ANT Forum

Garmin has implemented a pairing mode that needs to be entered before first connecting the controller. See https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-C41F445D-457F-447D-88C8-FE286BF157E9/EN-US/GUID-83345F4C-DAC5-437D-A10F-1EE92E92B980.html for details about the button press requirements on the light. The controller needs to connect and start controlling the light while it is in pairing mode, and the light will continue to accept control from the same controller after the light leaves pairing mode.      

At the above link it is described how to put the light in pairing mode. The light will be flashing purple, and the connect command (page 33) will work.      

The Garmin lights support pairing to multiple controllers. Enter pairing mode and connect to controller 1, then later enter pairing mode to connect to controller 2. Controller 1 or controller 2 will be able to act as the controller the next time the light is turned back on.      

@Ros

Can you confirm that the light is not connected to another controller (light index == 0)? If the light is already connected to a controller it will ignore page 33. See section 5.2 of the profile document for details about how to form the network in the various cases.

The first thing to check is that you are getting an ack back for page 33 sent as an acknowledged message. If you are not getting the ack, then you may want to try sending multiple times or move the devices closer together. After the ack you will see that the light begins transmitting the light index you assigned to it if the command was accepted. See figure 5-2 and 5-3 for expected sequences.

Note: You do not need to form a network with page 33 before sending page 34. "An ANT+ bike light controller may connect to up to 8 bike lights at the same time using independent channels." "An ANT+ controller is required to be able to configure a channel as described in section 6.1, and send command page 34. It is recommended that an ANT+ controller is also able to receive and understand all the main data pages, and be able to transmit command pages 32 and 33." Edit: Also see section 5.6       [ Edited: 07 August 2020 01:13 PM by haighi ]

If the light index is set to a value already, then your light is already part of a network. Do you have another device paired to the light already?

It is not recommended that you just send page 32 as this will disrupt the network established by the other controller.

You can follow section 5.6 to control the single light independently. You will be sending page 34 without having sent page 33 in this case. The light must be in pairing mode (flashing purple), or have already accepted a command from your controller while in pairing mode, to accept page 34.

You can also follow section 5.2.2.1 if you wish to control the already established network instead of just the single light. With explicit user interaction, from a prompt and selection for example, you may follow section 5.2.2.2. You may run into issues with two controllers fighting over the network formation if you follow 5.2.2.2, the user prompt is intended to help with this.      

I have tried reproducing "I did more testing and if I set sensor light index to, say 10, then page34 has no effect (if page34 light index is 0)." and have been unsuccessful. An RTL that is already part of a network, and is assigned a light index of 2, is accepting a page 34 command with light index set to 0.

I was following section 5.6.      

Can you share what exactly you are sending for page 34 and how you are confirming it is not handled?

If you are able to share logs of the traffic collected by opening a scanning channel in ANTwareII, then I may be able to help determine what is happening.      

"So I suppose that this sensor had already been assigned some light index different than 1." If you don't have any bike computers, watches, etc around this is most likely the result of some command you sent in error. Lights will not form a network unless they are commanded to do so, and will timeout if the controller does not maintain the network (see 5.2.4). Note: Some controllers may automatically pair to lights that are in close proximity without user interaction.

"5.6 of Lights Device Profile Rev 2.0_M.001 does not provides details about controlling lights via the broadcast channel": Section 5.6 just describes the process of pairing to the broadcast channel and sending whatever commands you wish. The details of each currently supported command page are in sections 7.16, 7.17, 7.18, and 7.19.

"I was just sending page 33 with light index 2 to light sensor. After that I tried sending page 34 with light index 0 and expected to see new beam mode, but it does not change": I have not been able to reproduce this behavior either. You may be encountering the condition where the network times out just after you send your page 34, causing your commanded changes to be overwritten. You should be able to see this by looking at the light index transmitted from the light as the light index going from 0 to 2 to 0. I almost hit this case in my testing. The light changed only momentarily to be on, and then turned back off.

"Ian, can you please elaborate what commands from controller does RTL expects while in pairing mode?
Is it enough to send single page34 request so that RTL pair with this controller?": A single page 32, or 33, or 34 (the pages with controller id) properly formatted such that the light accepts it while in pairing mode is sufficient. Check the light index for connect and disconnect command acceptance and see 5.4.1 for determining setting command acceptance.