Cardiosport Cadence Sensor

[Danny]

Last year I bought a speed and cadence sensor set from Cardiosport to use with my Garmin. The speed sensor has always worked perfectly. However while the cadence sensor was fine for many but the Blue Tooth connection with the cadence sensor has started dropping out during rides. This has been getting progressively worse to the point where it is more often not connected than connected.

I raised this with the supplier, who rather surprisingly suggested that the solution was to remove my speed sensor as the Garmin GPS can keep track of your speed. Presumably there is some known conflict with having both sensors connected.

But it doesn't explain why the two sensors worked perfectly together for many months. And if there is a conflict with using both sensors together, it rather begs the question of why they sell kits with both speed and cadence sensors.

My suspicion is that the cadence sensor has just developed a fault for some reason. Does anyone with more technical knowledge have a view on this?

NB before anyone asks, I have tried changing the battery

 

[Dogtrousers]

I suppose it's worth a try disconnecting the speed sensor just to make the setup simpler while you try to debug the cadence problem.

But you're right that it really shouldn't make any difference. Removing both sensors from the GPS then adding them again one at a time is a kind of "switch it off and switch it on again" approach that works surprisingly often.

 

[Danny]

I suppose it's worth a try disconnecting the speed sensor just to make the setup simpler while you try to debug the cadence problem.

But you're right that it really shouldn't make any difference. Removing both sensors from the GPS then adding them again one at a time is a kind of "switch it off and switch it on again" approach that works surprisingly often.

I've tried removing the cadence sensor and then re-pairing it which didn't make any noticeable difference. But good idea with experimenting with turning both off.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I've tried removing the cadence sensor and then re-pairing it which didn't make any noticeable difference. But good idea with experimenting with turning both off.

I'm afraid that's all I have to offer. Switch it off and switch it on again.

 

[Bristolian]

I had an issue of BT dropping when I had both a speed sensor and GPS speed tracking turned on in my Garmin. This is a known issue where if the speed reported by the sensor disagreed with the GPS speed by x% the BT dropped out and nothing got recorded for a short while. The solution was pretty simple though I just removed the speed sensor and relied on GPS data.

Not sure if that is relevant to your problem but hope it helps

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

This thread has just reminded me that somewhere, in one of my bike spares boxes, there's a Coospo sensor that can either do cadence or speed... Had it ~5 years and not tried it once!

 

[Danny]

I had an issue of BT dropping when I had both a speed sensor and GPS speed tracking turned on in my Garmin. This is a known issue where if the speed reported by the sensor disagreed with the GPS speed by x% the BT dropped out and nothing got recorded for a short while. The solution was pretty simple though I just removed the speed sensor and relied on GPS data.

Not sure if that is relevant to your problem but hope it helps

It is relevant as it puts a bit of 'science' behind the advice given by the cadence sensor supplier - which was to disconnect my speed sensor. However, it doesn't really explain why the two sensors worked together for many months before the cadence sensor started dropping out.

Anyway I'll try disconnecting the speed sensor when I go out this weekend and see what happens. I realise that the GPS should be good enough for most purposes but it can drop out if your are going through wooded areas or tunnels.

 

[Dan Lotus]

This thread has just reminded me that somewhere, in one of my bike spares boxes, there's a Coospo sensor that can either do cadence or speed... Had it ~5 years and not tried it once!

I've bought a couple, purely for cadence use, and they are excellent.