i can’t hear the RTL 510 alerts on my Edge 1030 and there aren’t any volume or tone controls. The beep volume is too low and/or the pitch is too high on the 1030. I don’t have perfect hearing but I can hear my friend’s Varia 500 light alerts with his Edge 510 from 5 feet away.
I haven't been able to hear my RTL500 on either my Edge 510 or my Edge 1000. Even the vibration alert on my Varia headset doesn't work. I'm beginning to suspect I have a bad RTL500. It sees the cars fine, it just doesn't do anything to draw my attention other than the graphic display. IMO this is a major fail for Garmin. There should be an unmistakable alert when a car approaches. If they are worried about alert overload, put in a disable option. But give folks the option of having a noticeable alert.
I used my RTL 510 this morning for the first time and struggled to hear the alert tone on my Edge 520 when descending, though that’s a criticism of the Edge, not the Varia. Besides that issue, it worked flawlessly: it picked up every approaching vehicle and had no false positives. Very impressed.
It also appears there isn’t an option with Garmin Connect device setup for Edge computers to play Varia alerts, like you can max heart rate and vocal navigation warnings, on my iPhone.
If you aren't happy with your RTL510 alert volume and tone on your Garmin bike computer you need to open a ticket with Garmin support. I got a note today about my case saying that currently I am the only one who reported this problem. It would raise the priority if more people reported their problems with hearing alerts.
did many experiments and can now narrow the problem down to the distance between the edge and the RTL510,
in my case it works better if the distance is around 600mm, 640mm reduces the volume, with 740mm (flyout mount) no more sound
I reported it to Garmin and suggest everyone else with this problem should do the the same (see Garmin response below), Garmin can not fix it without good user feedback
The Threat alert tone is different than the other alert tones and could be harder to hear for some people. I do think the difference in the type and location of the mount will make some difference here.
We will be looking into escalating this to see if the tones could be configured and turned up or down. Additionally, we encourage you to suggest to other forum participants to contact support to report their feedback on the alert tones as this will give the issue more traction.
