Widget: PositionPlus

***UPDATE*** Please note that I no longer use a Fenix 3 and no longer have the time to maintain and upgrade this app. Sorry for this and thanks to everyone who posted feedback over time, I built this app for my own needs and I was quite surprised to see that it was useful to quite a few people! At this point I'm mostly using the Gaia GPS app on my iPhone 6 (with the iPhone in a rugged battery case for better grip and extended battery life - Beetle Sport Power Pack) plus the Gaia GPS Apple Watch extension for a quick look at the map/stats on the wrist. I still have an Oregon 600 as a backup but I sold the Fenix 3 as it was just sitting in my drawer.






PositionPlus Widget

This is a widget I initially wrote for my own use on my fenix 3 but thought to make it available on the Connect IQ app store and was very positively surprised by how many people found it useful! :)

On launch, the widget will first aquire GPS signal after which it will display the current latitude and longitude (in either degrees/minutes/seconds, decimal degrees or MGRS format - pls choose the format you prefer by pressing [Menu] while the widget is active), the current altitude (in meters or feet depending on user settings), the current speed (in km/h or mph depending on user settings), the current heading (in degree and cardinal points format), the current time (hours, minutes, seconds), the timezone (offset from UTC in hours), whether Daylight Saving Time (DST) applies for the current timezone and the GPS signal strength (on a scale from 1 to 4, 1=no gps signal, 2=poor signal, 3=usable signal, 4=good signal). GPS signal strength will color red when there's no GPS reception and green while GPS is active and the watch will play a short alert sound and/or vibrate whenever GPS fix is acquired or lost (subject to alerts/vibration having been enabled in system settings).

*The GPS signal strength will show properly on the Fenix 3 but it will not show on the Epix, Forerunner and generally on square watches due to lack of screen real estate (square displays having less height compared to Fenix 3's round display). All other fields should show properly on all devices. I will look into using a different layout for square watches in upcoming versions.


***CHANGE HISTORY***

Changes made from version 2.1 to version 2.2:
- fixed issue where DST was reported incorrectly
- removed the vivoactive as a compatible device due to reports from users about erros (a red X showing) on the device. Unfortunately I do not own the vivoactive and the widget works when tested on the simulator so not really able to debug this. Therefore I decided to remove vivoactive support from the widget.

Changes made from version 2.0 to version 2.1:
- added feature where the watch will vibrate for 0.5 seconds and play a short alert sound when GPS fix is acquired or lost (if vibration/alerts are enabled on the device)


Changes made from version 1.1 to version 2.0:
- added ability to select coordinates format (degrees/minutes/seconds, decimal degrees or MGRS - pls choose the format you prefer by pressing [Menu] while the widget is active).

- added the time of day (hh:mm:ss), UTC offset (in hours) and a daylight savings time (DST) indicator.

- added dynamic coloring for the GPS signal strength indicator (green when a GPS lock has been acquired, red otherwise).

- updated widget layout to accommodate the newly added fields.


Changes made from version 1.0 to version 1.1:
- altitude is now displayed in either meters or feet depending on user settings
  • This used to be good but now all I get is an IQ with an exclamation mark. Why is that? It has been doing that for a while now.
  • This used to be good but now all I get is an IQ with an exclamation mark. Why is that? It has been doing that for a while now.


    It must be that Garmin changed the Connect IQ API - unfortunately I no longer use a Fenix 3 as my Apple Watch gives me good enough info for my needs and no longer have the time to maintain and upgrade this app :(
  • It must be that Garmin changed the Connect IQ API - unfortunately I no longer use a Fenix 3 as my Apple Watch gives me good enough info for my needs and no longer have the time to maintain and upgrade this app :(


    What Apple Watch app does this?