Garmin footpad or is there a better equivalent?

William Jenks

My Garmin footpod is on the fritz.  I've replaced the battery and done all the resets on the receiver, etc., and I'm still getting very wonky data.  This happened about 11 months ago, and I ended up replacing it.  Very frustrating.  I don't have the records, but I think this is my 3rd footpad to fail on about that time frame...a year.

Is the Garmin footpod the best one?  Or is there another equivalent device that people know about that is better?  It has to pair with Garmin FR devices.

Thanks.

Steve West

Different results here William. Same FP for the past 3+ years, replaced battery once. It's the newer version.

I did have the older, larger one many years ago but that did give me problems with bad data. That was why I got the second FP.

Kkaufer

I had the same problem as William ... footpod worked like a charm until the battery died.  I replaced it according to Garmin guidance and it wouldn't work ... did some troubleshooting per DCR and it still didn't work ... since I just started JOS, I sprung for a new one, but if it happens again, I'll likely give up on this .

I'm eyeing the Garmin 620 later this year ... After reading DCR's review I believe it gives you run data via the new HRM, which should make the footpod obsolete, but I'm not sure yet how precise it it. I'll watch the reviews trickle in.

John Withrow

I have 3 of the Garmin foot pods and have never had problems with any of them. (they are all on different shoes and I think they cost $15-20 on sale one time). Finally after ~2.5 yrs I needed to change the battery in one of them and it has worked fine for the 2 runs since.

The one time my HRM strap didn't work after a battery change, Garmin support suggested I put the battery in upside down for about 30 seconds, then take it out for 30 seconds, then put it back in the right way. Shockingly, it worked and the strap has worked fine for months since. Not saying this will work, but can't hurt to try, right?

Other than that, your accelerometers inside there might just be fried. It is a tiny cheap little piece of electronics, so this is probably the most likely cause.

bmr94539

The footpod accelerometers are most likely solid state MEMs type sensors. They do have maximum G ratings, but I would think those ratings are pretty high. You can damage them by over-accelerating them (dropping them on a hard surface from high up). Seems unlikely. The electronics in the pod are probably super cheap given how inexpensive those darn things are.

The reversing of the battery is an interesting idea. Problem is that these things use so little power that to really reset them you have to pull the battery out and wait until they fully discharge. That could take quite a long time and putting in the battery in reverse would just discharge it instantly and do a full reset. AFAIK, the way the battery socket works, reversing the battery won't actually reverse the voltage into the device. You just end up shorting the + and - trogether and that will do a quick discharge of the device.

BTW, my footpod has been working quite nicely for the last year+. Haven't replaced the battery yet, though. I'll be sure and follow Garmin's directions.

William Jenks

Thanks. I'll try the battery reversal trick to really reset it. I tried replacing the battery because I didn't know what else to do. My problems with it are (and were with the past one) intermittent. I've tossed the old one, so I can't try to recover it if the reset you suggest works. Oh well. I still have the one that's been giving me bizarre data recently.

I also used to have the one long one that held a AAA (?) battery. That worked pretty well but the new one is certainly nicer for size. I think I lost my old AAA one when the case became corroded and I couldn't open it to change the battery. That's not the case here.

I leave it on year round, so maybe I'm just kind of hard on them...or maybe I just have bad luck.

Without looking too hard, I can find them for $45-50 (e.g., on Amazon with free shipping). John, is that sale you referred to a one-time long-gone thing? Sounds like it. If anyone knows a price like that, let me know.

William Jenks

Update:

I tried the "reverse the battery/short the contacts" thing, and the next run went smoothly. However, the one after that was a FAIL.

I am having other problems with my 910 xt that appeared to be unrelated, and they are shipping me out a replacement. We (meaning I and Garmin) have agreed that I'll wait for the new watch and then see if that fixes it. If not, I think they are going to send me a replacement pod...very nice.

mancona

Hey William, Glad to hear Garmin support is helping out, I've always had good experiences with them. I had my first two footpods die on me after about 6 or 9 months each. Garmin support was really helpful and replaced both. Luckily the third one they sent me has made it over two years now and i've changed the battery a few times. It appears some of them just don't last very long. I don't know of another alternative that is any more reliable.

William Jenks

New update: the new Garmin 910 arrived today. I set it up for an indoor run and did my interval set today. I did the extra dorky move of running while wearing both watches. While the correspondence isn't 100% perfect between the periods where it didn't pick up the footpod (which was most of the run) and the spotty parts where it did, the correspondence is strong enough to convince me that the problem is in the footpod...both watches either had or didn't have signal at the same time (at least pretty close). The run was an hour, but I was doing things like turning the watches off and on for a while to try to get the footpad to "catch."

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/429752646
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/429753175

I'll be calling Garmin again tomorrow.