Garmin Serial Number Search

[Gwenda Arguin]

Asa previous owner of an Edge 1000 and Edge Explore, I am painfully aware that the Edge software isn't able to search full postcodes in the UK (which allow finding an address without inputting the street name).

I've used my 840 for the first time today, I've been able to select United Kingdom as the country when searching an address but as far as I can tell even when searching in the UK the keyboard for postcode search is limited to numbers.

I just tried this an agree it is a bit of a mess! What I did find is that if I put in a random number and search I get an error but can then enter the full postcode. This search fails. However, if I put in the first five characters (such as GU52 7) it then finds the code and asks for a road name and number (I assume as the unit does not have a full postcode database). This makes the postcode search a bit useless as it's just as easy to enter the town and street name... That's a shame!

quasijones Thanks for replying with a temporary workaround, that's helpful to know. GordonFK thank you for sharing those screenshots with me. I submitted a ticket for our teams to look into this. I will post here for any updates as I receive them.

I have emailed Garmin and the response I have got is Thank you for reaching out to Garmin Support. The ability to search using alphanumeric postal codes should be supported on the Edge in a future update.

The workaround works for me on an Edge Explore 2 as well. So if I type a random number which gives no search results, then press search button again and enter the first part of a post code e.g. "OX13 5", then enter a street (it does not provide a list of streets to help at all) then I can sort of get somewhere. But it's not great considering navigation is supposed to be a main feature of this device. Otherwise it works pretty well. Thanks.

I'm also dumbfounded by this incredible "omission" by Garmin. I just bought a 1040 Solar and could not believe that, even if the country selected is Canada, all I am given is a numerical keyboard. How in this day and age can Garmin get this _so wrong_!!! We're talking about a company that has been making GPSs for decades and it's been over two months that this issue has been reported!

But alongside those headliner features, there are a literal slate of smaller features. Many (if not all) arrived on the Garmin Edge 1040 series last summer, and now have arrived here, making the Edge 540/840/1040 near identical in terms of features, and really only separated by hardware differences.

The Edge 540 is a completely button-driven operation. There is no touchscreen like on the Edge 840 or Edge 1040 series, which combined with the new user interface can take some getting used to in certain operations.

Meanwhile, up top are a set of controls menus. Sorta quick-access menus of sorts. For example, you can disable/enable GPS/settings, change brightness, dork with sensors, and more. You can start/stop/select structured workouts or courses from here, turn on/off bike lights, and see the weather. This is also where you access dedicated pages for nearby Strava Live Segments and nearby Climbs.

This includes not just the Activity Profiles (for data pages/data fields), but also areas like sensor pairing, WiFi & phone pairing, Battery Saver, and your physiological stats. Plus the Connect IQ App Store and general unit settings.

The same migration process also applies to your sensors. Sure, you can manually set them up on the Edge 540 itself. Or, you can just simply migrate over all of your paired sensors automatically from past Garmin Edge devices. In fact, you can even do this ad-hoc down the road. From a sensor compatibility standpoint, the Edge 540/840 supports:

The above list is the same list as before. However inversely, note that it no longer supports the Varia Vision heads-up display sensor type. This is different from the ANT+ Extended Display, and was a product Garmin made many years ago that almost nobody bought.

As for sensors, like before, you can pair up multiple sensors of the same type (for example, three different power meters on three different bikes), and you can customize each of those, giving them their own unique names for easy remembering later on.

The biggest change software-wise on the Edge 540/840 is the introduction of free-ride ClimbPro, which no longer requires you have a pre-planned course/route loaded to get upcoming/real-time climb information.

ClimbPro was something Garmin first introduced back on their wearables (the Fenix 5 Plus in 2018), followed by the Garmin Edge 540/830/1030 shortly thereafter. The main point of ClimbPro was that if you had a course loaded you could see the full profile of the climb as you approached it, and then you got real-time stats on how much of the climb remained as you ascended. This included elements like average gradient remaining, ascent remaining, distance, and more.

This threshold is identical be it free-ride ClimbPro, or course-based ClimbPro. However, there is a slightly higher threshold for the separate Climb Explorer widget (more on that in a second, used for finding nearby climbs). And note that you can also configure ClimbPro to not show smaller climbs, and only show larger climbs, which can be configured on a per-activity profile setting.

Further, back on the Climb Explore page, you can select the three dots to expand out a menu item, allowing you to filter the list a bit more, or expand the search radius if you happen to live in a very flat place.

Now, all that said, I will point out two notable ClimbPro free-ride failures. Both of these were on the Edge 840 rather than the Edge 540, but since they share the same code, had I been riding with the Edge 540 that day, they would have occurred here too. I discuss them in more depth in the Edge 840 review, but they were:

1) A climb where it slowly increased remaining average gradient to 105%, Garmin found bad underlying map data for this climb

2) A climb where it told me to go onto a hiking trail to keep climbing. Garmin fixed this as a terrain bug in the next firmware update.

Prior to the Edge 540, you could basically download both Europe & North America onto a 16GB unit. But now with the Edge 540/840/1040 increased map sizes for free-style ClimbPro, you can only get away with a single one of those regions on the smaller 16GB Edge 540.

In my case, almost all my courses are created on Strava or Komoot, with a smaller handful on Garmin Connect itself. Though in the case of Strava/Komoot, these will ultimately sync via Garmin Connect and then onto the Edge 540. It happens automatically as soon as I hit save in Strava/Komoot, taking about 1-2 seconds to show up on Garmin Connect, and a few seconds later on the unit.

Of course, you can always just stay on the map page if you want to, but that burns a bunch more battery (and also limits your data page options a bit). Instead, the mini-map will overlay, as seen above, as you get within about 150m of the turn. It will also notify you of dangerous upcoming turns (i.e., a hairpin turn), even when not following a route.

The easiest way to start this process is by first having a course loaded in Garmin Connect, and then going into the Power Guide option and selecting said course. From there you can adjust the intensity slider, which changes the estimated finish time, as well as all of the split components seen down below.

In the tall pine trees, this is mostly what it looks like. The two Edge units with multi-band enabled are basically identical in most cases. The Amazfit T-Rex is usually the furthest afield, and then the Wahoo ROAM V2 and Garmin Instinct 2X are generally in the same ballpark as the Edges, though usually not quite with as much precision (all of these have multiband).

(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy sections were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, GPS tracks, and plenty more. You can use it as well, more details here.)

If you need to go *REALLY* long with a Garmin Edge device, this snap-on/under weatherproof battery pack basically gets you double your battery life. It snaps under your existing Edge with an included mount. It can also be used as a standard USB battery back too (for your phone/etc...).

This wifi-connected scale will track your weight and related metrics both on the scale display and in Garmin Connect (plus 3rd party apps like TrainingPeaks). It'll also then sync your weight to your watch/bike computer, to ensure accurate calorie data.

The Garmin Varia radar alerts you to cars coming up behind you, well before you see them. It's awesome for quieter roads (country roads/mountains), especially on longer rides. It's less useful for city riding.

The HRM-PRO Plus is Garmin's top-end chest strap. It transmits dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart, but also transmits Running Dynamics & Running Pace/Distance metrics, stores HR data during a swim, and can be used without a watch for other sports. Also, it can transmit XC Skiing Dynamics as well.

On several occasions, the course has lost the gps signal and no matter which direction I try to go, the 530 is unable to locate the course and does not even provide the option to return to the start (this was a disaster in Girona where I ended up with a dog bite and finally riding along the hiway at dusk). Wondering if this is improved with gpss on the X40 series? As an alternative in these situations, would it work to find a POI that it known to be on the course and redirect to this and then restart the course from there?

One thing that I noticed (and was annoying) on the 530 is that when you are riding, and change plans, you cannot sync a new route/course from your phone (using Garmin Connect) on the GPS unless you stop. there is a workaround to use a widget.

Been a long term reader and watcher. I have a Fenix 7 and a garmin edge. (1040 soon to be possibly 840). but one thing that has really been challenging is the multiple device syncing. For example, I did an outdoor ride with my 1040 and had 615 ACTIVE calories burned, (not total calories which was more) and then when I sycned it with my garmin connect app, my fenix 7 still says only 456 active calories burned for the day on my Fenix 7. I spent 30 mins on the phone with Garmin, and upload all the files, images etc.

3a8082e126