Position.Info.Heading

Yes - this old chestnut again.

I am in the process of troubleshooting an issue in my app where depending on the watch, when I call up Activity.Info.Track I get null on some watches and not on others.

To fix this I changed to Position.Info.Heading, thinking that this would give me the same value, but instead I discovered in the Simulator, when I specify a constant Navigation Track - the return from Position.Info.Heading is changing constantly when simulate data is on ( as if I am walking in a straight line but rotating my watch around as if it is compass )

Can someone confirm for me please that Position.Info.Heading - - is the Compass heading of the 12 oclock position on the watch when held flat, and has nothing at all to do with your GPS position or track / path over the ground whatsoever?

The only instance method from Garmin that I can find to tell me which direction I am travelling ( North / South / etcc) , is the Activity.Info.Track

Are there limitations with Activity.Info.Track that stop it working with older watches ? or is there an alternative to give your GPS COG / Ground Track ?

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0 jim_m_58 over 3 years ago

There is a difference based on speed. If you are standing still, you see the compass, but if you are moving, GPS provides the direction of travel. If you think of it, if you are moving with the watch, the "top" can be pointing behind you or any which way.

This is the kind of thing you want to test on a real device. Simulated data in the sim is randomized so it's never the same.

0 Nick over 3 years ago

To add a little more context... in the sim with the watch travelling over 12 kmph, with GPS position set to good, and a FIXED track of 1 Radian entered, the Position.Info.Heading is varying over -2.6 radians to positive 1, it is basically all over the place completely.

0 Nick over 3 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

Do you know, I was reading Brandons comments from 4 years ago and it ' Appeared ' to say that Activity.Info.Track is the same as Position.info.heading...

Do you think that they are the same, but somehow the sim is making them appear to behave differently ( Ie both use compass at low speed, then both convert to GPS at the same speed ) ? or are they actually two different things ?

+1 jim_m_58 over 3 years ago in reply to Nick

I don't see any reference to Position.Info.track from my apps I first wrote 5-6 years back.

But after all this time I will say to really see what's going on, test on a real device.

You can tell if you stop and turn your body 90', etc. See how a compass works, etc. In genal, the sim takes you 90% of the testing for this. The rest need your feet!

0 Nick over 3 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

Thanks, good advice.

Sorry for the confusion - Brendons' comment was Activity.info.track displays course, and Position.info.heading displays course..... so I assumed from that comment the value displayed should match however this is not the case in the sim.

setting a Sim Navigation Track - seems to effect the Activity.info.track, but not the Position.info.heading which changes of it's own accord.

All good now I think, I'm using Activity.info.track, unless it's null and then using Position.info.heading.

Anyone have any idea what could cause Activity.info.track to not work? It's not working on about half the 3.1 watches I've tried ( seems to be the non-pro and non-X versions )