Garmin edge 500 set up for power meter

[bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb]

Got a new second hand bike just recently which has a power meter. Don't know anything about them. Bought a second hand Garmin Edge 500 to be able to make use of the power meter. When turning on the Garmin at the start of the ride it asks if I want to calibrate the power meter, and says something about (I'm going from memory) currently set to, then the value is non existent, it's just dashes ("-------"). I say yes then it chooses a number like -900 or something -- I'm not cycling at that point. Then the only button which does anything seems to be the back button, so I do that, then proceed as normal. But at the start of each ride, the same thing happens. Am I doing something wrong? Suspect I might be. Thanks.

 

[cougie uk]

If I remember correctly you say yes and then you just accept it whilst not pedalling. If you pedal then it messes up the calibration.

There's an option to say No if you don't want to calibrate I think ?

 

[HarryTheDog]

Depends on your powermeter on what you might have to do, most crank arm meters the crank with the power meter on must be pointed down and the bike as vertical as possible ie not leant over. Then you can press calibrate.
My 3iii power meter never changes ever from a value of 10 so i quite often dont bother calibrating, my stages changes with temperature and my quarg chainring meter does as well so I calibrate every time with them.

also it may be worth you pressing "about" on your head unit it may tell you how charged the battery is.

 

[Sittingduck]

Something not quite right - it shouldn't bug you every time you power it on to calibrate. Don't go from memory, we need specifics or screenshots this is crucial in solving the case...

edit: as above, ensure the PM (NDS) crank is pointing at 6 o clock position and don't move or touch it or have your foot on it during calibration.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Does the power meter appear to work once you've gone through that rigmarole?

What kind of power meter?

 

[Ajax Bay]

What kind of power meter?

Never thought you were a 'power meter' sort of chap. What kind of power meter do you use?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Never thought you were a 'power meter' sort of chap. What kind of power meter do you use?

Garmin Rally pedals. Bought after lockdown as I'd been living on my turbo for months (and not spending any money on anything). So I was as familiar with power output as I was with my speed. And I'm a sucker for numbers to crunch and make unusual (and meaningless) graphs.

 

[bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb]

This is what it says:

Power meter detected. Calibrate?
No
Yes


Calibrating…
Current Calibration
- - - - - - - -


Calibration Successful
Current Calibration
-616


Then the only button which works at that point is the back button, which goes back to the GPS finding satellites progress bar, and everything's normal from then on.

And yes it seems to be working fine -- at first ignorant glance; On Strava, in the Analysis bit, both the Power and Cadence (I didn't realise the power meter did that also, it's a crank one so makes sense) data appears as you'd imagine it to look, appears to be working totally fine, but I have no idea if the actual intensity of the power meter numbers are at all correct or not though.

The number it comes up with upon calibration is different each time, so that doesn't bode well. For example, it was minus one thousand and something once. I haven't used it much yet, but that number varies.

It is a Quarq power meter, maybe this one: https://www.sram.com/en/quarq/models/pm-dz-spdr-d1 -- it looks similar to that but hasn't got DZero written on it like that one has.

There's an option to say No if you don't want to calibrate I think ?

There is. Right, maybe if I select no each time it would be fine, haven't actually tried that. The way it says current calibration is dash dash dash etc. each time suggests that that wouldn't be OK, but who knows, something worth trying.

most crank arm meters the crank with the power meter on must be pointed down and the bike as vertical as possible ie not leant over.

Right, I see, I'll try that, maybe not having crank in same position explains the different calibration number each time, maybe. I wasn't peddling, totally stationary when I've calibrated each time.

also it may be worth you pressing "about" on your head unit it may tell you how charged the battery is.

Head unit? Don't know what you mean by that, something on the Garmin or the power meter?

edit: as above, ensure the PM (NDS) crank is pointing at 6 o clock position and don't move or touch it or have your foot on it during calibration.

Right, yup, got that now, that was the main thing I didn't know, thanks. And maybe me not doing that explains the varying calibration numbers.

Thanks all

 

[HarryTheDog]

Yes head unit is the garmin 500, I have a 1023 but still on the 500 you should have a "about" section on the power meter menu which will tell you battery status, firmware, software levels etc. The 1023 also warns you if battery level is low whilst in use, dont know if the 500 does.

 

[Dogtrousers]

This is what it says:

Power meter detected. Calibrate?
No
Yes


Calibrating…
Current Calibration
- - - - - - - -


Calibration Successful
Current Calibration
-616

Sounds like it's working OK. I'm guessing that the "random" number is (probably) the zero offset of the power meter. And yes, you might expect that to vary - you'd need someone with kowledge of the Quark PM to confirm that. It's like when you zero your kitchen scales - you look at them unloaded and see it's reading (say) 25g. You twiddle the knob to set the unloaded scale to zero. The 25g is the zero offset. The "unloaded" aspect of that is why you must unclip and keep the bike still while you do this.

It's completely unsurprising that the Garmin wants to calibrate the PM every time. That's what they do. If you want to switch this off then use the Garmin menus to go to Menu/Settings/Sensors select the PM sensor then select "Sensor Details" and there may be a "Calibration Prompt" option. You can switch that off, but I don't know why you would want to. That's how it works on my Edge 530, anyway. Knowing Garmin, the menus on the 500 will be similar but frustratingly different.

If I were you, I'd find all the documentation available for the PM and the GPS and have a read of that. You might also be able to find some youtube videos on the subject if you search.

 

[Milkfloat]

This may be a dumb question, but you have enables the power meter fields on the Garmin screens? I would suggest 3 second average at a minimum, but you may also want overall average, plus of course cadence.