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Garmin Edge 1040 And Garmin Varia RTL515 Disconnect / Turning Off

JHKNVY02
over 1 year ago

I have a Garmin Edge 1040 running S/W Version 17.29 with a Garmin Varia RTL515 running S/W Version 3.33

While I am riding the Garmin Varia RTL515 is turning off and/or shifting light modes without me touching or manipulating any settings.  Has anyone experienced this?

Incredibly disappointing and a safety issue as not only does the light cease to illuminate or flash, but I have to constantly pull over to check and/or restart the light.

What I do notice is that the radar function continues to execute/function.


Cheers and thank you.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-0083D0A0-EA6E-41F0-8207-3F1498875E61/EN-US/GUID-4F33550E-15E1-42DF-B4E3-E0CD301E2555.html

    I found this article and running the 1040 to see if "sleep" mode being disabled corrected the RTL515 doing the auto "turn off" 

    Incredibly annoying as the 1040 should be able to "sleep" while the RTL515 does it job as a light and radar independently if that is the case.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I experienced this several times in my ride yesterday with my brand new RTL515 and 1040 solar.  Was searching to see if there might be newer firmware, but can't seem to find anything.  Interestingly enough my older RTL510 doesn't have these same issues, it's just that the battery capacity on the older unit seems to be dwindling so I bought the new one.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Hi, I have same issue with my older unit (510) and Edge 530. The light turns off but the radar still operates. It's been a long-standing issue, maybe it should be a safety recall.

    In my case it seems to a conflict between the on-device control of the radar's light (the "light network") and the light mode set manually using the radar button. No matter what I manually set the radar light to using the button, the radar reverts to its default light network setting (off, in my case) whenever I leave/re-enter the activity screen on my Edge 530. It seems the only reliable way to ensure the light stays as intended is to only control it on-device using the light network (very cumbersome menus) and never use the manual button on the radar itself.

    I tried disabling the light network while retaining the radar function, and although it seemed to work initially, it didn't last:

    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/cycling/f/varia-series/291617/varia-radar-rtl510-light-shuts-off-when-selecting-activity-screen-on-edge

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Kyle J

    Ok I just re-tested this today and it appears there have been some improvements since my older thread from over a year ago. If an activity is recording, then changing screens does not cause the light to turn off now. In addition, the current light mode is always shown correctly in the Light Network menu regardless of whether I set the mode manually with the button on the radar or not.

    However if an activity is *not* recording, then selecting an activity profile to start an activity shuts off the light instantly. This can be an issue if I already set my light mode manually using the radar button *before* I select my activity profile on the Edge, as it will turn the light off. However if I select the activity profile first, then I can set my light mode and it appears it will stay on.

    Again all this is with Edge 530 and 510 radar, so things may be a little different on the 1040/515 combo.

    So now I'm beginning to wonder if the light turning off during an activity is caused by a momentary loss of connection between the Varia and Edge, such that the light network is momentarily lost. When the light network reconnects it seems to default to turning the light off. Given the amount of times I momentarily lose a sensor on a ride, this seems like a strong possibility.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I have the same issue - same 1040/v 17.29 and RTL 515/v 3.33.  Today I connected both devices into Garmin express. Uploaded new maps into the Edge but the RTL515 did not show any updates. Will try again tomorrow.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Same issues. Constant disconnections and mode changes without any action. Out of despair, i removed the radar from the sensors list and now I can't pair it back... This is infuriating. This device, as life saving as it it, has always been a pain !

    I managed to pair it back and now it is connected again. What I needed to do was to also remove the light pairing. Which I haven't been able to restore. But now I am gonna test without pairing the light and see if this is what's causing these instabilities; maybe some race condition and poor coding between radar and light .... Argh

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Kyle J

    That has been the only working solution I have found.  Unfortunately there are not as many options and as mentioned, it’s cumbersome.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to fabricep

    whachr in this thread: https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/cycling/f/edge-1030-plus/298338/garmin-edge-1030-with-varia-rtl515-error-light-is-disconnected-from-the-network

    reports that his Edge and Varia work much better with the light disconnected from the Edge unit - only radar connected.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Phillip G

    Hmm, when I tested that option (with Varia 510 and Edge 530) a year ago it didn't work (see thread I linked above). If the light network was disabled or removed, the radar wouldn't function the next time the Edge restarted. Maybe a firmware update has since changed that, or maybe it's different with the Edge 1030+ and Varia 515. I might test it again on my combination to see if it works now.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I used both 18.23 beta and the new 18.25 S/W

    no change