The Garmin 500 Setup / Configuration Thread
500 Users,
Just got a red one (red is the fastest color). Updated the firmware to add Pnorm, IF, TSS, etc. Please tell me:
- How have you set up your screens/pages? Or rather, what are you displaying on each page? I will probably set up a This is the Stuff I like to See in Real Time Screen (watts, Pnorm, IF, spd, dist, kj, time), a Climbing Page (VAM, % grade, Gain), a How Much Do I Get to Eat Page (Time, KJ, TSS)...anything else?
- I found an Auto Pause function and have this turned on. But it looks like when I start riding I have to press start, to start the timer, distance, etc. I assume that once this is done, then Auto Pause acts like an auto start/stop?
- Is there a power smoothing setup anywhere? I'm not bothered by the power numbers jumping around but thought I'd ask.
- Anything else I should know?
I'll be running the Joule and Garmin side by side until I get it all figured out. I may ductape the iPhone next to it, do make Dino proud 
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Comments
Here is my thinking. I set mine up with only there pages, although it will do 5. The reason is, it will only scroll through the pages in one direction. There is no back and forth, so if you want to see page 2 you will need to cycle through them all to get back to page 1. Therefore, I built a "riding now page", an "interval page" and a "what did I just do now that it is over page". Once I decided three was the limit here are the choices I made:
Page 1 - Main Page (from left to right, top to bottom)
Power 3's (this is the smoothing. you can also do 10s and 30s)
NP
Cadence
IF
Speed
HR Zone
Ride Time
Time of Day (I usually need to be home on time)
Page 2 - Interval page
Interval Time (big number, 2 fields worth)
Power 3's
%FTP
Cadence
NP Lap
HR Zone
IF
Page 3 - Ride Totals
Avg Power
NP
Distance
IF
Gain
TSS
KJ
Calories
You must hit start to run the clock at the beginning of the ride. If you move the unit will prompt you that there is movement and you should hit "start". Once riding auto pause will start and stop with you and when you download it will give you total time and moving time. I hit Start at the beginning in my driveway and then stop when I get back to my driveway. Auto pause does the rest.
Only other thing to know is be sure the unit knows your FTP, or else the TSS and IF numbers will not work. Otherwise, I think you are golden.
Consider my fields and tell me what you think. I am sure I have stuff you would not, but based on the number of options this has worked for me, but I would defer to you as you get better with it. As a primer, consider this as a really great read on how it works: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2009/11/garmin-edge-500-in-depth-review.html
Enjoy!
Main - 6 Fields
Real Time Power
Total Time
NP Power - Cadence
Speed - Distance
Interval View - 6 fields - I use this about 95% of the time training and 100% when racing and take a lap about every 30 to 60 minutes (Yes I have three different
Real Time Power
Lap Time
Heart Rate - Cadence
Lap NP - 30sec Power
Other - 8
Avg Cad - Grade
Avg HR - Temp
Avg Spd - Time of Day
Avg Pwr - kJ
Summary - 3
TSS
IF
NP
Other notes:
- I have auto pause turned off as rest time (i.e. stops lights) changes the workout so I record it.
- Make sure you stop the timer at the end of a workout and then hold reset. This "closes" the workout file. I have NEVER had an issue with a corrupt file when I do this, however if I forget this step at the end of the workout, I have occasionally had a corrupt file. The reason garmin does this is that you could ride for a few hours, pause the device, turn it off, have lunch, and then trun it back on and continue and have one file if you wanted.
- Pay attention to the include zero's setting for cadence and power as those will impact the numbers you see during a ride (they will not change the recorded data
- As Dino said set you FTP if you want TSS/IF/NP to work
That's all I have off the top of my head.
If you really want to be a tri geek, you could put the edge 500 on a 310 or 910 wrist strap and run with it, or put it under your swim cap, but everything will be in mph.
My main screen displays:
3s Power
Speed
Cadence
NP-Lap
Distance
Time
Second page:
Avg. speed
Avg. cadence
NP
TSS
IF
Finally...someone who uses %FTP !
Its my go to readout.
Maybe some day it will make it to your first page!
Page 1
Speed
Time
Avg Speed
Distance
Lap Speed
Page 2
Power
Lap NP
Be very careful to separate data fields that often have similar looking numbers as sometimes you get kind of bonky and lose track of what you are looking at. For example, you dont want to confuse 22.0mph and 220 watts.
So any reason why the GPS said I was riding at 70mph all day, did almost 400 miles in ~5hrs, at an NP of 285w vs 233w on the Joule?
I just tossed it in my pocket when I saw it was jacked vs troubleshooting on the road. Haven't downloaded it yet.
Nah, I have have wicked aero skills, 70mph at 285w
I've never had that issues, but I know people that ride in very very tree covered areas sometimes complain their distance and average speed are off by about a few mph.... i've never heard of it being 50 mph off.
The 400 mi / 70mph stuff I've never had issues with, but the NP thing I most definitely have. I'm actually suprised I haven't heard more talk of this, but then again I almost always forget to bring it up myself.
I have an Edge 800 which has had the power metrics for a while now, and the NP (and corresponding IF) reported by the unit has always been significanlty higher than reported in WKO or Golden Cheetah. I thought for sure this was because it must not be including zeros, but the only options you can change are to include zeros in your average power, which I have set. The NP is still too high.
I figured that there weren't enough people with Edge 800s to really notice and that once this stuff made its way to the 500 and 910xt that I'd hear a lot more about the calculations being off. Maybe people have been talking about it and I just didn't notice, but either way I'm still wondering what is going on with these calculations.
EDIT: Also, I should add that my FTP is/was (currently getting a RMA on the unit) hopeleslly out of date on my Edge 800. I of course knew that would throw off the TSS and IF and didn't really pay any attention to those. However the proper formula to calculate NP does not use your FTP at all, so that should not explain why the NP always comes out so high.
The NP calculated by the 500 is from my observation, slightly different from what you'd find in WKO, but only by a few watts. Not sure why, but likely due some highly internal quirk in how the NP calculation algorithm is handled by the unit.
Regarding higher power numbers, I have had that issue. Always high on the head unit and Garmin Connect (they are the same) then on Trainingpeaks.com and I assume WKO+. I thought it was zeroing and just didn't pay it too much attention. Since it is consistent, it has worried me even less. If the Joule is consistently a few watts higher then the Garmin (and I mean a few) so what? Who knows what your absolute number is anyway. You just need consistency. At least that is what my on-line triathlon coach told me....
Update: after avoiding the issue for over a week, I did a hard reset (Google search) and followed the instructions. Looks like the problem was I was unable / it wouldn't take the wheel size. The hard reset seems to have fixed it. Doing an Atlanta group ride tomorrow and will run the Joule and Garmin side by side to compare.
Setting up my pages now per everyone's input.
Lastly, looks like my 305 finally died this weekend, killed by a ~1:30 ride in pouring rain on Day 2 of our climbing camp. Got some water and condensation inside the Joule, which is sitting in a bag of rice right now to dry out, per Joe's suggestion.
Now the auto start/stop is kind of interesting. If you stop pedaling, the 500 unit stops measuring power. To me, this means that if I have a lot of coasting stops on my bike (a lot of cross streets), I am getting a power-penalty-free break of several seconds as I approach an intersection. I'll admit, sometimes I roll a long way without pedaling if my legs are really toast.
I was not aware of that feature. I use the "auto pause" but that stops the recording when you fall below a certain speed, not when you stop pedaling. I have it set to 4mph.
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/05/garmin-releases-edge-500-update-adds.html
When you reference "not pedaling" that is related to calculating zeros. You can have the unit disregard zero's when it calculates average cadence and power numbers.
@Dino, thanks for the clarification. Now if I could just get this ding dang thing to work.
Just checking. Do you have a US model Edge 500 that you bought from a US reseller? I've heard that some of the units for sale on ebay and such are specifically for the Taiwanese market and do not accept US firmware updates.
I have a Taiwanese version. Went through the Garmin.tw website (used google website translator) for the firmware update.
Worked perfectly.