GARMIN why cant you fix the bluetooth connection reliability that all Edge device/users have problems with ?

chug70
6 months ago

I have a Garmin Edge 830 and an Android Huawei P20Lite mobile. 

'Livetrack' is an excellent idea, but it does not and never has worked reliably in my experience - even when used in conjunction with STRAVA beacon.

Typically the 'phone disconnects', the Edge device the 'searches', for a while and sometimes, if you're lucky, it reconnects. At other times it just hangs forever, and I have to re-pair etc etc. Also repairing also seems to fail quite reliably too.

Many, many, many other users have the same problem, and this also seems to be a problem with the new 840 now. Just look at the posts on this forum.
It happens with both iPhone and Android devices.

Whilst on a bike ride, users do not want to be resetting their bluetooth connections, rebooting etc, to make it work, as some of 'workaround' suggestions state. Thats not how it is supposed to work. Infact I notice the work around suggestions are now very much part of the help pages in the Garmin Connect app! (with the implication that it cannot be fixed) Restarting/power cycling devices is even more fafff, and you may end up losing your ride data. It is just not and should not be necessary.

Does anyone on the Garmin team know why it is so unreliable ? Has it ever been tested properly in the field ? or is just rubbish software/device drivers (probably). Does Garmin have the technical expertise to support and resolve problems like these ? The answer without a doubt is NO !

This has been going on for years, with absolutely no sign of a resolution, customer support just make the usual workaround suggestion which just provide a very temporary fix.

How about explaining what the real problems is, and then fixing it properly, instead suggesting all these half baked workarounds which frankly do nothing to resolve the problem.

Why GARMIN, why ?

Upgrading the UI on the 840 doesn't cut it, the underlying basic functionality (bluetooth) is unreliable, as the saying goes, 'a wise man who builds his house on rock - not sand. 

I can use STRAVA Beacon independantly of my Garmin, thats the only real solution I have to having a reliable *safety* tracking app (Im sure there are others) which of course does no need bluetooth.  

Is it basically a design problem, is low energy bluetooth (BLE) just not upto the task ? 

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to chug70

    And of course that DC Rainmaker observation was 5 YEARS AGO !!!! and seems worse now more so for ANT 

  • 0 6 months ago

    I have used an Edge 530 for over 5 years, and now an Edge 830 for about a year, all with Samsung phones and have NEVER had a BT problem with staying connected. Never have had any need for LiveTrack so I can't comment on using that "feature".

    And thinking about it more, I asked a few friends about using LiveTrack. They (all but 1) said they stopped using it because of dropouts, making the feature useless. So  the problem is LiveTrack, and doesn't it seem that Garmin either doesn't know how to fix the problems or they just don't care. But given that their Quality Control/Testing is so horrible when it comes to software fixes, maybe they realize that if they make an effort to fix the problems that it would just become worse and then they would not be able to sell the "Feature".

    There are thousands and thousands of people out there that buy a Garmin device and NEVER use LiveTrack. So maybe that says it all. Sell a product with a feature, that the most people don't use because they don't need it, and to those that do use it BLAME the mobile phone carriers, not your software.

    And one more thing. Uisng Incident Detection is/has presented more problems for me than it's worth. Even an "panic" stop on the bike triggers it. I have it it send an alert when waking and nothing has come close to a problem. Hiking in a local park with lots of forest and trails sets a alert sometimes. I hate to think what LiveTrack would do, hence the reason I don't use it.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to 4411990

    I have used an Edge 530 for over 5 years, and now an Edge 830 for about a year, all with Samsung phones and have NEVER had a BT problem with staying connected. Never have had any need for LiveTrack so I can't comment on using that "feature".

    And thinking about it more, I asked a few friends about using LiveTrack. They (all but 1) said they stopped using it because of dropouts, making the feature useless. So  the problem is LiveTrack, and doesn't it seem that Garmin either doesn't know how to fix the problems or they just don't care. But given that their Quality Control/Testing is so horrible when it comes to software fixes, maybe they realize that if they make an effort to fix the problems that it would just become worse and then they would not be able to sell the "Feature".

    There are thousands and thousands of people out there that buy a Garmin device and NEVER use LiveTrack. So maybe that says it all. Sell a product with a feature, that the most people don't use because they don't need it, and to those that do use it BLAME the mobile phone carriers, not your software.

    And one more thing. Uisng Incident Detection is/has presented more problems for me than it's worth. Even a "panic" stop on the bike triggers it. I have had it send an alert when walking and nothing has come close to a problem. Hiking in a local park with lots of forest and trails sets a alert sometimes. I hate to think what LiveTrack would do, hence the reason I don't use it.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to 4411990

    (As far as I can tell) Livetrack uses Low Energy Bluetooth (BTLE) to send Garmin GPS position updates to the mobile-phone which in turn sends it on to either the STRAVA servers (if you are using STRAVA Beacon) or the Garmin Connect servers. The BTLE connection between the phone and the Garmin device is unreliable. Using STRAVA beacon on its own without involving the Garmin edge at all (i.e. no BTLE) is reliable, using the phones own GPS position of course. There are two bluetooth pairings, one is BTLE as I already described, the other is more standard BT connection, which is used for the other 'connected' applications such as SMS Text messaging and emails. Perhaps this is why you see a reliable connection with your Samsung phone (as it does not involve Livetrack). If you check your Bluetooth pairings on the phone you will see them both. Garmin cannot blame the mobile phone carrier, since using STRAVA beacon alone shows that this part of the communication can work reliably.

  • +1 4 months ago in reply to chug70

    After a couple of months and exchanges (bug reports, evidence of failed Livetracks etc) with Garmin support they have now replaced my 830 with a standard 840, agreeing that essentially the 830 was at fault as far as Livetrack was concerned.  Apparently the 840 uses a different Bluetooth chip to the 830 and connects using only one standard BT connection rather than 2 BTLE connections. All in all much more reliable, and so at least now I have a little more confidence in this device. 

    All I would say is that on the support side they were very slow to recognise and admit the faults with Livetrack with the 830. I guess this is a case of these devices being pushed to the market before they have been tested properly. A solution but very frustrating in the process of finding a resolution.

     

  • 0 4 months ago in reply to chug70

    I should also add is that if you are still having problems with an 840 and BT phone disconnections, check that your phone is not terminating the Garmin Connect app and treating it as a background task that does not need to be running (in order to save battery life) when really it does in order to maintain the BT connection with the 840.