Gps start point wrong and track

Dear everybody, 

F5plus user with last sw 10.10 and Gps+glonass configuration.

Yesterday I started a walk activity, i wait until the green gps signal appeared and i wasit a little bit more (1min) before push the start button. When i finished the walk I stopped the activity and saved on GC.

I realize 2 things:

First, the start point shown on the activity record does not belongs to the reality, I start the activity on the red circle marked on the image, the red line was missing on the activity recorded:

Second, the finish is completly distorted, see the image:

I also have same problem with running activity outdoor.

  • As the satellite based positioning is based on weak signals at least 20000km away, anything can disturb it, especially electromagnetic signals. If you want to know more, search for "spoofing' and "jamming".

    Check other starting positions, preferably with open sky view, if it happens anywhere contact Garmin.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    The second image is easy to (imo) explain as stated before, when going between tall buildings or obstacles in (relatively) confined spaces, tracking can and occasionally does get spotty.

    The first image is not so easy to explain but I have an idea as to why the tracking was poor. I own a Fenix 5X Plus, and I've noticed when I pull up my maps, it takes a few moments to load. Nothing out of the ordinary. Additionally, when I START an activity, everything in said activity will begin recording metrics, EXCEPT for the GPS, which again, takes a moment or two to start up.

    I've had this happen at the start of trailheads on multiple hikes, for me it usually takes a few hundred yards or so to accurately pinpoint my watch. I now start my hike activity, wait for my GPS to kick in, take note of the timer (to subtract off of my time later) and go on my way.

    Hope this helps.

  • I just make another test with different device, in this case: Vivoactive 3, same parameters of GPS and the track is quite better than on the Fenix 5 plus. The track is smoothed and on the street line as it should be.

    The start point is as should be on the Fenix 5 plus:

    and the finish does not do anything strange even it is between tall buildings:

    I supossed that both of them devices, has the same hardware (GPS mediatek) so the only explanation for the difference according my feelings is:

    - the antenna on the VA3 is better than on F5 plus

    -still the software of the f5plus has a long way to be improved 

    an taking in account that a good GPS signal is important to have a real firstbeats parameters (vo2max, trainning status, recovery, etc) seems that Garmin should work better on this issues, specially for higher devices. Seems that they are more worried to release a new watch every year with 2-3 more features (but increasing the price) than maintain the actual watches updated and improving with every update.

    By the way, I contact my regional SAT 2 weeks ago and still waiting for a response from them.

  • My previous device was a VA3 Music, and the GPS/Glonass/Galileo sucked. No provblems with my current F5Plus: I think yours might be broken.

  • additional on the updates softwares, we are still missing the following things:

    - water log tracking widget on f5plus (VA3 has this capability)

    -yoga workouts notes possibility

  • And you've posted this here because?

  • because i am in charge of development of my company´s healthy program, and i am testing  devices for be eligible as a bonus program for the employees, luckily i didn't pay for the device, but I can imagine the frustration that somebody might has when pay more than 600$ in such kind of device.  anything wrong with this?

  • Today I compared 5X+ with GPS only to 6X Pro Solar with GPS and GLONASS. Both got the start/finish point correct to within about one car length. 6X was on the left wrist and 5X+ was on the right. Although I am not 3m wide, it is interesting to observe that most of the time the left/right separation is reflected in the two tracks created. 6X is blue, 5X+ is magenta.

    The 6X did a little better overall, especially smoothing out the classic 5X+ wobbles, but overall they both held up well, even going through woodland. This was a dog walk, so some stop/start at times, especially through the woods when the dog goes on the lead.

    Distance differed by 102m after 3.3km, shown as a gradual separation over time/distance rather than anything jumpy. That's 3%, reflected in the average pace discrepancy, more or less. That's not so good, but seems typical in recent comparisons. I'm guessing smoothing algorithms are at work here. I have no idea which distance is more correct. Maybe one is 1.5% too long and the other 1.5% too short. I can work with these numbers though, for dog walks. :-)

    By the way, I am running beta 10.72 and GPS 2.60 on the 5X+ and beta 7.81 and GPS 4.10 on the 6X.

  • This thread is discussing GPS issues. That's why I ask why you are posting here.