This topic has been discussed, but thought I would share some thoughts/questions after using both the Joule and the Edge 500 with the Quarq cinqo. I tried it with the Joule, then tried it with the Garmin, then tried it with both operating together on the same ride (because I initially thought the Joule wasn’t reading correctly based on the “501” issue…see below).
While TSS and NP aren’t available data points on the Edge 500, as far as I’m concerned both units give you sufficient flexibility to display what you need and where you want it. The fact is both devices offer all the metrics to display then you probably care or need to.
Calibration with the Garmin is, in my opinion, easier than with the Joule. You select “calibrate” with the cranks in a fixed position (I was told to keep the drive side at 6:00), and in less than 5 seconds you’re done. If you’re riding/racing and the weather changes, you can always backpedal the cinqo 5 revolutions and that zero’s it out. Things aren’t so simple with the Joule. You go to your active power sensor (the cinqo) and select “manual zero”, you see 3 “bad data” fields and then rotate the cranks backwards. I then get a “0501” message on the offset, but the other 2 fields (names escape me right now) are still “bad data”. It’s a Joule firmware issue, but it had me concerned that there were innacuracies in the data being displayed. From what I understand, the Joule really has no way of interpreting the zeroing functionality on the cinqo.
But the proof of the pudding is in the riding. When on the trainer with the Joule sitting on my aerobottle holder and the Garmin on the stem, both recorded current wats, average watts, average speed, and cadence data down to the watt. It seems ANT+ does indeed speak universal language.
I really have no idea what the practical impact is of the “bad data” fields when trying to manual zero w/ the Joule. Is there any impact at all?