Distance Calculation?

It is currently not available. However, this is going to be implemented in a future update. But I don't know about any specific update schedule. Suggest following in the forum. And on the What's new page.

Garmin Connect is also working on some great features which will surpass any of those from MotionBased. We have some good ones in our upcoming release in late August including Calendar, Manual Entry of Activities, Location, and Weight tracking. We're also working on bringing back some of the features that many liked at MotionBased -- Elevation Corrections, Moving Time/Speed, Weather, and the Analyzer.

Distance

I never understood why the distances displayed on my devise were not the same as the distances in Motion Based. Now that I use Garmin Connect, the distances on my devise and GC are the same. Since I walk the same trail almost every time, one would expect the distance to be the same each walk. Why did Motion Based, and the proposed change to GC, add distance to the walk. Also, when Motion Based added distance, it never added the same. With Motion Based, the distance of my walks always varied and the distance was usually never the same. Can someone explain the differences to me? Distance is distance. Shouldn't the distances be the same on my devise and in GC? Thank you.

I never understood why the distances displayed on my devise were not the same as the distances in Motion Based.

Probably the #1 most asked question on the MB forum. In a nutshell, quoting from the MB Wiki. Haunting us even now.;)

Discrepancies
Traditional Garmin devices never reported distance, time or any other cumulative calculations of your activity. So MotionBased was required to do all the calculations given a series of known positions and times that you were observed to be there. Now the Forerunner and Edge series provide this summary information and we are faced with using the information the device reported or the information MotionBased calculated. We could easily show in the Dashboard and Reports the distance your device said you traveled and that may be enough. But MB takes activity analysis another step. The Map Player and Analyzer must do their own calculations. We have to account for your cumulative distance, elevation gain/loss every step along the way. So if there is a big discrepancy between the device summary calculations and MB calculations it would be difficult to account for those differences when exposing the details.

Now the big question: Which is correct? The device or MB? It honestly depends on the situation. The device is talking to the sky during the entire activity and has better resolution from which to calculate. The device reports less resolution to MB than it observes so there could be some "missing information" that could account for the 1% discrepancy between your device and MB. I have had the opportunity to ride and run with multiple GPS units of the exact same brand side-by-side and a 1% discrepancy is quite good even between the devices.

Corrections: GPS is not perfect and the devices can report some rather upsetting information at times. So MB has implemented the corrections algorithm that helps determine your signal quality and clean your GPS data from erroneous reporting. The same problems have been observed with all Heart Rate Monitors.

MotionBased plans to work with all GPS devices as they become suitable for training. If we start reporting the distances based on the device, we now start to lose the standard upon which all devices can be compared . . . the MB calculations and corrections.

It is currently not available. However, this is going to be implemented in a future update. But I don't know about any specific update schedule. Suggest following in the forum. And on the What's new page.

Of course the latest What's new post as of today is May 2009

Of course the latest What's new post as of today is May 2009

But the "coming soon" section of the what's new page is more up to date and gets to the heart of what the poster is asking, as in what updates will be coming not what's already been implemented.

Hey folks, in MB the distance calculation was always calculated from the data uploaded from my Garmin. It would routinely adjust my device recorded distance to what I thought was more reasonable given previous performances.

Now, GC simply reports the same distance my 305 records.

Does anyone know whether that feature is still available?

I noticed that at least one of my migrated MTB rides had a much lower average speed than Motionbased reported. Upon further scrutiny, the mileage is off. Motionbased reported 12.25 miles in hilly terrain, while GarminConnect reports only 11.65 miles. I believe I used the gravity correction feature when uploading to Motionbased. My question is:

Does Garmin Connect assume flat terrain for its mileage calculation?