Watchface loses GPS coordinates (only on Fenix 6 + iOS)

Dear Community,

My Watchface calculates sunrise/sunset based on the last known GPS coordinates:

			var curLoc = Activity.getActivityInfo().currentLocation;
			if (curLoc != null) {
				lat = curLoc.toDegrees()[0].toFloat();
				lon = curLoc.toDegrees()[1].toFloat();
			}

In case the location is null, it does not display the data.

This check and, respectively, the calculation is happening every midnight, and of course every fresh start of the watchface: during onUpdate I check if the data was already calculated today, and perform the location query and calulaion, if not, and then set the flag "already calculated today". The result is being saved to the buffered bitmap then, if that's important.

Now I have a second user of Fenix 6 and iOS who reports me, that the watchface loses GPS data (does not display sunrise/sunset data) periodically, and the period is a matter of hour(s), or when the user receives a notification from the phone and clears if from the watch.

Has anyone experienced the same issue? Is there any way to avoid this?

Top Replies

All Replies

0 Shent-Aurkhan (SHN) over 4 years ago

hi,

I'm quite surprise it is not happen more often,

I mean if you don't save your lat/lon, it will happen to everyone,

when receive not or move from the wf, when you go back to it OnInitialize is called,

so all your var take defaut value,

then, the Activity.getActivityInfo().currentLocation; goes stale after some times (depending on the device)

what you should do is to save your lat/lon like

	var curLoc = Activity.getActivityInfo().currentLocation;
			if (curLoc != null) {
				lat = curLoc.toDegrees()[0].toFloat(); App.Storage.setValue("Lat",lat);
				lon = curLoc.toDegrees()[1].toFloat();App.Storage.setValue("Lon",lon);
			}
			if(lat==null||lon==null){lat = App.Storage.getValue("Lat");lon=App.Storage.getValue("Lon");}

0 Shent-Aurkhan (SHN) over 4 years ago in reply to Shent-Aurkhan (SHN)

https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/f/discussion/7206/getting-gps-coordinates-for-watchfaces-seems-sometimes-not-to-work

0 Summer Son over 4 years ago in reply to Shent-Aurkhan (SHN)

Shent-Aurkhan (SHN) said:
so all your var take defaut value,

Exactly, so is the "last updated" flag being reset, and then the GPS coordinates are queried again and the data is calculated.

0 jim_m_58 over 4 years ago in reply to Summer Son

if currentLocation isn't null, use it and save it to Storage.

if it is null, get the location from Storage

if that is null, indicate you don't have a location. (this should really only happen the first time a WF is used)

currentLocation will go stale on devices after a period of time, if the watch is turned off, etc, so you want to cache the "last known" location

0 Summer Son over 4 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

Ok, clear now, thanks everyone for the responses!

0 Summer Son over 4 years ago

Now I save the lat/lon to the storage. For me it definitely works fine - now even after the watch is powered off/on, the watchface comes back with the proper data, without the need to acquire the GPS position again.

But the same user still claims that on his watch the data is being lost. Could it be something writes invalid data to GPS coordinates? Could there be anything else than NULL or valid coordinates?

0 jim_m_58 over 4 years ago in reply to Summer Son

Which watch? The Fenix 5x is different with it's dual core. You need to save the location while you are in the watchface selector. It also can't do "real time HR".

0 Summer Son over 4 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

Fenix 6 Solar, paired with iOS.

0 Summer Son over 4 years ago

Another interesting observation - looks like once the watch is disconnected from the phone, or notifications are disabled, all works fine. Seems like a notification triggers this behaviour.

0 jim_m_58 over 4 years ago in reply to Summer Son

How long after using an activity with a GPS lock is the user returning to the watchface? Less an an hour? I imagine you are using the location in a background service, and there is currently a problem with the f6 and background services in general:

https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/i/bug-reports/background-event-system-does-not-work

https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/i/bug-reports/fenix-6-with-background-app-watchface-doesn-t-update

just a couple of bug reports on this.