theworldisgray

just wondeing if anyone else gets lots of drop outs. wheb they put their garmin edge on an out front mount with a stages pm. as it drives me crazy and not sure which things fault it is. as i have emailed both and they both blame the other

gregf83 

Seems to be a commonly reported problem with stages. Haven't ever experienced the problem with SRM or PowerTap. My guess is the stages has a less powerful transmitter or a poorer antenna design so the signal reaching the Garmin is weaker. It also moves around a lot more so the signal received will fluctuate more.

ttusomeone

I had the exact same problem with a new stages I bought two months ago. I got it replaced under warranty and the replacement didn't drop out. I figured I got a bad one from the factory. It was the second power meter I had that caused me trouble (the other was a Pioneer) so I sold them both and bought a SRM, and couldn't be happier.

WalksOn2Wheels

Which Edge unit? If I could tag people on this friggin' new format, I'd page Heathpack as she had quite the time trying to get a 510 to work with a Stages PM. Apparently those two do not play together well.

FlashBazbo

I had this problem with a previous generation Stages power meter. Here's the fix:


1. Update firmware on both the Stages and the Garmin. That will fix most of them. There can be a compatibility issue if the firmware on both units isn't current.
2. Check to see if your Stages is an older unit subject to the battery compartment recall. The older battery doors didn't seal great. (On that unit, they sent me a new door and several O-rings.) Once water got into the compartment, things got squirrelly.


Contact Stages for customer support. My experience with them has been excellent.


On current model Stages units, the battery door isn't a problem. I run two of them -- one on my gravel bike and one on my road bike. The gravel bike unit has been under water multiple times. Both work great. They are the least fussy and most accurate power meters out there.

Heathpack 

I had lots of data issues with two Stages power meters paired with both Edge 510s and an Edge 1000.

I had the same experience- Garmin pointing the finger at Stages & Stages pointing the finger right back.

Both companies worked with me to troubleshoot the problems over 6 months.

Garmin ultimately sent me three Edge 510s and one Edge 1000. We did all the hoop-jumping with them- firmware updates, keeping Garmin emptied of rides, deleting secret folders, and various other bits of Garmin voodoo.

Stages refurbished one of my units twice and one once, so ultimately I was working with five different Stages units. Did all the Stages voodoo as well (as instructed by Stages, whatever they said to do)- replaced battery doors, tweaked battery contacts, replaced batteries, updated firmware, etc.

In the end, the ONLY thing that solved the problem? Getting rid of the Stages units and replacing them with SRM meters. I went from having useless data on 80% of long (80+ mile) rides (I was doing a lot of those at the time) to maybe 10 total seconds of bad data in a year using three different SRMs.

So my personal experience: it's the Stages.

DrIsotope

Stages + Bryton 310, never had a single drop-out, ever.
Stages + Edge 520, never had a single drop-out, ever.

If it's luck, I'm fine with that.

FlashBazbo

I don't think it's luck. I think your experience is typical. Sadly, I've spent at least one season on six different brands of power meters. My previous generation Stages meter had the battery door issue. My current Stages meters have been the most trouble-free and the easiest to calibrate and use, by far. (Okay, the Quarq/SRAM meter was pretty close. The others haven't been.) No glitches. No muss. No fuss. And a battery change is a ten second, no-tools-needed event -- including calibration. Try THAT with an SRM, Garmin, or Power Tap.

Vicegrip

I must be charmed. Original first gen Stages With a Edge 800 and 1000 and no issues with communications. Stages sent me 2 replacement battery doors after original door had one of the locking tabs break off. Stages sent me a new PM via overnight after the battery connector spring tab came loose after a lot of gravel riding and well out of warranty. Zero integration issues with the Stages over 20K miles since.
Garmin edge 1000 is/has become reliable too. Keeps com with phone for ride uploads, notifications from phone and sync with recently added vivoactive HR for seamless ride HR and other fitness activity data.
I ride 2X a day year round and don't like futzing around loading data. Hit end ride, save ride and it everything syncs up.

f4rrest

I have a Garmin edge 510 on out-front mount and stages PM, both from 2014.

The stages signal dropped occasionally before I replaced the battery door and cleaned the contacts.

After that it's been solid for thousands of miles. The Garmin has had both old and current firmware. The stages has never been updated.

largefarva

I have a 2nd generation Stages that I bought in February this year, and haven't had a single dropout with my Edge 500 and now my Edge 520. I had at least 3000 miles riding with the 500 and over 1000 miles so far with the 520. I've liked it so much we ordered a Stages for my wife's bike. Should be getting it sometime next week we have been told.

RJM

I'm currently using an Edge 1000 explore with a stages unit (older one before they updated) and I did have some dropouts with the old battery door but they sent me a new one and it has been flawless. Sometimes the Garmin will forget that the power meter is paired, which usually happens after an extended stop, and then I will get going again and no power meter reading. I just scroll through to the power meter menu and it pairs back up. I've been happy with the Stages and I've been happy with a vector pedal system too, and people seem to have problems with those. I don't think I'm delving very deep into power though and just using it for training with FTP.

shoota 

Ugh I must be super unlucky. Both my stages V1 had/have dropout issues due to the battery losing contact. Currently I have to reach down and press on the door and it will come right back. I have the new doors but it doesn't help.

Billy1111

I had very bad drop out since i first got....was working with stages as well as garmin.......for whatever reason I moved the unit from the out front mount to the stem mount and it has worked flawlessly ever since....i cant believe alls it took was a 3 inch move!!

topflightpro

What kind of out-front mount are you using?

I was having issues with my SRM dropping out to my PC8. There shouldn't be any issues there. SRM even replaced the battery in my PM for me at no charge, as we assumed it was due to a bad battery.

It turns out that the cheap, generic Go-Pro mount I purchased on Amazon was causing some sort of interference. Once I removed that, all my problems went away.

theworldisgray

I have a barfly 2.0 mount. the drop outs only happen when on the out front mount. the stem mount works fine,but i don't care for the stem mount. I have seen some people say to put the mount on the left hand side so it will line up with the stages,even tho that looks weird its better than a stem mount. i will give it a shot and report back. also my stages is the new v.2 version

also people who aren't having stages drop outs is your computer on a out front or stem mount

largefarva

Mine is on the out-front mount that came with my 520. The 500 I was using...I had it on a cheap out-front mount I bought off of amazon.

KonaRider125

I've got a month old Garmin 520 and Stages Ultegra 6800 power meter on my gravel bike and the combo has worked flawless so far.

I've read about the issues, but it seems the bugs got worked out. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

theworldisgray

hmm maybe i have a faulty unit as it seems others arent geting drops

FlashBazbo

My Garmin Edge 1000 is on a Garmin out front mount. No drop outs.

stu40

Ive been having this issue for ages its been driving me absolutely mad, it works fine with pc on zwift as I've got a usb extension for the Ant+ dongle, after months of constant dropouts when I'm out on the bike i tried today taking the edge off the out front mount and putting it on the stem and to my amazement it works absolutely spot on no drop outs what so ever!!
i can't believe the things been a few inches out of range all this time