Garmin varia
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Garmin varia light being disabled. I love the new addition for light control in the swipe down dash board. But there seems to be an issue.... When I press the left button on my computer it shuts off my radar light. This has happened twice now and is rather alarming. The first time was last week I was riding in the dark, early morning hours and I went to turn pages on my k2 and all my lights when out (front and rear). I quickly turned on the front light and I thought I was having a headlight issue. It happened two more times after pressing the page left button. However I did not know my taillight was also out and could only tell because cars were approaching very fast.
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I believe this happened to me too, but slightly differently. During a ride I turned the light on with the button on the light unit. Awhile later the light was off but radar still functioning (blinking blue LED only). I turned the light on with Control Center and it stayed on for the rest of the ride. Because I had read this post, I tested the left buttons to see if it turned the light off. This did not happen for me, the light stayed on.
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This also happened to me a few times during a ride that the varia rear light turned off and the radar still was working. Also sometimes I can't control the varia light with the control center. When I want to turn the light on it doesn't work:
- https://youtu.be/BQCT8BMCGGM
Until the issue is solved I think it is better/saver to let the radar on, disable the varia light and switch it manually on/off etc. -
Elmer,
I’m still having issues as well. One thing that I can replicate regularly now is the following... If I turn my radar/light on manually prior to starting the ride, when I hit play on my Karoo 2 to start the ride, it shuts off the light on my varia. If I start the ride, and then turn on the light, it seems to work fine. -
What models of Varia are involved in the above posts? @Chad is front and rear, which is a start.
It is hard to know what is being referred to,
since there are multiple models of the radar/tail unit and it is unclear if a headlight is involved in some replies.
"My Varia" and "mine" does not describe a model or configuration.
Is radar/light one or two units?
K1 's or K2's? date of Android/HH OS?
My 515 is erratic in operation and I find it frequently disconnects both light and radar and light alone with pauses and often the ANT and BT are being turned off in a pattern I cannot identify. Not sure if it flashes with detection in those states of dysfunction when light is otherwise off. (It's hard to debug , when you are trying to get going)
There has been NO comprehensive UP TO DATE help/manual/description of how the HH and Varia interact and what can influence their connection, there are help files but are scattered and not chronologically arranged. the last help file is 4 mos old and dated 2 yrs old in the thing they call the index and refers only to the K2. Several changes since then.
I don't think they tell Franklin when they are changing things, or do it on his days off.
Garmin has a lights standard under ANT+ but operation with other folks hardware has not been , um, optimal.
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@rick heider I have been able to duplicate the problem. Here is what I think happens. My radar (garmin varia 515) is connected to my head unit (k2) via Bluetooth. If I manually turn my varia on before starting my ride, roll out the driveway, hit the play button for my ride, the hammerhead then shuts off the varia. It most likely thinks it is turning it on but that is not the case, it is actually shutting it off. When starting a ride, If I don’t touch my varia, start a ride, the head unit will turn on my varia like it is supposed to and there are no issues. It’s not ideal, and honestly I’m okay with this because I’m accustomed to it and honestly I plan to purchase a new garmin headunit when they release a new 530/830 model. The k2 is cool in its own way but it’s laggy (typical android os) and just not as refined as other headunits I’ve used.
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I see the same as what @Chad davis said above.
For me this is not a showstopper, since I know now to check for it in the Control Center. If the light shuts off, once it's changed there the problem does not reoccur during the ride. And to be honest, I had more (but different) connection problems between my old Garmin 520 and the Varia than I do now.
But I think Hammerhead does need to track this down. It is a hassle and you can end up thinking you have a blinking rear light on when you do not.
I think the problem might lie with the K2 not being able to tell the difference between two states when it first recognizes the sensor during a ride. There's one state where the light is switched from off to on with the switch on top of the unit, and another when the red LED is off but the unit is on and the slow blinking blue LED is visible.
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