Edge 510 owners - impressions & gripes

[R12RT]

Finally figured out a process that seems to work... un-pair, power cycle Garmin, re-pair. Hopefully I'll start getting more than a couple of days before it screws up again...

My 510 more reliably connects to my Samsung S4 if I open Garmin Connect and leave it running in the background.

[lobstermash]

Mine lost its pair on Friday and won't connect again. Tried all the usual fixes, but the symbol just keeps flashing. It's funny how a $2 shop bluetooth hands free never loses lock, but a $350 device transmitting a lot less data can't stay connected or be reliable...

[boss]

Yep Garmin bluetooth pairing seems to suck, whether it be my 510 or Fenix2.

[Jesmol]

There's a beta firmware out which supposedly improves the BT function , also adds live Strava Segment tracking.

[boss]

I did quite a bit of riding in winter in the rain and got my 510 wet, with no issue. But seemingly over the last few weeks there have been a few days with 'warm rain', and it sends the altimeter haywire.

[Jesmol]

I did quite a bit of riding in winter in the rain and got my 510 wet, with no issue. But seemingly over the last few weeks there have been a few days with 'warm rain', and it sends the altimeter haywire.

Teh altimeter doesn't seem to well calibrated between units, rode with another guy on sunday, he did 7 km more than me (ride too meet up point, no real climbs), yet did nearly 500m more climbing.

[Redbull]

Altimeters should only be taken as an estimate. The vary greatly with barometric pressure and you need a second to be a stationary control (at the start location) to calculate actual ascent/ descent.

[Shred11]

I did quite a bit of riding in winter in the rain and got my 510 wet, with no issue. But seemingly over the last few weeks there have been a few days with 'warm rain', and it sends the altimeter haywire.

There has been a bit of discussion about this on the Garmin forums. The altimeter has a tiny little hole in the underside of the case and towards the front. In certain conditions - especially if the 510 is tilted up from horizontal, water can enter the altimeter hole and interfere with it. Wind - eg during a fast descent can also cause some weird readings. Fitting the Garmin silicone case seems to improve matters, since it shields the opening from the elements.

[Dr_Mutley]

I did quite a bit of riding in winter in the rain and got my 510 wet, with no issue. But seemingly over the last few weeks there have been a few days with 'warm rain', and it sends the altimeter haywire.

There has been a bit of discussion about this on the Garmin forums. The altimeter has a tiny little hole in the underside of the case and towards the front. In certain conditions - especially if the 510 is tilted up from horizontal, water can enter the altimeter hole and interfere with it. Wind - eg during a fast descent can also cause some weird readings. Fitting the Garmin silicone case seems to improve matters, since it shields the opening from the elements.

This may be true to some extent but it seems more algorithm based than design based. The 500 had similar altimeter issues early on and then worked flawless after several firmware revisions... My 510 also has wild altimeter fluctuations, while housed in a silicone case, on my extension mount.... Strangely the 500 when mounted in the same position without a case doesn't suffer from any altimeter woes...

Hopefully the fix the software issues soon...

[lobstermash]

My 510 has completely crapped itself. I turned it on this morning to try and sync bluetooth with my phone again, only to discover all my rides and training pages had disappeared. Not only that, but the units had changed to imperial... Factory reset resulted in not being able to select any settings, it won't save any training page setups, won't sync with cadence/speed/HR and didn't save my ride this morning.

I'm guessing that the firmware's corrupted or something and it'll need to be re-flashed. However, I'm wondering if that's even possible, as there's no option to do so in Garmin Express, and I'm worried about wiping the device and re-loading the firmware that way, whether that might prevent GE from recognising it... Anyone got any tips?

[march83]

first up, mount it as a USB, copy everything off and back it up.

factory reset can be done by pressing all 3 hard buttons until the splash screen comes up, then releasing it.

once you've done a factory reset you can selectively restore some of the files to return your bikes, activity types and anything else that you like so long as those files aren't corrupted.

[lobstermash]

Factory reset doesn't work. I'm pretty sure the firmware's corrupted. Is it safe to just completely wipe the device and re-install firmware? Or will Garmin Express not recognise the device?

[Dr_Mutley]

My 510 has completely crapped itself. I turned it on this morning to try and sync bluetooth with my phone again, only to discover all my rides and training pages had disappeared. Not only that, but the units had changed to imperial... Factory reset resulted in not being able to select any settings, it won't save any training page setups, won't sync with cadence/speed/HR and didn't save my ride this morning.

I'm guessing that the firmware's corrupted or something and it'll need to be re-flashed. However, I'm wondering if that's even possible, as there's no option to do so in Garmin Express, and I'm worried about wiping the device and re-loading the firmware that way, whether that might prevent GE from recognising it... Anyone got any tips?

Common gripe... Mine does that every few months... Frequently back up/upload your device in case this happens... Then it can be easily restored to its previous state after a hard reset/software upgrade

[Dr_Mutley]

Factory reset doesn't work. I'm pretty sure the firmware's corrupted. Is it safe to just completely wipe the device and re-install firmware? Or will Garmin Express not recognise the device?

yep

[GaryJ]

Anyone using 3.4 or 3.5 firmware yet?

[Shred11]

Quite a bit of complaining about firmware v3.40 and 3.50 on the Garmin forums still:

https://forums.garmin.com/forumdisplay.php?363-Edge-510

I took a a full backup, then upgraded to 3.40 a few weeks ago. I haven't (touch wood) yet suffered any ill effects. The only positive that I've seen is that it seems to be more persistent in keeping BlueTooth connected to my iPhone. I saw the Edge 510 flash up "BlueTooth Disconnected" or something like that during my morning commute (cue dark thoughts of all the hassle I'd have getting it connected again), but by the time I arrived at work, it had associated again and was happy to upload my ride and sync with the the phone.

[3DKiwi]

Anyone using 3.4 or 3.5 firmware yet?

Yup, no problems so far. I don't use bluetooth.

[lobstermash]

I haven't had any problems since wiping the lot and reinstalling the firmware, except for the clock being out by 12 hours (well, this week it didn't adjust for daylight saving either, so it's 13 hours ahead now...).