Tech/Scoring Question: Garmin/Phone Dies Mid Ride

[cvcalhoun]

@epilsk 152942 wrote:

If one’s Garmin or other tracking device dies mid ride, so the full ride is not recorded, is there a way to get credit for unrecorded portion of the ride or would I be SOL? Just curious, but the thought crossed my mind yesterday as my ride kept not ending. My apologies if this has been answered somewhere already.

Manual entries are not accepted. However, you can use something like RideWithGPS to reconstruct the ride.

Or if you did the ride with someone else, you can ask for that person’s file, and upload that to your own Strava.

Or if it’s a ride you often do, I’ve been successful in downloading another ride that is to/from the same place from Strava, opening the file in Notepad and changing all the dates, and then uploading it again.

[drevil]

@cvcalhoun 152943 wrote:

Manual entries are not accepted. However, you can use something like RideWithGPS to reconstruct the ride.

Or if you did the ride with someone else, you can ask for that person’s file, and upload that to your own Strava.

Or if it’s a ride you often do, I’ve been successful in downloading another ride that is to/from the same place from Strava, opening the file in Notepad and changing all the dates, and then uploading it again.

Now where did I put those century rides on my Strava…

I had the same thought over the weekend when doing a long ride with younger kids and noticed the battery life creeping closer and closer to zero: HURRY UP KIDS LET’S GO LET’S GO! WE DON’T WANT UNCLE TO LOSE ALL HIS GPS TRACK!!!

I wondered if it would be better to just stop the ride on my Garmin 810 so it’d lock in what I already did, or just let it go until dead. Anyone have any idea what would happen for the latter? Would it:

1. Completely lose all the track of the last current ride when it died?
2. Revive when plugged in and have a straight line traced from the last point where it died?
3. None of the above

Luckily, the kids hustled

San Francisco Bay Bridge with Fam and Friends by ricky d, on Flickr

[epilsk]

@cvcalhoun 152943 wrote:

Manual entries are not accepted. However, you can use something like RideWithGPS to reconstruct the ride.

Or if you did the ride with someone else, you can ask for that person’s file, and upload that to your own Strava.

Or if it’s a ride you often do, I’ve been successful in downloading another ride that is to/from the same place from Strava, opening the file in Notepad and changing all the dates, and then uploading it again.

Thanks! Hopefully this will not be an issue.

[cvcalhoun]

@drevil 152947 wrote:

Now where did I put those century rides on my Strava…

I had the same thought over the weekend when doing a long ride with younger kids and noticed the battery life creeping closer and closer to zero: HURRY UP KIDS LET’S GO LET’S GO! WE DON’T WANT UNCLE TO LOSE ALL HIS GPS TRACK!!!

I wondered if it would be better to just stop the ride on my Garmin 810 so it’d lock in what I already did, or just let it go until dead. Anyone have any idea what would happen for the latter? Would it:

1. Completely lose all the track of the last current ride when it died?
2. Revive when plugged in and have a straight line traced from the last point where it died?
3. None of the above

Luckily, the kids hustled

San Francisco Bay Bridge with Fam and Friends by ricky d, on Flickr

I had one of my two Garmins (who, me? obsessive?) die mid-ride recently. It saved the ride up to the point at which the Garmin died. YMMV.

[BobCochran]

I wonder if its possible to carry a small solar panel on rides and recharge on the go. Adafruit.com has devices that can recharge other devices, but you need to be an electronics junkie willing to experiment to get everything dialed in nicely. Just suggesting a possibility here. (Yes — I’m very much an electronics junkie.)

Thanks a ton

Bob

[LhasaCM]

@BobCochran 153009 wrote:

I wonder if its possible to carry a small solar panel on rides and recharge on the go. Adafruit.com has devices that can recharge other devices, but you need to be an electronics junkie willing to experiment to get everything dialed in nicely. Just suggesting a possibility here. (Yes — I’m very much an electronics junkie.)

Thanks a ton

Bob

You can, or you an do the same thing with small USB battery packs (some of which are solar powered so bonus). Or, if you have a dynamo hub to power lights, you can steal some energy from that to charge a device on the go. The issue with everything is the weight that adds (not too big of a deal, depending on capacity and other competing priorities) and, more of a hassle, how to run your cables/place everything/etc.

Not that I’ve ever been on a long enough ride for that to be an issue, but…

[cvcalhoun]

@BobCochran 153009 wrote:

I wonder if its possible to carry a small solar panel on rides and recharge on the go. Adafruit.com has devices that can recharge other devices, but you need to be an electronics junkie willing to experiment to get everything dialed in nicely. Just suggesting a possibility here. (Yes — I’m very much an electronics junkie.)

Thanks a ton

Bob

I’ve seen bicycle dynamos:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/charge-smartphone-ride-bike/

However, my understanding is that they don’t really produce enough power to charge the phone–they simply cause it to discharge at a slower rate.

[Emm]

@LhasaCM 153016 wrote:

You can, or you an do the same thing with small USB battery packs (some of which are solar powered so bonus). Or, if you have a dynamo hub to power lights, you can steal some energy from that to charge a device on the go. The issue with everything is the weight that adds (not too big of a deal, depending on capacity and other competing priorities) and, more of a hassle, how to run your cables/place everything/etc.

Not that I’ve ever been on a long enough ride for that to be an issue, but…

I have a lipstick sized charging device I use on 60+ mile rides to recharge my gps tracker/phone/etc. It’s not heavy and since it’s so small it’s easy to bring. It makes me feel much safer since I know I can recharge my phone in case I get stranded.

It also works great on road trips when your husband somehow takes up EVERY SINGLE POWER OUTLET in the car…

[cvcalhoun]

@Emm 153023 wrote:

I have a lipstick sized charging device I use on 60+ mile rides to recharge my gps tracker/phone/etc. It’s not heavy and since it’s so small it’s easy to bring. It makes me feel much safer since I know I can recharge my phone in case I get stranded.

It also works great on road trips when your husband somehow takes up EVERY SINGLE POWER OUTLET in the car…

How does it work with the GPS? At least with my Garmin Edge 500, it turns off the moment you start charging it, which would be an issue in this context.

As for the husband, you know you can get devices that allow one power outlet to run more than one phone/tablet/etc.?

[MattAune]

@cvcalhoun 153024 wrote:

How does it work with the GPS? At least with my Garmin Edge 500, it turns off the moment you start charging it, which would be an issue in this context.

As for the husband, you know you can get devices that allow one power outlet to run more than one phone/tablet/etc.?

All of the garmins since the 500 have allowed you to charge and record at the same time. Time for an upgrade!

[Bob James]

@cvcalhoun 153024 wrote:

How does it work with the GPS? At least with my Garmin Edge 500, it turns off the moment you start charging it, which would be an issue in this context.

As for the husband, you know you can get devices that allow one power outlet to run more than one phone/tablet/etc.?

My garmin 800 and 1000 continue recording a ride after I plug them into usb charger. Maybe Garmin figured out on later models this would kind of be an important feature.

[cvcalhoun]

@MattAune 153035 wrote:

All of the garmins since the 500 have allowed you to charge and record at the same time. Time for an upgrade!

Well, given that I already have two Garmins running simultaneously (the Edge 500 and the Vivoactive HR), I don’t think I need a third. The Vivoactive runs for several days on a single charge, so recharging while riding is not actually an issue for me. [emoji6]

[LhasaCM]

@Bob James 153038 wrote:

My garmin 800 and 1000 continue recording a ride after I plug them into usb charger. Maybe Garmin figured out on later models this would kind of be an important feature.

Or it just became not worth their while to block native support. Older units (such as the 500) can be used while being charged with a slight modification to a USB cable (adding a resistor, I believe). You can buy modified cables and power packs online if you are so inclined.

[BobCochran]

@LhasaCM 153042 wrote:

Or it just became not worth their while to block native support. Older units (such as the 500) can be used while being charged with a slight modification to a USB cable (adding a resistor, I believe). You can buy modified cables and power packs online if you are so inclined.

It looks as if the Edge 500 needs a 47K 5% tolerance resistor, but other Garmin models could possibly need different resistor values. In any case I found this post from a randonneur who shows in photos what to do. Do this modification entirely at your own risk. It isn’t easy. And don’t breathe in the flux vapor if you solder. Shower and wash your hands really well after doing the soldering. After all that is lead solder you are using, yes?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58323617@N08/sets/72157644427991021/

All told, it is easier to just buy a cable that is modded corectly.

[davidq]

@cvcalhoun 153041 wrote:

Well, given that I already have two Garmins running simultaneously (the Edge 500 and the Vivoactive HR), I don’t think I need a third. The Vivoactive runs for several days on a single charge, so recharging while riding is not actually an issue for me. [emoji6]

I also have Vivoactive HR but almost not use it for bike activity since it is hardly to read while riding. Two years ago I learnt that Edge 500 has charging problem, so I bought Gomadic charger which use 4 AA batteries for my long ride. I always fully charge Edge 500 and plug in the Gomadic charger for long ride so that Garmin use the outer batteries first (maybe not directly use but charging Garmin). I got 37+ hours before Garmin alert me that outsource is not available but it automatically start using Garmin’s internal power which my unit can run another 10+hours.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041L0NG0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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