Setup guide
What hardware do you need to install Cubio apps?
There are two different jobs: installing the app onto the watch, and syncing your own soaring data later. They use different hardware — and which of them applies to you depends on where you bought the app.
Bought on the Connect IQ Store? Then most of this page is not for you. Garmin installs the app from your phone: no PC, no cable, no installer, and nothing to activate. Skip to CUP and CUB sync, which works the same either way. The rest of this page is for apps bought here, on shop.cubio.no, and installed with the Cubio installer.
Installing from shop.cubio.no: Windows PC and Garmin cable
To install a Cubio app, you need a Windows PC and the USB charging cable that fits your Garmin watch. The Cubio installer runs on Windows, detects the connected watch, and copies the app onto it over USB.
The cable matters. Many Garmin watches use a charging/data cable, but a worn cable or charge-only adapter can make the watch charge without appearing to Windows as a connected device. If the installer cannot see the watch, try the original Garmin cable first.
For paid apps bought here: phone nearby for activation
An activation code is a shop.cubio.no thing. Buy the same app on the Connect IQ Store and there is no code and nothing to activate — Garmin owns the purchase, and the app simply runs.
Paid apps bought here activate once on first launch. For that step, the watch needs to be paired with your phone in Garmin Connect, and the phone needs an internet connection. The activation check goes through Garmin's phone bridge, not through the USB cable.
After activation, the licence lives on the watch. Vario, Vario Pro, GlideRange and GlideSpace do not need a phone or mobile signal for their normal in-flight functions. GlideWatch is different: it streams live traffic and needs the phone connection during flight.
For CUP and CUB sync: no cable needed
This section applies however you bought the app. Your own landing fields and airspace are yours, and they reach the watch the same way whether it came from Garmin or from us.
GlideRange and GlideSpace load your own data by sync code. GlideRange
uses .cup landing-field files. GlideSpace uses
.cub airspace files. In both cases, the cable is not part of
the sync.
The workflow is:
- Upload or prepare the
.cupor.cubfile in the Cubio uploader. - The uploader gives you a short code.
- Enter that code on the watch.
- The watch downloads the prepared data through your paired phone and Garmin Connect.
So for data sync, you need the watch, the phone paired to it, Garmin Connect running normally, and a mobile or Wi-Fi internet connection on the phone. You do not need to plug the watch into the computer.
What to bring to the airfield
For first setup, bring the Windows PC, the Garmin cable, the watch and your phone. That covers installing, activating and doing a first data sync if the app needs one.
For later updates to landing fields or airspace, the PC and cable are
only needed if you are installing a new app version. For normal
.cup or .cub data refreshes, the phone
connection is the important part.
In flight
Once the app is installed, activated and loaded with the data you want, the core flight functions for the offline apps run on the watch. GlideRange uses the fields already stored on the watch. GlideSpace uses the airspace already stored on the watch. Vario and Vario Pro use the watch sensors directly.
That is the intended cockpit model: do the setup on the ground, then fly with a small wrist instrument that keeps working when the phone is in your pocket or when there is no mobile coverage. The exception is GlideWatch, whose job is live traffic and therefore depends on live data through your paired phone.