Varia Rearview 820 radar not working

MochitheBrave

I received my Varia Rearview 820 today and paired it to both my iPhone and Edge 850. The light works including changing the modes on the phone and Edge but the radar doesnt work. On the Edge 850 it connects and then drops out and has the following message: Radar Error Radar Initalizing. On the Varia App it says: Radar Initializing Waiting for radar interferance to clear. See below screenshots. 

I have re-paired the unit, resetted it, updated firmware when I first got it and did all the relevant troubleshooting and it still doesnt work. 

All my testing was done outdoors but the radar doesnt seem to turn on. One thing to note is on my Edge 850 it says it is connected to the Radar but the radar icon is flashing which indicates it is not. 

Spent 3 hours mucking around and finally called Garmin for help. All they did was tell me to do what I have done already. 

Frustrating since I was looking forward to replacing my Magene L508 radar which has worked flawlessly over the last 3 years.

Any ideas? 

  • 0 in reply to Phil70

    Where is Garmin Support? Why is the customer left to work out hacks and workarounds for themselves after buying this expensive bit of kit. Surely the measure of a company is how it deals with things when they go wrong - time to step up Garmin!

  • 0 in reply to Phil70

    Yes, I paired it as a radar first. Same way I’ve always paired my older Varia. I manually did the update to 6.32 yesterday but I don’t see the radar icon in the top right corner of my computer - should it be there? 

  • 0

    Update from my end - did the manual update to 6.32 and had no radar icon displayed on my 1040. Went to the System menu in my 1040, checked for a software update, and it said the software was current. A quick Google confirmed that to be false, so I disconnected my 1040 from my home WiFi network and reconnected it. It then prompted me to update to 30.18 and I now have the radar displayed in the corner. Going for a ride now to test the 820 itself.

    Between manually having to update software and having to disconnect and reconnect my 1040 from wifi for it to finally realize it had a software update, this has been a headache.

  • 0

    To close this off from my end (since I started this thread), I just received my replacement device and paired it to the Varia App and my headunit. Radar now connects and no more error messages. Tested it outside and it detected a car so all appears to be working. Will see how it goes on a propoer ride. Funny thing is the firmware is 6.23.0 with no updates when I connect it to my compluter and the app. Seems that they reverted it back to this version since 6.32 caused all the problems we all had. 

  • 0

    I just used my Varia 820 for the first time today. Initially, I was thoroughly impressed with the level of detail on my Edge Explore 2 (which I didn't expect on this particular computer) and with the haptic feedback on my Instinct Crossover AMOLED when a larger vehicle was approaching. 

    The problem I discovered, though, is that the RADAR will not reconnect to the Edge computer after pausing my ride at a coffee shop. When I start my ride back up, the light reconnects and so does the watch, but the RADAR does not send any information to the computer. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting it, but only my watch receives information on approaching vehicles after the first segment of my ride. The only solution I have found so far is I have to stop the ride and save it, then start a brand new activity when I leave a shop. That gets the vehicles appearing on my Edge again. (And again, the watch continues to see vehicles, whether or not I take this extra and annoying step.)

  • 0
    1. Same issue here! Edge tells me Varia 820 connected whereas flashing icon on the upper right hand side of the Edge screen tells me it’s not! After multiple tries, I gave up. Will stick to my RTL515 that works fine until Garmin decides Beta-testing with paying customers is not a good idea. Too bad, the device has all I ever dreamed of having on a Varia. In theory that is ! 
  • 0 in reply to 5188781

    3rd ride yesterday (19Feb) w/ the 820 on a 30 mile ride using my 2yro Wahoo Bolt, 1st was uneventful, 2nd ride Monday had sev. disconnects between the 2 BUT yesterday I had 6ish disconnects. Software/firmware w/ 820 & Bolt all current & may return this to Garmin & revert to my problem free RTL515.

  • 0 in reply to MBG61

    7 disconnects today on a 20 mile ride, 1st @ mile 5 then continued so becoming convinced to return this to Garmin.