This discussion has been locked.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Varia Radar RTL 501 no more powers off automatically

Former Member over 7 years ago

After the recent updates (RTL to 3.60 andEdge 1000 to 14.20) the RTL seems not to shut down completely, when you power off the Edge.
Does anybody else experience this problem?

Before applying the updates the I've seen following behavior:
- RTL and Edge are switched on
- As soon as I switch off the Edge (or put it to standby) the light on the RTL went off and the blue LED started flashing
- After about a Minute or two the RTL completely switched off (no more flashing blue LED)

Now I see this behavior:
- RTL and Edge are switched on
- As soon as I switch off the Edge (or put it to standby) the light on the RTL went off and the blue LED started flashing
- The RTL keeps flashing the blue LED until the battery is empty

This does not happen all the time. I did a "dry run" in the office and was not able to reproduce this issue, but after my 45Minute commute ride back home it occurred again.

Any ideas how to solve this? I'll try downgrading the Edge next week and see if this fixes the issue.

0 fallingrock over 7 years ago

TBH: This is what I consider desired behavior. The RTL shouldn't power off until you press the power button. If the Edge is powered off or put in standby, the RTL should go into standby until manually powered off or reactivated by the Edge.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I would agree, if the red "main" LEDs (backlight) would also stay on.

So the current state is more than annoying: The RTL "pretends" to shut down as soon as you power off your head unit, but all it does is switch off the main LEDs (and seems to keep the radar active). The opposite would be appreciated: Keep on the backlight (so you will still be visible) but turn off radar, as soon as there is no head unit consuming radar information.

0 fallingrock over 7 years ago

The whole point is that, when the head unit is not active (paused or powered off), the tail light isn't needed (on the assumption that you ride with the head unit on), so it goes into a low power standby mode until the head unit is powered on or restarted.

When I do a longer ride, I always pause my Edge 1030 at rest stops. If the RTL stayed on, it would drain the battery rather fast. Since it goes into standby mode, it's not using as much battery power until I unpause the 1030.

In a previous firmware revision, the RTL actually did power off when it lost communication with the head unit ... THAT was annoying.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I'll try if it makes a difference if you switch the Head Unit to standby (short press) or actually power it off (long-press and click on the button on the bottom of the screen - don't know the wording :))

I thinks its worse to drain the battery over night because the RTL did not switch off completely when I switched off the Edge, than having to power on the RTL after a rest stop.

0 fallingrock over 7 years ago

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this.

I always power off the RTL when I'm done riding ... and let it stay in standby during the ride, when the head unit is asleep or powered off.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

After another two rides with a non working radar, caused by a completely drained battery, I decided to downgrade the RTL. With Firmware 3.40 everything seems to be fine.
An "improvement" in this area without a detailed description is a No-Go for me. This thing is not only a nice to have toy (radar) but also a basic safety-device (backlight). Starting the day with a empty backlight isn't exactly brilliant.

In my case the RTL was completely empty after 10 hours of "standby". Therefore I'm pretty sure Garmin just switches off the LEDs and keeps the radar active although no head unit is present. A real standby would be a nice feature, but the current implementation is just annoying for someone not charging the RTL after every ride.

The RTL-battery would last a few weeks if just ANT+ would be active (for comparison a HR-Straps battery is stated to last 1300hours -> 54 days). It would be a feature to implement a standby with just ANT+ active, but this is what I call a bug

0 dkdeemer over 7 years ago

bennig. Yep -- agree with you. This new behavior of the RTL on 3.60 was unexpected and annoying in the way I use it. Good to know that the downgrade will correct it.

0 changrenyong over 7 years ago

After another two rides with a non working radar, caused by a completely drained battery, I decided to downgrade the RTL. With Firmware 3.40 everything seems to be fine.
An "improvement" in this area without a detailed description is a No-Go for me. This thing is not only a nice to have toy (radar) but also a basic safety-device (backlight). Starting the day with a empty backlight isn't exactly brilliant.

In my case the RTL was completely empty after 10 hours of "standby". Therefore I'm pretty sure Garmin just switches off the LEDs and keeps the radar active although no head unit is present. A real standby would be a nice feature, but the current implementation is just annoying for someone not charging the RTL after every ride.

The RTL-battery would last a few weeks if just ANT+ would be active (for comparison a HR-Straps battery is stated to last 1300hours -> 54 days). It would be a feature to implement a standby with just ANT+ active, but this is what I call a bug

I agree with you. If the RTL remains in standby mode (with the LED flashing blue) ALL THE TIME when the Edge bike computer is powered off, then it may be a feature. But the problem is, this behavior does not happen every single time. Sometimes when i power off my Edge 820, the RTL remains in standby mode for about a minute before powering itself off. Sometimes, the RTL remains in standby mode until the battery is completely drained. Garmin, please fix this. Either make the RTL remain in standby mode until the it is manually powered off OR keep it in standby mode for about a minute after the head unit is powered off (like the behavior in all previous firmware versions).

0 jlquer over 7 years ago

I think that the problem is on the EDGE, not on the Varia Radar. The radar works fine on my F935, with the espected behavior. But when connected to the EDGE, once the devide is off, it drains the battery of the radar, which does no happen on the F935.

0 fallingrock over 7 years ago

I discovered something the other day ... I had gotten home from a ride and stopped the track on my Edge 1030 .... this put the RTL into standby mode (blue light blinking, red lights off) ... and then a car drove past me... the Edge alerted me to the car!

So maybe only the lights are turned off on the RTL when you pause or turn off the head unit and NOT the radar. This would explain why the battery would drain when the unit is in 'standby' mode.

IMO this is a big design flaw ... if the unit is supposed to be in standby mode, both the lights AND the radar should be deactivated. I would expect that only the ANT+ radios should be active (which wouldn't put a serious drain on the battery) waiting for a new connection.

I may open a ticket with Garmin about it.