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Varia Radar and Edge audio alerts - How to improve based on my experience.

Hello everybody.

I always had my Edge 130 mounted in the stem, and I could clearly hear the alerts, even with a lot of traffic. But I recently bought the Varia UT800 and mounted my Edge in the Garmin out-front mount. I didn't know why, but the audio alerts became very, very low. With traffic the alerts can't be heard. Then I decided to mount the Edge 130 again in the stem, and the volume sound increased! What is my conclusion? Is that the edge sound "reflects" in the stem, and "don't go away", but "stay there"! That's why the alert sounds can be heard. Please try with your gear. Hope my (bad) english was good enough to be understood... Thanks.

  • I just rechecked the three options are there, colour overlay, vehicle column and tones but the tones offers only on or off and doesn't work anyway. I have just switched it off to see if they have got it the wrong way around, you never know.

  • For me to hear the alert tone from the 1030, I actually have to hold the 1030 up to my ear. The tone is in a frequency range that my impaired hearing can not handle. I can hear the other tones without holding it up to my ear but the computer has to be close. Perhaps you may be in the same situation.

    Garmin really should do something about the Varia alert tone. There have been many comments posted about the tone not being heard by those of us who have hearing loss due to aging. I fail to understand why Garmin can't at least send the tone to a smartphone since it can send alerts for heart rate and other things to the phone.

  • I contacted Garmin through chat and eventually they decided that it was something to do with my edge and have asked me to download the Garmin folder from my edge so they can review it. Unfortunately my mac does not want to play despite having more than enough memory and RAM the folder will not paste so that I can strip out maps and compress it to send. Will have another go shortly.

  • Many times Garmin support will instruct you to reset your computer. This seems to solve a lot of problems. Have you tried resetting it? It's a pain to set it up again but there are folders that can be saved and brought back that will save some time. I've never had to reset any of my Garmin computers but I know of others that have done it and their problem was resolved.

    Garmin products simply do not like Apple products. Try to upload it on a Windows machine.

  • I set up my Varia with an Edge 520: no alert sounds! It tried everything I could think of and nothing worked. So I did a factory reset on the Edge and hey presto, alert sounds for approaching traffic were working. I just wish I could turn up the volume!

    Only rough part was having to reset everything on the Edge :-(

  • I gave up trying to hear the beeps from my Edge 1000. I have my Vivoactive 3 watch set to buzz when it gets an alert from the Varia. That seems to work better for alerts.

  • I am very interested in your post and the Bluetooth transmitter you speak off. I have along with many other am having major issues with the beep coming from my 830 (considerably than the 820 I previously owned). I have recently purchased a battery operated Bluetooth transmitter fir use with my tv so a can listen to programs in bed without disturbing my wife. The unit can do RX and TX (receive and transmit). It has a phono port and has a battery life of 20 hours. So here’s my question do you think I can pair the BT transmitter with the Varia or with my 830 and receive the beep in my ear via an earpiece wired to my transmitter. 

  • The system I developed has exceeded my expectations with some limitations. It has a very small combination bluetooth board with a microphone and picks up the sound by being mounted close to the Garmins speaker. I use a small earbud and the main problem I have is that the battery in the earbud only lasts about 2 hours which I'm sure can be solved by buying a better earbud since the one I have only cost $6.  I don't know how you can connect a microphone to your BT transmitter. Probably the best solution is to buy the newer Varia that will transmit the sound to a phone.There's a photo of my setup in one of the older posts on this forum.

  • Hi cheracogoff Thanks for the insight into your system. With a little experimentation I've discovered I can get the beeps into an earpiece by pairing my Varia to my iPhone via the Varia App, then separately pair, again via Bluetooth, my iPhone to the Taotronics RX/TX transmitter (into which the earpiece is connected via a phono plug). Haven't tried it out on the road yet but  statically it appears to work fine. Only limitation may be battery life on my iPhone. The Taotronics device has a long battery life. I'll post up how it all functions in the real World once Ive got in a few rides of varying distances, 

  • You have the newer 515 Varia which does transmit to a phone. I have the older 510 model which does not work with the Varia phone app. I don't know what kind of draw the feature has on your Iphone.  If you are planning on long rides, the earbud needs a long lasting battery because manufacturers battery life claims are usually not realistic. I may have to buy the newer Varia so I can do what you are doing.