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Bad experience with Bontrager ANT+ light and Edge 25

I just got Bontrager ION 700 RT light (Flare RT is on the way). These are ANT+ lights.

Regarding Edge 25's support of ANT+ light in 3.30 firmware: there's more less none. And very poorly implemented. Once you power on the Edge, it will automatically power on the light on high beam. It's not possible to change this behavior. And the only thing how you can actually control the light via Edge is to power it off and on again. When you hold the Edge power button (top left button), you get small context menu where you can choose whether you want to power off the light or the Edge. That's it.

Now, this was not the bad news, this was good news. Now the bad news:

You actually cannot use the Bontrager ION 700 RT light as stand alone light, not controlled by the Edge via this stupid simple mechanism described above. Because whenever the Edge detects the light around, it FORCES you to pair the light. How? Whenever the light gets close to Edge (within 10 meters), Edge shows pop-up message "Light detected, do you want to connect to it? Yes/No". And when you choose "No", you immediately get the same pop-up message again. Indefinitely. There's some deadlock in the Edge that when it detects light, you simply cannot refuse the pairing. You have to agree with pairing to break the vicious cycle of the pop-up message asking to pair it.

And the worse: suppose you're charging your Edge via external USB charger. You have the light paired, because you cannot have it not paired (see previous paragraph). You have the light powered off via the Edge command to power it off. Btw you cannot power it off via the button on the light, because if you do that, the Edge will immediately power it on again. So you power it off via Edge command. You leave the room with charging Edge to do something else. You return to the room 1 hour later only to find the light powered on, on high beam, slowly cooking itself.

:mad::mad::mad::mad:

To make myself clear, the light works perfectly fine alone, it does not power on by itself. It's only when it gets to range of Edge 25 and Edge starts meddling with it, forcing it's only light mode upon it and randomly powering it on. And you can't avoid that, because you have to pair the Edge 25 to be able to use it because of the vicious cycle of "light detected" infinite pop-up message.

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0 kfrench2 over 7 years ago

Has this been addressed yet by Garmin? It has been over a year and no updates to this issue. Can a way to turn off the light pairing be added to the 25 software? I have the same issue as oo.viper.oo. The only work around I've found is start your activity with the light far enough away it doesn't pick up then put the light on the bike.

0 rjwatt7021 over 6 years ago

I'm in the same boat and it looks like Garmin has still made no effort to fix what must surely be a common issue as more and more devices adopt these standards.

For me, it's the forced repeat pairing with Cycliq 6 and 12 CE camera lights. When I first paired the Edge 25 with the lights it was unclear what supposed benefit I gained from the connection, beyond the lights turning off when I turned the Edge off. The thing is, I didn't want to turn off the lights just because I was powering down the Edge.

So, easy I thought, I'll just unpair the sensors and run them independently.

And that led me to be faced with the same BS deadlock situation described by "viper" in the original post.

*** Garmin - please prioritize fixing these kinds of deal killer bugs. I can live without another timezone update, but stuff like this will cause me to seek out other brands and happily tell others about my experience. ***

Currently, the Edge 25 is sitting in my garage and I'm choosing not to use it as the Cycliq devices are more important than a GPS device that is more trouble than it's worth.

0 unchewable over 6 years ago

same exact problem as rjwatt7021 and I have been a Garmin fanboy for like 10 years. I have been a big advocate for the 25 as I loved the size and all the features I don't need all the bells and whistles of the other models I just want my cycliq's to work correctly but any light that supports this ant standard the 25 only does full on over drive or off. Maybe its time to look at wahoo like my friends have which would be really sad I like garmin for routing and the hardware has been solid but this along with some of the weird site bugs is getting really annoying.

0 Garmin-Shawn over 6 years ago

Sorry to hear the frustration you have had with the light set up. We would like to investigate this in more detail. Please reach out to our support team for assistance. Please mention your post here and that we asked you to reach out.

0 Dannat over 6 years ago

i have the same loop infinite problem with my cycliq12CE, wanted to control the light even though i have not paired it...frustrating

0 nagitpo over 6 years ago

I had similar problems with the Garmin UT800 light. The Edge 25 wants to pair it and will not take NO for an answer. Once paired you can turn the light On/Off with the Edge, but I also ran into an issue where the Edge insisted on turning the light off and if you turned it on with the button on the light, the Edge would turn it off again in a couple seconds.

The solution in my case was to use a Varia Remote to control the light. Seems this overrides the odd 25 behavior, and you can use the right turn button on the remote to turn on/off the light, and the top button to toggle amongst the different light modes.

0 allrounder69 over 6 years ago

I'm another that has the same annoying loop issue with my Cycliq 12CE

0 rjwatt7021 over 6 years ago

Sorry, my bad - Garmin Support did get back to me in October after I submitted a "bug" ticket describing in annoying detail my frustration with the Edge 25 refusing to take no for an answer when I indicated that I didn't want my Edge 25 to pair with my Cycliq lights.

This was the response:

"The Edge 25 was designed to charge using a computer - when it is plugged into a wall outlet it's also designed to be usable. When the light and Edge connect, the Edge should issue a command to the light to turn on. When the Edge powers down it should send a command to the light to turn off. When you plug the unit in to charge ANT is enabled so it will search and find the light if it is proximity. It has been recommended that rather than unpair the light from the Edge 25 that the light is manually powered off or the Edge is plugged into a computer to charge."

Of course, this doesn't address my problem in any useful way - I'm still stuck with an Edge 25 that won't take no for an answer.

In short: I don't want my GPS cycle computer to be in any way connect/control my lights.

Garmin, please tell me how this is possible without entertaining the nonsense suggested above and I'll happily stay a loyal customer (of going on 15+ years and multiple devices).

If you provide me and your other customers with a fix, then all good; if not, then it's time for a Wahoo Bolt.

Just not good enough.

p.s. You should consider open sourcing your device software if you choose not to invest in customer problems like this - seriously, let the community fix it.

0 murffJAM over 6 years ago

This is basically a non-update to say that I have contacted support, expressed the same concerns and frustrations and been offered similarly unacceptable work-around. Garmin's fallback seems to rely on not being responsible for what happens with another company's lights. The obvious fault in that thinking is that they are in fact responsible because their device is taking control of my Bontrager lights - not the other way around. I have suggested a firmware update with an option to permanently disable light pairing. I will be thrilled if they do that or any other solution that keeps me from getting run over by a car because I can't put my light on flash mode. Or that keeps my Edge 25 from running the lights overnight in the garage so that the batteries are dead when it is time to ride the next morning. Fingers crossed.

0 NordieBoy over 5 years ago in reply to murffJAM

I've got the same "pair light" "no thank you"... "pair light"... and repeat...

Garmin Edge 25 and Garmin Varia 800.