Since the upgrade to version 12.20 I notice that even while the vertical speed is showing 800 metres/h or more, on steep slopes I regularly see a slope of 0% :( I don't often ride in areas with such hills so have not been able to get a better picture of exactly in what circumstances it happens, and understandably when I am on a 20% slope, not much oxygen gets to my brain. I did see that one improvement in the update to version 12.20 mentioned "Updated precision of the Grade data field to whole %'s." now I have recently ridden in the hills again with slopes of up to 20% and now I have version 12.60 and still I see 0% showing on steep slopes
I had read before about this problem, but I don't often ride in areas with 17-20% slopes and I didn't have the oportunity to probe for myself. This summer I have ride for 17-20 % slopes and I can say that my unit have this problem too.
There is any solution or just to wait for new firmware update?
If it is so steep that you are moving slow, I've noticed slope no longer works. It requires some level of speed to get enough distance over time to make a calculation. How slow are you going? A way to check if this is the problem is look at the slow when descending the same hill. Then you are going fast. You can also push hard for a minute to get up to a higher speed and see if the slope comes off 0.
There are a number of grade computation data fields in the Connect IQ store. Try out some of them.
I too have been frustrated with the grade % on the 520, and am about to send it back for exchange. I use on mountain and road, and it's issue on both. Example. On a mountain ride that has relentless grade of 12-20%+ for three miles. It's fire road with steepest sections running 20 to 50 yards. The 520 would display 0% on some sections, then show lower % than what it is. Then normal, then back to zero. And very slow to change as grade changes. So I decided to mount both the 520 and my 510 on a road bike, and chose the Hollywood Hills for it's grades and variety. First thing I noticed was the 510 was much faster to respond to changes in grade than the 520. And the 520 was often 2% offf the reading of the 510. But sometimes it was 10% off, where I would be climbing 15% as displayed on the 510 but 5% or so on the 520. At the end of the ride, the elevation gain was the same for both. Overall, it just seems like the 520 is sometimes (not always) so slow to change with the terrain it throws it off.
So, I was thinking maybe it's the speed doing it, since I wasn't blasting up the hills on either mountain or road. So for last test, I mounted both the 510 and 520 on my road e-bike which can naturally go a lot quicker. Same thing. So it's not a speed thing. Not sure if it's hardware or software but monitoring grade is important to me, and it's a drag that on a device costing $300 it doesn't work well.
mtbross1, sounds like something very wrong with that 520. I too use mine on mountain and road bike and don't see any of that kind of problem. I just did a trail climb that averages 11% for 1.5 miles with many sections as much as 17% (so I was going pretty slow on loose trail that steep) and my 520 gave good grade information throughout the climb.
One other thing you can try is download one of the many Grade data fields from the Garmin Connect IQ site. There are a good number of data fields including Real Grade, Climb Gauge, Current Grade, and more. I noticed that Climb Gauge says you can configure the responsiveness rate as well. Give one or more of them a try and see if it does what you want. I presume they are just working off the same data the Garmin embedded field is (elevation over distance with some averaging algorithm) so if the fields work, it is surely a Garmin defect. Maybe one of these fields will do as you want better than the Garmin embedded field would work in the best of times.
The same fault grade reading with my edge 520. I realy did not expect that with garmin devices... If you consider all other faulty fealures ( not having an odometer including your previous kilometers, etc) makes garmin devices lower than their cost. Sorry to say that but sorry as well to having spent 300 usd for that device...??
Same problem still happens with my GPS. Got a recent update and was disappointed that this bug was not fixed:
I go down a slope: the Edge 520 plus is showing a correct percentage. Let's say -14 %
I go back (uphill) on the same slope: it displays 0 %.
All along the climbing I'm keeping an eye on the GPS signal. It shows the maximum signal strength on the graph, never loses the signal.
The elevation shown on the display is accurate. Never shows something strange and constantly increases (every few seconds 3 meters more on the display)
I could compare the elevation with 3 official signs on the track. The GPS shows only a few meters more than the signs. Very good, nothing to complain about.
Then I export the GPX track from the Garmin Connect site and open it to check the measures. The data is stored every few seconds, with variations with the delay (sometimes only one or two seconds between 2 measures, then maybe 5 seconds). There is never a gap of more than 6 seconds between two measures. And the elevation data seems absolutely correct. Never zero, never surprising, never seems to be a roller coaster elevation.
So my questions:
do other people confirm that they have this problem too?
is it possible that the wrong computing is due to the low speed during the climb? Obviously the speed going downhill is much higher that the speed going uphill. Does this explain this bug?
and finally, do we have hope that it would be corrected in the future?
I have had the 520 Plus for 1 year and this issue happened to me yesterday when riding a steep grade of 12-16% for the first time. It kept showing me 0% going uphill, on the way back down it showed me 12-16%. Is there a fix, what do I need to do to correct this?
