Questions on Garmin 500

Paul Hough

I've used a Garmin 500 for the past couple of years, but without power.   I've bought some new wheels with a powertap that will be here this week and have several questions:

1.  How do you get the Garmin to pair with the powertap?

2. How do you set up the Garmin to display power as well as speed, distance, and time?

3.  Can you input your power zones into the 500?   I have a powerbeam trainer so I know all my zones?

4.  Do you have to calibrate the powertap through the edge 500?

5.  How do you get the data from the 500 to Garmin Connect?   I have an ANT widget for my Garmin 405 but it didn't recognize the 500. 

I'm not a techie so I would appreciate any help on these questions.

Cary Blanco

Check out these pages at garmin.com, some of the videos are for the 705, but it's almost the same interface.

http://www8.garmin.com/train-with-g...meter.html

http://www8.garmin.com/learningcent...index.html

Paul Hough

Cary - many thanks!! I would never have figured it out on my own!!

imc1792

Too timely, my wheelbuilder wheel with PT arrives tomorrow and I am picking up an Edge 500 Sat..... Nice to educate in advance.

Paul Hough

Bump. I've updated my Garmin from version 2.2 to 2.8. I've added Power and Power Zone to the display window. The Edge is synched to the PowerTap and working. But when I go to the Power Zone settings, it won't let me change the min and max value for the various zones. They are all zero. What's up with that??

Cary Blanco

Paul,

I don't use power zones, but I believe you need to enter an FTP somwhere to get them to show data

Paul Hough

Cary...I found it in some online forum bashing Garmin for not being user friendly. You cannot directly enter your FTP or zones into the Edge 500. You have to do it in the bowels of Garmin Connect then send an update to the Edge. How can they be so technologically adept and yet so backwards in the user interface?

Cary Blanco

Paul, like I said, i don't use the zones feature, so this never affected me. I hope you get it working. And don't get me started on garmin connect ... the slogan should be "We took the social out of 'social network'!"

Imagine you create one of the world's largest online databases of training and racing rides, runs swims and more but you make it impossible to the users of your service to communicate with each other! They don't get it!

Say for instance you and I live in the same area, I see your training rides when I plug in my zip code. Hey, wow, this guy could be a great training partner, i'll just message him, but wait... there's no way to do that!

They haven't figured out a way to monetize GC yet, it's a loss leader for them, but still, push things in the right direction and perhaps the money will follow.

If you haven't checked out Strava yet, give it a peek. These guys get it.

Whoops, ok - sorry to derail your question, but you're the one that brought up Garmin Connect after all

Cary Blanco

 Paul,

FWIW - Here's what the power zones readout looks like on the Edge 705

 

Paul Hough

Cary - the 500 zone menu is identical. The only difference is that you cannot directly edit the zone numbers on the 500 but you can on the 705. For the 500 you do it on Garmin connect and then send the update to the edge -- very awkward.

Cary Blanco

We have a saying in the office for situations like this.

"Wow, that's a great feature, how do you turn it off?"