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05-31-21 | 05:38 PM

#1

cybirr

Quality over quantity

Joined: May 2008

Posts: 111

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From: USA

Bikes: '20 Specialized Roubaix Expert, '20 Specialized Shiv Elite, '13 Specialized S-Works Epic

Garmin tempe performance

TL;DR – Garmin tempe is good for hyper local temperature measurement and logging but has some limitations and use challenges.

After reading some mixed reviews, I wanted to test out a Garmin tempe and see for myself. My first test was to measure the accuracy of the sensor against a calibrated basic lab thermometer. The room was air-conditioned and closed off for reasonably consistent ambient temperature. The setup was both the tempe and the lab probe isolated from any heat sink or conductor. Solo cups worked well. Is there anything a Solo Cup Company product can’t be used for? Over an hour with 5 minute intervals, I tracked the temperature of the lab probe as well as the tempe via a 3rd party app on my Vivoactive 4. You can see the excel spreadsheet for the results. In summary, it’s close to a calibrated thermometer that itself has a +/- accuracy of 1 degree Celsius. That should be good for most uses.

Then I mounted it on my bike and went for a ride. The tempe readings were a consistent 4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the National Weather Service (NWS) report. The line graph shows its plot via a 3rd party app on my Garmin Edge 530. The grey block graph is the Edge internal temperature. My NWS sites are five and fifteen miles straight line from me so I’m not entirely clear why the discrepancy.

The most common complaint was accuracy and I get that. Radiant body heat or direct sunlight would definitely skew the data. Isolated from those two error sources and the device seems reasonably accurate. Mounting options are not great. The included bracket is marginal for most situations unless you can move it off your body and not in constant direct sunlight.

But my biggest disappointment is Garmin’s current decision to not make it a native sensor for Edge cycling computers (as of post date). It’s an ANT+ sensor so there is no practical reason to not include it on the Edge computers. There are several 3rd party apps that allow work-arounds for the Edge series. Still, it should be an easy fix.

Last edited by cybirr; 05-31-21 at 06:00 PM.

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