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Varia radar RTL510 light shuts off when selecting activity screen on Edge

Hi everyone, I've noticed the light on my Varia RTL510 radar keeps turning off during rides (the radar remains on). Today I finally figured out how this is happening. With the light on (selected using the pushbutton on the Varia), if I then select the activity screen on the Edge (530), the light shuts off.

I'm guessing from what I read in old posts here that when the activity screen is selected, the Edge sets the Varia light to whatever is set in the "light network settings", regardless of the current actual setting on the light itself. So if the light is currently flashing, and I select the activity screen, it automatically switches the light off, which is the setting in the "light network".

The is very dangerous during rides because I often switch to other screens to check various settings, and then when I return to the activity screen from the "home" screen, it turns the light off and I don't know that I'm no longer visible to cars behind me. Unlike the radar where the Edge warns if it's suddenly disconnected/off, there is no warning for the Varia light turning off.

How do I stop this from happening? I want the light to stay in whatever setting it's currently in regardless of which Edge screen I'm looking at. Maybe if I turn off "enable" for the light network?

Thanks!

0 Kyle J over 2 years ago

Answering my own question lol... Yes, disabling the "Light Network" will leave the radar working and stop the light from automatically turning off when selecting the activity screen. (The radar will momentarily say "disconnected" when the light network is first disabled, but it reconnects shortly after.)

Alternatively, can remove the "Light" from the sensor list entirely, leaving the radar. But the disable/enable option is easier because if you want to re-add the light network control options, it seems you have to also remove the radar sensor, then repair to get both the radar and light network back.

Anyhow with the light network disabled, the light stays in whatever setting I put it in using the pushbutton on it, and the radar is always active.

0 3109324 over 2 years ago in reply to Kyle J

Thats good that you find it at your own keep it up.

rapidfs

0 Kyle J over 2 years ago in reply to Kyle J

Guess I was wrong. On the next ride the radar kept saying disconnected when the light network was disabled. It would not let me keep the radar active if I disabled the light network.

I guess I need to experiment more with this. Deleting the light network from the paired sensors list might be the only option to keep the radar working.

Anybody else here found the best way to make this work?

0 3303790 over 2 years ago in reply to Kyle J

I have the same problem with my Varia. Were you able to find a fix? Thanks

0 Kyle J over 2 years ago in reply to 3303790

Unfortunately no. I last experimented with it a couple months ago, and it seems it treats the radar and the light network together so that if the light network is disabled, the radar is too.

It looks like the only way to set the light mode and not have it change unexpectedly is to use the light setting controls on the bike computer / head unit. I realize that's what they intended with the design, but it's a really poor interface to access while riding, at least on the Garmin Edge 530. And it makes the button on the radar itself kinda useless.

0 3303790 over 2 years ago in reply to Kyle J

Thank you for your response. Much appreciated.