Varia RTL515 battery life with Edge 1040

Pan Milan
7 months ago

Hello,

I have my Varia RTL515 for almost 3 years. Not long ago, i bought Edge1040 and i have a problem with battery life of my Varia... that problem was maybe present the whole time i had it(used with Edge820), but just this year i started to do a little longer rides so i noticed the short battery life.

According to manual:

RTL515 battery life

Up to 6 hr. in solid mode

Up to 8 hr. in peloton mode

Up to 6 hr. in night flash mode

Up to 16 hr. in day flash mode

Up to 3 mo. in standby mode

Since i have my Varia connected to Edge, there are not the same light modes in the lights settings as it is in the Varia manual. I have my lights set to "automatic" and i get warning about low battery after 3 and half hours.... Which is much less, than it should be in the brightest mode according to the manual. Is this normal?

What can i do with setting to get at least 6 hours?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

  • 0 7 months ago

    I do not know what "automatic" mode does because I've never used it. 

    I would recommend using SmartBikeLights app for controlling your Varia https://github.com/maca88/SmartBikeLights

    I use since a very long time (820, 1030, 1040)

    For example you can configure it to only day flash when a vehicle approach is detected and, afterwards, to turn off automatically.. 

    You can also use the speed, time of day, sunset/sunrise to configure its modes. 

    I do not know if it can help you with the battery life. but it is very nice to use. 

  • 0 7 months ago in reply to EyessOnlyy
    EyessOnlyy said:
    For example you can configure it to only day flash when a vehicle approach is detected and, afterwards, to turn off automatically.. 

    This is exactly what am i looking for :) Since i ride only during daylight, this is what i need... i'll try that and we will see what will the battery life be in this scenario. To be honest i thought this is the situation right now with the "Automatic" mode in Edge... but who knows, when Garmin can't even keep their settings same in 2 devices for the same sensor... Thanks

    And here is something to the "Automatic" mode i've found here on forums... 

    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/cycling/f/varia-series/364319/light-modes-on-varia-vs-light-modes-in-edge-lights-network

    They are not able to be consistent with their own devices.... so when you connect Varia to Edge, manual for Varia is useless suddenly.

  • 0 7 months ago in reply to EyessOnlyy

    Well ... problem solved. Today i did a 4hr 30min ride and with day flash... continuous, not only when a car is approaching... i still had like 60% of Varia battery available....  Thank you for showing me that SmartBikeLights app Slight smile

    To summarize: Garmin sucks when they basicaly bloodsuck energy from their devices if you use them with their settings....OMG.

  • 0 2 months ago

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  • 0 2 months ago in reply to Pan Milan

    I have an 840 with a Varia rear light and in automatic mode it defaults to day flash during the day. That's what Automatic is supposed to do and it's the default setting.  

    If Automatic is doing something else, I would check that you haven't overridden the default by putting it in 'individual' mode in the device settings. 

    Another way of changing the light setting is using the button on the top.  It's also easy to do this by accident and again it will put in individual mode on the Edge. Granted this is confusing!

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to George

    Hi, i had it in automatic mode on my 1040 - same mode as you described. And it worked just like yours  - day flash during the day. But for some unknown reason it was draining battery like bloodsucker with that mode selected.

    My problem was solved after i started using the SmartBikeLights app which now controls the lights - And in the same day flash mode i get at least double the battery life Slight smile