unit, the Edge 820. So many problems. Fancy unit but poor performance.

    The "bug" is fixed with "Sensible Grade" data field.

  • That's unusual.  The Garmin Grade field has always worked for me and I have not heard of it not working unless the baro sensor port was blocked or had water in it.  The main issue has been that is slow to respond so you have to be on a fairly steady grade for a while for it to indicate accurately. It is particularly bad on more rapid gradient changes commonly encountered in mtbing. 

    Agree that the 820 and Garmin's Edge products in general have many many problems they shouldn't have.