Today Garmin announced their latest bike computer, the Edge 520 – priced at $299USD. This GPS-enabled unit instantly becomes the most advanced bike computer that Garmin has ever released, adding support for a flotilla of new features. But fear not, owners of the Edge 1000/810/510 and even last week’s Edge 25 are getting some of these new features too.
In addition to the Edge 520 announcement, Garmin also announced a new bike radar and bike light system, which I’ve covered in a separate post. Further yet, they’ve announced deep integration with Strava for a number of devices (including the new Edge 520). I talk about the Strava integration later in this post, but also in more detail in a separate dedicated post.
As I noted earlier, this is without question the most new features we’ve ever seen come to a bike computer – Garmin or otherwise. It’s like they’ve been saving up for the past 6 years since the release of the original Edge 500, and decided to cash out in one big swoop. Some of the below have been added to other product lines (i.e. the Edge 1000), yet others are new altogether. So I’m sorta using the Edge 500/510 as the baselines, and noting when and where there are variances.
Here’s the skinny:
– Added on-device Strava Segment integration
– Added basemap to device
– Added ability to download 3rd party detailed maps
– Added Bluetooth Smart Text & Call Notifications (previously on Edge 1000)
– Added Recovery Advisor metrics (previously only on some Running/Tri units)
– Added VO2 Max Estimation (previously only on some newer Garmin units)
– Added FTP tracking and testing
– Added Personal Records
– Added Cycling Dynamics metrics (previously only on some newer Garmin units)
– Added ability to control Garmin Varia bike lights
– Added integration with Garmin Varia bike radar system
– Added ANT+ FE-C Trainer Control
– Addition of GLONASS support (was in Edge 510, but not 810 or 500)
– Time in zones (first seen on the FR920XT/Fenix3)
In addition to the above, when compared to the Edge 500, you’ll find these new features that have been added to most Garmin devices as of late. These are all present/added on the Edge 520:
– Integrated Live Tracking with phone
– Integrated Bluetooth Smart uploads to your mobile phone (and then sync’d to Strava/Training Peaks/Sport Tracks/etc…)
– Ability to download courses and workouts from phone to Edge 520
– Sensor pool concept & Activity Profiles (no bike profiles)
– Support for Edge Remote Control accessory
– Support for Shimano Di2 integration
– Support for Garmin VIRB control/integration
– Added Training Calendar support
– Added Auto Sleep option (turns off if not used for a while)
– Added Lap summary page (seen on Edge 510/810/1000, but not Edge 500)
– Support for ANT+ sensor types: Cadence sensors, Heart Rate Sensors, Power Meters, Speed Sensors, Speed/Cadence Sensors, VIRB action cams, Weight Scales
Now, there are a few things that have been missing from various recent Garmin units, so I double-checked to see if those were there. They are as follows:
– ANT+ Weight Scale support was kept
– Sharing of files between units directly was kept
– Auto Lap by Position is present/kept
Phew, I think that about covers it. Well, I hope it does anyway, if not, just drop a specific feature into the comments section and I can clarify.
Before we get into all the details, here’s a video walk-through I’ve put together of the Edge 520. It covers pretty much all of the major new features and lets you see how you interact with the device:
From here let’s dig into some of the major features. I’ll of course go into much more detail in my eventual In-Depth Review, which is typically about 30-45 days after the unit starts shipping – once I have final production hardware and firmware.
Basic Use and Menus:
Let’s start off with a few of the basics on use of the Edge 520. First is that the unit has a slew of buttons, and is not touchscreen. The buttons are as follows:
Upper left: Light & Power button
Middle Left: Up selection button
Lower Left: Down selection button
Bottom left: Lap button
Bottom right: Start/stop button
Upper Right: Select button (for menus)
Lower Right: ‘Back’ button (for menus)
It’ll take a tiny bit of time getting used to the different buttons if you’ve come from other devices (even Garmin devices), most notably the lap and start buttons being on the bottom of the device.
Next, the home screen is aligned vertically in that you go up/down to the various functions. In the middle you’ve got ‘Ride’, which is where you start a ride. Down one option is all of the training and settings functions – such as following a course, doing a structured workout, or controlling a trainer. As well as the settings menu.
Meanwhile, if you scroll up you’ll get to the ‘Status’ menu. This menu shows aspects like screen brightness, GPS signal strength, sensor connectivity and mobile phone status.
To start a ride, we’ll just select the ‘Ride’ button. From here it’ll ask us what Activity Profile to use. Activity Profiles were introduced with the Edge 510/810, and were designed to allow you to group settings such as data page configuration into a tidy bundle. In my case, I’ve got a default Train option, and then a custom one I created called ‘Strava’.
After selecting a profile you’ll be brought to the familiar data screen page. Meanwhile, the GPS chip goes off and finds satellites.
You can of course customize these pages with up to 10 data fields per page, and up to 5 pages (+ the Map, Compass, Elevation, Lap Summary, Virtual Partner, and Cycling Dynamics pages). Here’s a few pages:
New to the Edge 520 is a bit of a quick access menu, which is accessible by pressing the upper right button. This will bring up options for configuring in-ride settings, such as alerts, data fields and the elevation. As well as the Status menu/page we talked about a few paragraphs ago.
In addition to the regular data pages, you’ll also have pages you can enable for Garmin Cycling Dynamics (Vector/Vector2 users), as well as the new map page:
Post-ride there are some new metrics that haven’t previously been seen or offered on the Edge series. For example, you’ve got recovery time. This started with the Garmin Forerunner series and has expanded to the triathlon watches:
In addition, within the training options you can now automatically track your FTP levels, as well as perform an FTP test. Pretty cool.
When it comes to riding the Edge, it’ll act pretty much like any other Garmin Edge device from a basics standpoint. The unit has a quarter-turn mount on the back of it, so it’s completely compatible with any other Garmin Edge mount out there (including 3rd party ones):
Looking at 3rd party out-front mounts, some of you have asked about how well it might fit with the bottom buttons and pressing them. I grabbed three random mounts from my collection to try out: The Garmin forward mount, a K-Edge mount, and a Barfly mount. Below are photos in a small gallery of all of them.
Now – here’s what actually matters: Whether or not the mount is set ‘down’, or is ‘level’. For example, in the K-Edge mount you’ll see it puts the unit down lower, which means the buttons get closer to the handlebars. Whereas with the Garmin mount it’s equal in height to the bars – so there’s no button issues.
That said, in all three that I tried, I didn’t have any real issues with pressing the buttons. It might be a tad bit trickier with the sunken mounts in a sprint or something to press it, but overall not hard. Of course, there are tons of mount variations from each company (meaning a dozen each from Barfly, K-Edge, etc…). So you’ll kinda have to use a bit of testing on any given specific model and your bike to see whether/where it fits.
Additionally, Garmin has gone with a micro-USB port for charging and data sync. Note that the unit does NOT have an additional Micro-SD card slot though, so you can’t expand the storage.
But you can also sync via Bluetooth Smart to your mobile phone (iOS/Android). With this additional phone connectivity you gain the ability to see text messages and phone notifications directly on the Edge 520.
You can of course turn this functionality off as you see fit. Finally note that the Edge 520 doesn’t have WiFi within it, compared to the Edge 1000 which does.
Strava Segment Integration:
If past posts are any indication, the most desired sports tech feature out there is the ability to have Strava segments display live/real-time status on one’s Garmin Edge device. And now, that’s possible. With the Edge 520, Garmin has enabled the ability to race against various Strava leaderboard records directly on the Garmin Edge device itself.
This means you’ll get status updates as you ride the individual Strava segments, such as how far ahead and behind the record your chasing:
You can specify a number of different records, be it in the KOM (King of the Mountain aka Course Record), or records of your friends, or your personal best. Additionally, you can also race against your goals for a given segment.
These leaderboards are automatically updated anytime your Garmin device syncs via Bluetooth Smart, USB, or WiFi (on Edge 1000), though it won’t sync mid-ride. Only before/after. It’ll sync various segments based on specific conditions and preferences.
Now, to be clear – Garmin is not the first company to introduce this. Others (primarily apps) have had functionality like this previously. For example, 4iiii introduced it two years ago. Still, for most people it’s having it on the Edge that they’ve been waiting for.
In order to give you a bit more detail on this feature – I’ve put together a standalone post where I walk through the entire process step by step of how it works. You can view that here.
Oh, and one last thing: This is coming to not just the Edge 520, but also the Edge 510, Edge 810, and Edge 1000 – with a firmware update planned for Q3 (by the end of September).
ANT+ Trainer Control:
Next up we’ve got another new feature, the ability to control your electronic trainer directly from the Edge 520. This allows you to set the resistance of trainers that support the semi-new ANT+ FE-C standard. The FE-C (Fitness Equipment Control) standard enables trainer companies to allow apps and devices to set the wattage and other parameters on a bike trainer. Only certain trainers support this functionality today, with the first units being the Tacx Smart Trainers that enabled support about three weeks ago (you can read all about that here).
Since then numerous apps have added support, including Zwift, TrainerRoad, Kinomap and others. Additionally, other companies including Elite have stated plans for supporting it within their trainers.
As for the Edge 520, it allows you to search for and pair to an ANT+ Trainer:
Then from there you can go ahead and complete tasks such as the normal calibration/roll-down that’s usually done by most trainer apps:
This would then report back a success or failure:
After that you’ve got a few options when it comes to your rides. These are as follows:
– Follow an activity: This takes a past workout and allows you to re-ride it, simulating the elevation/incline in real time
– Follow a course: This allows you to ride a downloaded course (such as a race, route, or anything else), and changes elevation/incline in real time
– Follow a workout: This allows you to ride a downloaded workout (created on Garmin Connect), where it’ll automatically change the resistance for each segment of the workout
– Specify Resistance: This will specify a given resistance level
– Specify Target Power: This is simple: You set a wattage value (i.e. 250w) and the trainer will keep that wattage
The cool thing about this is that it’ll mean you can easily re-ride a given workout or race course. That’s often ideal if you’re trying to learn pacing of effort on a specific route. And no additional software is required to do so.
Same goes for riding a workout, it’ll instantly change the power to whatever you’ve specified within the Garmin Connect workout file:
Here you can see the same thing on the Garmin Edge 520:
In talking with Wahoo Fitness, they have confirmed they will add supporting the ANT+ FE-C standard to the development roadmap for the Wahoo KICKR and KICKR SNAP. Given the announcement just happened, they are working to narrow down an exact date for implementation of that profile. But from their perspective they noted they are super-excited about this.
As for other trainer companies, I’ll update this page/section here once companies confirm additional support of the FE-C profile.
(Update: Garmin has confirmed the Edge 1000 will receive FE-C support/control in/by Q4. It will not be added to the Edge 510/810.)
Mapping Included:
The Edge 520 includes what is known as a ‘Basemap’. For those that have been around the Garmin block a few times, you’ll know that this map is fairly sparse. But a map it is. For example, in all of Paris it only shows about…well..three streets. Oh, and the river (seen above). The main goal of this map is to give you some rough perspective on where you are compared to the Edge 500/510 where it’s just a blank page/canvas.
Now at first you might be in the camp of not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, but wishing for a bit more. Well good news, through the same steps that I’ve outlined in in the past, you can download free (and highly detailed) maps of your choosing to the unit (note: I’ve updated that post with the Edge 520-specific instructions). These maps are from Openstreet, and are community sourced. They are the exact same maps you’ll find on the Garmin Edge 1000 and Edge Touring units (as well as on Polar’s V650). Again, this isn’t done on the Garmin website, but a 3rd party – but it’s silly easy to follow and works beautifully.
Due to the available space on the Edge 520, you won’t be able to download a massive map area, but you can cover your usual riding territory and if you were touring you could easily cover a day or two and then reload. On a stock Edge 520 there’s approximately 54MB of free space. For reference, the area of Paris and most of the surrounding areas is 21MB:
Or, looking at Washington DC, this area is 35MB:
And the (much greater) Sydney, Australia and area is 37MB:
All of these easily fit within the 51MB of free space, plus have plenty of space for ride files afterwards. The back of the napkin calculation for activity file space is .1MB per hour of riding (with GPS & ANT+ sensors). So 10 hours = just 1MB. You can use the site to figure out how much space is needed, just follow the instructions in my original post and manually select tiles.
With this said, it’s important to note that the unit does NOT do routable directions though. Meaning, it won’t tell you to ‘Turn left on Maple Street’, but rather instead give you breadcrumb style tracks overlaid onto these maps. Additionally, because it’s not routable, it won’t be able to give you directions across town. Thus there is no point of interest database or similar.
The best way to think of this is that if you’re looking to be able to create directions on the fly during your ride, the Edge 810/1000 are far better options. But, if you just want to know where you are on the map and be able to zoom around to figure out where you’re going – this will work quite well.
Product Comparison Charts:
I’ve added the Edge 520 to the product comparison database, which means you can compare it against any other GPS bike computer I’ve reviewed. For the purposes of the below, I’ve added the Garmin Edge 500, Edge 510, and Edge 520, since that’s likely the cross section of products people would be comparing against.
Remember, you can mix and match any products you’d like within the product comparison database, allowing you to create your own comparison charts.
Summary:
For those of you that are regular readers, you’ll know well that I’ve been pretty hard on the Garmin Fitness team when it comes to the Garmin Edge devices over the past few years. In my review of the Edge 510 device two years ago, I noted how the device fell far short of expectations. And with the Edge 1000 unit, I noted that it was largely a device that nobody asked for. Today however, I think it’s a case of ‘3rd time’s the charm’, and the Edge 520 is almost exactly what folks have been asking for.
The features are precisely what I and many others have wanted, in terms of aspects like Strava integration, direct trainer control, and baseline mapping. Plus a smaller size than the existing Edge 510.
Now there’s no doubt always room for improvement. For example, I’d really like to see Bluetooth Smart sensor support, and I think this might have actually been the rare case where touch screen support might have made sense (due to aspects like controlling trainer wattage). Or the lack of WiFi is a bit peculiar, as is the lack of Connect IQ support. But on the whole, for most users this device will hit the spot.
For me personally, assuming the final software and hardware isn’t buggy – I expect this device to become my mainstay bike computer, replacing the large number of Edge 810 and Edge 1000’s that I use on a day to day basis on my handlebars in various tests (most notably power meter tests where I run concurrent units). The size being the most appealing aspect, combined with the connectivity.
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Support the site: Found what you read above useful? If so – then you can support the site here by ordering the Edge 520 via Clever Training. They’re accepting pre-orders for the unit, which Garmin says will ship in “Q3” (between now and Sept 30th) – though its expected to likely start shipping much sooner in late July. They have both the base unit, as well as the bundle unit available, which can be selected from the drop-down list. In addition, if you’re a member of the DCR/CT VIP Program – you’ll save a bundle as well!
I’ve bought the 520 and can’t find anywhere in the profiles section to input data on the bike being ridden, for example, the bike weight, tire circumference etc. has this been omitted on the new 520?
It’s all activity profiles now. If you have more than one bike then set up a profile for each one.
You can enter circumference one you have your spreed sensor attached and detected.
Very little of this is explained by Garmin – so welcome to Garmin
Hi Ray
Do you know of a way I can use average power in the workouts?
I may be missing something, but the option to set average power as a target doesn’t seem to be available on Garmin Connect.
I bought a 520 off the back of the review on here and really like it. I love the ability on my daily commute to highlight 4-5 strava segments and then have them light up when I am about to hit them. It has really stepped up my training.
My question is whether the training partner over/under times shown are average pace for the segment or related to the realtime pace data for the segment?
If it’s a course created from a ride you did previously TP is using the actual variable speeds you did that day. If you create a course from scratch and set an average you want to achieve it goes at that constant average.
Hi Ray,
Recently bought edge 520, and now looking forward into trainer. (currently for MTB/ non roadie)
Got my eyes on Taxc Booster, but i know from your earlier blog about Taxc ANT+ FE-C standard.. they curently implemented it only into Vortex smart and Bushido smart. Can you give an advice on picking trainer? should i go for simplier Booster or definetly pick up at least Vortex? or other trainer?
I picked up a 520 recently, and I’m having some issues with my HR zones. In workouts I’ve created in Garmin Connect and sent to the 520, I want to spend a certain amount of time in zone 2 or zone 3. For some reason, I keep getting alerts telling me I’ve hit my max HR or my HR is too high even when I’m still in zone 2 and can see on my 910XT that my HR is only 150. I never had this problem when using workouts with my 910XT and Garmin Training Center. Has anyone else had this issue with their 520? Is it a Garmin Express issue? Thanks!
Not sure if this is related to your HR problem, but the unit when it first arrives, or if you do a factory reset, defaults to setting the max HR as you go along (a learning mode) which is most frustrating (a) because it starts out way too low and thinks you are riding at ridiculously high % of your max heart rate (b) because your HR zones are set way too low and (c) it keeps changing as it discovers you exceeding your previously achieved max HR. The cure is simple, you have to set the max HR to a specific value.
Thanks Graham. My max HR was set when I downloaded my profile from Garmin Connect, so I think that’s not the issue. Looking at those settings, though, made me notice one called “Auto Detect Max HR” which I wouldn’t otherwise have known about. I toggled that off and hopefully that will make things function as I expect them to.
I’ve create a workout on garmin connect with target power. Even if Min/Max alert was disabled for every zones, it kept beeping because of too high/low power. So I’ve enabled alerts for power lower than 0w and higher than 4000w. No more problem about this issue…BUT
…Let’s says the target power is 250w, EVERY time the current power is 250w I have an alert at the bottom of the screen telling me I’m in the zone (Not sure about the exact phrasing). This is very annoying because chaces are you’ll hit the target power every few seconds…Not sure how DC didn’t have this problem with his workouts.
I didn’t go through all the comments above, so I preliminary apologize if this was already commented, however:
Ray,
What is the sense to limit the unit so much in terms of storage capability (be it a decent internal memory or a simple port for micro sd)?
Is it only to force users to get another Garming GPS if they want real mapping capability, or there’s a good technical reason why this could not be implemneted inside the unit?
It’s really a spank that finally everything is there, but if I want to go on the Alps for some nice MTB trail raiding I need to switch to another unit (or load the local maps……………………….)
Garmin recently rolled out a software update for the Edge 520 – unfortunately I get an error message stating that there’s not enough internal memory available to perform the update. I have about 15Mb of available memory and recently deleted all the stored rides I had on my device, yet still no luck. I did upgrade the baseman with a local map of where I ride, which coincidently is smaller than the base map I replaced, so I don’t t think that could be the problem.
I’d like to upgrade the software if possible and would appreciate any suggestions you can come up with.
Anyone else experiencing significant ant+ dropouts (garmin HR, stages PM, Garmin speed sensor) as well as BT (with phone) following the new 3.0 firmware update?
I do have a Mac but what would emptying the recycling bin (I assume you mean the trash, right?) do? The internal memory problem resides on the Edge 520.
On Mac, each external storage device has its own hidden trash folder. If you have been deleting the activities using your Mac, instead of deleting them using the Edge 520, then you will need to empty the trash.
@ Don S. – what @Changren Yong said. I’ve done it a ton on my mac, when I ran into this problem (most times when I was trying to replace the maps). You need to empty the trash bin :)
Got it. Thanks for the clarification. BTW, Garmin Support told me to empty the ride, segment, etc folders and the OpenStreet map I loaded before trying to update. That worked as well, but next time I’ll remember to empty the trash folder on the Garmin.
I was trying to figure how to get 3-month premium strava account which is coming with Edge 520 bundle, however when I go from garmin connect segment page to strava, there is nothing about 3-month, one month/1 year purchase.
Can somebody point me, please?
Otherwise device is great, mapping could be better, and like possibility to create and follow workout, screen is great too.
First, thanks for your very detailed reviews – much appreciated!
I’ve been using a FR 305 for ages – it’s worked great for years. Battery question: I’d charge the FR after use and it would stay charged, no need to remember to charge it before running/cycling. Any recommendations for how often/when to charge the 520, whether it’s ok to charge it after an activity even if it isn’t low, and general recommendations for battery health? Thanks –
p.s. love the 520. Only issues I’ve seen so far are (1) temperature readings considerably lower than outdoor temps, and slow to react to change; and (2) couldn’t connect Strava to Mac Garmin Express, but got it to work via iPhone Strava settings. Great device; first I’ve seen that I’d swap the FR for.
@Linda: The Edge 520 has a published 15-hour battery life. The device itself tells you the percentage of battery life remaining, so you can make the decision on when you should charge it.
Thanks Changren!
It doesn’t seem to lose charge very quickly when it’s off — much better than a FR 405 I tried a while back, which had a watch function that wouldn’t turn off and depleted charge when I wasn’t using it.
Have the P1 Pedals and a Garmin 500. Thinking about upgrading to the Garmin 520 now that there’s a firmware update out that allows setting the crank length. Since the 520 doesn’t use bike profiles like the 500, how can I setup the 520 to save different crank lengths for my different bikes (three of them)? This is super easy on the 500, but I just want to make sure that even using the sensor pool with the 520 I can still somehow create profiles for each individual bike that stores the different / specific crank lengths. Thanks!
I think it’s not going to be possible to set up different crank lengths for the same power meter (aka sensor in the Edge 520). I used to have just one Garmin speed sensor (the newer version that uses accelerometer instead of magnet). Each time i moved the speed sensor between my road bike (700x25c tire) and cross bike (700x33c tire), i had to change the wheel size for that sensor. I got tired of changing the wheel size so i bought a second speed sensor.
Can you not setup different “activities” on the 520, and associate each with a different bike (road, track, tri, etc) and the set the crank length within each? That’d obviously be ideal. With the 500, you can simply have it set different crank lengths for each bike profile. Unfortunately, my wife uses different crank lengths across her four bikes. Would love to get a 520, but if it means having to manually change the crank length on the head unit each time she changes bikes (often), this is probably a deal breaker.
Can anyone with the P1 Pedals, Garmin 520, and the latest firmware update, please check into this? Thanks so much!
There isn’t any bike profile in the Edge 520. Only activity profile. All the sensors go into a sensor pool to be shared among various activity profiles (if you have more than one). Sensors are not tied to any particular activity profile so when you configure the wheel size for a speed sensor, that wheel size is tied to that sensor, not to the activity profile. I expect that to be the same for P1’s crank length setting. I find it interesting that this is a deal breaker for you. Your wife is willing to spend more than a few minutes to swap the pedals among her bikes but spending less than 30 seconds to configure the crank length in the Edge 520 is a deal breaker?
@Christopher: You may have to stick with your current bike computer then. I seriously doubt Garmin is going to reintroduce the bike profile back in its newer devices.
ok…trying to decipher your message :-))) – that means – you already know about a beta product :-). I’m asking because I’d rather wait instead of buying into an Edge 520, as the 500 (besides the FE-C) works fine, and I really don’t care about Strava or OSM…:-)
Hi Ray,
Curious if you have ever tested/tried or have a point of view on the accuracy of the neodymium magnets (Icarus or any magnet from Home Depot?) vs the magnet that comes with the Garmin GSC10? Seems like a no brainer—I dont understand why thy are not more prevelant vs the using ties/etc to attach the unsightly magnet GSC10 to your crank arm. Appreciate any insight or thoughts.
while not ray and not speaking for ray my opinion is the magnet makes no difference at all. I have been using ones like you describe from ac moore, michaels, home depot etc for years. I run speedplay stainless pedals and ultegras and while there is enough non stainless in those speedplay pedals for the magnet to remain attached I use a little clear silicone adhesive to make sure it sticks. On my ultegra pedals even though it sticks fine I still use the silicone. sure if i need to remove the ultegra pedal i have to pry the magnet out but even with the silicone it comes out very easy and I re-apply the silicone when I put the pedal back in but so what, it ads a whopping 30 seconds to the process. I hate those zip tie on the crank arm magnet setups. The little button magnets are more than strong enough to operate the read switch in the gsc10’s
I’d agree. I’ve often toyed with other magnets, never seen any issues. Both cycle specific and various rare earth ones stuck on the back of the pedal spindle.
Thanks for all the feed back—two quick follow up questions, (1) someone mentioned that some non cadence specific magnets maybe too strong or “calibrated to the wrong frequency” and be inaccurate—is this true or BS? and (2) I have a Giant TCR Advanced SL frame with the integrated cadence/speed in the chain stay—so my question is whether the magnet on the spindle will be too far away or not a match given that it is not a Garmin GSC10 (usually the magnet goes on the crank arm and can be moved etc?
Again thanks and appreciate all the insight or thoughts…apologize if these are rudimentary questions…
answers in reverse order. unless you can position the magnet in the correct location to pass the opening in the chainstay where it needs to pass by at the required spacing then no. as to question 1 for all practical human purposes you are correct it is BS.
let me qualify that…can you install a magnet of sufficient strength that will close the reed switch early and release it late? i’m sure. can you do it with a dime sized magnet the type of which we are talking about here no. if you could close the reed switch early and release it late “closed duration” it still would only happen once per pedal stroke correct? so maybe as the clock ticks by a minute and it didn’t open yet and only showed you pedaled i dunno oh say 84 times that minute instead of 86 or 88..would this matter to you in the grand scheme of things?
After I have installed the more detailed map I can’t update the unit to software version 3.0. I have removed the gmapbmap.img file. But when I try to install the old gmapbmap file I got the file message the unit is full.
Please HELP!!!!!!
I’ve been rocking the new 520 for nearly a month now. With fall coming, I’ve noticed that in the morning and later in the evening, the screen is switching to an inverse display (white text on dark background). Is this a normal feature or do I need to send my device in on warranty?
It does this at night to make it easier to see, so it’s not this gigantic bright blob on your handlebars. I believe you can turn it off in the settings (don’t have a unit in front of me at this second to triple-check).
Hi Ray, you’re right. I poked around and found in the Menu > Settings > Display > Color Mode section you can select from Auto, Day, & Night options. Auto is set based on time of day I found out, not some built in light sensor. Pretty cool
I used the 520 for the first time today and I didn’t like how the map kept zooming in and out. Is there a way to zoom in and leave it there so I know where I’m going?
On the map page, if you press the key on the top-right, it will take you to a menu. From there, you can manually adjust the zoom level by turning off auto zoom and then choosing “Set Zoom Level.”
Have you or anyone else noticed HR drops? It has happened to me e v e r y bike ride – HR rate drops to 63 (!) every now and then during the ride for no reason. Tried running with the Edge, same problem. Brought the 920 on the bike (with the Edge) – same reading in the 920 file. Garmin doesn’t know what’s happening …
Does anyone know if there is a way to delete missed text / call notifications on the edge 520? I’ve searched every menu for a delete option with no luck, had the device forget my phone, had my phone forget the device.. nothing seems to work and cant find anything in the manual or on google either. Hope I’m missing something
ps, DCRainmaker your reviews are awesome… from this Edge 520 review to your Eurobike RV review to your Varia review to your…. you get the point, great job and thanks for taking the time to put them together!!
Correct, you only have to read it on your phone and the notification will disappear.
I am quite frustrated with this feature. If you get more than one txt, all you will be able to see on the Garmin is a screen that says “n text messages received” and you cannot see the contents – you have to read them from your phone before the notification will disappear. Garmin certainly has this one wrong, It would be much more useful, and safer, if a txt was displayed on the screen until you hit the back button.
Totally agree with this. The Magellan Cyclo allows you to view the message on-screen. The Garmin just “notifies” you. Kinda lackluster to say the least…
think I figured it out.. once you clear the notification on your phone, it disappears from the edge… so basically it’s just mirroring what’s on your phone for notifications and not really storing anything locally
great review. I have an Edge 810. Is it worth to up or downgrade to the 520? I mostly use the Edge to train and not to navigate. I am interested in controlling my tacx vortex.
What do you think?
Hello DCR, again, having not read every single comment above would you know if it is a Garmin issue or a G3 power tap issue with my sensor not being picked up? Had no problem with any other of the sensors but everyone seems to think it’s a connection bug between the 2 devices that is yet to be rectified. Maybe when they release an upgrade? My 500 has never had problem reading the G3.
No issues at all for me any two different G3 hubs with four different Edge 520’s, over the last 3 months. It’s a mainstay of my fleet.
I’d go in and triple-check the sensor listing and see if perhaps it’s there but toggled to be ‘off’, so it wouldn’t show up. Or, try resetting the Edge 520. I’ve heard of nobody else with any PM pairing issues (on any devices).
I’ve had exactly this happen with my Pioneer dual sided PM. The PM works (will pair with my old 500 and is all good). But it won’t pair to the 520. 520 is picking up other ANT+ signals no problem.
The whole point of getting the 520 was to see the dual sided options – so bit disappointing at the moment. Did Victoria sort her issue?
I needed some help on how to turn on text notifications and incoming calls, i have not found hoot turn on the option on my 520. Any idea on how to make this work with my iPhone 6.
1. Are you on the latest 520 firmware (version 3.0)? If not, update to the latest firmware.
2. On your iPhone 6 go to Settings –> Bluetooth. Do you see “BLE_Edge 520” and “BT_Edge 520” under MY DEVICES? If you are only seeing “BT_Edge 520”, you need to pair with the “BLE_Edge 520” device. This is the device pairing that allows text/call notification be sent from your iPhone to the Edge 520.
3. If you are having problem pairing “BLE_Edge 520” to your iPhone, then unfortunately at the moment, the only way to fix this is to reset the 520 to factory. To reset the 520 to factory, go to Settings –> System –> Device Reset –> Factory Reset. Remember, if you do this, you will lose ALL your settings and activities. After doing the Factory Reset, when the 520 is powered on again, you will be prompted to enter your profile again. At some point, it will ask if you want to set up your phone. Just go through the guided steps to pair it up with your iPhone again.
In relation to the live strava segments, do you need to have a mobile phone with it’s mobile data running in order to utilise the live strava segments?
Basically, in other words. Do you need to have internet to have live segments running. Or does it run without the need for internet running?
I have tested a backup battery during a driveway ride and it worked fine. I was concerned about charging it during a multiday ride and having it reset. However if you plug it into a live USB port (other end in PC) it will reset. Of course, you wouldn’t be plugging it a handle bar mounted laptop, I assume.
I scanned comments and couldn’t find anything about the integration to the Di2. I’m so glad I read your review before I committed to the 1000. I’m feeling pretty confident that the 520 is the way to go. I have the 500 and love it except I wish I can see a map under the breadcrumbs. Thanks so much, can’t wait to read your in-depth review of the 520.
I need help with picking out a bike computer. I am avid cyclist that race once a weekend in college. On that note I have the Garmin edge 500 and I think it is time to upgrade. Which Garmin or bike computer would you suggest to get. I do not really have a price budget right now. Thanks for your suggestions.
1. Autozoom seems to cycle the map continuously through zoom settings. Not sure whether this is a bug or a feature but I find it very distracting. Do other 520’s work like this?
2. If I begin to ride a course but am not at the start the 520 gives me the option of navigating to the start. Taking this option introduces a thick pink line on the map in the direction of the start. This is useful, except that the 520 never notices when I’ve actually reached the start (even though it will announce that I’m arriving) so the pink line never goes away and the Distance to Destination never starts counting down. (I’ve twice now confused the line that won’t go away with the course I should be following.) Is this how all 520’s behave or is it a problem just with mine?
3. Zooming into the map takes 6 button presses (7 if you need to skip over the option to view texts that have arrived). This seems unnecessarily awkward. Perhaps Ray you could suggest to Garmin that as a shortcut, pressing the UP or DOWN button at the same time as the button opposite causes a zoom in or out. Pressing opposing buttons at the same time is if anything easier than pressing just one so this wouldn’t be difficult for the user
1) You can turn off auto-zoom.
3) Hmm, interesting idea. I suppose this goes to auto-zoom. Or probably more to just not being an ideal zooming unit. But even just a long-hold option would be nice too. I’ll mention it.
I have just recently started using the 520 and have found that even when using m old Edge 500 you could change the zoom level by just holding in the brightness button, which would put up the change zoom level field. Would be awesome if Garmin put this on to the 520! It would save a lot of fumbling around. I have tried and dont like the auto zoom, would like to be able to set it myself with a couple of button presses.
I followed your instructions in order to get some maps on my 705 and 520. This works just fine! What’s not working is the lack of elevation profile on tracks copied to Edge 520 via Base Camp. Copying files into the NewFiles folder doesn’t lead to any new courses uploaded to the Edge. I tried to convert the gpx file into a fit one, which my Garmin gratefully accepted. It was there, under Courses. What wasn’t there was the elevation profile at the beginning and during the ride. Afterwards the device sent the right data to Strava and GC as well as TP, but still I didn’t know when the summit is going to finish Any ideas, folks?
Ray:
Another suggestion to Garmin for firmware update.
Include backlight duration in profiles. Indoors I ride in a dimly lit room and keep the backlight “always on”. I would also like to create a “night” profile where backlight is always on. On occasions when I ride during day after a night ride, I’ve occasionally overlooked the always on setting and the battery has drained on a longer ride. Including this in profiles would fix this issue.
Please forgive my innocent question but I currently use my Garmin 920, and Garmin speed and cadence sensor on my Bike. Today I just bought a Stages power meter and was thinking of buying the Garmin 520 computer. Since I am training for an Ironman is it possible for data from the Stages power meter to be sent to both my 920 watch and the Garmin 520? I am fairly new to all the gadgets out there but my coach wants me training with power instead of just heart rate. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks in advance :)
i had similar question…. i have fenix 3, and not sure why i would get 520 instead of using the fenix 3. i get the bigger screen. and maybe the ability to control a trainer or more cycling dynamics… curious to what people think
Hey Ray when do think we should expect he in-depth review of the Edge 520 or did I miss something? Thanks and keep writing and snapping pics, love the blog.
520 is for sure very nice, now did someone find a way to have the live segment working while following a course?
It seems like a non-supported feature and for sure it would be nice to have.\
Thanks
Hi! Thanks a lot for this great review.
I’m a bit struggling in chosing between the 520 or the 810. My reasonning is that a GPS without routable directions is not a GPS…but on the other hand, i’m not sure whether i really need to have routes indicated. Probably only a high level view can do the trick…
Don’t you think an edge 820 will be release as well? as the 810 is already more than 2 yrs old…
thanks!
I have an Edge 510 that I use to control front and rear Garmin Virb video cameras. Using the touchscreen, I can either take a picture or record a video. The Edge 520 is listed as Virb compatible, but I cannot find any information on how it is accomplished. Since the 520 doesn’t have a touchscreen, perhaps there is a dedicated Virb page (like the 510) that is controlled by buttons. Can you confirm that the 520 can be used to take photos and videos with the Virb, and how it is done? Thanks!
I’m looking at upgrading my Edge 500 to the 520 and I’m pretty sold.
I was wondering if anyone could clarify the following regarding live tracking:
Do I have to invite someone every time I use it, or can I leave an outstanding invite for each time the device is being used?
Eg, I want it possible for the wife to have a quick check when I’m out on a night ride, and make sure that I’m not stopped in a ditch. Would I have to invite her at the start of every ride, or can I leave an open invite, eg invite once, view repeatedly.
I believe you would have to send an invite each time, as it creates a link when you start the live track.
You should look into Road ID and their app. Your wife could track you in real time, and it can be set to send a notification to her if you’ve stopped moving for more than 5 minutes.
That’s a shame. I’ve seen RoadID, and have actually bought one of their bands and had it sent to the UK.
The same issue arises with the RoadID app, in that I have to activate it each time I ride.
Ideally, the Garmin would broadcast to people that I’ve invited as a recurring option (in the same way “find my friends” does on the iPhone), but this doesn’t seem to be an option.
I’ve got into the habit where each time I’m on the way out the door, as part of booting up the Garmin, I get into Connect on my phone and issue the invite for livetracking, and then it’s just when she has a chance to check her mail or she wonders where the hell I am, she just loads up the google map (well, it always defaults to Bing for me, haven’t worked out out to make it go straight into google maps) and she where I am at that point.
Mind you where I am, mobile coverage is patchy in some places a little further from home and this upsets the live tracking, sometimes it doesn’t recover. Somewhat annoying. It would be more effective if the connect app remembers the route that it hasn’t been able to send successfully, and sends it when it can.
Hello, is worth of what it is going to be a matter of me have it from no edge of 520 gives of investing in the shame no one foot of power? manufactured is still on edge of 500? to replace the came from the 520?
Hello, is worth of what it is going to be a matter of me have it from no edge of 520 gives of investing in the shame no one foot of power? manufactured is still on edge of 500? to replace the came from the 520?
My neo just shipped– sweet! Ok so what else do I need to purchase to make this work? Just a cassette or do I need some tools and whatnot? Sorry this thread is so long it’s hard to find everything we need…..
I read your posts on a weekly basis and find them very helpful and insightful. I have a question regarding the type of unit I should purchase next.
I’m 68 and do alot of recreational cycling (about 5800 kms per year), currently I have a Garmin 500 and would like to replace it, I’m torn between the 520 and the 25. I like the price of the 25 but I really like all the info from the 520 although it is a little scary for me as I don’t feel a need for all the features. The key areas of interest for me are, HR, Speed, Cadence, ability to compete against myself, will the 25 give me all these things.
Do not buy. There is a major issue with the gradient lag. Very frustrating and Garmin refuses to acknowledge the problem. Wait until they fix (if they ever do)
I am very interested in being able to switch from my GPS60CSX to the 520 given its ability to charge during ride. I was pretty convinced I was going to stay with battery devices that take the lithium AA batts, but this could do that.
For those who have tried the charging during riding, how much external battery and time is required to charge? I am planning to do a 420 mile off road bikepacking race w/o being able to charge conventionally, so this would be most helpful to know to understand how much battery/weight I would need to carry to see if it is worth it.
Hi Rai,
Excuse my bad english, I´m from Spain.
I have a Edge 520 and a Tacx Bushido, and I can´t conect them. my suposition is that they have any problem with the Vector, becuse I also have it. The edge 520 read of the Bushido velocity and cadence, but not trainer. and read power too but I put the preference of the Vector. when I go to the option “trainer ant+” the Edge don´t detect nothing..
what can I do?
thank you in advance from Spain!.
Have a feeling this may be somewhat niche given my device, but has anyone else been seeing BT connection issues with the 520 and a Google Nexus 6P phone?
I already have an iPhone 6+ paired and haven’t removed it yet …
When I first paired the 6P, it connected the 520 as an input device and added a floating mouse pointer to my phone which was very confusing to say the least. It took clicking on the options icon for the 520 in BT settings to find there was a check-box I could uncheck. The device itself is also connecting with a “cross-hair” icon different from other devices in my list … been a while since I had an android connected to a Garmin so I don’t know if this is standard or not.
Anyway I can’t get the Phone to stay paired with the Garmin at all … I’m seeing constant prompts on the phone about disconnect issues and how to troubleshoot (device help) which all lead to starting the process over. I’ve done that a few times … it’s rather annoying and remains unresolved.
Interesting. I have a similar problem. Had an LG G2 with an older version of Android which worked without a problem other than not getting consistent message alerts but connection never dropped. Just got a Samsung S6 with Android 5.xxx and had constant disconnects and reconnects. So bad it wouldn’t stay connected long enough to upload a ride. Its not a Garmin issue as I had a similar problem in my car. The problem seemed to go away for a 24-48 hours after a phone reboot. I rode last night with solid Garmin connection. However in my car today, connect/disconnect every 2 minutes until I reboooted. Looks like more of an Android problem in my case.
Regardless of phone or operating system, Garmin’s bluetooth pairing is unreliable. I was even sent a new unit recently and same issue as soon as I pair BLE_Edge 520 it starts loosing connection with my PM, HR, and speed sensor. I find the problem is exacerbated the minute I add the Garmin Varia headlight to the equation. Come on Garmin!!!!!! You very well know there is a problem here so stop releasing meaningless GC updates before you fix the connectivity issues. It’s the reason I bought the device (text messages and live track for the wife) and have invested heavily into the Garmin ecosystem!
Tried finding this answer myself with no luck – Can I control my new Kickr Snap with my 520 – can I ride a course from my 520 controlling the Kickr’s resistance? This is a big reason i purchased the 520, but I can’t seem to get it to work.
I have the same question. I have both devices. When I went to pair on the 520, the SNAP appeared up as a power meter and not a trainer. I deleted it, searched specifically for trainers and it was blank. Curious if you got it to pair as a trainer. I think the issue so on the Wahoo end, but not sure.
Anybody else getting truly horrible battery life on this baby?
In theory, it should be “up to 15 hours” – in reality, I get nothing like that. For example, I went on a ride today with a fully charged battery and after 3 hours, it was down to 3%.
Now admittedly I use several features that drain the battery e.g. display at 100%, backlight always on, Bluetooth – but that’s the way I like it and I accept I probably will not get the full 15.
But surely I should be getting more than 3 hours??
Backlight on and at 100% is HUGE tax on the battery. Add in a few other features, and I would think that’s about right.
I’ve gone on 3-4 hour rides, backlight off, BT off, no maps…basically just gps+GLONASS, HR and speed/cadence sensors and still have 80-85% battery left.
Not really clear to me: will it calculate distance on a dumb indoor roller if paired with a speed sensor (that is a magnet on the wheel like in the 1980’s dumb bicycle computers I suppose?)
I suppose there are cheaper options for just that (like, euhm, an eighties dumb bicycle computer), but this would double the Edge as an indoor and outdoor computer.
Just read on another DCR article that the Wahoo Elemnt is delayed in 2016 so looking at the Edge 520 now. I’ve been struggling on with a very dodgy Edge 500 for months now, but that finally died couple of weeks back (dead USB connector won’t charge or sync, tried multiple cables).
I travel a lot and at each new place use the Strava course creator to find the most popular local roads (love heatmap) and plot a course. Without a GPS on the handlebars I would get lost just about every ride.
Trouble is I can’t find described anywhere an easy way to get courses from Strava to an Edge 520. The Elemnt is just meant to sync automatically through a smartphone or WiFi & that is one of the reasons I was hanging out for it. I specifically do not want to have to download, plug in the device, transfer, etc, etc. as wear and tear on the USB port is what lead to my Edge 500’s death.
Now that Garmin acknowledge the existence of Strava do they have any plans to make courses sync across? And if a course is in your Garmin Connect account, can you get that into an Edge 520 wirelessly?
BTW, what is the screen on the Edge 520 like in very bright sunlight (can’t find that mentioned here)?
So… given the delay I decided to stump up for the Edge 520. Paid full RRP at my local bike shop.
Big mistake!?
As mentioned, I specifically got this unit because I want to transfer stuff wirelessly to avoid wear and tear on the USB port which is what finally did for my old 500.
I’ve got a Samsung Galaxy S3 (i9300) running Android 4.4. Installed the Garmin Connect App on it. Followed the pairing instructions. I can see the Edge 520 in the phone’s list of paired bluetooth devices.
Now, whenever I turn the Edge 520 on, it detects the phone and tells me it’s connected, then shows the solid bluetooth icon top of the screen. However, when I open the Garmin Connect App on my phone and visit the ‘Garmin Devices’ screen all I see is my old Edge 500 device. It says there are no devices paired, despite the fact the Edge 520 is shown in the O/S’s list of paired devices.
I hit the ‘+’ sign on the ‘Devices’ screen in the Garmin Connect App thinking I can add the already connected Edge 520. Instructions tell me to perform the bluetooth pairing process again. So I unpair, and re-pair. Doesn’t help.
Given the Garmin Connect App (and also online via the website) doesn’t know about my new Edge 520 I cannot send any courses wirelessly to it. What?! This was a major incentive in buying this thing!
What appears to be a bug in the Android App is preventing this device from working as it should. This is not a good look for Garmin. I have asked for help on the forum (because their support is hopeless) here:
I didn’t realise at the time, but I actually had the same issue. I remedied it by connecting the device to my computer and adding it to Garmin Express (which I did to see if there was a firmware update for the device).
Since then I’ve not had any problems with the device showing on my phone or in Connect, but it doesn’t show notifications on from my phone when riding the same way my Forerunner 25 does.
Thx for the heads up… but I don’t have a Windoze PC. You aren’t meant to need one to sync/update firmware with the Edge 520, right? It’s all meant to happen through your smartphone… if only the app knew that! :(
Rob: I would remove all references to the Edge 500 in both the GC app and GC website. Ensure you get the “welcome” notification box in GC that confirms the 520 is correctly registered to your GC account. At least on my 920, without using Windows/Garmin Express, I can only update firmware after sending to device via GC web and manually forcing a WiFi connect on the device. If the 520 is anything like the 920, then I haven’t been able to update fw using the GC app.
Can’t get my HR belt to hook up. All new Garmin. When i connect the sensor page, it finds the HR belt (i assume as it has a code) but no HR on the screen. Tried wetting the belt etc. Faulty belt or am i doing something wrong ? Once its found the belt on the sensor connect screen i hit the back button. Correct ?
Hi
Have an issue with my 520.. every now and then it won’t boot up.. have to reset device every time that happens.. really frustrating. Please help.. why is it doing this.
Hi Ray,
Thanks for another good review:) I just ordered one. I have one question, what about the screen? is it better more clearer and more readable at dusk compared to the 510?
I found the 510 screen to be grainy. Appreciate the feedback,
I am looking into getting a new bike compute and wondering which one is a better investment the Garmin edge 520 or the 1000? Currently I have the 500 and love it. I’m a starve user but don’t care that much about it. I do bike touring and races with my university.
Yes. Those are all functions of power. No power meter, then no readings. The only possible exception is TSS which uses power to calculate but can be somewhat estimated using heart rate but Garmin devices currently do not do that estimation for you.
Yes you can. But… this involves plugging the unit into your PC and saving the file you download to the ‘NewFiles’ folder. A big feature of the Edge 520 is that it it suppose to transfer wirelessly but that only works for courses on Garmin Connect.
It is possible to get a file from one planning service to Garmin Connect courses, but that is convoluted (you have to upload as activity, create course from that, then delete the activity).
Garmin really should just create an ‘import’ function on their course creator or even better, make it sync with Strava (their creator is so much better). Then you could use any course planner you like and still ‘send to device’ wirelessly once that course was in Garmin Connect.
Wouldnt it be nice if you could see a screen of what the virb xe is videoing and what will be the next model from the 520 garmin will be introducing next
The snapshot thingie. Got it figured out that you need to press the lap button, but what if you DON’T want to start a new lap? I cannot believe the stupidity. I though I was missing something obvious. So, now, every time I start a lap, it takes a screenshot also? How difficult would it be to make it a two button press?
The 500 only read ANT+ belts & speed/cadence. The 520 also handles these, so yes, you can upgrade your head unit and use your old ANT+ sensors & HRM. This is exactly what I did & worked flawlessly.
Can two riders share one edge 520? As in I go for a ride, get home and upload data via my iPhone and then later that day my wife goes for a ride, comes home and uploads data via her iPhone.
Is it capable of pairing to two iPhones separately essentially?
Pairing to more than one should phone should not be an issue, however, if you have separate GC accounts, each account will attempt to upload all the rides recorded that haven’t been uploaded to the account currently connected. This means you both would end up with each others rides. Not be big deal since you can delete the activity from the 520 or the GC account, but a bit of a pain.
I’ve scanned through this review and searched for references to setting crank arm length–but I haven’t found anything that directly answers my present concern.
I’m getting set to purchase a power meter–most likely a Stages. I’m also planning on upgrading my Edge 500 to something that will handle mapping and have other newer features. Very strongly considering the Edge 520 and in doing some basic research I ran across this thread. Am I correct that Garmin does NOT SUPPORT setting the proper crank arm length for Stages and other non-Garmin products?
If so, the absolute arrogance of this company just astounds me. I have 175mm cranks and apparently need to change the default on whatever head unit I end up with.
I hope I’m wrong, but if I’m not, this is close to pushing me out of the Garmin “family” for good. TIA for any data on this.
I’ve done more reading and see that Garmin has rectified the problem with not allowing crank arm length setting on the 520 and 1000. Hard to keep on top of all this stuff!
Hi! New to garmin edge.. i am having trouble, maybe you can help.. my garmin express on my mac is sying that that my edge 520 is up to date with 2.6 version.. but i keep reading in forums that there is a 3.0 available.. why is this??
The Garmin Support page says
Updates & Downloads
Edge 520 software version 3.10 is available
as of December 7, 2015
Use Garmin Express to install this file.
I use Garmin Express but it still says Version 2.6 and then it says YOU ARE UP TO DATE.
What’s going on here? How do I install version 3.10?
The Garmin Support page says
Updates & Downloads
Edge 520 software version 3.10 is available
as of December 7, 2015
Use Garmin Express to install this file.
I use Garmin Express but it still says Version 2.6 and then it says YOU ARE UP TO DATE.
What’s going on here? How do I install version 3.10?
The second post on this thread. I live in India but wife and I got our Garmins from Italy and US. Both have updated to version 3. Not tried the latest upgrade yet.
I just purchased a Garmin Edge 520 and installed it. My one concern thus far is that in bright sunlight its very hard to see the displayed data fields. I assume that the Brightness button only apples to the so-called Backlight when depressed and not to the brightness factor otherwise. Is anyone having the same issue? Thanks for all the valuable info on your Web Site.
It would be nice if Garmin also allowed to modify the workout screen so you can add datafields. Like cadance and heartrate. Now I have to switch back and forward to know how I’m doing wrt the right cadance and if the HR correspondence with how I feel during the workout.
I’m also missing that you can’t configure data field power readings like Peak Power 3s, Peak Power 30s, Peak Power 1min, Peak Power 5min and Peak Power 60min.
Do you think it is easy for Garmin to add these with a planned firmware update?
So, I have an old Garmin 305 that I’m still using, but I would like to get this new 520. Looking at the bundles on both Amazon and Clever Training, they both include a chest strap which I don’t need. Will the HR sensor from my old 305 work with the new 520 (I’m thinking it will, but thought I’d ask)?
I seem to have resolved most of my earlier concerns with my Garmin Edge 320. However, the calorie expenditures reflecting my 40 to 50 mile bike rides are obviously wrong. Some of my rides reflect that I used about 500 to 600 calories on a 45 mile bike ride. No way. The numbers seemed far more accurate on my old Garmin 305 Edge. Is anyone having similar issues the calorie numbers? I’ve spoken with Garmin Reps. and they are essentially stumped about this. Thanks in advance.
Robert A. said: The numbers seemed far more accurate on my old Garmin 305 Edge. Is anyone having similar issues the calorie numbers? I’ve spoken with Garmin Reps. and they are essentially stumped about this. Thanks in advance.
I don’t know if this is something you have tried, or is even relevant, but I had really bad (low) calories readings from the Vivoactive when I had that watch. Didn’t line up with the 610, Edge 500 or Fenix 3–was MUCH lower. All of these devices supposedly used Firstbeat technology to calculate calories. I have no clue about whether they use DIFFERENT Firstbeat algorithms or not.
I got the Vivoactive to improve greatly when I went to Garmin Connect to make sure that I had my profile–weight and HR zones set correctly. I thought they were all identical and that my profile was a global set of parameters used by ALL devices. Apparently not–the Vivoactive was set a little differently and when I set it up to use the same profile as the Edge and 610, the calories burned went up quite a bit. They were all still different with the Edge being the highest and the Vivoactive the lowest, but the gap wasn’t nearly as much.
When the 920XT went on sale, I returned the Vivoactive and got it and currently use it and the Edge 500 on bike rides. Calories are within 10% or so on those two, so I’ve stopped obsessing about it. If I feel like I need it, I’ll give myself an extra snack if the Edge shows higher ;-),
I with Garmin were a bit more transparent about how all these things work, but I’m also kind of resigned to the fact that they are a BIG company and it’s just not how they roll. I do appreciate their forums and, frankly, I don’t see anything that is leaps and bounds ahead of them either.
Yep, I have that problem too. It is really my only complaint about the 320. I have a ticket open with Garmin about this. I am still to fully migrate from my 310XT. For me, the 320 does everything better, except for the calories, which averages about 60% of the calories quoted by the 310XT, with some variation depending on whether it is a hard ride or a light one. Garmin support said the two devices use the same algorithm, and since I am using both devices until they produce the same figures, I supplied Garmin with the ride data from each one to assist in their in investigation. Well, some months have passed and still they are being very coy about whether they (a) can identify the problem (b) can develop a fix (c) have a fix which will come out sometime or (d) have no ******* idea.
I am somewhere between the Edge 1000 and the Edge 520. I guess its easy to get sucked into the features but in essence, I only need the following core functionality:
1) Ability to load routes that I have created manually in BaseCamp onto the unit and use them for offroad Enduro riding (Without having to jump between Google Earth, BaseCamp and MapSource). I am not worried about having a “streetmap” ability, but it will be nice to see the map on which I currently travelling in the background as opposed to a blank background such as with the old ForeTrex 201 etc.
2) Ability to integrate the metrics of my heartrate, speed and the (GPS) course that I am following on the Virb Video Editing software from Garmin – and which uses G-Metrics as a format/standard?
3) Ability for my movement and heartrate to be tracked using Live Tracking.
4) I guess as I am doing a lot of solo offroad riding, the Edge 1000 emergency transmission of position to contacts in case of an impact sounds like a nice feature…did you test it specifically?
Based on the above – what would you recommend between these two?
Yes. You can pair it to all sensors as part of a sensor pool, and it’ll automatically recognize which ‘bike’ your on based on those sensors that are activated.
You can further create activity profiles, that allow different data screens and name them as you wish.
Can I upload the .fit files from the 520 to my laptop (mac) via bluetooth, or do I have to use the USB cable to get them on to my computer? I use Golden Cheetah on my laptop and am looking for the easiest way to get my data from the 520 to Golden Cheetah without any cables. I got a watch with the wireless sync and now I never want to have to connect a garmin to my laptop again if I can avoid it ;)
Another nice review by DCR. Now being very honest about my experience with Edge 520 I must say I absolutely hate it. I do miss the touch screen. It was so much simple than having to press many buttons. IMHO, this product is a downgrade compared to Edge 510. Unfortunately mine died after I stupidly disconnected it during an upgrade.
So, in my view, don’t waste your money in Edge 520. Maybe wait for a Edge 820 which will hopefully stick to touchscreen,
For the failed firmware update, you can actually do a forced re-set of the device and get it back to full factory defaults. The Garmin forums have the workaround there. Even works for cases like yours most of the time.
Anyone else suffering from all ANT+ devices disconnecting (and reconnecting seconds later) at the same time from the Edge 520 during an activity after upgrading to the latest firmware (3.10)?
Yes, and it drives me crazy! When I first got my Edge 1000 in August 2015, the pairing was perfect. Then, with the latest updates (or whatever) the thing has been doing this spontaneous connect/disconnect with no cause or solution. Trash!
I bought the 520 for the gradient function, so that I could help my brain appreciate the subtle extra % increases on the hills that the eyes cannot make out.
I have had the same issue with my Edge 520, it is happening since the first day of use. I can be for example on a 7% climb but the device shows something ridiculous like -1%!! I am happy others are having the same issue because it shows this issue is on many devices. I am trying to get a response from Garmin Customer Care….
I just bought the Garmin Edge 520. Ive used it twice already. Im not sure what i did wrong whe i set it up but one those 2 rides I used it, the mileage was off. First ride was a 30+/-miles but when I look at my Edge 520 after the ride it say I only rode 10 miles or so. Today I rode with a group and we average aroung 51miles but on my Garmin it says I only rode 17.5 miles. I already updated it before I started using it. Does anyone have this same problem? How do I fix it to get the accurate mileage?
>Sounds like you have a speed/cadence sensor installed that has incorrect wheel diameter, only about 1/3 of what it should be.
I thought all the Garmin Edge products used GPS to determine speed/distance. Not true? If so, is there a setting to switch between using GPS or an installed speed/cadence sensor?
>>Stephen, are you using the Edge 520 with a speed sensor?<<
No. I have an Edge 500, and a Bontrager/Trek "Duotrap" speed/cadence sensor. I've always assumed that distance measurements came from the GPS. In fact, when I'm on a trainer, I get distances that MUST be coming from the GPS in the Edge — very short for the time spent.
Maybe the 520 is different? Are there any head units that do not have GPS? If so, then maybe they pick up distance from the wheel sensor. I am obviously not clear on how this works.
If you have not configured your Edge 520 with the Bontrager Duotrap speed/cadence sensor, then it’s just using the GPS for distance/speed calculation. The GPS is not as accurate as a properly configured speed sensor but i don’t expect the GPS inaccuracy to be as significant as what you described.
Changren Young said: >>If you have not configured your Edge 520 with the Bontrager Duotrap speed/cadence sensor, then it’s just using the GPS for distance/speed calculation. The GPS is not as accurate as a properly configured speed sensor but i don’t expect the GPS inaccuracy to be as significant as what you described.<<
My Edge 500 gets it's speed/cadence from the Duotrap sensor. I'm ASSUMING that it is getting distance from the GPS because when outdoors, it reports distances that are at least reasonably accurate. When indoors, it just reports total distance for a 1-hour ride as something like .1 mile and the track on Garmin Connect is just a bunch of squiggles all around the bike studio! I don't know if there is a setting in the 500 to either:
a) turn off the GPS for indoor biking. My 920 XT just has an activity called indoor biking that does this.
b) force the unit to use the sensors to measure distance. If there is, I guess it would be a good idea to do that if GPS distances are really less accurate than measuring wheel revolutions.
Just checked my Edge 500 and there is, indeed, a setting to turn off the GPS. So tomorrow, when I’m on the trainer, I’ll do that and see if it then uses the speed/cadence sensor to report distance. If it does, I should get a realistic “mileage” for the time spent on the trainer. If it doesn’t, then I’ll have to figure out if it’s possible to force it to do so.
Can anyone here comment on how the “di2 support” works with the 520? What does it actually do? Does it indicate what gear you are in? I’m riding a bike using the 1st generation Ultegra electronic (2012). I’m not clear if this version of electronic is considered “di2” or “ui2”. I just received my 520 as a Christmas gift, and I noticed a sensor setting for “di2”. I tried it, but the 520 just froze on the screen trying to find my di2. I suspect that since my electronic is older, it doesn’t have the capability to pair with the 520. Can someone please confirm this? What version of di2 is actually supported with the 520?
You will need a Shimano D-Fly adapter, which plugs into the e-tube bus, to have the Di2 talk to a compatible bike computer like the Edge 520. According to Shimano, the D-Fly adapter is “compatible with Dura-Ace 9070, Ultegra 6870 Di2 and Ultegra 6770 E-tube road shifting”. With the D-Fly adapter, you can see the the battery level and current gear (front and back).
I have an Edge 510 that I use to control front and rear Garmin Virb video cameras. Using the touchscreen, I can either take a picture or record a video. The Edge 520 is listed as Virb compatible, but I cannot find any information on how it is accomplished. Since the 520 doesn’t have a touchscreen, perhaps there is a dedicated Virb page (like the 510) that is controlled by buttons. Can you confirm that the 520 can be used to take photos and videos with the Virb, and how it is done? Thanks!
I would be interested in this too. I have spent a lot of time trying to find the answer to this issue. I can find no screen on the 520 that mentions the virb.
If your Virb is paired with your Edge 520 (and Enabled, of course), then on the Edge 520’s Status screen, you will see “VIRB”, and below that, “Record” and “Take Photo”. These functions are activated with the upper right button (button “7” in the Edge 520 manual).
When you hit “Record” you will see “Recording” next to “VIRB” and the timer will start. You end the video recording with the same button.
When you hit “Take Photo”, you will see “Photo Taken” next to “VIRB”.
Interesting how keeping track of everything during a ride or workout has become an exercise in itself. I’m not interested in keeping track of every detail but I am interested in not getting lost. As a 22 year Marine Corps vet I can read a topo map and not get lost but having a GPS for areas I’m not familiar with sound like a good idea..Headed to Moab, Sedona and Southern AZ in February…enough time to understand this or any unit?
I’m a loyal etrex 30 user, but now I’m considering making the jump to an Edge 520 for the better training features. On my Etrex 30, I can either uses routes or tracks for navigation. I prefer the latter one, where I just follow a breadcrumb trail on my screen, without my GPS device complaining or recalculating routes whenever I take a small detour or shortcut. I am not familiar with courses however, which seem to be the only option for navigation on the Edge 520. I did an internet search but still hasn’t find the answer on my following question: can I use a course as a breadcrumb trail, without getting directions of my GPS (like in a car)? Or is it inevitable that the Edge consider a course as a ‘route’ and recalculates whenever I get off-track?
Hi. I have recently invested in an Edge 520 and a Tacx Bushido smart trainer with Ant+ & FEC.
In your most helpful review you say:
– Follow an activity: This takes a past workout and allows you to re-ride it, simulating the elevation/incline in real time
– Follow a course: This allows you to ride a downloaded course (such as a race, route, or anything else), and changes elevation/incline in real time
– Follow a workout: This allows you to ride a downloaded workout (created on Garmin Connect), where it’ll automatically change the resistance for each segment of the workout.
However I cannot get the trainer to follow the elevation activity or course and change the resistance etc. It just says at the base level. I rang Garmin support and they it could not follow course elevation with an indoor trainer they say it needs GPS which is switched off when you sync to the Bushido? Have tried following a recorded cycle ride and a course built on Garmin connect without success. I also wondered if you can follow your posoition on the map (I have openstreetmap downloaded on the 520)? Very grateful for any advice . Thanks.
My trainer would not work either until i had updated the firmware on it via their app. Having done that it works. Unfortunately though the follow a previous ride/course really doesn’t feel anything like riding on the road.
Nice review. My Edge 500 just died so I’m looking at replacement options. I’m intrigued by the Vivoactive (I read your review of that too) and as a pretty avid cyclist who doesn’t use a HRM or other ANT+ sensors, I’m curious what you think. I like to hike and ride and am a bit of a data nerd. I love the idea of controlling music from my watch/device rather than having to reach for my phone in my back pocket. Thanks!
Ive got a VivoActive and I’m really happy with it. Its a great bit of kit for the price. Ive done a few rides with it on my wrist just to compare it to my bike computer GPS and its been spot on the whole time.
Apart from the odd syncing issue with my Android phone now and then (easily resolved by turning Bluetooth or Wifi on and off) i can’t fault the watch. It works with running and cycling indoor just fine too. Smart notifications are great, music controls work, steps and sleep all good. Nothing to fault for what I’ve needed it for.
hello ive read all this article about the edge 520. i had an edge 500 and i have a 310xt forerunner, on both I can program workouts from the device. i can not do that from my 520. i can only create a workout on garmong connect and send it to the device. is it possible ??? i can not create a workout while out on the street on my 520???
will the bluetooth features enable the use of connecting a bluetooth HRM to the garmin 520 rather than use a ANT+. Fitpal (Ampstrip alternative) is only intending on using bluetooth as ampstrip did initially so would be good to know if this can be connected to the device. or is it just a smart phone connection for the bluetooth feature.
The Bluetooth is only for the connection to your phone. I have a Wahoo Tickr which is both Bluetooth and ANT+, and the 520 only sees it as an ANT+ sensor.
I hope in the newer firmware update, Edge 520 will have the useful Performance Condition metric as found in FR630 and Fenix 3. Edge 520 is actually released after Fenix 3, but Fenix 3 got this feature retrofitted already, what a shame…
I am having difficulty loading Strava Segments to my Edge 520 (not sure if I did the right things but have followed all the steps). Do I need Strave Premium account to be able to upload its segments to Edge 520?
Thanks for another great review Ray. The 520 seems great, but I have a question regarding screen text size. I love my Garmin 800 because of when setting up in six field display (four on the bottom and two larger boxes on top), I can make the my speed and distance larger. My close vision is getting worse, so the text size really matters. However it appears from your photos that the 520 text is smaller (essentially all fields at the same size). Can you advise/clarify?
It is smaller than the Edge 800, and the text is scaled smaller as well. However, you can decrease the data field quality and increase the size of the text.
I have a question concerning the live segment option.
When choosing target KOM:
Is it just calculating the average speed of the distance, or is it a more detailed comparism to the actual KOM.
When choosing a personal target
Is it calculating the average speed of the distance?
I was wondering if you have a segment with a flat part and a climb. Eg if you start in the flat, you will be ahead your time but of course when it comes to the climb you will lose speed, but does your “virtuel-partner” lose speed also?
Simply asked: is the speed of your virtuel partner in the live segment constant, or is it fragmented to detailed sections.
Is it just me – I have a profile for indoor cycling and in settings GPS is off yet every time I ride on the trainer it gives GPS data unless I press Status before I ride and turn off GPS (which I always forget to do)
Not just you depicus. GPS is ALWAYS enabled every time you switch the 520 on. So if you want to switch it off, make sure you re-select the correct (and probably already active) profile before starting your trainer session. Garmin could handle this in a more intelligent way, but I think they opted for simple (for them) rather than for ease of use for the user, and customer (you and me – and a few others I think!). The simple approach they’ve taken is always turn GPS on – that covers more users and means less complaints to Garmin because the GPS was off and failed to record the most important ride of your life! I doubt they will change this approach as it’s a simple safety-net for them.
If I have programmed a route that I’m following and I decide I want to go off route, can I scroll through the map to see when the new road would take me? I understand I can’t re-program a new route while riding but sometimes I want to veer off my usual route but would like to see where the new road will take me before I decide to take it.
I have the chance for one of these for next to nothing but not sure there is a point? I currently run a 510 (Garmin/Sharpe Team Edition, so fancy looking).
The things I’m most interested in:
1. The maps. I read the review and see its still just bread crumb but I’m wonder is it better? In that on the 510 in crowded areas with short city blocks it often tells me to run after or so far before that I’m not sure which street. Is it more accurate or is it able to go close enough to see the street you want?
2. The screen contracts in sunlight. I find the 510 contrast iffy, so much so the new Wahoo Element looks interesting!
3. I find the touch screen so annoying on the 510 its so unresponsive so I”m thinking the buttons maybe more responsive?
Thank you for the feedback I suspected the differences would be negligible. Maybe it’s just my user experience or maybe a little quirky (the touch screen portion?).
Thank you again for all you do and the new family/tester of the Rainmaker team :)
Yeah, it can get some getting used to the touch screen. Especially coming from a phone with is insta-quick. The touch screens on most water-friendly fitness devices are more…relaxed…in their responses.
Waiting for my unit to arrive, but I am wondering if the 520 has one specific functionality. If I have set up a cycling route on Strava, would it show on the map of the Edge? If it does not have this functionality, is there any way to mark the route manually on the map?
I haven’t seen anyone comment on elevation accuracy of 520, hoping you might have some insight. Since January 2nd I started riding in the hills. The rides have been with groups, and my Edge 520 is consistently under-reporting elevation gain by 15-20%.
Example1: 42 mile ride on February 10, 2016:
1020′ – on my Edge 520
1263′ – on my iPhone 5s using RideWithGPS app
1299′ – friend #1 Edge 810
Example2: 25 mile ride on January 2, 2016:
2208′ – on my Edge 520
2771′ – on my iPhone using RWGPS
2703′ – friend #2 Edge 810
Two different friends with two different Edge 810s. RWGPS is usually in agreement with friends recording ride on Edge 810. Yesterday I reported to Garmin Support, and started a thread on the forums. Thanks in advance.
Are you thinking of this because the 810 registers a higher total ascent or because it is closer to an iphone with RidewithGPS? Do you know which reading is closest to being accurate? It could be that the 810 and RWGPS are off and the 520 is more accurate. From my point of view differences between units are immaterial, differences within a single unit are. As long as a unit provides a consistent result, what is the difference? You have a good indicator of the climbing you are doing relative ride to ride.
In my 6 weeks of comparison, the 810 and RWGPS app are in general agreement. Even Garmin Connect’s own elevation correction is likely closer to the truth. I understand elevation estimation is technically challenging, but when Garmin’s elevation correction and Edge 810 are 15-25% higher than Edge 520 then something is clearly wrong.
An analogy – would it be acceptable to you if your (expensive) bike computer consistently reported 16-17mph, and in reality you were riding 20mph?
This is aggravating as I would expect Garmin’s Edge 810 and their own elevation correction to be within 5-10% of the Edge 520, but instead its usually (not always) a 15-25% difference.
First ‘good’ elevation reading on Sunday when I went on a 35 mile ride. Wanted to add this good ride to my posts on Garmin forums, 3 hours later those posts are still awaiting moderator approval. Apparently my account has been flagged, disappointing. So I’ll post here:
Nice to see my elevation correlating with others, but disappointed about inconsistency.
Garmin support asked me to set elevation, which I’ve done, and that didn’t fix things. I don’t know why this ride appears to have good elevation and the other rides were 15-25% too low.
For completeness I’ll post some final data and then stop.
Saturday Feb 20 ride of 96 miles:
4633′ my Edge 520 (5086′ with GC Elev Corrections)
4127′ Jonathan’s Edge 1000
4308′ Chris’ with Edge 810
5030′ Linda’s Edge 1000
4498′ E’s Edge 810
4570′ Vu’s Edge 810
4183′ BS’ Edge 810
4577′ DS’ Edge 810
4603′ ML’s Edge 810
4170′ Rob’s Edge 810
4470′ AVERAGE
Sunday Feb 21 recovery ride of 35 miles:
1821′ my Edge 520 (1928′ with GC Elev Corrections)
1703′ Jonathan’s Edge 1000
1952′ Chris’ with Edge 810
Apparently I’m late in getting the memo that barometric altimeters are just as flaky on elevation as phone apps. I don’t see much consistency from ride-to-ride, and honestly not seeing more elevation accuracy versus recording ride with RWGPS or Strava apps (those apps also have wide variation in elevation, from rider to rider).
Beyond altimeter, no issues with speed, cadence, HR, and GPS. The Saturday ride was my first using navigation feature. I had previously replaced basemap with OpenStreet Maps, and then downloaded course with cue sheet via RWGPS and it worked well. Overall pretty happy with the 520 considering price and features, going to keep it and not upgrade to 810 or 1000.
First off, DC, thanks as always. We’re much better off with you around the interwebs…..
I upgraded from the edge 500 to the edge 520 after much deliberation and reading your site over and over. The unit is amazing, but where it falls short for me is a deal killer so I will share my experience with others.
I don’t wear watches, I don’t like watches. I use strava, I love strava, but the “bugginess” of tracking on their app, especially in other countries, drove me back to using my edge 500 more and uploading to strava as my activity database and training tracking. A dying edge 500 unit and constantly misplacing those sh*t USB cables led me to upgrade… Now the problem.
I use strava, I’m fully vested (garmin’s site just doesn’t do it for me). I also run an ifttt script to upload my strava activity to my Google calendar. All of this happens instantly (and logically has the name and activity type attached). The main problem is I use my edge for everything (run, bike, trails, skiing, etc.), or would like to, since it is so expensive. It fits nicely in running shorts pockets and I don’t need to buy more devices.
You CANNOT change the activity type from Cycling to anything else in an edge 520 as confirmed by Garmin tech support. I attempted to turn WiFi off (to delay the upload to connect l, and subsequently, strava) to connect to the unit with the app via bluetooth and change facets prior to uploading but that for some reason is not allowed. So basically, the convenience of using this compact unit, which excels at so much, for multi sport and linking to strava will cause the user to have to change the name and activity type in as many as three places. Just an FYI. Besides that first world inconvenience, it is a grand upgrade from the 500, just not for me as their technical support is not interested in meeting customer needs. I’ll finally abandon Garmin and sell my faltering stock. I see why it is failing.
Yeah, I think the challenge is your just beyond what’s a normal workflow for even 1/100th of 1% of people. Meaning, it’s a cycling unit (that only mounts to handlebars). So it’s naturally it’d tag activities as cycling.
You can of course simply override that on Garmin Connect to whatever you’d like. But, in your case you’re looking to add other workflow to sync the workout files to other places. As such, once they arrive to wherever they go they’ll still be original in cycling formats (from a cycling unit). Hard to really fault Garmin for that (since every other company in the market does the same). Just my two cents.
The ELEMNT also ‘properly’ (imho) specifies the activity type as cycling as well. So while you could also change it on various platforms (like Garmin), it’s still a manual change.
Yeah, I guess it’s a little overreaching to expect them to turn such a cycling-centric device into a multi-sport unit. Very small segment of users who would find this useful, as you pointed out.
Thanks for the feedback DC.
I guess where I lost it with Garmin was their completely ‘closed-door’ type response to my technical inquiries. I in no way shape or from wanted them to change the device, just the way it interacts with other services. I agree that I am in the minority but I was trying to represent at least a portion of the people on the fence out there. My entire group of friends have similar sport patterns and they all come to me asking for feedback, tips, etc. on the devices I own. NONE of them will buy a Garmin device because it seems superfluous to them, and I almost have to agree. None of us are professionals, and we don’t use power meters, but we all do love data and maps. My major gripe with Garmin now is a moot point. It was originally founded on a few theories:
Garmin is ultimately competing with the “smart-phone” market and savvy technical people and/or frugal people are almost always going to go with the embedded tech in their device or an old version of a phone that is ANT+ friendly or similar.
Garmin does no service to themselves for making it more difficult or unfriendly for their software package or device features not to play nice with other services out there, ESPECIALLY strava.
Garmin should be a little more receptive to feedback instead of “buy another, more expensive (sic) device” instead of realizing that I did all of the research I could leading up to this purchase, none of my issues I see are published anywhere (hence the flooding of your comments forum).
I have a ton of ANT+ gear which I will soon render useless when my 500 does actually drop dead.
Thanks,
Jason
This is one of the strangest complaints i have read. You knowingly bought a cycling computer and now you are complaining that it does not do what you want for your non-cycling activities? I see absolutely no reason why Garmin should modify the Edge 520 just to meet your non-cycling needs.
I see where you are coming from, I’d love to buy an Edge 20 or 25 and attach it to my dogs collar so I can see how much further she goes than me. I’m using a TomTom at the moment but it doesn’t have a dedicated walking option so anything that does would be great. I’m also thinking of the Garmin 620 and just taking off the straps or just fastening it around her collar.
Just in case you are interested she tends to do about 1km more on a 8-9km walk :)
I agree with Jason. The change of activity type is on many devices including the “running oriented” devices. There are others who cycle and run – more than .01%. As these other cheaper devices offer the function, why not the 520? Should it be necessary to purchase a separate, running-specific device?
hello
thinking about replacing my fried garmin 510 for the new 520, thing is will the HR strap pair and work correctly with the new 520 ? i hope so as id rather not need to pay again for another Heart rate strap
Most ANT+ HR strap should work with the Edge 520. The only one that I am aware of that does not is the Wahoo TICKR. The Wahoo TICKR RUN and TICKR X work though.
What I most miss on Garmin Edge devices is the virtual calculation of power (watt) in connection with speed, cadence, and altitude. Only with actual power meter it gives you data (watt). A lot of other manufacturers have that possibility.
Does anyone know if Garmin is planning to have this feature in any future updates? Could you, DC Rainmaker maybe make a recommendation for it on Garmin, as you have more influence than we all together?
A lot of people that I know are missing this data. We all know that this data is not precisely accurate, but in normal conditions (riding alone and with no wind) it gives you pretty accurate number. It would also be more fun out there knowing what kind of watts are you pushing. A lot of us can’t afford a power meter itself.
If you’re only interested in “virtual” power, Powertap’s PowerCal may be what you’re looking for. Ray did a review on it several years ago. The ANT+ version costs $120.
hi i just want to ask why the garmin segments that i created cannot be uploaded to my edge 520 while the ones i downloaded from other users appear.. im having a very hard time..
Does the 520 give audible turn by turn direction (not necessarily the street name) but guidance on take a left, take right in five hundred feet for example.
My Edge 520 only beeps and visually indicates where to turn AT THE TURN, not before the turn, unlike the Edge 800. I wouldn’t use the 520 for turn-by-turn directions if I am on a route I’m not familiar with.
I used navigation for first time this weekend. Followed these instructions: link to forums.garmin.com
and was happily navigating on an unfamiliar route. No problems.
By default RWGPS outputs a TCX Course with “Notify before turn” of 30 meters, you can change that. I left it at 30 meters. You then download to computer, and transfer to 520 via USB. Then when starting the ride go to Training > Courses and select the course. Decline ‘navigate to start’ and once the course loads, click start button (bottom right button) and off you go. While riding I would periodically look down at 520 and read the Crs. Pt. Dist. field (course point distance). When I was within 0.1 miles of next course point (cue) then I spent more time looking at the 520 to see the turn notification appear 30 meters before, as specified when exporting from RWGPS.
I had previously loaded OpenStreet Map (OSM) for my area, using the instructions on this site. Between the Garmin forum instructions, and OpenStreet maps, I found navigation on the 520 to work well.
Hi 2nfinite,
Thanks for your desription on how to make the 520 navigate!
I currently own an Edge 800 which I’d like to replace either with an Edge 1000 or the 520.
I’d love to have Routing on the device.
Have you tried other route- sources than GWGPS, like Basecamp?
I must add, what I am looking for is not necessarily Navigation. I’d just like to make sure, that I can create a Course, i.e. in Basecamp, and the device indicates something like “turn left in 300 meters”. And I Need that mainly for Germany. I dont’t know, if RWGPS can help me there (at least I didn’t find any German routes there).
Hi 2nfinite,
Thanks for your desription on how to make the 520 navigate!
I currently own an Edge 800 which I’d like to replace either with an Edge 1000 or the 520.
I’d love to have Routing on the device.
Have you tried other route- sources than GWGPS, like Basecamp?
Straight to it. I’m disappointed with the Edge 520. Upgraded from the 510 based on all the positive reviews. What don’t I like:
1.The buttons
2. It’s too small to follow a route map easily
3. The buttons
4. Doesn’t have touch screen
5. The buttons
6. The Auto screen lighting doesn’t provide sufficient backlight to see the screen in early morning light
7. Did I say I didn’t like the buttons.
I’ll either go with an 810 (wish there was an 820) or a Edge 1000.
Hi, I went to a shop today to try Edge 520 with my Xperia Z1 Compact. We paired it successfully and call and SMS notifications worked, but Edge did not receive any email notifications, even though Gmail was enabled in Garmin Connect app. Any info, especially regarding email notifications with the Edge 520 and Z1 Compact setup would be really appreciated. I checked the compatible android devices list, it (Z1) is not there, but on the other hand I see no reason why it should not work. I will appreciate any info, as sometimes I want to be able to check incoming emails while on my bike. I have Edge 500 and having email notifications on the Edge unit would be actually one of the main reasons for buying 520.
When replacing the basemap in the 520, is there a “top end” of space usage you wouldn’t exceed to allow for buffering, recording, etc.?
We’re headed on an 8 day trip and I loaded a 77MB basemap (that includes home and destination so I’m not fiddling with the device last minute) and a teammate of mine thinks it’ll slow down or freeze the unit.
I’ve purged all activities and have just the 8 courses and a dozen live segments loaded- it says I have 19MB free. Do you think the unit will struggle?
Thanks for everything- I find your reviews to be the best out there!
Yes you can, I have mine set to alert every 2.5km while on the Tacx (the dog gets a treat every 2.5km) and it works well, sometimes a few seconds late but otherwise works ok.
Speed sensor isn’t necessary- that said, it’s real nice.
I have a 520 with Vector pedals and without a speed sensor, auto-pause doesn’t work at all when on a trainer and it’s delayed outside.
The speed sensor also delivers more accurate… speed (!) data. If that’s not important and you can deal with minor fluctuations in speed when using solely GPS, you can live without.
When I switch wheels and don’t have a speed sensor, I don’t freak out.
Probably a stupid question, but here goes. I’ve got an Edge 520 that I’ve had for a few months and it seems to have gotten locked in a particular configuration. It’s in the Settings –> System, and I can go through and choose what Language, and move to Units and choose those, etc., but can’t get out of that and get to the Status screen (or anything else). I’ve tried powering down, sitting outside and waiting for GPS in hopes that I’ll get the “Ride” screen in the background, and pressed every button I can find, but I can’t seem to find a way out, and don’t find anything in any of the manuals. Ideas?
To do a master reset on most Garmin Edge devices you have to:
1. Power device off
2. Press and hold Lap and Start/Stop
3. Power device on while still holding both buttons
4. Continue holding buttons when Garmin “splash” screen appears
5. Release buttons when Garmin “splash” screen disappears
Apparently plugging the malfunctioning Garmin Edge into a computer via USB can sometimes get it to recognize mass storage mode and start working again too.
For my part I’m mostly happy with mine, although the BT/ANT+ sensor drop is fairly infuriating. I have just updated to version 4.10, so will see if that fixes it (and if Garmin have broken anything else in the process) over the next few days.
Garmin express also downloaded Vector FW 3.90, but I’m a bit scared about installing that after all the post-3.50 issues. Might just ignore the prompts for a while and keep reading the forums. Garmin firmware seems to be flaky at best. My wife’s FR225 is still on 2.40 because that version actually works.
One last Garmin gripe – has anybody else found the MyFitnessPal sync doesn’t send your weight to Garmin Connect these days?
Hi Ray, what drops are you referring to? I’m considering the 520 as an alternative to my Polar v650 which drops out BT Power too often compared to ANT on a friend’s Garmin.
Does it drop all sensors regularly on ANT+ or what do you experience?
Great work! One more question: do you know if it supports the old Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor with the thingie going up? On Garmin it says no, Garmin employee told me YES, you might be the third party giving me assurance.
It certainly does, because I use it with that thingy (the old combined cadence/speed sensor) on two different bikes.
What’s nice about the 520 is, it’ll remember more than one of these and just connect as needed, so if you have the cadence/speed sensor on more than one bike (which I do), it just connects. Boom.
I factory reset my Garmin at the advice of many and the unit would get stuck in the setup dialogues. I managed to wipe it from a Windows based computer (chromebook would not work) and then factory reset again. The unit is showing out of memory. I then successfully made it through the setup dialogues but when I go to start a ride it runs out of memory instantly.
I checked the unit through File Explorer, even with hidden files shown, and there are no files greater than 1 KB. I am not sure where the lost memory is accounted for. The unit is essentially bricked and Garmin tech support is not the greatest or fastest in the world.
If you’re using a Mac, you need to “empty trash” on your Mac while the device is plugged in. You’ve deleted the files, but you haven’t really deleted the files.
Also, check that you don’t have:
– big map files
– lots of courses
does anyone aware about the next generation of Edge series? Actually, don’t need to move on quickly – have got edge 800 – but if smth like edge 8xx or 53x arrives only in 1-2 years – than I could by 520…
I just picked up a 520 and I am going through the learning curve… Do you know how to manually set the odometer? I would like to have the 520 reflect the ~2500 miles that are on my bike. I guess a few magnets taped to a drill could solve the problem, but really!
Thank you in advance for any insight.
Don
So I finally upgraded to the 520 from the 500. I have the Stages new gen power meter and the only problem with the Garmin 500 (pretty sure its that and not the Stages pm) was that the power would drop out occasionally. Not real often but was still annoying, especially if I was in the middle of an FTP test. Two of my buddies who also have stages and HAD the 500 said theirs would do the same thing. I thought it was a Stages problem but but they both upgraded their Garmins…one got the 520 and the other the 800. They both say their power never drops out anymore. “Great” I thought, I’ll get the 520. Only 2 rides using the 520 so far and the power drops out CONSTANTLY! Not only that but when I stop pedaling the power takes about 10+ seconds to come down to zero. And thats on the 3sec power. Never did that with my 500, it only took a sec or two to come down. Also the calibration of my pw before each ride fails a few times before it does it; never happened with my 500!
Any suggestions Ray or anyone before I return the 500?
BTW I followed all the tips on the Stages website as far as setting up the 500, including setting the rate at which it reads to once per second. Thanks in advance for anyones help!
I wouldn’t be so quick to blame the Garmin. You’ve had dropout trouble on both a 500 and 520? That sounds like a Stages problem to me.
I’ve got a friend who is on his 3rd stages meter because of problems. He’s still super happy and says they have great service, but I’d look to the meter first.
Tracy, My 500 dropped out but it wasn’t very often at all. With the 520 its every couple of minutes or so. And as mentioned my 2 friends with Stages never have drop outs with there Garmins. Tomorrow I will ride with my 500 again and see what happens. Ive read many forums and it seems I’m not the only one having these problems with the 520. I’ll be contacting Garmin on Monday. Might just be a bad 520.
I have an Edge 1000 and a Stages PM. I have the occasional ‘drop out’ from time to time too. I spoke with BOTH Garmin and Stages, and here is what I found… IF I start a ride on my Garmin BEFORE the device has had a chance to FIND the power meter, then I am likely to get drop outs. If, however, I wait for the Garmin to find the Power Meter, cadence/speed sensor, etc. and then start the ride, I am fine.
Stages also said the the issue could be related to Garmin’s BlueTooth software IF you are running Garmin Connect and the Phone Message/Alert option.
Bottom line: Your Stages is fine….and probably so, too, is your new Garmin. Wait before you ride and have fun!!
Thanks for your reply Jeremy. Unfortunately I believe neither one of those fixes is the issue, Before I start every ride I calibrate my Stages PM. So, before I even roll out the meter is “found” and calibrated. Although like I mentioned there has been issues with calibration errors but after reattempting 1 or 2 times it does in fact calibrate. As far as the phone and message alert,I am not running that at all.
This morning I will run my 55 and my 520 side by side (if that will work, I’ve never tried that) to see if my 500 drops out weeny 520 does. Not sure if that will actually prove anything but I am curious.
Also, I wonder if “forgetting” the PM and finding it again would help? Maybe worth a try. Or a complete reset of the Garmin…?
Monday I will try to talk to Stages AND Garmin and see what they have to say. I’m wondering if each will put the blame on the other? :)
Update on 520 dropping out: Rode for 4 hrs this morning with my old Edge 500 and my new 520 side by side using my newer Stages PM. Both are set up with identical settings based on Stages recommendations. 520 dropped out at least 30 times, 500 not once…Ugh!
Ray or anyone ever heard of this before or had their 520 power/cadence drop out so often?
Rick: I didn’t experience any ANT+ dropouts until after updating to version 3.10. It didn’t happen on every ride. Sometimes, when the ANT+ dropouts happened, it would affect all the ANT+ devices (power meter, heart rate monitor), sometimes it would only affect individual ANT+ device. Version 4.10 of the 520 firmware is supposed to address the ANT+ dropouts but i have seen my power meter (Quarq Elsa RS) dropout on a few occasions.
Thanks for your feed back Changren. My power drop outs happened before I did the update as well as after. And it has been far more than just the occasional one…drop outs every couple minutes. Very frustrating. My LBS and I will be talking to Garmin as well as Stages tomorrow but I’m confident its a Garmin 520 issue. I will post the outcome in the next day or two.
Rick. I have the exact same issue with my Garmin 800 – Stages drops out constantly while the old and faithful 500 sees zero dropouts. All have the newest available sw versions.
Actually my 500 drops out too, but only when its in the out front bar mount, the same as my 520. Neither drop out in my stem mount. Stupid that the bar is enough to block the signal even though its less than 3′ from my stages. Weak signal coming from stages.
i went threw the same thing and neither wanted to say whos fault it was both blammed the other. Only thing that helped was a on the stem mount or putting a bar fly mount thats ment to be on the right side on the left. So it has stright line to connect to the stages
what did you end up doing? i have the same stages drop outs only fix was either on the stem mount or putting the out front on the left side of te bars.
It appears that you can’t run Strava Live Track and Courses at the same time. Is there a way to temporarily shut the Course off and run Llve Track for a starred segment and then turn the Course back on? The only way I have figured out how to turn the Course off is to delete it. I seem to remember being able to stop the Course with the old Garmin 500, but haven’t figured out how to do that with the new 520.
profiles, a pain in the @ss to set up, worse than on the 500. anyone know how to clone them ie take anexisting fit file, copy it, then put it. ack on 520? i tried ust copying it, eg. x.ft to x2.fit. when powering up the edge, the file x2.fit is gone, it is deleted by the edge 520. better yet, anyone know of s/w tomalloe us to create/change these in an app or website rather than on the edge. it should be partof garmin connect.
I’m just guessing here, but when you made x2.fit, did you put it in the same directory, or put it in NewFiles directory? I think you can only install new files into the NewFiles directory.
i put it in the same folder. i’ll try the new folder. if that works, takes away soke of the pain, but this should be done online, it would be dead easy, 1 hour work for a programmer ie garmin employee. thanks.
I’m new to the 520, but I read something recently on how to do this.
Back up the profile you want the new one to be based on from your Garmin to your computer.
Make the changes to that profile on your Garmin
Copy the back up profile from your computer to the New Files folder on your Garmin
Power cycle the Garmin and it should work.*
* I make no guarantees that it will work, just something I found recently. Try at your own risk, I guess.
nope. garmin support says not posdible. even if you do as you say and rename a profile so that now you gave two identicsl profiles with diff names when you copy to device, they are dtill the same and the new one will be trashed because its name does not match the name inside the file. rediculous, truly stupid.
It’d depend on which features you value the most. If it’s turn by turn navigation and selecting a new destination on the fly – the Edge 810 is a better option than the 520. But at the same time, I think we’re starting to see updates to the Edge 810 dwindle, versus that of the 520.
I read your reviews/posts about Garmin Edge520 and how to use openstreetmaps. The edge520 looks really interesting but … As I’m living in Belgium I want to put the OSM of Belgium on the Edge520 but I see that this map is about 180Mb while only max 98Mb are available on the 520.
So would this mean that 520 is simply not very useable in Belgium? How do you manage to work with the OSM map in France/Paris?
That is indeed an option … but not very workable I would say …
As belgium is so small and if you want to do one week a tour in Flanders and the next week a tour in Ardennes and a week after a tour in Limburg that would mean that you need to update your 520 every week (or even a couple of times a week …
Garmin didn’t design the Edge 520 for navigation purpose. If you want a Garmin with more storage capacity (micro SD), there’s always the Edge 810/1000.
Can anyone comment on why the live segments on my 520 refuse to update after I register new PR’s, achieve goals, etc. The unit has cycled thru multiple upload sync’s pushing rides to GC on my phone and I have sync it to Garmin express via USB also. I have even tried killing the link to strava in GC and then re-linked it afterwards and the segments steadfastly refuse to update with new PR’s, etc. Thanks in advance.
After a bit of information and after dredging the depths of the net and coming up blank I thought I would turn here.
I’ve got a bit of travelling coming up to Asia (Shanghai) I thought I would see if I could get a better deal for 520. But now I’ve seen other Garmin units not compatible with International Firmware updates.
The question is do we know if the Asian markets have a different Firmware making it no good for Europe, or can it simply be flashed with International FW without issue?
Any ideas or is there anyone who has done it themselves?
Found out the hard way Garmin removed the individual auto-sleep setting for each profile (the setting is still only accessible under each profile, making it appear that it only affects each profile) in the 5.20 firmware update. Now, as soon as you change the auto-sleep setting for one profile, it changes ALL other profiles. I thought individual auto-sleep setting made perfect sense. For my race-related profiles, i like to disable auto-sleep while enabling it for all other profiles. But that’s not possible now.
If you don’t like this Garmin “feature”, and you want individual auto-sleep setting for each profile, tell them about it here:
I already have a Garmin 920xt and I haven’t been that active in triathlon lately…was really more of a cyclist. I have the HRM, bike speed and cadence Garmin sensors. I assume they would all work with the 520 right?
Should I get the Edge 520 if I already gave the FR 920xt? Or am I just wasting money? Will there be additional benefits the Edge can give that the FR cannot?
WIll appreciate your objective advice as I am really torn :(
FWIW
I was in same boat as you.. Owned Fenix 3, and EDGE 520 .
Long story short Fenix 3 sold.
Its great to have multi sport watch, but screen is too small to see all data while riding, and I couldn’t justify high price of Fenix and not using 90% of its features.
I too own the 920xt and recently purchased the 520 since I’m primarily a cyclist. The 520 is easier to read, includes what I believe is better customized screens and includes Strava functionality as mentioned in the review. I plan to sell my 920xt on eBay or Craigslist. I’m very happy with the 520!
Searched the web but couldn’t find any info about syncing my workouts to Garmin Express/Connect via ANT+.
Is it possible to sync wirelessly using ANT+ – or is the only wireless way using Bluetooth Smart and a smartphone (using a Blackberry, I’m not able to use the app properly..)?
So: is syncing possible via ANT+, Bluetooth (smartphone) and an USB connection or only the latter two?
No, there’s no ANT+ workout data transfers from the Edge 520 to a PC. Just via USB and Bluetooth Smart. Which, on Windows you can actually setup wirelessly btw using the new Garmin Connect app from the Windows store.
garmin makes hardware, software is a second thought, which is a shame because it makes their hardware clunky, awkward and second rate.
no easy way to make or manage profiles. talked to them several times, they don’t care. asked for the file layout of the profile so i could write the s/w. they said it was proprietary. really? i know the fields in a profile, i can see them and set them the hard way, just asking where are rhey in the file. if i wrote s/w to do it and gave it away, it would make their device more complete. nope. they would rather they do the s/w or no one, and they are choosing no one.
the only way they will learn to treat customers better and make the s/w interfaces necessary is unforetunately for customers to walk until it hurts rheir bottom line.
Can’t agree with that, I don’t think their device is bad at all (you should buy a Mio Cyclo 505 if you want to see what bad looks like). I’m also really impressed by what I can do with ConnectIQ, even though I can only create data fields for the moment.
My new Kickr won’t connect to my new edge 520 in indoor sensor section. It connects in the power sensor section. But, this means I can’t control the trainer as an ergometer. It sounds to me like my trainer doesn’t have the ant Fec. Is this fixable?
The current public Kickr firmware does not support ANT+ FE-C (indoor trainer). You will need to get your hand on the beta firmware if you want that support.
I just had my first ride with the unit, albeit without the speed/power sensors attached yet.
I have been using an Ambit 2 for a few years now (really like it) so wore that as well.
On a 2 hour mountain bike ride, the Garmin 520 reports I rode 17.45km whereas the Ambit reports I rode 18.69km. I had the 520 GPS set to 1 second data recording and GPS + GLONASS. I am pretty disappointed with that.
I saw on a post somewhere you overlay the GPS tracks of several devices, can you point me in the right direction to do this?
This was singletrack riding with some big ascents on severe switchbacks, so maybe it went wrong there. That pretty sums up my local trails though.
Who knows maybe the Ambit is wrong, but I doubt it.
I need help…my garmin 520 works good on everything but the average grade. It is all over the place…5% on flats to – numbers, not even close for the most part. Any suggestions on a fix?
Hi I’d like to use my ridewithgps routes on the 520 and to be able follow the normal turn by turn cues that I’ve been getting on my G800. sadly for a non-tech person like me it’s all too difficult, might you be able to point me in the right direction please
It’s very simple, I’ve done it several times already and it worked really well. When you’re on the route that you created in ridewithgps, follow those steps:
1. Click “Export” on the top right of your screen
2. Choose the TCX format by clicking on “TCX Course”
3. Select “Save file” in the pop up window appearing
4. Look in your “Downloads” on your computer and copy the TCX file
5. Paste the file in the “New files” folder of your 520
6. Remove the 520 from your computer, it will restart and automatically look in the “New files” folder and create the route on your device
7. Your course is now available in Menu > Training > Courses
I do miss the bike profiles of the 510. I have Garmin Vector pedals that I move to bikes with different crank lengths and I have to go into the power meter settings to change the lengths when I switch bikes. Unless I am missing a shortcut, this is a bit cumbersome. The bike profiles kept that info paired to whatever bike I was riding.
hey ray i got a question for you.
do you see the power drop outs when using an out front mount. i see them on my stages power meter if i use an out front mount.it seems to be a common problem but yet has not been fixed by either Garmin or stages. thanks in advnace
Stages IS aware, and they told me such when I contacted them about occasional dropouts. Turns out, the mount was not a factor for my case. Instead, it was the Bluetooth alert messaging system between my phone & the Edge. I don’t know the specifics, but to remedy all I had to do was WAIT for all sensors to be found & the phone to sync before beginning my ride. Easy day. Go Stages!
I do think this is related to Stages. My feeling is Stages emits signal at very low power. I have both Edge 800 and 920XT. When both are on the left side of the handle bar, everything works out fine. If I move the edge 800 to the right side, or wear 920 on my wrist, I start to have frequent dropouts. The speed/cadence sensor is farther away than the stages PM, though I never have dropout in the speed on a trainer. I do try to turn off bluetooth of my cellphone to eliminate possible interference, and it does not help.
One quick question. Do you know how to make one field bigger when setting up the display on the 520? I did it on my earlier Garmin, but can’t figure out how to on this.
Ideally, I’d like to set up speed as one big field on the top of the screen (taking up what are the now the top two fields) and then have 4 smaller fields (cadence, HR, time, distance) in the bottom half of the screen.
I’d really appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.
agree with the would like different sizes, i think it can’t do it. i think they dumbed it down. even not allowing you to select fields from the actual screen like on the 500 was better.
we need evetyone to fo to suggestions on garmin and ask them to write a few screens and add to garmin connct where we can maintain ie create, modify and delete profiles from there using software. this would mean we could do it in a minute or less rather than taking 30 minutes to set up a new profile.
second pont, this is a very long transaction chain. to reply one must hunt for the data entry. suggestion. can you move the entry form to the bottom, ie like below here? and can we add a button at the top and/or have the email link go to the bottom.
I might have missed this in the comments but some reviews I have been reading say they run into problems when pairing wahoo ant+\blue tooth devices. Is there any truth to these claims? After reading your excellent reviews of both the Garmin 520 and the wahoo element I am leaning towards the Garmin but I want to make sure I don’t have to buy new sensors. Thanks for all the work you do.
I do also had concerns about 520-wahoo sensors pairing, especially after reading garmin forums. Bought 520 and it turned out it works flawlessly with wahoo blue-sc (ant+/bt) speed+cad sensor as well as with wahoo tickr (the base model). Once paired at the beginning it connects to them without any problem, no dropouts during ride as well – none.
There was a problem with connecting the Wahoo Tickr (regular one, not X) to the 520, but that has been resolved a while ago (info from Wahoo Customer support 2 weeks back).
Thanks everyone, really helpful. It’s so great that we can get an unbiased opinion and a community that is helpful and knowledgeable about so many different products. Thanks again and if you are every in the Bucks Co./Trenton NJ area I owe you a beer.
I had a question in regards to recorded road grade data showing on an indoor trainer. I have a 520 and a Kickr. When following an activity on the trainer the road grade data is recorded but will not showing during the ride I’m following. Am I missing anything here or is this normal? I do have the Beta FE-C software for the Kickr installed.
Any chance future versions of the 520 will have increased memory for larger mapping capabilities ? I don’t need external sd but maybe double or triple the current memory, enough to load a small European country or entire state in the USA. Happy to pay more but much prefer 520 size to 810 or 1000.
Thanks for great review and good questions and answers.
Good morning to all,
I would like some advice for a future purchase: I need a GPS unit and i was thinking about Garmin 520 and Polar V650, but recent promo for Garmin Edge 810 (249 Euro) surprised me and shuffle all my projects.
Someone could hel me?
The use would be 5% and 50% BDC MTB: and if for BDC touch screen seems not to be essential in MTB could be useful (essentiali to quickly zoom the map)
The Garmin 810 is an old design and probably due for replacement. When that might happen, who knows. Even despite its age, it would be a more capable unit than the Polar V650.
I used to have the V650. It is a bit big for sitting on the handlebars and is better suited to stem or out front mounting. On a mountain bike that really only leaves the stem, providing it is long enough as the V650 is a fairly large unit.
I used to use Polar (both M450 and V650) and bought a 520 a month ago and am very happy with it. Mapping is good enough for me with OpenStreet maps. It doesn’t do proper navigation unless you generate a course on a computer. The smaller size is much better suited to handlebar mounting. It is packed full of features too: courses, Strava segments (if you have a Premium account), live track, automatic ride upload, text and call notifications and extensive support of accessories such as sensors, power meters and the Varia lights and radar. The screen is also easier to read in sunlight than the V650, I have found.
If you do your research you’ll find that ANT+ just works and there are compatibility issues with Polar and some other’s Bluetooth Smart accessories (Wahoo Blue SC works well, I found, and you will probably want one for speed and distance when GPS reception isn’t the best). Some have had issues with certain power meters, but that probably won’t affect you.
id say get the garmin. unless you plan to use a stages power meter and want it on an out front mount. as ant+ signal from stages seems to be very weak. maybe one day garmin will take both ant+ an bluetooth smart for pms and other devices.
I recently purchased a Garmin Edge 520 with speed censor and cadence censor. I tried it out before registering it with Garmin Connect and was able to change the wheel size manually on the speed censor. But since registering my 520 with Garmin Connect I cannot change the wheel size manually when swapping the device between my two bikes. All I get when keying in the change is 2096 – I need to change to 2010 for my other bike. The automatic setting has resulted in many different sizes but the one I want. Any suggestions?
I have posted a couple of times. Can anyone help me with my Garmin520. The grade % is far from accurate. I port the Garmin 500 at the same time. It is accurate. I will be going up a 5% grade, the 500 says 5%, the 520 anything from 2 to -5%.
Thanks for your great reviews. I am looking at purchasing my first serious bike computer. Everyone seems to favour Garmin and the 520 seems the pick of the bunch for my purposes. But my bike shop has a liking for the Polar v650.
When I try to look at reviews, the V650 is compared to the 500 or 510 and not the 520.
I have read both your reviews, but still cannot decide. So will appreciate your valuable opinion.
So we can change pages on the 520 by pushing these “hidden buttons” ?
I believe the page swapping is enabled under settings on the 520 in the same way it would be enabled on the Edge 1000 ?
Has anyone noticed a changed in the BT sync behavior (Save Ride) since the most recent 5.20/5.30 firmware update? Prior to those updates, my 520 would Save a Ride via the phone, with no action on the phone required. However, since installing those updates, the sync now requires opening the Garmin Connect app on the phone. Once it’s open, the Phone Connected message is displayed and the syncing begins as is confirmed in the GC app screen.
I noticed the same as well as the Garmin not displaying text and phone calls. I discovered that I was not signed in on Garmin app on the phone. I signed in again and I have not had to sign in again and my activities are being downloaded when I hit save. My take is that we just need to re-sign in to the app every so often.
Now, if Garmin would only fix the text and phone call notification feature so it wasn’t so awfully useless…..
Good afternoon. My Garmin 520 decided to shut off today while riding, so I thought I had ran out of battery. When I plugged it to charge however, the unit would not charge or even turn on. The whole screen is dark. I went on a forum and it said to do the following:
To perform a master reset:
1.Power device off
2.Press and hold Lap and Start/Stop
3.Power device on while still holding both buttons
4.Continue holding buttons when Garmin “splash” screen appears
5.Release buttons when Garmin “splash” screen disappears
There’s also this that people have tried:-
1.Turn device off
2.Hold the Down key while powering on the device
3.Continue holding the down key until the “Factory Reset” prompt appears
4.Select OK to clear
Tried both, but nothing is working.
Have you heard of this being a common problem?
Had the same powering down issues and like you, checked the problem out on line. Very frustrating so after 6 or so resets with no improvement I returned the 520 for a replacement. Dealer indicated he hadn’t seen this issue previously but plenty of people seem to be having it. If I were you i’d either contact your dealer of Garmin and get replaced
I have the same issue where it just powers off mid ride with no warning, (edge 520 9 months old with latest firmware) and i emailed garmin product support (with an excerpt of the err_log.txt taken from the device) and just got a generic response about doing a master reset and then a format of the device. I have done both and the problem still persists, got back to garmin and am still waiting for a response from them, to at least figure out if it is a hardware error or firmware error. Their response times have gotten very poor lately. Below is the excerpt from the err_log.txt file (which mentions a Symbols Error and later a Bus-fault)
Thanks for the review ray, just got my unit yesterday. I was wondering if thers a way to upload topography/contour lines to the OSM maps on the 520? Would be great if it was possible…cheers
Hello,
Can I have been using the Edge 520 for about 2 months and it is excellent.
However, is it possible to set up two different users for the edge 520? Say my wife and I so we can track our individual data on the same device?
Thankyou,
Kris
yes and no. you will not have separate odomoeters. the geniouses decided to allow infinite bikes but without separate odometers. so if you want to track bike milage for maint or whatever reasons, you need to record rides after each ride in a spreadsheet? a few steps forward and a few steps backward.
I think you can only associate the Edge 520 with one Garmin Connect account. You could do it with different profiles on the unit, as suggested, but what happens when you have to reset the device and you lose all those totals?
You could set up two separate Strava accounts, but I don’t know if you can connect one Garmin Connect account to multiple Strava accounts, so automatic syncing will probably only send data to one account. Your only option might be to upload the files manually to each account by connecting the Edge to your computer and clicking the big + button to upload activities using the file system. Another step in the workflow.
The easiest option might be to buy separate devices. Either buy another 520 or something else for one of you. Might be necessary if you go for a ride together.
I don’t think these sort of devices are designed to be used by multiple people at the same time – it’s more of a one device per person thing.
For the people that were asking about the Edge 1000 and Recovery Advisor I am now getting recovery advisor on my Edge 1000 after finally giving into the nagging message that there was an update available.
Does anyone know how to turn off the training warnings?
“Power Low and Power High” warnings are driving me crazy, when trying to complete a set time at a set wattage.
How the hell can you see what your power is when these keep taking over the complete screen, So annoying…
I’ve read some other comments last year about Strave Live not working with a course at the same time.. Its may 2016, and i still not get it working. Someone who can help me out?
My second issue is that when i make a course in Strava, export it onto the Garmin, there are no course points (only the finish). Therefore i dont get course directions when im riding on course.. Anyone?
Dug through all 1300+ comments and still couldn’t find answers to my questions. I have 2 questions:
1) Does the 520 paired with Vector 2 support all the available power functions/stats as the 1000 with Vector 2? I’m under the impression that you need to pair the Vector 2 with a 1000 to enable the full suite of stats like: Cycling dynamics (PP, PCO), Left/right balance, Power: average at various time intervals, TSS, NP, IF, total power in watts, overall kilojoules, power zones, TE, pedal smoothness.
2) Is it possible to connect the 520 to a bunch of sensors with all of them working at the same time? I have a Vector 2, HRM (chest or FR235, one at a time), ANT+ speed and cadence sensor and the Di2 wireless D-fly. If so, does this significantly impact battery life?
Thanks for the all the helpful insight. I have a new Edge 520 and yesterday did a 65 mile ride with 4 other guys, all of which were using Garmins. My total ascent was 4,100 feet while the others were in the 6,000-6,100 feet range. Is there a way to “calibrate” my unit to make sure it is measuring correctly?
Hi. I just bought a Garmin Edge 810. Thanks for the great tips on another page to download and install free maps, which I did. I have a question that lots of googling and reading the manual have not answered: On this model, is is possible to set up a view that shows the map and a couple of data fields, such as speed, distance and/or time of day? I had an old Garmin Etrex, and could do that easily. I really like to see the map and relevant stats, especially on a cue sheet type of ride.
I recently replaced my Edge 500 with Edge 520 [had a crash, Garmin provided a nice credit]. I use this on several bikes and use Activity Profiles to customize data fields. Mostly it works fine, but I am unable to display power [3sec, 30sec] for my road bike with 4iiii Precision. It SEES the data — power and cadence are recorded, just won’t display. And it beeps when the Precision is activated, but doesn’t display. These fields WERE displayed on the old Edge 500.
There are no other power meters in my arsenal, but seems that it should display any active sensor it recognizes. It does display HR for all bikes — currently using a 4iiii strap for what it’s worth.
Excellent review and thank you! Does the Garmin 520 come with an odometer? I like to keep track of the total miles ridden on the bike as well as each individual ride.
I’ve seen this recently as well. If you go to the iPhone and open/select the Garmin Connect app, then the 520 should connect. I’m not sure what has changed that caused this. Whether it’s the GC app, or later firmware on the 520.
Is it possible to update activity profiles on Garmin Connect or Express from a computer and then apply these to the 520, or is it only possible to do this on the device itself?
all harware needs software. a computer screen and keyboard is a better interface than several buttons on a 2 inch display for setting up a device. garmin makes great hardware. not software. seems either the don’t understand this, or they just don’t care. shame.
so short answer. no. must suffer thru inefficient device interface.
I’m leaving for a drip next week and will be rending a road bike but I’m a bit lazy and don’t want to pack the speed and cadence sensors. Any downside to that? Will the speed on the computer still show (from the GPS)? Happy to live without knowing my cadence for a few leisurely rides. Thanks!
Just got the 520. On my first ride the auto pause kept coming on/going off, while I was riding. Would happen several times in a row, then be off for a while, then all of a sudden start turning on and off again. Ended up disabling it once I got home but anyone having the same issue?
Excellent review Ray! I purchased other Garmin products from Clever Training including a DCR 1 year VIP membership to get the 10% off. I called today to place an order for the Garmin 520 and was told that they can no longer provide the 10% discount on Garmin products. Disappointed to hear that they can’t honor their commitment on the VIP membership.
Thanks for the support, and sorry for the troubles.
About three weeks ago Garmin put out an edict that prohibits retailers from offering the straight 10% deals. Clever is putting in place an updated VIP program that should conform to this new policy. It’ll be rolled out next week and should cover what you’re looking for.
Unfortunately, this change was outside of Clever’s control, and certainly not something they wanted.
FYI – I just jumped on my Kickr and got notice of a firmware update. I’ve applied it, and my Edge 520 is now able to see it as an indoor trainer – meaning that ANT+ FE-C is now in the official, non-beta firmware.
About time, too. No more need for me to have the phone running in parallel to the Edge – yay!
As the 520 supports the Di2 wireless unit, I wonder if it is possible to enter the gear ratios and get the speed calculated by the ration and the cadence.
Hey Ray,
I can’t seem to find any info on how the Garmin Edge 520 determines after the first 12 minutes of my ride what my ‘recovery’ state is. It usually says good but after a hard ride the other day it said “fair”. Is there any documentation on this feature? Is there a particular heart rate our pace you are supposed to ride in that first 12 minutes?
Recovery advisor keeps track of your physiological state so you know when to take it easy and when you are ready for the next intensive run. After the workout, it shows the time your body needs to recover before the next effort, so you can optimize the balance between rest and training.
How it works?
To gauge estimated recovery time after the workout, your personal cumulative load during a workout (EPOC, Training Effect) and daily response to exercise are measured. Available for all aerobic exercises, most detailed information available for running when running speed is available or for cycling with power (watts).
Recovery advisor includes:
Recovery time after exercise
•Tracks personal cumulative body loading during a workout and daily response to exercise to gauge estimated required recovery time to train again.
Warm-up readiness check
•Tracks daily performance and indicates whether body is able to respond to training well today.
•Warm-up readiness check available for running / cycling only.
Hi,
I plan to get a 520 for cycling.
I’ll use a Vivosmart HR for HR ANT+ signal and plan to get a cadence sensor.
About a wheel sensor apart from stationary work (or underground riding…) what’s its real use?
Will the device get GPS and wheel sensor data and what will be the distance measured from?
Thanks
Carlo
Sorry to comment on such an old thread. However the DCR blogs are the best place to get support for these products!
I’ve just bought an Edge 520 to replace my 810. The most obvious difference between the two is the length of time it takes for the 520 to start. Is it normal to take up to 5 minutes to start? That can’t be right.
As damien said, that’s not normal, but there may be a couple of things to look at, before a factory reset:
You said that you “just bought (it)”, but how long have you had it and did you make any changes, like adding courses, maps, etc? If you did make changes, try putting them back to original. Is the firmware up to date? As of 6/2/16 the FW version is 6.0. One other thing is the onboard Garmin -> startup.txt file. If you modified that file, it does have a parameter for adding a delay (to display the message), so if you modified that file you might check that parameter. If none of that applies, then the reset or a call to Garmin is warranted.
I’ve had it for a couple of days. I have not added any course or maps. I have upgraded it to the latest firmware version (6.0) and I haven’t made any changes to the startup file.
I just did a factory reset and it seems to have fixed the issue – startup now takes ~30s, GPS is found instantly and it quickly pairs with my phone. So I’m not sure what was going on there.
I will have to re-pair all of my sensors when I get home and check that this doesn’t make the problem reoccur, I guess it’s possible that a large sensor pool might cause issues?
So I cycled home (using my Edge 520 with a speed sensor and VIRB paired). Once home I then re-paired my power meter and KICKR (FE-C) and tested the target power control on the 520. However I found that the startup time had once again increased to nearly two minutes. I then removed the sensors one by one to see if this helped. It didn’t.
This morning I was looking in the logs on the 520 to see if there was anything interesting in there when I realized that a number of .fit files have been building up in the ‘NewFiles’ directory. They have names like 1B99C.fit, 1D14D5.fit etc. but don’t correspond to activities (there are a lot more files than activities since I reset) and contain unreadable data. I moved these files off the Edge and restarted since I read somewhere that the Garmin processes these at startup e.g. importing courses etc.
Once I had removed these I was back to super fast startup times!
So my next question is, what are those fit files in NewFiles, why are they building up and how can I stop it. I’m continuing to try to work this out but if anyone has any ideas…
Ok, so they seem to be my Strava live segments. I tried copying those fit files into Segments from NewFiles, however the Edge put them back into NewFiles.
For now I’ve removed all of my starred segments which has mitigated the issue. Time to contact Garmin I think…
Is there is a way to create a workout in Garmin connect that adjusts the Kickr power automatically, when I set a target power it only tells me if I am there or not? What I thought FE-C would do is basically replace the iPhone “Intervals” App I use
Sorry to keep up the commentary on this one. I just wanted to close this off in case anyone else had the same issue.
I decided to try to re-enable my starred segments one at a time. This time they are correctly placed in the Segments directory at device startup with the correctly named fit file. So clearing all my segments in Strava and then starting again was the fix.
On version 6.0 both my wife’s and my 520 started up within seconds even after replacing the built in basemap with the OpenStreet Maps stuff. I installed the beta 6.03 software and it increased the bootup time drastically on both units.
Yesterday I upgraded to the new 6.20 firmware and both units returned to their normal fast bootup time….
Similar issues are reported here: link to forums.garmin.com
However these pre-date the 6.20 firmware release (June 6), so there must be other factors involved.
For me the problem clearly went away as soon as I downgraded it. Maybe it revoked some setting that causes this issue?
Hi, just purchased the Edge 520 and have two questions:
1- Will my Polar H7 Bluetooth heart rate belt work with it?
2- How do I set up my 520 so that someone else can follow me on a map using Garmin Connect on their phone.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Not sure on #1 but #2 requires you to use the Garmin Connect App on your smart phone. It will require that you stay within BT connection distance to your phone and your phone must have connection to the Internet.
Open up the Live Track feature inside the Garmin Connect App. It is fairly simple to figure out once your in there.
Thanks for the replies to my two questions.
I thought the 520 supported Ant+ and Bluetooth. Surprised to learn my Polar H7 Bluetooth heart rate belt won’t work, more money to spend.
Not to add insult to injury, but if you had read this review (see product comparison chart, for example) as well as the specs listed at the Garmin website (“Edge 520 is compatible with ANT+ sensors, including Varia™ bike radar and lights4, speed, cadence, heart rate, Edge and VIRB® remotes and compatible weight scales. “), it should have been clear that it is not compatible with blue tooth HRMs.
Just pinging this question again. Seems the Garmin 500 had a setting to auto-zero in the calibration window. This doesn’t seem to exist in the 520. Anybody know if it possible to set a powertab hub to autozero with the 520?
Hi Ray, Have you run the calibrate option from the Edge 520 for the Elite Real Turbo Muin B+? When I did this the 520 displays “Calibrating power sensor …” – pedal slow or fast for some time but no further prompts appear.
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Hi there
I’ve bought the 520 and can’t find anywhere in the profiles section to input data on the bike being ridden, for example, the bike weight, tire circumference etc. has this been omitted on the new 520?
It’s all activity profiles now. If you have more than one bike then set up a profile for each one.
You can enter circumference one you have your spreed sensor attached and detected.
Very little of this is explained by Garmin – so welcome to Garmin
No bike profiles in Edge 520.
Hi Ray
Do you know of a way I can use average power in the workouts?
I may be missing something, but the option to set average power as a target doesn’t seem to be available on Garmin Connect.
Can you manually input Odometer for an old bicycle? Can’t see it or I am missing something…
I bought a 520 off the back of the review on here and really like it. I love the ability on my daily commute to highlight 4-5 strava segments and then have them light up when I am about to hit them. It has really stepped up my training.
My question is whether the training partner over/under times shown are average pace for the segment or related to the realtime pace data for the segment?
Thanks
Good question, the same question I’ve asked myself.
If it’s a course created from a ride you did previously TP is using the actual variable speeds you did that day. If you create a course from scratch and set an average you want to achieve it goes at that constant average.
Hi Ray,
Recently bought edge 520, and now looking forward into trainer. (currently for MTB/ non roadie)
Got my eyes on Taxc Booster, but i know from your earlier blog about Taxc ANT+ FE-C standard.. they curently implemented it only into Vortex smart and Bushido smart. Can you give an advice on picking trainer? should i go for simplier Booster or definetly pick up at least Vortex? or other trainer?
If you want the smart features then you’ll need at least a Vortex smart. I have a Bushido and it’s definitely worth the extra over the booster.
What would advice then? :) between Vortex and Bushido? pros cons?
Thnx for help !
Take a look at the Tacx website
Heads up everyone, Garmin Edge 520 firmware update released, crank length adjustment available for PowerTap P1 pedals.
I picked up a 520 recently, and I’m having some issues with my HR zones. In workouts I’ve created in Garmin Connect and sent to the 520, I want to spend a certain amount of time in zone 2 or zone 3. For some reason, I keep getting alerts telling me I’ve hit my max HR or my HR is too high even when I’m still in zone 2 and can see on my 910XT that my HR is only 150. I never had this problem when using workouts with my 910XT and Garmin Training Center. Has anyone else had this issue with their 520? Is it a Garmin Express issue? Thanks!
Not sure if this is related to your HR problem, but the unit when it first arrives, or if you do a factory reset, defaults to setting the max HR as you go along (a learning mode) which is most frustrating (a) because it starts out way too low and thinks you are riding at ridiculously high % of your max heart rate (b) because your HR zones are set way too low and (c) it keeps changing as it discovers you exceeding your previously achieved max HR. The cure is simple, you have to set the max HR to a specific value.
Thanks Graham. My max HR was set when I downloaded my profile from Garmin Connect, so I think that’s not the issue. Looking at those settings, though, made me notice one called “Auto Detect Max HR” which I wouldn’t otherwise have known about. I toggled that off and hopefully that will make things function as I expect them to.
Turning auto detect off didn’t work. Back to square one trying to figure this out.
Alerts is the biggest bug for me.
I’ve create a workout on garmin connect with target power. Even if Min/Max alert was disabled for every zones, it kept beeping because of too high/low power. So I’ve enabled alerts for power lower than 0w and higher than 4000w. No more problem about this issue…BUT
…Let’s says the target power is 250w, EVERY time the current power is 250w I have an alert at the bottom of the screen telling me I’m in the zone (Not sure about the exact phrasing). This is very annoying because chaces are you’ll hit the target power every few seconds…Not sure how DC didn’t have this problem with his workouts.
I didn’t go through all the comments above, so I preliminary apologize if this was already commented, however:
Ray,
What is the sense to limit the unit so much in terms of storage capability (be it a decent internal memory or a simple port for micro sd)?
Is it only to force users to get another Garming GPS if they want real mapping capability, or there’s a good technical reason why this could not be implemneted inside the unit?
It’s really a spank that finally everything is there, but if I want to go on the Alps for some nice MTB trail raiding I need to switch to another unit (or load the local maps……………………….)
thanks
Luca
Hi Ray,
Garmin recently rolled out a software update for the Edge 520 – unfortunately I get an error message stating that there’s not enough internal memory available to perform the update. I have about 15Mb of available memory and recently deleted all the stored rides I had on my device, yet still no luck. I did upgrade the baseman with a local map of where I ride, which coincidently is smaller than the base map I replaced, so I don’t t think that could be the problem.
I’d like to upgrade the software if possible and would appreciate any suggestions you can come up with.
Thanks,
Don
@ Don Schenck, do you have a mac? Try emptying the recycling bin.
hy,
one question, what will happen if i quit my premium account? will it be still be possible to use my downloaded segments or will it be erased?
thanks for your help
Anyone else experiencing significant ant+ dropouts (garmin HR, stages PM, Garmin speed sensor) as well as BT (with phone) following the new 3.0 firmware update?
@ RNH,
I do have a Mac but what would emptying the recycling bin (I assume you mean the trash, right?) do? The internal memory problem resides on the Edge 520.
On Mac, each external storage device has its own hidden trash folder. If you have been deleting the activities using your Mac, instead of deleting them using the Edge 520, then you will need to empty the trash.
@ Don S. – what @Changren Yong said. I’ve done it a ton on my mac, when I ran into this problem (most times when I was trying to replace the maps). You need to empty the trash bin :)
Got it. Thanks for the clarification. BTW, Garmin Support told me to empty the ride, segment, etc folders and the OpenStreet map I loaded before trying to update. That worked as well, but next time I’ll remember to empty the trash folder on the Garmin.
I was trying to figure how to get 3-month premium strava account which is coming with Edge 520 bundle, however when I go from garmin connect segment page to strava, there is nothing about 3-month, one month/1 year purchase.
Can somebody point me, please?
Otherwise device is great, mapping could be better, and like possibility to create and follow workout, screen is great too.
First, thanks for your very detailed reviews – much appreciated!
I’ve been using a FR 305 for ages – it’s worked great for years. Battery question: I’d charge the FR after use and it would stay charged, no need to remember to charge it before running/cycling. Any recommendations for how often/when to charge the 520, whether it’s ok to charge it after an activity even if it isn’t low, and general recommendations for battery health? Thanks –
p.s. love the 520. Only issues I’ve seen so far are (1) temperature readings considerably lower than outdoor temps, and slow to react to change; and (2) couldn’t connect Strava to Mac Garmin Express, but got it to work via iPhone Strava settings. Great device; first I’ve seen that I’d swap the FR for.
@Linda: The Edge 520 has a published 15-hour battery life. The device itself tells you the percentage of battery life remaining, so you can make the decision on when you should charge it.
Thanks Changren!
It doesn’t seem to lose charge very quickly when it’s off — much better than a FR 405 I tried a while back, which had a watch function that wouldn’t turn off and depleted charge when I wasn’t using it.
Have the P1 Pedals and a Garmin 500. Thinking about upgrading to the Garmin 520 now that there’s a firmware update out that allows setting the crank length. Since the 520 doesn’t use bike profiles like the 500, how can I setup the 520 to save different crank lengths for my different bikes (three of them)? This is super easy on the 500, but I just want to make sure that even using the sensor pool with the 520 I can still somehow create profiles for each individual bike that stores the different / specific crank lengths. Thanks!
@Christopher:
I think it’s not going to be possible to set up different crank lengths for the same power meter (aka sensor in the Edge 520). I used to have just one Garmin speed sensor (the newer version that uses accelerometer instead of magnet). Each time i moved the speed sensor between my road bike (700x25c tire) and cross bike (700x33c tire), i had to change the wheel size for that sensor. I got tired of changing the wheel size so i bought a second speed sensor.
Can you not setup different “activities” on the 520, and associate each with a different bike (road, track, tri, etc) and the set the crank length within each? That’d obviously be ideal. With the 500, you can simply have it set different crank lengths for each bike profile. Unfortunately, my wife uses different crank lengths across her four bikes. Would love to get a 520, but if it means having to manually change the crank length on the head unit each time she changes bikes (often), this is probably a deal breaker.
Can anyone with the P1 Pedals, Garmin 520, and the latest firmware update, please check into this? Thanks so much!
@Christopher:
There isn’t any bike profile in the Edge 520. Only activity profile. All the sensors go into a sensor pool to be shared among various activity profiles (if you have more than one). Sensors are not tied to any particular activity profile so when you configure the wheel size for a speed sensor, that wheel size is tied to that sensor, not to the activity profile. I expect that to be the same for P1’s crank length setting. I find it interesting that this is a deal breaker for you. Your wife is willing to spend more than a few minutes to swap the pedals among her bikes but spending less than 30 seconds to configure the crank length in the Edge 520 is a deal breaker?
I know I’d find it annoying after a few weeks. Especially when I don’t have that issue with my current computer…
@Christopher: You may have to stick with your current bike computer then. I seriously doubt Garmin is going to reintroduce the bike profile back in its newer devices.
Hello Ray & all,
what do you think – will the Garmin 920 receive the ANT+ FE-C trainer profile update? ;-)
Thanks,
Tudor
I doubt from Garmin, no. But I do expect to see something from 3rd parties via Connect IQ…
ok…trying to decipher your message :-))) – that means – you already know about a beta product :-). I’m asking because I’d rather wait instead of buying into an Edge 520, as the 500 (besides the FE-C) works fine, and I really don’t care about Strava or OSM…:-)
Hi Ray,
Curious if you have ever tested/tried or have a point of view on the accuracy of the neodymium magnets (Icarus or any magnet from Home Depot?) vs the magnet that comes with the Garmin GSC10? Seems like a no brainer—I dont understand why thy are not more prevelant vs the using ties/etc to attach the unsightly magnet GSC10 to your crank arm. Appreciate any insight or thoughts.
Thanks!
while not ray and not speaking for ray my opinion is the magnet makes no difference at all. I have been using ones like you describe from ac moore, michaels, home depot etc for years. I run speedplay stainless pedals and ultegras and while there is enough non stainless in those speedplay pedals for the magnet to remain attached I use a little clear silicone adhesive to make sure it sticks. On my ultegra pedals even though it sticks fine I still use the silicone. sure if i need to remove the ultegra pedal i have to pry the magnet out but even with the silicone it comes out very easy and I re-apply the silicone when I put the pedal back in but so what, it ads a whopping 30 seconds to the process. I hate those zip tie on the crank arm magnet setups. The little button magnets are more than strong enough to operate the read switch in the gsc10’s
I’d agree. I’ve often toyed with other magnets, never seen any issues. Both cycle specific and various rare earth ones stuck on the back of the pedal spindle.
Thanks for all the feed back—two quick follow up questions, (1) someone mentioned that some non cadence specific magnets maybe too strong or “calibrated to the wrong frequency” and be inaccurate—is this true or BS? and (2) I have a Giant TCR Advanced SL frame with the integrated cadence/speed in the chain stay—so my question is whether the magnet on the spindle will be too far away or not a match given that it is not a Garmin GSC10 (usually the magnet goes on the crank arm and can be moved etc?
Again thanks and appreciate all the insight or thoughts…apologize if these are rudimentary questions…
answers in reverse order. unless you can position the magnet in the correct location to pass the opening in the chainstay where it needs to pass by at the required spacing then no. as to question 1 for all practical human purposes you are correct it is BS.
let me qualify that…can you install a magnet of sufficient strength that will close the reed switch early and release it late? i’m sure. can you do it with a dime sized magnet the type of which we are talking about here no. if you could close the reed switch early and release it late “closed duration” it still would only happen once per pedal stroke correct? so maybe as the clock ticks by a minute and it didn’t open yet and only showed you pedaled i dunno oh say 84 times that minute instead of 86 or 88..would this matter to you in the grand scheme of things?
Is there a way to manually enter your ftp?
After I have installed the more detailed map I can’t update the unit to software version 3.0. I have removed the gmapbmap.img file. But when I try to install the old gmapbmap file I got the file message the unit is full.
Please HELP!!!!!!
If you are using a Mac – then someone else here with the same problem was advised to empty their recycle bin – and that fixed it
Hi Ray,
I’ve been rocking the new 520 for nearly a month now. With fall coming, I’ve noticed that in the morning and later in the evening, the screen is switching to an inverse display (white text on dark background). Is this a normal feature or do I need to send my device in on warranty?
Thanks for your help.
Ric
It does this at night to make it easier to see, so it’s not this gigantic bright blob on your handlebars. I believe you can turn it off in the settings (don’t have a unit in front of me at this second to triple-check).
Hi Ray, you’re right. I poked around and found in the Menu > Settings > Display > Color Mode section you can select from Auto, Day, & Night options. Auto is set based on time of day I found out, not some built in light sensor. Pretty cool
Thanks
Ric
I used the 520 for the first time today and I didn’t like how the map kept zooming in and out. Is there a way to zoom in and leave it there so I know where I’m going?
On the map page, if you press the key on the top-right, it will take you to a menu. From there, you can manually adjust the zoom level by turning off auto zoom and then choosing “Set Zoom Level.”
Polish review as always also on our website
link to goultra.pl
All the best
Jacek
Am I too late for the giveaway? Because I am going to test my Borgini this weekend after its first big check-up. :)
Sorry – too late indeed! It closed on Monday evening and I’ll announced the winner here in a few hour. Better luck next month!
Hi DC!
Have you or anyone else noticed HR drops? It has happened to me e v e r y bike ride – HR rate drops to 63 (!) every now and then during the ride for no reason. Tried running with the Edge, same problem. Brought the 920 on the bike (with the Edge) – same reading in the 920 file. Garmin doesn’t know what’s happening …
Cheers
Use Garmin Express to update the Edge 520’s software to version 3.00 – that includes a fix for this issue.
Known issue with HR monitor. I’ve replaced 3 already in last 5 years.
Does anyone know if there is a way to delete missed text / call notifications on the edge 520? I’ve searched every menu for a delete option with no luck, had the device forget my phone, had my phone forget the device.. nothing seems to work and cant find anything in the manual or on google either. Hope I’m missing something
ps, DCRainmaker your reviews are awesome… from this Edge 520 review to your Eurobike RV review to your Varia review to your…. you get the point, great job and thanks for taking the time to put them together!!
Correct, you only have to read it on your phone and the notification will disappear.
I am quite frustrated with this feature. If you get more than one txt, all you will be able to see on the Garmin is a screen that says “n text messages received” and you cannot see the contents – you have to read them from your phone before the notification will disappear. Garmin certainly has this one wrong, It would be much more useful, and safer, if a txt was displayed on the screen until you hit the back button.
Ray, does Garmin have any plans to fix this?
Totally agree with this. The Magellan Cyclo allows you to view the message on-screen. The Garmin just “notifies” you. Kinda lackluster to say the least…
think I figured it out.. once you clear the notification on your phone, it disappears from the edge… so basically it’s just mirroring what’s on your phone for notifications and not really storing anything locally
Don’t if this has been already covered: is it possible to see Gmail app notification (New email)?
Thank you
Hi Ray,
great review. I have an Edge 810. Is it worth to up or downgrade to the 520? I mostly use the Edge to train and not to navigate. I am interested in controlling my tacx vortex.
What do you think?
Hello DCR, again, having not read every single comment above would you know if it is a Garmin issue or a G3 power tap issue with my sensor not being picked up? Had no problem with any other of the sensors but everyone seems to think it’s a connection bug between the 2 devices that is yet to be rectified. Maybe when they release an upgrade? My 500 has never had problem reading the G3.
No issues at all for me any two different G3 hubs with four different Edge 520’s, over the last 3 months. It’s a mainstay of my fleet.
I’d go in and triple-check the sensor listing and see if perhaps it’s there but toggled to be ‘off’, so it wouldn’t show up. Or, try resetting the Edge 520. I’ve heard of nobody else with any PM pairing issues (on any devices).
I’ve had exactly this happen with my Pioneer dual sided PM. The PM works (will pair with my old 500 and is all good). But it won’t pair to the 520. 520 is picking up other ANT+ signals no problem.
The whole point of getting the 520 was to see the dual sided options – so bit disappointing at the moment. Did Victoria sort her issue?
FYI, the new 520 fits well on a 3T Integra Team Stem with Garmin mount.
I needed some help on how to turn on text notifications and incoming calls, i have not found hoot turn on the option on my 520. Any idea on how to make this work with my iPhone 6.
@Nicolas Londono:
1. Are you on the latest 520 firmware (version 3.0)? If not, update to the latest firmware.
2. On your iPhone 6 go to Settings –> Bluetooth. Do you see “BLE_Edge 520” and “BT_Edge 520” under MY DEVICES? If you are only seeing “BT_Edge 520”, you need to pair with the “BLE_Edge 520” device. This is the device pairing that allows text/call notification be sent from your iPhone to the Edge 520.
3. If you are having problem pairing “BLE_Edge 520” to your iPhone, then unfortunately at the moment, the only way to fix this is to reset the 520 to factory. To reset the 520 to factory, go to Settings –> System –> Device Reset –> Factory Reset. Remember, if you do this, you will lose ALL your settings and activities. After doing the Factory Reset, when the 520 is powered on again, you will be prompted to enter your profile again. At some point, it will ask if you want to set up your phone. Just go through the guided steps to pair it up with your iPhone again.
Hi Ray,
In relation to the live strava segments, do you need to have a mobile phone with it’s mobile data running in order to utilise the live strava segments?
Basically, in other words. Do you need to have internet to have live segments running. Or does it run without the need for internet running?
@Alexander Holbrook: Once the Strava segments are downloaded onto the Edge 520, the live segments do not use your mobile phone.
Hi Ray would you recommend a Garmin 1000 or 520 as the best choice if i mostly use it for training and only two times navigation a year?
Hi Ray,
Can it be charged whilst in operation?
I have tested a backup battery during a driveway ride and it worked fine. I was concerned about charging it during a multiday ride and having it reset. However if you plug it into a live USB port (other end in PC) it will reset. Of course, you wouldn’t be plugging it a handle bar mounted laptop, I assume.
I scanned comments and couldn’t find anything about the integration to the Di2. I’m so glad I read your review before I committed to the 1000. I’m feeling pretty confident that the 520 is the way to go. I have the 500 and love it except I wish I can see a map under the breadcrumbs. Thanks so much, can’t wait to read your in-depth review of the 520.
Hey Ray,
I love your reviews!
I need help with picking out a bike computer. I am avid cyclist that race once a weekend in college. On that note I have the Garmin edge 500 and I think it is time to upgrade. Which Garmin or bike computer would you suggest to get. I do not really have a price budget right now. Thanks for your suggestions.
Hi. Some comments on navigating with the 520 ..
1. Autozoom seems to cycle the map continuously through zoom settings. Not sure whether this is a bug or a feature but I find it very distracting. Do other 520’s work like this?
2. If I begin to ride a course but am not at the start the 520 gives me the option of navigating to the start. Taking this option introduces a thick pink line on the map in the direction of the start. This is useful, except that the 520 never notices when I’ve actually reached the start (even though it will announce that I’m arriving) so the pink line never goes away and the Distance to Destination never starts counting down. (I’ve twice now confused the line that won’t go away with the course I should be following.) Is this how all 520’s behave or is it a problem just with mine?
3. Zooming into the map takes 6 button presses (7 if you need to skip over the option to view texts that have arrived). This seems unnecessarily awkward. Perhaps Ray you could suggest to Garmin that as a shortcut, pressing the UP or DOWN button at the same time as the button opposite causes a zoom in or out. Pressing opposing buttons at the same time is if anything easier than pressing just one so this wouldn’t be difficult for the user
Thanks,
Paul
1) You can turn off auto-zoom.
3) Hmm, interesting idea. I suppose this goes to auto-zoom. Or probably more to just not being an ideal zooming unit. But even just a long-hold option would be nice too. I’ll mention it.
I have just recently started using the 520 and have found that even when using m old Edge 500 you could change the zoom level by just holding in the brightness button, which would put up the change zoom level field. Would be awesome if Garmin put this on to the 520! It would save a lot of fumbling around. I have tried and dont like the auto zoom, would like to be able to set it myself with a couple of button presses.
Apart from that, its great!
Hi everyone,
I followed your instructions in order to get some maps on my 705 and 520. This works just fine! What’s not working is the lack of elevation profile on tracks copied to Edge 520 via Base Camp. Copying files into the NewFiles folder doesn’t lead to any new courses uploaded to the Edge. I tried to convert the gpx file into a fit one, which my Garmin gratefully accepted. It was there, under Courses. What wasn’t there was the elevation profile at the beginning and during the ride. Afterwards the device sent the right data to Strava and GC as well as TP, but still I didn’t know when the summit is going to finish Any ideas, folks?
Need a new phone. Does anybody have any experience with a Samsung Galaxy S6 and notifications on 520?
Ray:
Another suggestion to Garmin for firmware update.
Include backlight duration in profiles. Indoors I ride in a dimly lit room and keep the backlight “always on”. I would also like to create a “night” profile where backlight is always on. On occasions when I ride during day after a night ride, I’ve occasionally overlooked the always on setting and the battery has drained on a longer ride. Including this in profiles would fix this issue.
Hi Everyone,
Please forgive my innocent question but I currently use my Garmin 920, and Garmin speed and cadence sensor on my Bike. Today I just bought a Stages power meter and was thinking of buying the Garmin 520 computer. Since I am training for an Ironman is it possible for data from the Stages power meter to be sent to both my 920 watch and the Garmin 520? I am fairly new to all the gadgets out there but my coach wants me training with power instead of just heart rate. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks in advance :)
Duane
i had similar question…. i have fenix 3, and not sure why i would get 520 instead of using the fenix 3. i get the bigger screen. and maybe the ability to control a trainer or more cycling dynamics… curious to what people think
Hey Ray when do think we should expect he in-depth review of the Edge 520 or did I miss something? Thanks and keep writing and snapping pics, love the blog.
Hi Ray,
Great review and apologies if you have answered this in an earlier post.
Is there a way to upload a strava segment on edge 520 without having a premium membership?
Thanks
Hi,
is it possible to see HR and speed datas while navigate? In the pictures is displayed speed and heading. Is the screen customizable in vagation mode?
Thanks
520 is for sure very nice, now did someone find a way to have the live segment working while following a course?
It seems like a non-supported feature and for sure it would be nice to have.\
Thanks
And i was wondering why none of the Strava Live Segments showed up when i loaded up a course. Now i know.
Agreed, this is an incredibly annoying lack of feature.
Hi! Thanks a lot for this great review.
I’m a bit struggling in chosing between the 520 or the 810. My reasonning is that a GPS without routable directions is not a GPS…but on the other hand, i’m not sure whether i really need to have routes indicated. Probably only a high level view can do the trick…
Don’t you think an edge 820 will be release as well? as the 810 is already more than 2 yrs old…
thanks!
I have an edge 510 and a garmin virb elite action camera.
Is the Edge 520 also compatible with the Garmin Virb Elite? Thank you
Yup, it’s compatible with all variants of the VIRB action cams.
I have an Edge 510 that I use to control front and rear Garmin Virb video cameras. Using the touchscreen, I can either take a picture or record a video. The Edge 520 is listed as Virb compatible, but I cannot find any information on how it is accomplished. Since the 520 doesn’t have a touchscreen, perhaps there is a dedicated Virb page (like the 510) that is controlled by buttons. Can you confirm that the 520 can be used to take photos and videos with the Virb, and how it is done? Thanks!
I’m looking at upgrading my Edge 500 to the 520 and I’m pretty sold.
I was wondering if anyone could clarify the following regarding live tracking:
Do I have to invite someone every time I use it, or can I leave an outstanding invite for each time the device is being used?
Eg, I want it possible for the wife to have a quick check when I’m out on a night ride, and make sure that I’m not stopped in a ditch. Would I have to invite her at the start of every ride, or can I leave an open invite, eg invite once, view repeatedly.
I believe you would have to send an invite each time, as it creates a link when you start the live track.
You should look into Road ID and their app. Your wife could track you in real time, and it can be set to send a notification to her if you’ve stopped moving for more than 5 minutes.
That’s a shame. I’ve seen RoadID, and have actually bought one of their bands and had it sent to the UK.
The same issue arises with the RoadID app, in that I have to activate it each time I ride.
Ideally, the Garmin would broadcast to people that I’ve invited as a recurring option (in the same way “find my friends” does on the iPhone), but this doesn’t seem to be an option.
I’ve got into the habit where each time I’m on the way out the door, as part of booting up the Garmin, I get into Connect on my phone and issue the invite for livetracking, and then it’s just when she has a chance to check her mail or she wonders where the hell I am, she just loads up the google map (well, it always defaults to Bing for me, haven’t worked out out to make it go straight into google maps) and she where I am at that point.
Mind you where I am, mobile coverage is patchy in some places a little further from home and this upsets the live tracking, sometimes it doesn’t recover. Somewhat annoying. It would be more effective if the connect app remembers the route that it hasn’t been able to send successfully, and sends it when it can.
Hello, is worth of what it is going to be a matter of me have it from no edge of 520 gives of investing in the shame no one foot of power? manufactured is still on edge of 500? to replace the came from the 520?
Hello, is worth of what it is going to be a matter of me have it from no edge of 520 gives of investing in the shame no one foot of power? manufactured is still on edge of 500? to replace the came from the 520?
Obrigado
My neo just shipped– sweet! Ok so what else do I need to purchase to make this work? Just a cassette or do I need some tools and whatnot? Sorry this thread is so long it’s hard to find everything we need…..
oops wrong thread….
I’d swing over to the NEO post for installation help (this is the Edge 520 post) – lots of people there willing to help getting that cassette on.
You’ll need a cassette, a chain whip, a cassette locking tool, and then some tool to hold the locking tool (i.e. channel locks).
Mornin Ray
I read your posts on a weekly basis and find them very helpful and insightful. I have a question regarding the type of unit I should purchase next.
I’m 68 and do alot of recreational cycling (about 5800 kms per year), currently I have a Garmin 500 and would like to replace it, I’m torn between the 520 and the 25. I like the price of the 25 but I really like all the info from the 520 although it is a little scary for me as I don’t feel a need for all the features. The key areas of interest for me are, HR, Speed, Cadence, ability to compete against myself, will the 25 give me all these things.
thanking you in advance
Larry
Do not buy. There is a major issue with the gradient lag. Very frustrating and Garmin refuses to acknowledge the problem. Wait until they fix (if they ever do)
I’m primarily a mountain biker and I love it. I ride in a lot of forested areas and I’ve not noticed any issues with signal.
I do have to say though, that I do not use the navigation features, so I can not attest to that.
would you recommend the 520 for mountain biking also??
I’m primarily a mountain biker and I love it. I ride in a lot of forested areas and I’ve not noticed any issues with signal.
I do have to say though, that I do not use the navigation features, so I can not attest to that.
Thank you. Awesome review and good info.
I am very interested in being able to switch from my GPS60CSX to the 520 given its ability to charge during ride. I was pretty convinced I was going to stay with battery devices that take the lithium AA batts, but this could do that.
For those who have tried the charging during riding, how much external battery and time is required to charge? I am planning to do a 420 mile off road bikepacking race w/o being able to charge conventionally, so this would be most helpful to know to understand how much battery/weight I would need to carry to see if it is worth it.
Thanks,
Gary
Hi Rai,
Excuse my bad english, I´m from Spain.
I have a Edge 520 and a Tacx Bushido, and I can´t conect them. my suposition is that they have any problem with the Vector, becuse I also have it. The edge 520 read of the Bushido velocity and cadence, but not trainer. and read power too but I put the preference of the Vector. when I go to the option “trainer ant+” the Edge don´t detect nothing..
what can I do?
thank you in advance from Spain!.
Have a feeling this may be somewhat niche given my device, but has anyone else been seeing BT connection issues with the 520 and a Google Nexus 6P phone?
I already have an iPhone 6+ paired and haven’t removed it yet …
When I first paired the 6P, it connected the 520 as an input device and added a floating mouse pointer to my phone which was very confusing to say the least. It took clicking on the options icon for the 520 in BT settings to find there was a check-box I could uncheck. The device itself is also connecting with a “cross-hair” icon different from other devices in my list … been a while since I had an android connected to a Garmin so I don’t know if this is standard or not.
Anyway I can’t get the Phone to stay paired with the Garmin at all … I’m seeing constant prompts on the phone about disconnect issues and how to troubleshoot (device help) which all lead to starting the process over. I’ve done that a few times … it’s rather annoying and remains unresolved.
Interesting. I have a similar problem. Had an LG G2 with an older version of Android which worked without a problem other than not getting consistent message alerts but connection never dropped. Just got a Samsung S6 with Android 5.xxx and had constant disconnects and reconnects. So bad it wouldn’t stay connected long enough to upload a ride. Its not a Garmin issue as I had a similar problem in my car. The problem seemed to go away for a 24-48 hours after a phone reboot. I rode last night with solid Garmin connection. However in my car today, connect/disconnect every 2 minutes until I reboooted. Looks like more of an Android problem in my case.
Regardless of phone or operating system, Garmin’s bluetooth pairing is unreliable. I was even sent a new unit recently and same issue as soon as I pair BLE_Edge 520 it starts loosing connection with my PM, HR, and speed sensor. I find the problem is exacerbated the minute I add the Garmin Varia headlight to the equation. Come on Garmin!!!!!! You very well know there is a problem here so stop releasing meaningless GC updates before you fix the connectivity issues. It’s the reason I bought the device (text messages and live track for the wife) and have invested heavily into the Garmin ecosystem!
Can the battery inside the computer be replaced when/if it dies?
Perhaps I’m missing something, but my 520 won’t sync up with my Kickr SNAP. Both units have the latest firmware. Am I missing something?
Recently bought the Garmin 520 Edge and I’m having problems syncing it with my I phone 6. I always get a message that says “reading Error”
Tried finding this answer myself with no luck – Can I control my new Kickr Snap with my 520 – can I ride a course from my 520 controlling the Kickr’s resistance? This is a big reason i purchased the 520, but I can’t seem to get it to work.
I have the same question. I have both devices. When I went to pair on the 520, the SNAP appeared up as a power meter and not a trainer. I deleted it, searched specifically for trainers and it was blank. Curious if you got it to pair as a trainer. I think the issue so on the Wahoo end, but not sure.
Anybody else getting truly horrible battery life on this baby?
In theory, it should be “up to 15 hours” – in reality, I get nothing like that. For example, I went on a ride today with a fully charged battery and after 3 hours, it was down to 3%.
Now admittedly I use several features that drain the battery e.g. display at 100%, backlight always on, Bluetooth – but that’s the way I like it and I accept I probably will not get the full 15.
But surely I should be getting more than 3 hours??
Backlight on and at 100% is HUGE tax on the battery. Add in a few other features, and I would think that’s about right.
I’ve gone on 3-4 hour rides, backlight off, BT off, no maps…basically just gps+GLONASS, HR and speed/cadence sensors and still have 80-85% battery left.
I’ve ridden for an hour and a bit this morning, GPS+Golnass, BT on and with backlight always on at 60%, and my battery is at 94%.
Not really clear to me: will it calculate distance on a dumb indoor roller if paired with a speed sensor (that is a magnet on the wheel like in the 1980’s dumb bicycle computers I suppose?)
I suppose there are cheaper options for just that (like, euhm, an eighties dumb bicycle computer), but this would double the Edge as an indoor and outdoor computer.
Yes it does.
Just read on another DCR article that the Wahoo Elemnt is delayed in 2016 so looking at the Edge 520 now. I’ve been struggling on with a very dodgy Edge 500 for months now, but that finally died couple of weeks back (dead USB connector won’t charge or sync, tried multiple cables).
I travel a lot and at each new place use the Strava course creator to find the most popular local roads (love heatmap) and plot a course. Without a GPS on the handlebars I would get lost just about every ride.
Trouble is I can’t find described anywhere an easy way to get courses from Strava to an Edge 520. The Elemnt is just meant to sync automatically through a smartphone or WiFi & that is one of the reasons I was hanging out for it. I specifically do not want to have to download, plug in the device, transfer, etc, etc. as wear and tear on the USB port is what lead to my Edge 500’s death.
Now that Garmin acknowledge the existence of Strava do they have any plans to make courses sync across? And if a course is in your Garmin Connect account, can you get that into an Edge 520 wirelessly?
BTW, what is the screen on the Edge 520 like in very bright sunlight (can’t find that mentioned here)?
So… given the delay I decided to stump up for the Edge 520. Paid full RRP at my local bike shop.
Big mistake!?
As mentioned, I specifically got this unit because I want to transfer stuff wirelessly to avoid wear and tear on the USB port which is what finally did for my old 500.
I’ve got a Samsung Galaxy S3 (i9300) running Android 4.4. Installed the Garmin Connect App on it. Followed the pairing instructions. I can see the Edge 520 in the phone’s list of paired bluetooth devices.
Now, whenever I turn the Edge 520 on, it detects the phone and tells me it’s connected, then shows the solid bluetooth icon top of the screen. However, when I open the Garmin Connect App on my phone and visit the ‘Garmin Devices’ screen all I see is my old Edge 500 device. It says there are no devices paired, despite the fact the Edge 520 is shown in the O/S’s list of paired devices.
I hit the ‘+’ sign on the ‘Devices’ screen in the Garmin Connect App thinking I can add the already connected Edge 520. Instructions tell me to perform the bluetooth pairing process again. So I unpair, and re-pair. Doesn’t help.
Given the Garmin Connect App (and also online via the website) doesn’t know about my new Edge 520 I cannot send any courses wirelessly to it. What?! This was a major incentive in buying this thing!
What appears to be a bug in the Android App is preventing this device from working as it should. This is not a good look for Garmin. I have asked for help on the forum (because their support is hopeless) here:
link to forums.garmin.com
… but if anyone here knows how to fix this would love to know! :(
I didn’t realise at the time, but I actually had the same issue. I remedied it by connecting the device to my computer and adding it to Garmin Express (which I did to see if there was a firmware update for the device).
Since then I’ve not had any problems with the device showing on my phone or in Connect, but it doesn’t show notifications on from my phone when riding the same way my Forerunner 25 does.
Thx for the heads up… but I don’t have a Windoze PC. You aren’t meant to need one to sync/update firmware with the Edge 520, right? It’s all meant to happen through your smartphone… if only the app knew that! :(
Rob: I would remove all references to the Edge 500 in both the GC app and GC website. Ensure you get the “welcome” notification box in GC that confirms the 520 is correctly registered to your GC account. At least on my 920, without using Windows/Garmin Express, I can only update firmware after sending to device via GC web and manually forcing a WiFi connect on the device. If the 520 is anything like the 920, then I haven’t been able to update fw using the GC app.
Can’t get my HR belt to hook up. All new Garmin. When i connect the sensor page, it finds the HR belt (i assume as it has a code) but no HR on the screen. Tried wetting the belt etc. Faulty belt or am i doing something wrong ? Once its found the belt on the sensor connect screen i hit the back button. Correct ?
Hi
Have an issue with my 520.. every now and then it won’t boot up.. have to reset device every time that happens.. really frustrating. Please help.. why is it doing this.
Regards
This is so good, congratulions this help me a lot! Keep with this amazing job and thank you!
Hi Ray,
Thanks for another good review:) I just ordered one. I have one question, what about the screen? is it better more clearer and more readable at dusk compared to the 510?
I found the 510 screen to be grainy. Appreciate the feedback,
Cheers,
Ralf sweden
I am looking into getting a new bike compute and wondering which one is a better investment the Garmin edge 520 or the 1000? Currently I have the 500 and love it. I’m a starve user but don’t care that much about it. I do bike touring and races with my university.
Do I need a power meter to use the FTP functions and the other stuff like to see my NP, TSS and watts?
Yes. Those are all functions of power. No power meter, then no readings. The only possible exception is TSS which uses power to calculate but can be somewhat estimated using heart rate but Garmin devices currently do not do that estimation for you.
Can you go to Map My Ride, create a route & download it to the 520?
Yes you can. But… this involves plugging the unit into your PC and saving the file you download to the ‘NewFiles’ folder. A big feature of the Edge 520 is that it it suppose to transfer wirelessly but that only works for courses on Garmin Connect.
It is possible to get a file from one planning service to Garmin Connect courses, but that is convoluted (you have to upload as activity, create course from that, then delete the activity).
Garmin really should just create an ‘import’ function on their course creator or even better, make it sync with Strava (their creator is so much better). Then you could use any course planner you like and still ‘send to device’ wirelessly once that course was in Garmin Connect.
Wouldnt it be nice if you could see a screen of what the virb xe is videoing and what will be the next model from the 520 garmin will be introducing next
Would it be nice to a screen that displays what the virb xe is recording
what is the next model garmin are working on with maps topo
Hello. Do foresee a plan to release an updated version with SD card capabilities?
Thanks Ray, fantastic review as usual.
The snapshot thingie. Got it figured out that you need to press the lap button, but what if you DON’T want to start a new lap? I cannot believe the stupidity. I though I was missing something obvious. So, now, every time I start a lap, it takes a screenshot also? How difficult would it be to make it a two button press?
Hello Ray
Is it possible to use the speed/cadence & heart rate belt of an Edge 500/510 on the 520 too?
Thank you
The 500 only read ANT+ belts & speed/cadence. The 520 also handles these, so yes, you can upgrade your head unit and use your old ANT+ sensors & HRM. This is exactly what I did & worked flawlessly.
Can two riders share one edge 520? As in I go for a ride, get home and upload data via my iPhone and then later that day my wife goes for a ride, comes home and uploads data via her iPhone.
Is it capable of pairing to two iPhones separately essentially?
Thanks
Pairing to more than one should phone should not be an issue, however, if you have separate GC accounts, each account will attempt to upload all the rides recorded that haven’t been uploaded to the account currently connected. This means you both would end up with each others rides. Not be big deal since you can delete the activity from the 520 or the GC account, but a bit of a pain.
I’ve scanned through this review and searched for references to setting crank arm length–but I haven’t found anything that directly answers my present concern.
I’m getting set to purchase a power meter–most likely a Stages. I’m also planning on upgrading my Edge 500 to something that will handle mapping and have other newer features. Very strongly considering the Edge 520 and in doing some basic research I ran across this thread. Am I correct that Garmin does NOT SUPPORT setting the proper crank arm length for Stages and other non-Garmin products?
If so, the absolute arrogance of this company just astounds me. I have 175mm cranks and apparently need to change the default on whatever head unit I end up with.
I hope I’m wrong, but if I’m not, this is close to pushing me out of the Garmin “family” for good. TIA for any data on this.
STP
I’ve done more reading and see that Garmin has rectified the problem with not allowing crank arm length setting on the 520 and 1000. Hard to keep on top of all this stuff!
STP
Hi! New to garmin edge.. i am having trouble, maybe you can help.. my garmin express on my mac is sying that that my edge 520 is up to date with 2.6 version.. but i keep reading in forums that there is a 3.0 available.. why is this??
It’s actually version 3.1 that’s out at present
What version of Garmin Express are you running?
I’ve got the same problem. My version is 2.6.
The Garmin Support page says
Updates & Downloads
Edge 520 software version 3.10 is available
as of December 7, 2015
Use Garmin Express to install this file.
I use Garmin Express but it still says Version 2.6 and then it says YOU ARE UP TO DATE.
What’s going on here? How do I install version 3.10?
Thats my problem, it always say its up to date even if my version is 2.6, do you know why?
…
Im running garmin express 4.1.12.0,
I’ve got the same problem. My version is 2.6.
The Garmin Support page says
Updates & Downloads
Edge 520 software version 3.10 is available
as of December 7, 2015
Use Garmin Express to install this file.
I use Garmin Express but it still says Version 2.6 and then it says YOU ARE UP TO DATE.
What’s going on here? How do I install version 3.10?
Read in the Garmin Forums that some regional models don’t get the update. The Asian is limited to 2.6 as of date apparently.
Thanks for that info. That applies here.
What Garmin forums are you reading? Can you post the link?
Thanks again.
The second post on this thread. I live in India but wife and I got our Garmins from Italy and US. Both have updated to version 3. Not tried the latest upgrade yet.
link to forums.garmin.com
I just purchased a Garmin Edge 520 and installed it. My one concern thus far is that in bright sunlight its very hard to see the displayed data fields. I assume that the Brightness button only apples to the so-called Backlight when depressed and not to the brightness factor otherwise. Is anyone having the same issue? Thanks for all the valuable info on your Web Site.
It would be nice if Garmin also allowed to modify the workout screen so you can add datafields. Like cadance and heartrate. Now I have to switch back and forward to know how I’m doing wrt the right cadance and if the HR correspondence with how I feel during the workout.
I’m also missing that you can’t configure data field power readings like Peak Power 3s, Peak Power 30s, Peak Power 1min, Peak Power 5min and Peak Power 60min.
Do you think it is easy for Garmin to add these with a planned firmware update?
So, I have an old Garmin 305 that I’m still using, but I would like to get this new 520. Looking at the bundles on both Amazon and Clever Training, they both include a chest strap which I don’t need. Will the HR sensor from my old 305 work with the new 520 (I’m thinking it will, but thought I’d ask)?
Yes, it will.
I seem to have resolved most of my earlier concerns with my Garmin Edge 320. However, the calorie expenditures reflecting my 40 to 50 mile bike rides are obviously wrong. Some of my rides reflect that I used about 500 to 600 calories on a 45 mile bike ride. No way. The numbers seemed far more accurate on my old Garmin 305 Edge. Is anyone having similar issues the calorie numbers? I’ve spoken with Garmin Reps. and they are essentially stumped about this. Thanks in advance.
Robert A. said: The numbers seemed far more accurate on my old Garmin 305 Edge. Is anyone having similar issues the calorie numbers? I’ve spoken with Garmin Reps. and they are essentially stumped about this. Thanks in advance.
I don’t know if this is something you have tried, or is even relevant, but I had really bad (low) calories readings from the Vivoactive when I had that watch. Didn’t line up with the 610, Edge 500 or Fenix 3–was MUCH lower. All of these devices supposedly used Firstbeat technology to calculate calories. I have no clue about whether they use DIFFERENT Firstbeat algorithms or not.
I got the Vivoactive to improve greatly when I went to Garmin Connect to make sure that I had my profile–weight and HR zones set correctly. I thought they were all identical and that my profile was a global set of parameters used by ALL devices. Apparently not–the Vivoactive was set a little differently and when I set it up to use the same profile as the Edge and 610, the calories burned went up quite a bit. They were all still different with the Edge being the highest and the Vivoactive the lowest, but the gap wasn’t nearly as much.
When the 920XT went on sale, I returned the Vivoactive and got it and currently use it and the Edge 500 on bike rides. Calories are within 10% or so on those two, so I’ve stopped obsessing about it. If I feel like I need it, I’ll give myself an extra snack if the Edge shows higher ;-),
I with Garmin were a bit more transparent about how all these things work, but I’m also kind of resigned to the fact that they are a BIG company and it’s just not how they roll. I do appreciate their forums and, frankly, I don’t see anything that is leaps and bounds ahead of them either.
STP
Yep, I have that problem too. It is really my only complaint about the 320. I have a ticket open with Garmin about this. I am still to fully migrate from my 310XT. For me, the 320 does everything better, except for the calories, which averages about 60% of the calories quoted by the 310XT, with some variation depending on whether it is a hard ride or a light one. Garmin support said the two devices use the same algorithm, and since I am using both devices until they produce the same figures, I supplied Garmin with the ride data from each one to assist in their in investigation. Well, some months have passed and still they are being very coy about whether they (a) can identify the problem (b) can develop a fix (c) have a fix which will come out sometime or (d) have no ******* idea.
Great Reviews – thanks!
I am somewhere between the Edge 1000 and the Edge 520. I guess its easy to get sucked into the features but in essence, I only need the following core functionality:
1) Ability to load routes that I have created manually in BaseCamp onto the unit and use them for offroad Enduro riding (Without having to jump between Google Earth, BaseCamp and MapSource). I am not worried about having a “streetmap” ability, but it will be nice to see the map on which I currently travelling in the background as opposed to a blank background such as with the old ForeTrex 201 etc.
2) Ability to integrate the metrics of my heartrate, speed and the (GPS) course that I am following on the Virb Video Editing software from Garmin – and which uses G-Metrics as a format/standard?
3) Ability for my movement and heartrate to be tracked using Live Tracking.
4) I guess as I am doing a lot of solo offroad riding, the Edge 1000 emergency transmission of position to contacts in case of an impact sounds like a nice feature…did you test it specifically?
Based on the above – what would you recommend between these two?
Thanks!
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) It’s not yet available on the Edge 1000, only the Edge 1000 Explore. There’s not yet a specific timeframe for the Edge 1000.
I have purchased sensors for my race bike and my secondary bike that is set up on my turbo. Should the one Garmin 520 I have work on both bikes?
Yes. You can pair it to all sensors as part of a sensor pool, and it’ll automatically recognize which ‘bike’ your on based on those sensors that are activated.
You can further create activity profiles, that allow different data screens and name them as you wish.
Can I upload the .fit files from the 520 to my laptop (mac) via bluetooth, or do I have to use the USB cable to get them on to my computer? I use Golden Cheetah on my laptop and am looking for the easiest way to get my data from the 520 to Golden Cheetah without any cables. I got a watch with the wireless sync and now I never want to have to connect a garmin to my laptop again if I can avoid it ;)
Hi. Another great review. Any further word from Wahoo and FE C? Thanks
Another nice review by DCR. Now being very honest about my experience with Edge 520 I must say I absolutely hate it. I do miss the touch screen. It was so much simple than having to press many buttons. IMHO, this product is a downgrade compared to Edge 510. Unfortunately mine died after I stupidly disconnected it during an upgrade.
So, in my view, don’t waste your money in Edge 520. Maybe wait for a Edge 820 which will hopefully stick to touchscreen,
For the failed firmware update, you can actually do a forced re-set of the device and get it back to full factory defaults. The Garmin forums have the workaround there. Even works for cases like yours most of the time.
Anyone else suffering from all ANT+ devices disconnecting (and reconnecting seconds later) at the same time from the Edge 520 during an activity after upgrading to the latest firmware (3.10)?
Yes, and it drives me crazy! When I first got my Edge 1000 in August 2015, the pairing was perfect. Then, with the latest updates (or whatever) the thing has been doing this spontaneous connect/disconnect with no cause or solution. Trash!
Hi,
I bought the 520 for the gradient function, so that I could help my brain appreciate the subtle extra % increases on the hills that the eyes cannot make out.
The grade reading appears to have a lag.
Does anyone know if there is a fix for this?
I have had the same issue with my Edge 520, it is happening since the first day of use. I can be for example on a 7% climb but the device shows something ridiculous like -1%!! I am happy others are having the same issue because it shows this issue is on many devices. I am trying to get a response from Garmin Customer Care….
I just bought the Garmin Edge 520. Ive used it twice already. Im not sure what i did wrong whe i set it up but one those 2 rides I used it, the mileage was off. First ride was a 30+/-miles but when I look at my Edge 520 after the ride it say I only rode 10 miles or so. Today I rode with a group and we average aroung 51miles but on my Garmin it says I only rode 17.5 miles. I already updated it before I started using it. Does anyone have this same problem? How do I fix it to get the accurate mileage?
Sounds like you have a speed/cadence sensor installed that has incorrect wheel diameter, only about 1/3 of what it should be.
>Sounds like you have a speed/cadence sensor installed that has incorrect wheel diameter, only about 1/3 of what it should be.
I thought all the Garmin Edge products used GPS to determine speed/distance. Not true? If so, is there a setting to switch between using GPS or an installed speed/cadence sensor?
STP
Stephen, are you using the Edge 520 with a speed sensor?
>>Stephen, are you using the Edge 520 with a speed sensor?<<
No. I have an Edge 500, and a Bontrager/Trek "Duotrap" speed/cadence sensor. I've always assumed that distance measurements came from the GPS. In fact, when I'm on a trainer, I get distances that MUST be coming from the GPS in the Edge — very short for the time spent.
Maybe the 520 is different? Are there any head units that do not have GPS? If so, then maybe they pick up distance from the wheel sensor. I am obviously not clear on how this works.
STP
If you have not configured your Edge 520 with the Bontrager Duotrap speed/cadence sensor, then it’s just using the GPS for distance/speed calculation. The GPS is not as accurate as a properly configured speed sensor but i don’t expect the GPS inaccuracy to be as significant as what you described.
Changren Young said: >>If you have not configured your Edge 520 with the Bontrager Duotrap speed/cadence sensor, then it’s just using the GPS for distance/speed calculation. The GPS is not as accurate as a properly configured speed sensor but i don’t expect the GPS inaccuracy to be as significant as what you described.<<
My Edge 500 gets it's speed/cadence from the Duotrap sensor. I'm ASSUMING that it is getting distance from the GPS because when outdoors, it reports distances that are at least reasonably accurate. When indoors, it just reports total distance for a 1-hour ride as something like .1 mile and the track on Garmin Connect is just a bunch of squiggles all around the bike studio! I don't know if there is a setting in the 500 to either:
a) turn off the GPS for indoor biking. My 920 XT just has an activity called indoor biking that does this.
b) force the unit to use the sensors to measure distance. If there is, I guess it would be a good idea to do that if GPS distances are really less accurate than measuring wheel revolutions.
STP
Just checked my Edge 500 and there is, indeed, a setting to turn off the GPS. So tomorrow, when I’m on the trainer, I’ll do that and see if it then uses the speed/cadence sensor to report distance. If it does, I should get a realistic “mileage” for the time spent on the trainer. If it doesn’t, then I’ll have to figure out if it’s possible to force it to do so.
STP
Can anyone here comment on how the “di2 support” works with the 520? What does it actually do? Does it indicate what gear you are in? I’m riding a bike using the 1st generation Ultegra electronic (2012). I’m not clear if this version of electronic is considered “di2” or “ui2”. I just received my 520 as a Christmas gift, and I noticed a sensor setting for “di2”. I tried it, but the 520 just froze on the screen trying to find my di2. I suspect that since my electronic is older, it doesn’t have the capability to pair with the 520. Can someone please confirm this? What version of di2 is actually supported with the 520?
You will need a Shimano D-Fly adapter, which plugs into the e-tube bus, to have the Di2 talk to a compatible bike computer like the Edge 520. According to Shimano, the D-Fly adapter is “compatible with Dura-Ace 9070, Ultegra 6870 Di2 and Ultegra 6770 E-tube road shifting”. With the D-Fly adapter, you can see the the battery level and current gear (front and back).
I have an Edge 510 that I use to control front and rear Garmin Virb video cameras. Using the touchscreen, I can either take a picture or record a video. The Edge 520 is listed as Virb compatible, but I cannot find any information on how it is accomplished. Since the 520 doesn’t have a touchscreen, perhaps there is a dedicated Virb page (like the 510) that is controlled by buttons. Can you confirm that the 520 can be used to take photos and videos with the Virb, and how it is done? Thanks!
I would be interested in this too. I have spent a lot of time trying to find the answer to this issue. I can find no screen on the 520 that mentions the virb.
If your Virb is paired with your Edge 520 (and Enabled, of course), then on the Edge 520’s Status screen, you will see “VIRB”, and below that, “Record” and “Take Photo”. These functions are activated with the upper right button (button “7” in the Edge 520 manual).
When you hit “Record” you will see “Recording” next to “VIRB” and the timer will start. You end the video recording with the same button.
When you hit “Take Photo”, you will see “Photo Taken” next to “VIRB”.
Mark, Thanks for the info. Do you know if the 520 is compatible with the original Virb models, or only the new Virb XE?
Compatible with original Virb models.
Interesting how keeping track of everything during a ride or workout has become an exercise in itself. I’m not interested in keeping track of every detail but I am interested in not getting lost. As a 22 year Marine Corps vet I can read a topo map and not get lost but having a GPS for areas I’m not familiar with sound like a good idea..Headed to Moab, Sedona and Southern AZ in February…enough time to understand this or any unit?
I’m a loyal etrex 30 user, but now I’m considering making the jump to an Edge 520 for the better training features. On my Etrex 30, I can either uses routes or tracks for navigation. I prefer the latter one, where I just follow a breadcrumb trail on my screen, without my GPS device complaining or recalculating routes whenever I take a small detour or shortcut. I am not familiar with courses however, which seem to be the only option for navigation on the Edge 520. I did an internet search but still hasn’t find the answer on my following question: can I use a course as a breadcrumb trail, without getting directions of my GPS (like in a car)? Or is it inevitable that the Edge consider a course as a ‘route’ and recalculates whenever I get off-track?
Hi. I have recently invested in an Edge 520 and a Tacx Bushido smart trainer with Ant+ & FEC.
In your most helpful review you say:
– Follow an activity: This takes a past workout and allows you to re-ride it, simulating the elevation/incline in real time
– Follow a course: This allows you to ride a downloaded course (such as a race, route, or anything else), and changes elevation/incline in real time
– Follow a workout: This allows you to ride a downloaded workout (created on Garmin Connect), where it’ll automatically change the resistance for each segment of the workout.
However I cannot get the trainer to follow the elevation activity or course and change the resistance etc. It just says at the base level. I rang Garmin support and they it could not follow course elevation with an indoor trainer they say it needs GPS which is switched off when you sync to the Bushido? Have tried following a recorded cycle ride and a course built on Garmin connect without success. I also wondered if you can follow your posoition on the map (I have openstreetmap downloaded on the 520)? Very grateful for any advice . Thanks.
My trainer would not work either until i had updated the firmware on it via their app. Having done that it works. Unfortunately though the follow a previous ride/course really doesn’t feel anything like riding on the road.
Nice review. My Edge 500 just died so I’m looking at replacement options. I’m intrigued by the Vivoactive (I read your review of that too) and as a pretty avid cyclist who doesn’t use a HRM or other ANT+ sensors, I’m curious what you think. I like to hike and ride and am a bit of a data nerd. I love the idea of controlling music from my watch/device rather than having to reach for my phone in my back pocket. Thanks!
Ive got a VivoActive and I’m really happy with it. Its a great bit of kit for the price. Ive done a few rides with it on my wrist just to compare it to my bike computer GPS and its been spot on the whole time.
Apart from the odd syncing issue with my Android phone now and then (easily resolved by turning Bluetooth or Wifi on and off) i can’t fault the watch. It works with running and cycling indoor just fine too. Smart notifications are great, music controls work, steps and sleep all good. Nothing to fault for what I’ve needed it for.
hello ive read all this article about the edge 520. i had an edge 500 and i have a 310xt forerunner, on both I can program workouts from the device. i can not do that from my 520. i can only create a workout on garmong connect and send it to the device. is it possible ??? i can not create a workout while out on the street on my 520???
will the bluetooth features enable the use of connecting a bluetooth HRM to the garmin 520 rather than use a ANT+. Fitpal (Ampstrip alternative) is only intending on using bluetooth as ampstrip did initially so would be good to know if this can be connected to the device. or is it just a smart phone connection for the bluetooth feature.
The Bluetooth is only for the connection to your phone. I have a Wahoo Tickr which is both Bluetooth and ANT+, and the 520 only sees it as an ANT+ sensor.
I hope in the newer firmware update, Edge 520 will have the useful Performance Condition metric as found in FR630 and Fenix 3. Edge 520 is actually released after Fenix 3, but Fenix 3 got this feature retrofitted already, what a shame…
Cannot find slope settings for SRM power??
Hi Ray,
I am having difficulty loading Strava Segments to my Edge 520 (not sure if I did the right things but have followed all the steps). Do I need Strave Premium account to be able to upload its segments to Edge 520?
I would appreciate your or anyone help with this.
Thank you in advance.
Best,
Chris
Thanks for another great review Ray. The 520 seems great, but I have a question regarding screen text size. I love my Garmin 800 because of when setting up in six field display (four on the bottom and two larger boxes on top), I can make the my speed and distance larger. My close vision is getting worse, so the text size really matters. However it appears from your photos that the 520 text is smaller (essentially all fields at the same size). Can you advise/clarify?
It is smaller than the Edge 800, and the text is scaled smaller as well. However, you can decrease the data field quality and increase the size of the text.
Thanks Ray. I may wait for the 820 release for the extra screen size (1000 seems too big and expensive). Any intel on the 820? Thanks again!
I have a question concerning the live segment option.
When choosing target KOM:
Is it just calculating the average speed of the distance, or is it a more detailed comparism to the actual KOM.
When choosing a personal target
Is it calculating the average speed of the distance?
I was wondering if you have a segment with a flat part and a climb. Eg if you start in the flat, you will be ahead your time but of course when it comes to the climb you will lose speed, but does your “virtuel-partner” lose speed also?
Simply asked: is the speed of your virtuel partner in the live segment constant, or is it fragmented to detailed sections.
My garmin 520 wont connect with my varia.. Please help..
520 : 2.6 version
Varia : 3.0
You need to update your Edge 520 to firmware version 3.0 or higher to use it with the Varia.
link to www8.garmin.com
Is it just me – I have a profile for indoor cycling and in settings GPS is off yet every time I ride on the trainer it gives GPS data unless I press Status before I ride and turn off GPS (which I always forget to do)
Not just you depicus. GPS is ALWAYS enabled every time you switch the 520 on. So if you want to switch it off, make sure you re-select the correct (and probably already active) profile before starting your trainer session. Garmin could handle this in a more intelligent way, but I think they opted for simple (for them) rather than for ease of use for the user, and customer (you and me – and a few others I think!). The simple approach they’ve taken is always turn GPS on – that covers more users and means less complaints to Garmin because the GPS was off and failed to record the most important ride of your life! I doubt they will change this approach as it’s a simple safety-net for them.
If I have programmed a route that I’m following and I decide I want to go off route, can I scroll through the map to see when the new road would take me? I understand I can’t re-program a new route while riding but sometimes I want to veer off my usual route but would like to see where the new road will take me before I decide to take it.
Hi. You can only zoom in and out of the map. You can’t scroll around.
Paul F
Hi Ray, any idea if the new Index scale will be compatible with the Edge 520 since ANT is only used to do the setup of the scale.
No, only used for setup. No plans for device uploading usage unfortunately (I checked).
I have the chance for one of these for next to nothing but not sure there is a point? I currently run a 510 (Garmin/Sharpe Team Edition, so fancy looking).
The things I’m most interested in:
1. The maps. I read the review and see its still just bread crumb but I’m wonder is it better? In that on the 510 in crowded areas with short city blocks it often tells me to run after or so far before that I’m not sure which street. Is it more accurate or is it able to go close enough to see the street you want?
2. The screen contracts in sunlight. I find the 510 contrast iffy, so much so the new Wahoo Element looks interesting!
3. I find the touch screen so annoying on the 510 its so unresponsive so I”m thinking the buttons maybe more responsive?
1) Maps – While both breadcrumbs, the Edge 510 you can’t add a good basemap, with the Edge 520 you can add super-detail to it.
2) It’s a little sharper, but I wouldn’t say it’s dramatically different (but again, I never had issues with sunlight reading on any of the units).
3) Buttons are as responsive as your Nintendo skills. By the same token, most people didn’t have too many troubles with the Edge 510 touch screen.
Thank you for the feedback I suspected the differences would be negligible. Maybe it’s just my user experience or maybe a little quirky (the touch screen portion?).
Thank you again for all you do and the new family/tester of the Rainmaker team :)
Yeah, it can get some getting used to the touch screen. Especially coming from a phone with is insta-quick. The touch screens on most water-friendly fitness devices are more…relaxed…in their responses.
How do I connect Garmin Edge 520 to the Wattbike? Thanks
Waiting for my unit to arrive, but I am wondering if the 520 has one specific functionality. If I have set up a cycling route on Strava, would it show on the map of the Edge? If it does not have this functionality, is there any way to mark the route manually on the map?
Ray,
I haven’t seen anyone comment on elevation accuracy of 520, hoping you might have some insight. Since January 2nd I started riding in the hills. The rides have been with groups, and my Edge 520 is consistently under-reporting elevation gain by 15-20%.
Example1: 42 mile ride on February 10, 2016:
1020′ – on my Edge 520
1263′ – on my iPhone 5s using RideWithGPS app
1299′ – friend #1 Edge 810
Example2: 25 mile ride on January 2, 2016:
2208′ – on my Edge 520
2771′ – on my iPhone using RWGPS
2703′ – friend #2 Edge 810
Two different friends with two different Edge 810s. RWGPS is usually in agreement with friends recording ride on Edge 810. Yesterday I reported to Garmin Support, and started a thread on the forums. Thanks in advance.
Feedback I received on Garmin forums:
link to forums.garmin.com
Another Garmin forum thread on the issue:
link to forums.garmin.com
I’m thinking of selling my 520 and upgrading to 810, for better elevation tracking and mapping. Opinions?
Are you thinking of this because the 810 registers a higher total ascent or because it is closer to an iphone with RidewithGPS? Do you know which reading is closest to being accurate? It could be that the 810 and RWGPS are off and the 520 is more accurate. From my point of view differences between units are immaterial, differences within a single unit are. As long as a unit provides a consistent result, what is the difference? You have a good indicator of the climbing you are doing relative ride to ride.
In my 6 weeks of comparison, the 810 and RWGPS app are in general agreement. Even Garmin Connect’s own elevation correction is likely closer to the truth. I understand elevation estimation is technically challenging, but when Garmin’s elevation correction and Edge 810 are 15-25% higher than Edge 520 then something is clearly wrong.
An analogy – would it be acceptable to you if your (expensive) bike computer consistently reported 16-17mph, and in reality you were riding 20mph?
Read posts #19, 20, and 22 in the second link I posted:
link to forums.garmin.com
This is aggravating as I would expect Garmin’s Edge 810 and their own elevation correction to be within 5-10% of the Edge 520, but instead its usually (not always) a 15-25% difference.
First ‘good’ elevation reading on Sunday when I went on a 35 mile ride. Wanted to add this good ride to my posts on Garmin forums, 3 hours later those posts are still awaiting moderator approval. Apparently my account has been flagged, disappointing. So I’ll post here:
1860′ – baseline – my 520
1911′ – 3% higher – my 520, GC Elev Corrected
1969′ – 6% higher – Chris’ 810
1965 – 6% higher – Bryant’s 810
2001′ – 8% higher – Luis’ 810
1986′ – 7% higher – Dave’s Strava Android
Nice to see my elevation correlating with others, but disappointed about inconsistency.
Garmin support asked me to set elevation, which I’ve done, and that didn’t fix things. I don’t know why this ride appears to have good elevation and the other rides were 15-25% too low.
For completeness I’ll post some final data and then stop.
Saturday Feb 20 ride of 96 miles:
4633′ my Edge 520 (5086′ with GC Elev Corrections)
4127′ Jonathan’s Edge 1000
4308′ Chris’ with Edge 810
5030′ Linda’s Edge 1000
4498′ E’s Edge 810
4570′ Vu’s Edge 810
4183′ BS’ Edge 810
4577′ DS’ Edge 810
4603′ ML’s Edge 810
4170′ Rob’s Edge 810
4470′ AVERAGE
Sunday Feb 21 recovery ride of 35 miles:
1821′ my Edge 520 (1928′ with GC Elev Corrections)
1703′ Jonathan’s Edge 1000
1952′ Chris’ with Edge 810
Apparently I’m late in getting the memo that barometric altimeters are just as flaky on elevation as phone apps. I don’t see much consistency from ride-to-ride, and honestly not seeing more elevation accuracy versus recording ride with RWGPS or Strava apps (those apps also have wide variation in elevation, from rider to rider).
Beyond altimeter, no issues with speed, cadence, HR, and GPS. The Saturday ride was my first using navigation feature. I had previously replaced basemap with OpenStreet Maps, and then downloaded course with cue sheet via RWGPS and it worked well. Overall pretty happy with the 520 considering price and features, going to keep it and not upgrade to 810 or 1000.
Is the 520 compatible with my ultegra DI2 first generation ?
Compatible as in if you can use it with the Shimano D-Fly wireless transmitter to talk to the Edge 520?
yes !
First off, DC, thanks as always. We’re much better off with you around the interwebs…..
I upgraded from the edge 500 to the edge 520 after much deliberation and reading your site over and over. The unit is amazing, but where it falls short for me is a deal killer so I will share my experience with others.
I don’t wear watches, I don’t like watches. I use strava, I love strava, but the “bugginess” of tracking on their app, especially in other countries, drove me back to using my edge 500 more and uploading to strava as my activity database and training tracking. A dying edge 500 unit and constantly misplacing those sh*t USB cables led me to upgrade… Now the problem.
I use strava, I’m fully vested (garmin’s site just doesn’t do it for me). I also run an ifttt script to upload my strava activity to my Google calendar. All of this happens instantly (and logically has the name and activity type attached). The main problem is I use my edge for everything (run, bike, trails, skiing, etc.), or would like to, since it is so expensive. It fits nicely in running shorts pockets and I don’t need to buy more devices.
You CANNOT change the activity type from Cycling to anything else in an edge 520 as confirmed by Garmin tech support. I attempted to turn WiFi off (to delay the upload to connect l, and subsequently, strava) to connect to the unit with the app via bluetooth and change facets prior to uploading but that for some reason is not allowed. So basically, the convenience of using this compact unit, which excels at so much, for multi sport and linking to strava will cause the user to have to change the name and activity type in as many as three places. Just an FYI. Besides that first world inconvenience, it is a grand upgrade from the 500, just not for me as their technical support is not interested in meeting customer needs. I’ll finally abandon Garmin and sell my faltering stock. I see why it is failing.
Yeah, I think the challenge is your just beyond what’s a normal workflow for even 1/100th of 1% of people. Meaning, it’s a cycling unit (that only mounts to handlebars). So it’s naturally it’d tag activities as cycling.
You can of course simply override that on Garmin Connect to whatever you’d like. But, in your case you’re looking to add other workflow to sync the workout files to other places. As such, once they arrive to wherever they go they’ll still be original in cycling formats (from a cycling unit). Hard to really fault Garmin for that (since every other company in the market does the same). Just my two cents.
RE Edge 500 “cycling only” labeling limitation, you said:
>> Hard to really fault Garmin for that (since every other company in the market does the same). Just my two cents.<<
Ray,
Do you know whether the Wahoo ELEMNT might handle this problem? I'm really liking what I'm reading over in the review comments for that device.
STP
The ELEMNT also ‘properly’ (imho) specifies the activity type as cycling as well. So while you could also change it on various platforms (like Garmin), it’s still a manual change.
Yeah, I guess it’s a little overreaching to expect them to turn such a cycling-centric device into a multi-sport unit. Very small segment of users who would find this useful, as you pointed out.
STP
Thanks for the feedback DC.
I guess where I lost it with Garmin was their completely ‘closed-door’ type response to my technical inquiries. I in no way shape or from wanted them to change the device, just the way it interacts with other services. I agree that I am in the minority but I was trying to represent at least a portion of the people on the fence out there. My entire group of friends have similar sport patterns and they all come to me asking for feedback, tips, etc. on the devices I own. NONE of them will buy a Garmin device because it seems superfluous to them, and I almost have to agree. None of us are professionals, and we don’t use power meters, but we all do love data and maps. My major gripe with Garmin now is a moot point. It was originally founded on a few theories:
Garmin is ultimately competing with the “smart-phone” market and savvy technical people and/or frugal people are almost always going to go with the embedded tech in their device or an old version of a phone that is ANT+ friendly or similar.
Garmin does no service to themselves for making it more difficult or unfriendly for their software package or device features not to play nice with other services out there, ESPECIALLY strava.
Garmin should be a little more receptive to feedback instead of “buy another, more expensive (sic) device” instead of realizing that I did all of the research I could leading up to this purchase, none of my issues I see are published anywhere (hence the flooding of your comments forum).
I have a ton of ANT+ gear which I will soon render useless when my 500 does actually drop dead.
Thanks,
Jason
This is one of the strangest complaints i have read. You knowingly bought a cycling computer and now you are complaining that it does not do what you want for your non-cycling activities? I see absolutely no reason why Garmin should modify the Edge 520 just to meet your non-cycling needs.
I see where you are coming from, I’d love to buy an Edge 20 or 25 and attach it to my dogs collar so I can see how much further she goes than me. I’m using a TomTom at the moment but it doesn’t have a dedicated walking option so anything that does would be great. I’m also thinking of the Garmin 620 and just taking off the straps or just fastening it around her collar.
Just in case you are interested she tends to do about 1km more on a 8-9km walk :)
I agree with Jason. The change of activity type is on many devices including the “running oriented” devices. There are others who cycle and run – more than .01%. As these other cheaper devices offer the function, why not the 520? Should it be necessary to purchase a separate, running-specific device?
hello
thinking about replacing my fried garmin 510 for the new 520, thing is will the HR strap pair and work correctly with the new 520 ? i hope so as id rather not need to pay again for another Heart rate strap
Most ANT+ HR strap should work with the Edge 520. The only one that I am aware of that does not is the Wahoo TICKR. The Wahoo TICKR RUN and TICKR X work though.
Hello,
What I most miss on Garmin Edge devices is the virtual calculation of power (watt) in connection with speed, cadence, and altitude. Only with actual power meter it gives you data (watt). A lot of other manufacturers have that possibility.
Does anyone know if Garmin is planning to have this feature in any future updates? Could you, DC Rainmaker maybe make a recommendation for it on Garmin, as you have more influence than we all together?
A lot of people that I know are missing this data. We all know that this data is not precisely accurate, but in normal conditions (riding alone and with no wind) it gives you pretty accurate number. It would also be more fun out there knowing what kind of watts are you pushing. A lot of us can’t afford a power meter itself.
Thanks for your help and excellent reviews.
Best regards,
Robert
I’d expect we’ll see this at some point via a Connect IQ app.
In the meantime, I’m not aware of any physical head units that have this capability in them.
If you’re only interested in “virtual” power, Powertap’s PowerCal may be what you’re looking for. Ray did a review on it several years ago. The ANT+ version costs $120.
link to powertap.com
hi i just want to ask why the garmin segments that i created cannot be uploaded to my edge 520 while the ones i downloaded from other users appear.. im having a very hard time..
thanks!
You have to mark them as favourites.
Does the 520 give audible turn by turn direction (not necessarily the street name) but guidance on take a left, take right in five hundred feet for example.
My Edge 520 only beeps and visually indicates where to turn AT THE TURN, not before the turn, unlike the Edge 800. I wouldn’t use the 520 for turn-by-turn directions if I am on a route I’m not familiar with.
I used navigation for first time this weekend. Followed these instructions:
link to forums.garmin.com
and was happily navigating on an unfamiliar route. No problems.
By default RWGPS outputs a TCX Course with “Notify before turn” of 30 meters, you can change that. I left it at 30 meters. You then download to computer, and transfer to 520 via USB. Then when starting the ride go to Training > Courses and select the course. Decline ‘navigate to start’ and once the course loads, click start button (bottom right button) and off you go. While riding I would periodically look down at 520 and read the Crs. Pt. Dist. field (course point distance). When I was within 0.1 miles of next course point (cue) then I spent more time looking at the 520 to see the turn notification appear 30 meters before, as specified when exporting from RWGPS.
I had previously loaded OpenStreet Map (OSM) for my area, using the instructions on this site. Between the Garmin forum instructions, and OpenStreet maps, I found navigation on the 520 to work well.
Hi 2nfinite,
Thanks for your desription on how to make the 520 navigate!
I currently own an Edge 800 which I’d like to replace either with an Edge 1000 or the 520.
I’d love to have Routing on the device.
Have you tried other route- sources than GWGPS, like Basecamp?
Thanks,
runningman2010
PS: Sorry for double posting.
I must add, what I am looking for is not necessarily Navigation. I’d just like to make sure, that I can create a Course, i.e. in Basecamp, and the device indicates something like “turn left in 300 meters”. And I Need that mainly for Germany. I dont’t know, if RWGPS can help me there (at least I didn’t find any German routes there).
Thanks,
runningman2010
My 520 just froze. I doesn’t matter what button I push.. nothing happens.
Any suggestions?
Hi 2nfinite,
Thanks for your desription on how to make the 520 navigate!
I currently own an Edge 800 which I’d like to replace either with an Edge 1000 or the 520.
I’d love to have Routing on the device.
Have you tried other route- sources than GWGPS, like Basecamp?
Thanks,
runningman2010
Straight to it. I’m disappointed with the Edge 520. Upgraded from the 510 based on all the positive reviews. What don’t I like:
1.The buttons
2. It’s too small to follow a route map easily
3. The buttons
4. Doesn’t have touch screen
5. The buttons
6. The Auto screen lighting doesn’t provide sufficient backlight to see the screen in early morning light
7. Did I say I didn’t like the buttons.
I’ll either go with an 810 (wish there was an 820) or a Edge 1000.
At this stage I wish I has stayed with the 510 :(
Hi, I went to a shop today to try Edge 520 with my Xperia Z1 Compact. We paired it successfully and call and SMS notifications worked, but Edge did not receive any email notifications, even though Gmail was enabled in Garmin Connect app. Any info, especially regarding email notifications with the Edge 520 and Z1 Compact setup would be really appreciated. I checked the compatible android devices list, it (Z1) is not there, but on the other hand I see no reason why it should not work. I will appreciate any info, as sometimes I want to be able to check incoming emails while on my bike. I have Edge 500 and having email notifications on the Edge unit would be actually one of the main reasons for buying 520.
Hi Ray,
I hope this is an in duplicated question.
When replacing the basemap in the 520, is there a “top end” of space usage you wouldn’t exceed to allow for buffering, recording, etc.?
We’re headed on an 8 day trip and I loaded a 77MB basemap (that includes home and destination so I’m not fiddling with the device last minute) and a teammate of mine thinks it’ll slow down or freeze the unit.
I’ve purged all activities and have just the 8 courses and a dozen live segments loaded- it says I have 19MB free. Do you think the unit will struggle?
Thanks for everything- I find your reviews to be the best out there!
Can you use alerts on the 520? I drive a lot in group and we change position every 2.5km. I now have the 200 and I use this feature all the time.
Yes you can, I have mine set to alert every 2.5km while on the Tacx (the dog gets a treat every 2.5km) and it works well, sometimes a few seconds late but otherwise works ok.
I have read the review and thinking to buy the garmin 520 OR I should wait for the 820?
Great review! Is it necessary to have the speed sensor installed or can I just use the GPS info.
Cheers
Simon
Speed sensor isn’t necessary- that said, it’s real nice.
I have a 520 with Vector pedals and without a speed sensor, auto-pause doesn’t work at all when on a trainer and it’s delayed outside.
The speed sensor also delivers more accurate… speed (!) data. If that’s not important and you can deal with minor fluctuations in speed when using solely GPS, you can live without.
When I switch wheels and don’t have a speed sensor, I don’t freak out.
Hi great advice and thanks for taking the time to reply!
Really appreciate it. I had a 500 and never thought or missed having
a speed sensor.
Probably a stupid question, but here goes. I’ve got an Edge 520 that I’ve had for a few months and it seems to have gotten locked in a particular configuration. It’s in the Settings –> System, and I can go through and choose what Language, and move to Units and choose those, etc., but can’t get out of that and get to the Status screen (or anything else). I’ve tried powering down, sitting outside and waiting for GPS in hopes that I’ll get the “Ride” screen in the background, and pressed every button I can find, but I can’t seem to find a way out, and don’t find anything in any of the manuals. Ideas?
To do a master reset on most Garmin Edge devices you have to:
1. Power device off
2. Press and hold Lap and Start/Stop
3. Power device on while still holding both buttons
4. Continue holding buttons when Garmin “splash” screen appears
5. Release buttons when Garmin “splash” screen disappears
Apparently plugging the malfunctioning Garmin Edge into a computer via USB can sometimes get it to recognize mass storage mode and start working again too.
Ray is a review still coming on this?
For my part I’m mostly happy with mine, although the BT/ANT+ sensor drop is fairly infuriating. I have just updated to version 4.10, so will see if that fixes it (and if Garmin have broken anything else in the process) over the next few days.
Garmin express also downloaded Vector FW 3.90, but I’m a bit scared about installing that after all the post-3.50 issues. Might just ignore the prompts for a while and keep reading the forums. Garmin firmware seems to be flaky at best. My wife’s FR225 is still on 2.40 because that version actually works.
One last Garmin gripe – has anybody else found the MyFitnessPal sync doesn’t send your weight to Garmin Connect these days?
Hi Ray, what drops are you referring to? I’m considering the 520 as an alternative to my Polar v650 which drops out BT Power too often compared to ANT on a friend’s Garmin.
Does it drop all sensors regularly on ANT+ or what do you experience?
Thx!
Geoff instead of Ray, sorry :)
Great work! One more question: do you know if it supports the old Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor with the thingie going up? On Garmin it says no, Garmin employee told me YES, you might be the third party giving me assurance.
Thanks!
It certainly does, because I use it with that thingy (the old combined cadence/speed sensor) on two different bikes.
What’s nice about the 520 is, it’ll remember more than one of these and just connect as needed, so if you have the cadence/speed sensor on more than one bike (which I do), it just connects. Boom.
Great, thanks! Then i’ll go for device only!
Memory full keep showing up on my garmin 520 I deleted all my rides but this made no difference anyone help me
I factory reset my Garmin at the advice of many and the unit would get stuck in the setup dialogues. I managed to wipe it from a Windows based computer (chromebook would not work) and then factory reset again. The unit is showing out of memory. I then successfully made it through the setup dialogues but when I go to start a ride it runs out of memory instantly.
I checked the unit through File Explorer, even with hidden files shown, and there are no files greater than 1 KB. I am not sure where the lost memory is accounted for. The unit is essentially bricked and Garmin tech support is not the greatest or fastest in the world.
If you’re using a Mac, you need to “empty trash” on your Mac while the device is plugged in. You’ve deleted the files, but you haven’t really deleted the files.
Also, check that you don’t have:
– big map files
– lots of courses
Why don’t they just make these with a larger memory card?
So that you buy the more expensive Edge 1000. :-/
Dear All,
does anyone aware about the next generation of Edge series? Actually, don’t need to move on quickly – have got edge 800 – but if smth like edge 8xx or 53x arrives only in 1-2 years – than I could by 520…
Thanks!
I just picked up a 520 and I am going through the learning curve… Do you know how to manually set the odometer? I would like to have the 520 reflect the ~2500 miles that are on my bike. I guess a few magnets taped to a drill could solve the problem, but really!
Thank you in advance for any insight.
Don
Ray – any thoughts on the new Edge 520 update that has Connect IQ?
Is that being pushed to the Edge 1000 as well?
Yup, both were released. You can already download the Edge 1000 & Edge 520 Connect IQ updates. Enjoy!
Is it possible to track VO2 max history predictions on connect (without manualy noting it). Thanks
So I finally upgraded to the 520 from the 500. I have the Stages new gen power meter and the only problem with the Garmin 500 (pretty sure its that and not the Stages pm) was that the power would drop out occasionally. Not real often but was still annoying, especially if I was in the middle of an FTP test. Two of my buddies who also have stages and HAD the 500 said theirs would do the same thing. I thought it was a Stages problem but but they both upgraded their Garmins…one got the 520 and the other the 800. They both say their power never drops out anymore. “Great” I thought, I’ll get the 520. Only 2 rides using the 520 so far and the power drops out CONSTANTLY! Not only that but when I stop pedaling the power takes about 10+ seconds to come down to zero. And thats on the 3sec power. Never did that with my 500, it only took a sec or two to come down. Also the calibration of my pw before each ride fails a few times before it does it; never happened with my 500!
Any suggestions Ray or anyone before I return the 500?
BTW I followed all the tips on the Stages website as far as setting up the 500, including setting the rate at which it reads to once per second. Thanks in advance for anyones help!
Any suggestions before I return the “520” I meant :/
I wouldn’t be so quick to blame the Garmin. You’ve had dropout trouble on both a 500 and 520? That sounds like a Stages problem to me.
I’ve got a friend who is on his 3rd stages meter because of problems. He’s still super happy and says they have great service, but I’d look to the meter first.
Tracy
Tracy, My 500 dropped out but it wasn’t very often at all. With the 520 its every couple of minutes or so. And as mentioned my 2 friends with Stages never have drop outs with there Garmins. Tomorrow I will ride with my 500 again and see what happens. Ive read many forums and it seems I’m not the only one having these problems with the 520. I’ll be contacting Garmin on Monday. Might just be a bad 520.
I have an Edge 1000 and a Stages PM. I have the occasional ‘drop out’ from time to time too. I spoke with BOTH Garmin and Stages, and here is what I found… IF I start a ride on my Garmin BEFORE the device has had a chance to FIND the power meter, then I am likely to get drop outs. If, however, I wait for the Garmin to find the Power Meter, cadence/speed sensor, etc. and then start the ride, I am fine.
Stages also said the the issue could be related to Garmin’s BlueTooth software IF you are running Garmin Connect and the Phone Message/Alert option.
Bottom line: Your Stages is fine….and probably so, too, is your new Garmin. Wait before you ride and have fun!!
Thanks for your reply Jeremy. Unfortunately I believe neither one of those fixes is the issue, Before I start every ride I calibrate my Stages PM. So, before I even roll out the meter is “found” and calibrated. Although like I mentioned there has been issues with calibration errors but after reattempting 1 or 2 times it does in fact calibrate. As far as the phone and message alert,I am not running that at all.
This morning I will run my 55 and my 520 side by side (if that will work, I’ve never tried that) to see if my 500 drops out weeny 520 does. Not sure if that will actually prove anything but I am curious.
Also, I wonder if “forgetting” the PM and finding it again would help? Maybe worth a try. Or a complete reset of the Garmin…?
Monday I will try to talk to Stages AND Garmin and see what they have to say. I’m wondering if each will put the blame on the other? :)
Ugh…stupid auto correct…Above is suppose to say “when the 520 does”, not “”weeny the 520 does”.
Update on 520 dropping out: Rode for 4 hrs this morning with my old Edge 500 and my new 520 side by side using my newer Stages PM. Both are set up with identical settings based on Stages recommendations. 520 dropped out at least 30 times, 500 not once…Ugh!
Ray or anyone ever heard of this before or had their 520 power/cadence drop out so often?
Rick: I didn’t experience any ANT+ dropouts until after updating to version 3.10. It didn’t happen on every ride. Sometimes, when the ANT+ dropouts happened, it would affect all the ANT+ devices (power meter, heart rate monitor), sometimes it would only affect individual ANT+ device. Version 4.10 of the 520 firmware is supposed to address the ANT+ dropouts but i have seen my power meter (Quarq Elsa RS) dropout on a few occasions.
Thanks for your feed back Changren. My power drop outs happened before I did the update as well as after. And it has been far more than just the occasional one…drop outs every couple minutes. Very frustrating. My LBS and I will be talking to Garmin as well as Stages tomorrow but I’m confident its a Garmin 520 issue. I will post the outcome in the next day or two.
Rick. I have the exact same issue with my Garmin 800 – Stages drops out constantly while the old and faithful 500 sees zero dropouts. All have the newest available sw versions.
Actually my 500 drops out too, but only when its in the out front bar mount, the same as my 520. Neither drop out in my stem mount. Stupid that the bar is enough to block the signal even though its less than 3′ from my stages. Weak signal coming from stages.
i went threw the same thing and neither wanted to say whos fault it was both blammed the other. Only thing that helped was a on the stem mount or putting a bar fly mount thats ment to be on the right side on the left. So it has stright line to connect to the stages
what did you end up doing? i have the same stages drop outs only fix was either on the stem mount or putting the out front on the left side of te bars.
It appears that you can’t run Strava Live Track and Courses at the same time. Is there a way to temporarily shut the Course off and run Llve Track for a starred segment and then turn the Course back on? The only way I have figured out how to turn the Course off is to delete it. I seem to remember being able to stop the Course with the old Garmin 500, but haven’t figured out how to do that with the new 520.
profiles, a pain in the @ss to set up, worse than on the 500. anyone know how to clone them ie take anexisting fit file, copy it, then put it. ack on 520? i tried ust copying it, eg. x.ft to x2.fit. when powering up the edge, the file x2.fit is gone, it is deleted by the edge 520. better yet, anyone know of s/w tomalloe us to create/change these in an app or website rather than on the edge. it should be partof garmin connect.
I’m just guessing here, but when you made x2.fit, did you put it in the same directory, or put it in NewFiles directory? I think you can only install new files into the NewFiles directory.
i put it in the same folder. i’ll try the new folder. if that works, takes away soke of the pain, but this should be done online, it would be dead easy, 1 hour work for a programmer ie garmin employee. thanks.
no difference
I’m new to the 520, but I read something recently on how to do this.
Back up the profile you want the new one to be based on from your Garmin to your computer.
Make the changes to that profile on your Garmin
Copy the back up profile from your computer to the New Files folder on your Garmin
Power cycle the Garmin and it should work.*
* I make no guarantees that it will work, just something I found recently. Try at your own risk, I guess.
nope. garmin support says not posdible. even if you do as you say and rename a profile so that now you gave two identicsl profiles with diff names when you copy to device, they are dtill the same and the new one will be trashed because its name does not match the name inside the file. rediculous, truly stupid.
Hi Ray
I am going to buy a garmin and i am interested in the 810, as i like the size of the screen.
Which would be a better buy the 520 or the 810
It’d depend on which features you value the most. If it’s turn by turn navigation and selecting a new destination on the fly – the Edge 810 is a better option than the 520. But at the same time, I think we’re starting to see updates to the Edge 810 dwindle, versus that of the 520.
Ray,
I read your reviews/posts about Garmin Edge520 and how to use openstreetmaps. The edge520 looks really interesting but … As I’m living in Belgium I want to put the OSM of Belgium on the Edge520 but I see that this map is about 180Mb while only max 98Mb are available on the 520.
So would this mean that 520 is simply not very useable in Belgium? How do you manage to work with the OSM map in France/Paris?
Rgds,
Peter.
Just choose portions of Belgium, instead of the entire country.
That is indeed an option … but not very workable I would say …
As belgium is so small and if you want to do one week a tour in Flanders and the next week a tour in Ardennes and a week after a tour in Limburg that would mean that you need to update your 520 every week (or even a couple of times a week …
Garmin didn’t design the Edge 520 for navigation purpose. If you want a Garmin with more storage capacity (micro SD), there’s always the Edge 810/1000.
Can anyone comment on why the live segments on my 520 refuse to update after I register new PR’s, achieve goals, etc. The unit has cycled thru multiple upload sync’s pushing rides to GC on my phone and I have sync it to Garmin express via USB also. I have even tried killing the link to strava in GC and then re-linked it afterwards and the segments steadfastly refuse to update with new PR’s, etc. Thanks in advance.
Hi,
After a bit of information and after dredging the depths of the net and coming up blank I thought I would turn here.
I’ve got a bit of travelling coming up to Asia (Shanghai) I thought I would see if I could get a better deal for 520. But now I’ve seen other Garmin units not compatible with International Firmware updates.
The question is do we know if the Asian markets have a different Firmware making it no good for Europe, or can it simply be flashed with International FW without issue?
Any ideas or is there anyone who has done it themselves?
It’s the same firmware globally, except if you buy (some) units in Taiwan specifically.
Found out the hard way Garmin removed the individual auto-sleep setting for each profile (the setting is still only accessible under each profile, making it appear that it only affects each profile) in the 5.20 firmware update. Now, as soon as you change the auto-sleep setting for one profile, it changes ALL other profiles. I thought individual auto-sleep setting made perfect sense. For my race-related profiles, i like to disable auto-sleep while enabling it for all other profiles. But that’s not possible now.
If you don’t like this Garmin “feature”, and you want individual auto-sleep setting for each profile, tell them about it here:
link to www8.garmin.com
Great Review as always.
I already have a Garmin 920xt and I haven’t been that active in triathlon lately…was really more of a cyclist. I have the HRM, bike speed and cadence Garmin sensors. I assume they would all work with the 520 right?
Should I get the Edge 520 if I already gave the FR 920xt? Or am I just wasting money? Will there be additional benefits the Edge can give that the FR cannot?
WIll appreciate your objective advice as I am really torn :(
Thanks!
FWIW
I was in same boat as you.. Owned Fenix 3, and EDGE 520 .
Long story short Fenix 3 sold.
Its great to have multi sport watch, but screen is too small to see all data while riding, and I couldn’t justify high price of Fenix and not using 90% of its features.
I too own the 920xt and recently purchased the 520 since I’m primarily a cyclist. The 520 is easier to read, includes what I believe is better customized screens and includes Strava functionality as mentioned in the review. I plan to sell my 920xt on eBay or Craigslist. I’m very happy with the 520!
Hi folks,
got mine yesterday.
Searched the web but couldn’t find any info about syncing my workouts to Garmin Express/Connect via ANT+.
Is it possible to sync wirelessly using ANT+ – or is the only wireless way using Bluetooth Smart and a smartphone (using a Blackberry, I’m not able to use the app properly..)?
So: is syncing possible via ANT+, Bluetooth (smartphone) and an USB connection or only the latter two?
Your help is appreciated, thanks!
Best, Max
phones don’t talk ANT+. neither does WIFI. do yes, USB OR BT.
Sorry, didn’t make that clear.
I was talking about syncing on a PC using the little ANT+ Stick (hence ANT+ communication), not my phone.
Thanks
No, there’s no ANT+ workout data transfers from the Edge 520 to a PC. Just via USB and Bluetooth Smart. Which, on Windows you can actually setup wirelessly btw using the new Garmin Connect app from the Windows store.
garmin makes hardware, software is a second thought, which is a shame because it makes their hardware clunky, awkward and second rate.
no easy way to make or manage profiles. talked to them several times, they don’t care. asked for the file layout of the profile so i could write the s/w. they said it was proprietary. really? i know the fields in a profile, i can see them and set them the hard way, just asking where are rhey in the file. if i wrote s/w to do it and gave it away, it would make their device more complete. nope. they would rather they do the s/w or no one, and they are choosing no one.
the only way they will learn to treat customers better and make the s/w interfaces necessary is unforetunately for customers to walk until it hurts rheir bottom line.
Can’t agree with that, I don’t think their device is bad at all (you should buy a Mio Cyclo 505 if you want to see what bad looks like). I’m also really impressed by what I can do with ConnectIQ, even though I can only create data fields for the moment.
try creating 6 different profiles wuing all the screens. you should have it done in a few hours. not practible nor acceptable.
Very comprehensive, thanks!
My new Kickr won’t connect to my new edge 520 in indoor sensor section. It connects in the power sensor section. But, this means I can’t control the trainer as an ergometer. It sounds to me like my trainer doesn’t have the ant Fec. Is this fixable?
The current public Kickr firmware does not support ANT+ FE-C (indoor trainer). You will need to get your hand on the beta firmware if you want that support.
Ray –
Hello! I was wondering if the Garmin 520 is compatible and detects the GSC 10 speed and cadence sensor?
Please let me know when you get a chance!
Keep up the awesome work l!
Thank you!
Aaron
The Edge 520 is compatible with the GSC-10 speed/cadence sensor.
I just purchased the garmin 520. The grade% seems to be whacked. It won’t read accurately. Any suggestions?
I just had my first ride with the unit, albeit without the speed/power sensors attached yet.
I have been using an Ambit 2 for a few years now (really like it) so wore that as well.
On a 2 hour mountain bike ride, the Garmin 520 reports I rode 17.45km whereas the Ambit reports I rode 18.69km. I had the 520 GPS set to 1 second data recording and GPS + GLONASS. I am pretty disappointed with that.
I saw on a post somewhere you overlay the GPS tracks of several devices, can you point me in the right direction to do this?
This was singletrack riding with some big ascents on severe switchbacks, so maybe it went wrong there. That pretty sums up my local trails though.
Who knows maybe the Ambit is wrong, but I doubt it.
I need help…my garmin 520 works good on everything but the average grade. It is all over the place…5% on flats to – numbers, not even close for the most part. Any suggestions on a fix?
Anybody have any insights on this issue please?
Hi I’d like to use my ridewithgps routes on the 520 and to be able follow the normal turn by turn cues that I’ve been getting on my G800. sadly for a non-tech person like me it’s all too difficult, might you be able to point me in the right direction please
Hi Paul,
It’s very simple, I’ve done it several times already and it worked really well. When you’re on the route that you created in ridewithgps, follow those steps:
1. Click “Export” on the top right of your screen
2. Choose the TCX format by clicking on “TCX Course”
3. Select “Save file” in the pop up window appearing
4. Look in your “Downloads” on your computer and copy the TCX file
5. Paste the file in the “New files” folder of your 520
6. Remove the 520 from your computer, it will restart and automatically look in the “New files” folder and create the route on your device
7. Your course is now available in Menu > Training > Courses
Have fun!
I do miss the bike profiles of the 510. I have Garmin Vector pedals that I move to bikes with different crank lengths and I have to go into the power meter settings to change the lengths when I switch bikes. Unless I am missing a shortcut, this is a bit cumbersome. The bike profiles kept that info paired to whatever bike I was riding.
hey ray i got a question for you.
do you see the power drop outs when using an out front mount. i see them on my stages power meter if i use an out front mount.it seems to be a common problem but yet has not been fixed by either Garmin or stages. thanks in advnace
Stages IS aware, and they told me such when I contacted them about occasional dropouts. Turns out, the mount was not a factor for my case. Instead, it was the Bluetooth alert messaging system between my phone & the Edge. I don’t know the specifics, but to remedy all I had to do was WAIT for all sensors to be found & the phone to sync before beginning my ride. Easy day. Go Stages!
I do think this is related to Stages. My feeling is Stages emits signal at very low power. I have both Edge 800 and 920XT. When both are on the left side of the handle bar, everything works out fine. If I move the edge 800 to the right side, or wear 920 on my wrist, I start to have frequent dropouts. The speed/cadence sensor is farther away than the stages PM, though I never have dropout in the speed on a trainer. I do try to turn off bluetooth of my cellphone to eliminate possible interference, and it does not help.
Maybe I’m missing it. Did you ever do a full in depth review of the 520? Does it have a date field for grade? Thanks.
Not yet, no.
It does have a data field for grade.
Hey,
I love this write-up. Thanks!
One quick question. Do you know how to make one field bigger when setting up the display on the 520? I did it on my earlier Garmin, but can’t figure out how to on this.
Ideally, I’d like to set up speed as one big field on the top of the screen (taking up what are the now the top two fields) and then have 4 smaller fields (cadence, HR, time, distance) in the bottom half of the screen.
I’d really appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.
agree with the would like different sizes, i think it can’t do it. i think they dumbed it down. even not allowing you to select fields from the actual screen like on the 500 was better.
we need evetyone to fo to suggestions on garmin and ask them to write a few screens and add to garmin connct where we can maintain ie create, modify and delete profiles from there using software. this would mean we could do it in a minute or less rather than taking 30 minutes to set up a new profile.
second pont, this is a very long transaction chain. to reply one must hunt for the data entry. suggestion. can you move the entry form to the bottom, ie like below here? and can we add a button at the top and/or have the email link go to the bottom.
cheers
I might have missed this in the comments but some reviews I have been reading say they run into problems when pairing wahoo ant+\blue tooth devices. Is there any truth to these claims? After reading your excellent reviews of both the Garmin 520 and the wahoo element I am leaning towards the Garmin but I want to make sure I don’t have to buy new sensors. Thanks for all the work you do.
I do also had concerns about 520-wahoo sensors pairing, especially after reading garmin forums. Bought 520 and it turned out it works flawlessly with wahoo blue-sc (ant+/bt) speed+cad sensor as well as with wahoo tickr (the base model). Once paired at the beginning it connects to them without any problem, no dropouts during ride as well – none.
I also use the Blue SC daily, with Edge 520’s, without any issue.
There was a problem with connecting the Wahoo Tickr (regular one, not X) to the 520, but that has been resolved a while ago (info from Wahoo Customer support 2 weeks back).
Thanks everyone, really helpful. It’s so great that we can get an unbiased opinion and a community that is helpful and knowledgeable about so many different products. Thanks again and if you are every in the Bucks Co./Trenton NJ area I owe you a beer.
I had a question in regards to recorded road grade data showing on an indoor trainer. I have a 520 and a Kickr. When following an activity on the trainer the road grade data is recorded but will not showing during the ride I’m following. Am I missing anything here or is this normal? I do have the Beta FE-C software for the Kickr installed.
Any chance future versions of the 520 will have increased memory for larger mapping capabilities ? I don’t need external sd but maybe double or triple the current memory, enough to load a small European country or entire state in the USA. Happy to pay more but much prefer 520 size to 810 or 1000.
Thanks for great review and good questions and answers.
Good morning to all,
I would like some advice for a future purchase: I need a GPS unit and i was thinking about Garmin 520 and Polar V650, but recent promo for Garmin Edge 810 (249 Euro) surprised me and shuffle all my projects.
Someone could hel me?
The use would be 5% and 50% BDC MTB: and if for BDC touch screen seems not to be essential in MTB could be useful (essentiali to quickly zoom the map)
THX!!
The Garmin 810 is an old design and probably due for replacement. When that might happen, who knows. Even despite its age, it would be a more capable unit than the Polar V650.
I used to have the V650. It is a bit big for sitting on the handlebars and is better suited to stem or out front mounting. On a mountain bike that really only leaves the stem, providing it is long enough as the V650 is a fairly large unit.
I used to use Polar (both M450 and V650) and bought a 520 a month ago and am very happy with it. Mapping is good enough for me with OpenStreet maps. It doesn’t do proper navigation unless you generate a course on a computer. The smaller size is much better suited to handlebar mounting. It is packed full of features too: courses, Strava segments (if you have a Premium account), live track, automatic ride upload, text and call notifications and extensive support of accessories such as sensors, power meters and the Varia lights and radar. The screen is also easier to read in sunlight than the V650, I have found.
If you do your research you’ll find that ANT+ just works and there are compatibility issues with Polar and some other’s Bluetooth Smart accessories (Wahoo Blue SC works well, I found, and you will probably want one for speed and distance when GPS reception isn’t the best). Some have had issues with certain power meters, but that probably won’t affect you.
id say get the garmin. unless you plan to use a stages power meter and want it on an out front mount. as ant+ signal from stages seems to be very weak. maybe one day garmin will take both ant+ an bluetooth smart for pms and other devices.
I recently purchased a Garmin Edge 520 with speed censor and cadence censor. I tried it out before registering it with Garmin Connect and was able to change the wheel size manually on the speed censor. But since registering my 520 with Garmin Connect I cannot change the wheel size manually when swapping the device between my two bikes. All I get when keying in the change is 2096 – I need to change to 2010 for my other bike. The automatic setting has resulted in many different sizes but the one I want. Any suggestions?
known bug in latest firmware 5.30
That’s what I suspected. Any idea when the bug will be fixed?
Apparently this issue has been fixed with the latest firmware, 6.00.
I have posted a couple of times. Can anyone help me with my Garmin520. The grade % is far from accurate. I port the Garmin 500 at the same time. It is accurate. I will be going up a 5% grade, the 500 says 5%, the 520 anything from 2 to -5%.
Thanks for your great reviews. I am looking at purchasing my first serious bike computer. Everyone seems to favour Garmin and the 520 seems the pick of the bunch for my purposes. But my bike shop has a liking for the Polar v650.
When I try to look at reviews, the V650 is compared to the 500 or 510 and not the 520.
I have read both your reviews, but still cannot decide. So will appreciate your valuable opinion.
Cheers
Rod
It’s a no-brainer: get the Garmin!. I had Polar and made the switch only a month ago.
The V650 is seriously lacking in features compared to Garmin and Polar are way behind on their software development when compared to Garmin.
I found the V650 hard to read in the sunlight, the 520 I have no problems with.
Hello,
Can anyone confirm that the Edge 520, when we add the D-Fly, can be controlled by the Di2 ST-9070 DuraAce hood button ?
Thank you,
Giuseppe
yes
Hi Geno,
So we can change pages on the 520 by pushing these “hidden buttons” ?
I believe the page swapping is enabled under settings on the 520 in the same way it would be enabled on the Edge 1000 ?
Thank you for your help.
Giuseppe
Has anyone noticed a changed in the BT sync behavior (Save Ride) since the most recent 5.20/5.30 firmware update? Prior to those updates, my 520 would Save a Ride via the phone, with no action on the phone required. However, since installing those updates, the sync now requires opening the Garmin Connect app on the phone. Once it’s open, the Phone Connected message is displayed and the syncing begins as is confirmed in the GC app screen.
I noticed the same as well as the Garmin not displaying text and phone calls. I discovered that I was not signed in on Garmin app on the phone. I signed in again and I have not had to sign in again and my activities are being downloaded when I hit save. My take is that we just need to re-sign in to the app every so often.
Now, if Garmin would only fix the text and phone call notification feature so it wasn’t so awfully useless…..
Good afternoon. My Garmin 520 decided to shut off today while riding, so I thought I had ran out of battery. When I plugged it to charge however, the unit would not charge or even turn on. The whole screen is dark. I went on a forum and it said to do the following:
To perform a master reset:
1.Power device off
2.Press and hold Lap and Start/Stop
3.Power device on while still holding both buttons
4.Continue holding buttons when Garmin “splash” screen appears
5.Release buttons when Garmin “splash” screen disappears
There’s also this that people have tried:-
1.Turn device off
2.Hold the Down key while powering on the device
3.Continue holding the down key until the “Factory Reset” prompt appears
4.Select OK to clear
Tried both, but nothing is working.
Have you heard of this being a common problem?
Thank you for your help.
Had the same powering down issues and like you, checked the problem out on line. Very frustrating so after 6 or so resets with no improvement I returned the 520 for a replacement. Dealer indicated he hadn’t seen this issue previously but plenty of people seem to be having it. If I were you i’d either contact your dealer of Garmin and get replaced
I have the same issue where it just powers off mid ride with no warning, (edge 520 9 months old with latest firmware) and i emailed garmin product support (with an excerpt of the err_log.txt taken from the device) and just got a generic response about doing a master reset and then a format of the device. I have done both and the problem still persists, got back to garmin and am still waiting for a response from them, to at least figure out if it is a hardware error or firmware error. Their response times have gotten very poor lately. Below is the excerpt from the err_log.txt file (which mentions a Symbols Error and later a Bus-fault)
2067 (Edge 520) SW ver: 1210
ParserVersion 3
UnitId: {3932064604}
Product: {Edge 520}
SoftwarePartNumber: {006-B2067-00}
Time: {2017-7-1 15:36:34}
PackageVersion: {}
SystemVersion: {12.10}
PackageName: {RELEASE}
Build_Tag: {RELEASE}
build_type: {RELEASE}
Symbols Error: {Symbols File Not Found}
Backtrace: {
Function Address: 0x0827764A
Call Address at Function: 0x0827764E
Function Address: 0x080B753C
Call Address at Function: 0x080B7554
Function Address: 0x08408100
Call Address at Function: 0x0840829E
Function Address: 0x08067848
Call Address at Function: 0x08067894
Function Address: 0x08063E8C
Call Address at Function: 0x08063EB0
}
Assert_Info: {}
RTL_Trap_Info: {
Task ID: 0x70F7C8C0
Task Name: W
Error Number: 0x6E5D8036
Uptime: 2321926
CPSR: 0x21000000
HFSR: 0x00000000
CFSR: 0x00008200
BFAR: 0x001004EA
MMFAR: 0x001004EA
AFSR: 0x00000000
PSP: 0x70F7C798
MSP: 0x200007F8
Error Message: Bus-fault, r0-15, CPSR, HFSR, CFSR, BFAR, MMFAR, AFSR, PSP, MSP}
Exception_Info: {}
Error_Cause: {1}
outcome was a warranty replacement and no such issues with the replacement.
Thanks for the review ray, just got my unit yesterday. I was wondering if thers a way to upload topography/contour lines to the OSM maps on the 520? Would be great if it was possible…cheers
Hello,
Can I have been using the Edge 520 for about 2 months and it is excellent.
However, is it possible to set up two different users for the edge 520? Say my wife and I so we can track our individual data on the same device?
Thankyou,
Kris
Yes. Just set up an Activities Profile, change the name to yours and another for your wife and that’s it. It’s as easy as setting it up for two bikes.
yes and no. you will not have separate odomoeters. the geniouses decided to allow infinite bikes but without separate odometers. so if you want to track bike milage for maint or whatever reasons, you need to record rides after each ride in a spreadsheet? a few steps forward and a few steps backward.
I think you can only associate the Edge 520 with one Garmin Connect account. You could do it with different profiles on the unit, as suggested, but what happens when you have to reset the device and you lose all those totals?
You could set up two separate Strava accounts, but I don’t know if you can connect one Garmin Connect account to multiple Strava accounts, so automatic syncing will probably only send data to one account. Your only option might be to upload the files manually to each account by connecting the Edge to your computer and clicking the big + button to upload activities using the file system. Another step in the workflow.
The easiest option might be to buy separate devices. Either buy another 520 or something else for one of you. Might be necessary if you go for a ride together.
I don’t think these sort of devices are designed to be used by multiple people at the same time – it’s more of a one device per person thing.
For the people that were asking about the Edge 1000 and Recovery Advisor I am now getting recovery advisor on my Edge 1000 after finally giving into the nagging message that there was an update available.
Does anyone know how to turn off the training warnings?
“Power Low and Power High” warnings are driving me crazy, when trying to complete a set time at a set wattage.
How the hell can you see what your power is when these keep taking over the complete screen, So annoying…
Hopefully someone can help me
Cheers
I’ve read some other comments last year about Strave Live not working with a course at the same time.. Its may 2016, and i still not get it working. Someone who can help me out?
My second issue is that when i make a course in Strava, export it onto the Garmin, there are no course points (only the finish). Therefore i dont get course directions when im riding on course.. Anyone?
Thank you very much.
Thanks for the awesome write up Ray!
Dug through all 1300+ comments and still couldn’t find answers to my questions. I have 2 questions:
1) Does the 520 paired with Vector 2 support all the available power functions/stats as the 1000 with Vector 2? I’m under the impression that you need to pair the Vector 2 with a 1000 to enable the full suite of stats like: Cycling dynamics (PP, PCO), Left/right balance, Power: average at various time intervals, TSS, NP, IF, total power in watts, overall kilojoules, power zones, TE, pedal smoothness.
2) Is it possible to connect the 520 to a bunch of sensors with all of them working at the same time? I have a Vector 2, HRM (chest or FR235, one at a time), ANT+ speed and cadence sensor and the Di2 wireless D-fly. If so, does this significantly impact battery life?
Thanks!
Thanks for the all the helpful insight. I have a new Edge 520 and yesterday did a 65 mile ride with 4 other guys, all of which were using Garmins. My total ascent was 4,100 feet while the others were in the 6,000-6,100 feet range. Is there a way to “calibrate” my unit to make sure it is measuring correctly?
Hi. I just bought a Garmin Edge 810. Thanks for the great tips on another page to download and install free maps, which I did. I have a question that lots of googling and reading the manual have not answered: On this model, is is possible to set up a view that shows the map and a couple of data fields, such as speed, distance and/or time of day? I had an old Garmin Etrex, and could do that easily. I really like to see the map and relevant stats, especially on a cue sheet type of ride.
I recently replaced my Edge 500 with Edge 520 [had a crash, Garmin provided a nice credit]. I use this on several bikes and use Activity Profiles to customize data fields. Mostly it works fine, but I am unable to display power [3sec, 30sec] for my road bike with 4iiii Precision. It SEES the data — power and cadence are recorded, just won’t display. And it beeps when the Precision is activated, but doesn’t display. These fields WERE displayed on the old Edge 500.
There are no other power meters in my arsenal, but seems that it should display any active sensor it recognizes. It does display HR for all bikes — currently using a 4iiii strap for what it’s worth.
Any suggestions?
Hello,
Excellent review and thank you! Does the Garmin 520 come with an odometer? I like to keep track of the total miles ridden on the bike as well as each individual ride.
Thank you,
Glenn
Hello. Do you have a problem with the BT connection with the phone? Since yesterday, my 520 will not connect to the iPhone 6. How to solve it? Regards
I’ve seen this recently as well. If you go to the iPhone and open/select the Garmin Connect app, then the 520 should connect. I’m not sure what has changed that caused this. Whether it’s the GC app, or later firmware on the 520.
I think it might be the app. My 920xt is exhibiting the same behavior.
Is it possible to update activity profiles on Garmin Connect or Express from a computer and then apply these to the 520, or is it only possible to do this on the device itself?
all harware needs software. a computer screen and keyboard is a better interface than several buttons on a 2 inch display for setting up a device. garmin makes great hardware. not software. seems either the don’t understand this, or they just don’t care. shame.
so short answer. no. must suffer thru inefficient device interface.
I’m leaving for a drip next week and will be rending a road bike but I’m a bit lazy and don’t want to pack the speed and cadence sensors. Any downside to that? Will the speed on the computer still show (from the GPS)? Happy to live without knowing my cadence for a few leisurely rides. Thanks!
No reason to take them if you don’t care about cadence.
(Assuming you’re not mountain biking, where GPS signal can be a bit tougher for accurate speed while cycling.)
I wonder if anyone successfully operates the 4iiii PRECISION power meter with the 520. Can anyone confirm compatibility.
I just made a bad experience with Polars V650 whicht doesnT support the 4iiii PRECISION….
Just got the 520. On my first ride the auto pause kept coming on/going off, while I was riding. Would happen several times in a row, then be off for a while, then all of a sudden start turning on and off again. Ended up disabling it once I got home but anyone having the same issue?
Michael – No issues with Precision. I did virtually my entire review of the Precision unit with an Edge 520. No problems.
Matt – Auto pause sounds like perhaps the setting is dorked up (set into a weird speed). Go ahead and check what the threshold is on it.
Excellent review Ray! I purchased other Garmin products from Clever Training including a DCR 1 year VIP membership to get the 10% off. I called today to place an order for the Garmin 520 and was told that they can no longer provide the 10% discount on Garmin products. Disappointed to hear that they can’t honor their commitment on the VIP membership.
Hi Kirby-
Thanks for the support, and sorry for the troubles.
About three weeks ago Garmin put out an edict that prohibits retailers from offering the straight 10% deals. Clever is putting in place an updated VIP program that should conform to this new policy. It’ll be rolled out next week and should cover what you’re looking for.
Unfortunately, this change was outside of Clever’s control, and certainly not something they wanted.
:(
FYI – I just jumped on my Kickr and got notice of a firmware update. I’ve applied it, and my Edge 520 is now able to see it as an indoor trainer – meaning that ANT+ FE-C is now in the official, non-beta firmware.
About time, too. No more need for me to have the phone running in parallel to the Edge – yay!
As the 520 supports the Di2 wireless unit, I wonder if it is possible to enter the gear ratios and get the speed calculated by the ration and the cadence.
So I don’t have to use a speed sensor or GPS.
It doesn’t do so natively, but someone could write a Connect IQ app to do so.
Is it possible to change a data field on the fly with the 520?
e.g. switching from 3s Avg Power to 10s Avg Power without creating a whole new page.
Hey Ray,
I can’t seem to find any info on how the Garmin Edge 520 determines after the first 12 minutes of my ride what my ‘recovery’ state is. It usually says good but after a hard ride the other day it said “fair”. Is there any documentation on this feature? Is there a particular heart rate our pace you are supposed to ride in that first 12 minutes?
Thank you.
Scott
The recovery information is all from “Firstbeat”: link to firstbeat.com
Recovery advisor keeps track of your physiological state so you know when to take it easy and when you are ready for the next intensive run. After the workout, it shows the time your body needs to recover before the next effort, so you can optimize the balance between rest and training.
How it works?
To gauge estimated recovery time after the workout, your personal cumulative load during a workout (EPOC, Training Effect) and daily response to exercise are measured. Available for all aerobic exercises, most detailed information available for running when running speed is available or for cycling with power (watts).
Recovery advisor includes:
Recovery time after exercise
•Tracks personal cumulative body loading during a workout and daily response to exercise to gauge estimated required recovery time to train again.
Warm-up readiness check
•Tracks daily performance and indicates whether body is able to respond to training well today.
•Warm-up readiness check available for running / cycling only.
Hi,
I plan to get a 520 for cycling.
I’ll use a Vivosmart HR for HR ANT+ signal and plan to get a cadence sensor.
About a wheel sensor apart from stationary work (or underground riding…) what’s its real use?
Will the device get GPS and wheel sensor data and what will be the distance measured from?
Thanks
Carlo
Sorry to comment on such an old thread. However the DCR blogs are the best place to get support for these products!
I’ve just bought an Edge 520 to replace my 810. The most obvious difference between the two is the length of time it takes for the 520 to start. Is it normal to take up to 5 minutes to start? That can’t be right.
Any other experiences appreciated!
my 520 starts up way faster than that id say under a min. id try a factory reset and if that doesnt solve it contact garmin
As damien said, that’s not normal, but there may be a couple of things to look at, before a factory reset:
You said that you “just bought (it)”, but how long have you had it and did you make any changes, like adding courses, maps, etc? If you did make changes, try putting them back to original. Is the firmware up to date? As of 6/2/16 the FW version is 6.0. One other thing is the onboard Garmin -> startup.txt file. If you modified that file, it does have a parameter for adding a delay (to display the message), so if you modified that file you might check that parameter. If none of that applies, then the reset or a call to Garmin is warranted.
Thanks both for your replies.
I’ve had it for a couple of days. I have not added any course or maps. I have upgraded it to the latest firmware version (6.0) and I haven’t made any changes to the startup file.
I just did a factory reset and it seems to have fixed the issue – startup now takes ~30s, GPS is found instantly and it quickly pairs with my phone. So I’m not sure what was going on there.
I will have to re-pair all of my sensors when I get home and check that this doesn’t make the problem reoccur, I guess it’s possible that a large sensor pool might cause issues?
So I cycled home (using my Edge 520 with a speed sensor and VIRB paired). Once home I then re-paired my power meter and KICKR (FE-C) and tested the target power control on the 520. However I found that the startup time had once again increased to nearly two minutes. I then removed the sensors one by one to see if this helped. It didn’t.
This morning I was looking in the logs on the 520 to see if there was anything interesting in there when I realized that a number of .fit files have been building up in the ‘NewFiles’ directory. They have names like 1B99C.fit, 1D14D5.fit etc. but don’t correspond to activities (there are a lot more files than activities since I reset) and contain unreadable data. I moved these files off the Edge and restarted since I read somewhere that the Garmin processes these at startup e.g. importing courses etc.
Once I had removed these I was back to super fast startup times!
So my next question is, what are those fit files in NewFiles, why are they building up and how can I stop it. I’m continuing to try to work this out but if anyone has any ideas…
Ok, so they seem to be my Strava live segments. I tried copying those fit files into Segments from NewFiles, however the Edge put them back into NewFiles.
For now I’ve removed all of my starred segments which has mitigated the issue. Time to contact Garmin I think…
Is there is a way to create a workout in Garmin connect that adjusts the Kickr power automatically, when I set a target power it only tells me if I am there or not? What I thought FE-C would do is basically replace the iPhone “Intervals” App I use
Sorry to keep up the commentary on this one. I just wanted to close this off in case anyone else had the same issue.
I decided to try to re-enable my starred segments one at a time. This time they are correctly placed in the Segments directory at device startup with the correctly named fit file. So clearing all my segments in Strava and then starting again was the fix.
On version 6.0 both my wife’s and my 520 started up within seconds even after replacing the built in basemap with the OpenStreet Maps stuff. I installed the beta 6.03 software and it increased the bootup time drastically on both units.
Yesterday I upgraded to the new 6.20 firmware and both units returned to their normal fast bootup time….
Brantel, where do you get these beta versions of Edge firmware?
Just go to the product page on Garmin’s website and click the link circled below….
My 520 became awfully slow at drawing/updating the map since I upgraded it from 6.00 to 6.20. So slow I got frustrated missing turns etc.
I have now downgraded it back to 6.00 (warning: downgrades lose all your settings :-/) and it’s back to normal drawing performance.
Anyone else experienced this with 6.20? Is it a known bug Garmin is working on?
Similar issues are reported here: link to forums.garmin.com
However these pre-date the 6.20 firmware release (June 6), so there must be other factors involved.
For me the problem clearly went away as soon as I downgraded it. Maybe it revoked some setting that causes this issue?
Hi, just purchased the Edge 520 and have two questions:
1- Will my Polar H7 Bluetooth heart rate belt work with it?
2- How do I set up my 520 so that someone else can follow me on a map using Garmin Connect on their phone.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Not sure on #1 but #2 requires you to use the Garmin Connect App on your smart phone. It will require that you stay within BT connection distance to your phone and your phone must have connection to the Internet.
Open up the Live Track feature inside the Garmin Connect App. It is fairly simple to figure out once your in there.
#1 – No, that’s BLE, and Garmin requires ANT+.
Thanks for the replies to my two questions.
I thought the 520 supported Ant+ and Bluetooth. Surprised to learn my Polar H7 Bluetooth heart rate belt won’t work, more money to spend.
While it has bluetooth, it is only for phone communication, not for sensors unfortunately.
Not to add insult to injury, but if you had read this review (see product comparison chart, for example) as well as the specs listed at the Garmin website (“Edge 520 is compatible with ANT+ sensors, including Varia™ bike radar and lights4, speed, cadence, heart rate, Edge and VIRB® remotes and compatible weight scales. “), it should have been clear that it is not compatible with blue tooth HRMs.
Does the Edge 520 have an auto calibrate feature? I have a powertap andthis feature would be great. Thanks, Aaron
Just pinging this question again. Seems the Garmin 500 had a setting to auto-zero in the calibration window. This doesn’t seem to exist in the 520. Anybody know if it possible to set a powertab hub to autozero with the 520?
thanks,
Aaron
Hi Ray, Have you run the calibrate option from the Edge 520 for the Elite Real Turbo Muin B+? When I did this the 520 displays “Calibrating power sensor …” – pedal slow or fast for some time but no further prompts appear.