Suunto 9 Baro and Garmin bike sensors

Brad_Olwin

@Sebastian-Bahner Speed and cadence need to come from the same unit, you cannot pair two different sensors, sorry.

johann.fuehrer

@Brad_Olwin I try to figure out how speed and cadence information can come from one bike sensor. Which sensor can do this? Cadence is the rotation of the crank and speed (more ore less) the rotation of the wheel. Two different points to get the information from. Or am I missing something here…

lexterm77

@johann-fuehrer said in Suunto 9 Baro and Garmin bike sensors:

@Brad_Olwin I try to figure out how speed and cadence information can come from one bike sensor. Which sensor can do this? Cadence is the rotation of the crank and speed (more ore less) the rotation of the wheel. Two different points to get the information from. Or am I missing something here…

It is one bluetooth module sending data from two different sensors, one from pedal one from wheel.

Brad_Olwin

@lexterm77 @johann-fuehrer One BT module should work, the ones I have used are the Suunto and the Wahoo BT bike unit, which has the speed and cadence sensor as one unit.

Sebastian Bahner

Thank you very much for your swift responses. I just wonder why Garmin sells these two as a bundle if they do not communicate with one another to transmit both information, speed and cadence.

Brad_Olwin

@Sebastian-Bahner Because they will work for Garmin watches as I image these transmit Ant+ too. Suunto watches cannot have both cadence and speed sensors from bikes paired as two distinct units.

alessiolarva

I’m using a Bontrager dual sensor with no issues!

marvelmike

Hi,
with moving from my favourite Ambit 2 to Suunto 9 I had to replace the entire ANT+ infrastructure of pods, etc. with bluetooth ones. I decided to replace my speed and cadence pods with the set of generic bluetooth pods from Wahoo.

Not quite intuitive, but I simply paired both as Bike Pods. The Speed Pod from Wahoo requested me to set the wheel circumference, the Cadence Pod requested nothing.

It worked, see screenshot:

Now with the latest firmware update 2.13.18 only one data set, speed OR cadence show up. Both Wahoo pods, while pairing as Bike Pods do ask for wheel circumference now and seem to overwrite each other. The last pod paired wins.

When cycling I see only the last paired pod’s data on the watch, either cadence or speed, NOT both anymore.

How can I go back in firmware?

Brad_Olwin

@marvelmike The answer is below in the replies. You must have a combined unit, you cannot pair separate speed and cadence sensors.

marvelmike

@brad_olwin
Hi Brad,
if what you say is true, then why did it work until the last Firmware update?

Brad_Olwin

@marvelmike AFAIK, with BT it has always been this way. A combined speed/cadence sensor (Wahoo, Suunto) will work and provide both speed and cadence. Separate sensors do not work as you can only pair one. It has been this way since the watches were released and has not changed.

marvelmike

@brad_olwin
Ok, thanks, I believe you.

Then it could be, that what I used to see as Cadence in addition to Speed (see screenshot above) may have been the rpm of the speed sensor wheel, without being multiplied by the circumference. Which would have been a bug as well.

This confirmation is another big disappointment though about the Suunto S9, as I had separate ANT pods for my Ambit 2. So I am forced into new hardware and a new topology, without a clear statement, as far as I recall.

I am not going to throw more good money after bad and will order the Fenix 7 once released later this year.

That pains me, as Suunto for me was always the best in terms of performance and functionality, “taking luck out of the equation.”

Well, an era is coming to an end.

Brad_Olwin

@marvelmike What you saw was likely cadence (there is a circumference correction) coming from the sensor and speed from GPS. I and many others believe Suunto is a better choice than Garmin. The S9baro works perfectly with a dual BT sensor and they are not expensive. Perhaps you can return the sensors, that would be far less expensive than a Fenix 7 whenever the 7 is released. An alternative is a bike computer, some are inexpensive, easier to see than a watch. You can upload .fit files into the Suunto App using Quantified Self so you can keep all your workouts in the Suunto ecosystem if you are interested.

@marvelmike said in Suunto 9 Baro and Garmin bike sensors:

@brad_olwin
Ok, thanks, I believe you.

Then it could be, that what I used to see as Cadence in addition to Speed (see screenshot above) may have been the rpm of the speed sensor wheel, without being multiplied by the circumference. Which would have been a bug as well.

This confirmation is another big disappointment though about the Suunto S9, as I had separate ANT pods for my Ambit 2. So I am forced into new hardware and a new topology, without a clear statement, as far as I recall.

I am not going to throw more good money after bad and will order the Fenix 7 once released later this year.

That pains me, as Suunto for me was always the best in terms of performance and functionality, “taking luck out of the equation.”

Well, an era is coming to an end.

Although I understand your frustration, I guess before buying a sensor you should have contacted suunto .
I was in the same boat as you, but with garmin…I bought a wahoo cadence sensor, which…didn’t work with garmin etrex 30x (new at the time…but the same for the newer 32x).
Worst,the etrex 30x (and later released 32x) only support combo speed/cadence ant sensors like the garmin gsc10 (which was not available new by the time!forget it now!), and…couldn’t read speed out of it! Only for cadence.
All brands have their quirks. Unfortunately we have to learn to deal with them, otherwise we will end in frustration because there is no perferct brand.

marvelmike

@brad_olwin
Hi, my last attempt last night was to pair the Wahoo Cadence pod as foot pod. It can be used as that and provide Cadence while running, no problem.

Then I added the foot pod to the biking profile on the watch.

Guess what? It didn’t work!

Now I am at a loss about the internal data structure of the S9. How can a programmer in his right mind use two data fields for the the same data Cadence.

Regarding the proposal to buy a new integrated Speed and Cadence pod: they all use magnets again. That is so 80s.

Just another example that Suunto have lost their edge by focusing on lifestyle watches.

Without the reputation of the serious tool watches they will also loose the lifestyle game! Pitty. What happened in Finland?