Shit.
Posted Mar 4, 2013, 9:47 PM UTC
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Guys, we've gone 23 位于!
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Who needs instructions anyway?
Good luck!
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The display is in chinese too.
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OH! 0_o
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you are going to be so f*in' cool at your next group ride.
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Apparently, there's etiquette on reddit now.
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joke explainer?
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What? That's what everything I buy looks like.
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Thankfully, the first thing it asked me when I turned it on was whether I wanted to set the system language to English or Simplified Chinese. I was worried I was going to have to learn Chinese!
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5 painful years later...
"Wow, your Chinese is near perfect! What made you decide to learn it?"
"Well..."
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You should have learned anyway. Epic deals on imported bike parts!
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google translate !
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I did the same thing when i opened mine on Christmas day. Works great and i can understand it!
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[deleted]
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Damn, I was just thinking about getting one of this. Now I see a lot of post saying the US version has issues. I guess nothing for my bike this year.
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Save money, acquire 510. Got mine through EP. Expensive, but so much better!
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Asic tigers
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Not very well known, but oh so nice. They last forever, too. I got 15 months out of my last pair.
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The first line is, I believe, " take that pale devil!"
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I'm sure you can figure it out...
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OP, we know you got the TWN version on purpose. I'm assuming you're going to update to the English language firmware and get a device that works 10 times better than the US version.
Well, not exactly on purpose.
I got it off eBay in retail packaging for $175 shipped. I knew it was coming from Taiwan, but it said that it came with simplified Chinese and English preloaded. I shrugged, said whatever, and went on my merry way.
Getting the box was kind of scary, but when I booted it up it gave me the option to set it in English. Problem solved! ... Almost.
It turns out that the computer doesn't update through Garmin US - it updates through Garmin Taiwan, so I had to run through entire installer in Chinese (and my computer doesn't display Chinese, so it was just "????"), pressing buttons and praying.
For the moment, the firmware is up to date and the computer is in English, but it only has 3 information panels whereas the US version has 5.
All in all I'm happy with it, but it's definitely the most energy I've ever invested into a bike computer, and it gave me one hell of a scare when I first opened the box!
EDIT: Watching that, I feel like I certainly dodged a bullet. Unbelievable GPS time on the US one...
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. As I recall the 500 can support up to eight data panels, not just five. Are you certain it isn't just that the TWN model comes pre-configured to display three screens, and it's just a mater of increasing the number of panels displayed in the settings?
After posting, I figured it out.
First - I think what I'm calling a panel you're calling a screen. The 500 can handle 8 little information metrics per screen.
The old version of Taiwan's software (2.8) had only 3 screens, each displaying 8 metrics.
That's exactly what it was. I just expected it to default to having 5 as soon as the option for 5 was added. Oddly, that's listed as one of the upgrades in the Garmin US release log, but it's not listed in the TWN release log. The fact that it wasn't listed in the log & didn't show up by default prompted me to think there were only 3 screens, and through my rage I didn't think to go to the options page.
$175 shipped sounds like a pretty darn good deal!
That's misleading, the edge on the right very likely had a more recent satellite fix meaning it didn't have to wait and download all the sat data.
Agreed. I've seen this problem on my friend's edge and we fixed it by performing an "autolocate" as the instructions called it.
As I understand it GPS devices like the Garmin Edge keep a form of memory about what satellites they expect to be in range at any given time in order to speed up satellite acquisition time. However this means that if you don't use the device for a very long time, or if you travel a long way away you might need to reset this setting.
We did this with my friend's device by turning it off, pressing lap and start and holding it. Then pressing the power button. Eventually the device started up and we just left it outside for like a half an hour. His GPS lock speed improved dramatically.
My old Garmin handheld device has a similar process but it was accessed via a settings screen that gave me a list of states/regions to pick from and then waited for some specific signal that helped it calibrate.
wait what? Is the TWN version known to work significantly better than the US version or something?
I don't know exactly why, but for me, the US version has always taken a long time to get a satellite lock. I'm talking like upwards of half an hour sometimes. I sold it and purchased the TWN version after viewing the video I posted, and it works exactly as advertised. They do have different hardware IDs, and I notice that all the Taiwanese sellers list EGNOS and WAAS compatibility while Garmin themselves do not list this feature on their US website. Mine also came with no FCC certification.
I saw one of the Garmin GPS units in person and we got 15mi into the ride before it got the satellites and started to display the route.
That is just stupid crazy on the differences. Fuck the FCC and is there a reliable site to buy the TWN model from? or should I just go to ebay?
Here's who I got mine from.
There's a couple of them, but that's the cheapest eBay seller I could find. He's got pretty 4237 feedback, too - so it's a pretty safe bet.
Maybe I should consider myself lucky. The longest my US one ever takes to get a lock is 4-5 minutes, and usually it's under a minute.
WAAS doesn't cover but North America, so the idea that the TWN version supports it and not the US version is silly.
Likewise EGNOS is a European regional correction system. The idea than the TWN version is unique in supporting it is similarly silly.
Like I said, I don't know exactly why, those are just cool acronyms to me.
Do you have instructions on how to flash the firmware to the US model? I was thinking of getting the twn model to same ~$40.
Good luck flashing the US firmware onto the Taiwan one. I couldn't get it to.
Instead, go to http://www.garmin.com.tw/products/intosports/edge500/#updateTab
(it helps to do this in Chrome so google will translate).
http://download.garmin.com/tw/download/TW_MAINWEB_UPGRADE/Edge500_TWN_v290.exe
There's the download itself. The downloader is very similar to WebUpdate - just click through the same way you would WebUpdate. You won't be able to read a damn thing, but it'll update just fine for you.
After that, put it in English, and all's done!
I managed to update mine. I can't remember how I did it, it was about 6 months ago now. I recall having to use a program to patch the US firmware with the TWN device ID to get it to upload. Thus, auto upates still won't work, but at least it's the US version (As I understand it the TWN version you have will still show Chinese characters on some screens).
Are those both cold starts? If you haven't used your GPS device in a while it has to wait for a time sync signal, which is only broadcast once every few minutes.
One reason why cell phones seem to lock in fast is that they can get accurate time from the internet instead.
edit: I see below that there is indeed a difference.
time sync signal? it is broadcasted in every GPS subframe, which means roughly every 6 seconds!
You're right. There is something different about a cold start that makes it take a lot longer that I don't fully understand.
"cold start" might refer to a device who has no knowledge of the positions of satellites. It needs to listen to the broadcast of many new satellites, synchronize with them and compute the time differences. This take time indeed. A GPS device who was turned off a few hours before can use its previous knowledge (where the satellites were) to get its position rather quickly, with much less iterations.
Regarding your comment, smartphones may use the knowledge of the GSM network (and WiFi to some extent) to get their position quickly. But I actually don't know anything about that - if somebody does, please tell ;)