GPS Accuracy

Well Garmin support came back to me, see below - am I wrong in thinking that the answer is just not good enough, so Garmin are stating that their [h=3]Multisport GPS Watch for Sport, Adventure is expected to be accurate MOST of the time....[/h] I honestly expect it to be accurate all the time (is that not realistic ?), my issue wasn't just a slight slippage, it was way off - think it's going back, shame as I really like the watch.

From Garmin Support :
"Dear Kevin,

There can be many reasons to the issues with GPS - the main culprit would be incomplete/corrupt data, in theory a reset and a re installation of this software should resolve the issue.

This should not be a persistent issue and we would expect the device to be accurate most of the time

Kind regards,


Andrew

Garmin Europe"

I just want to add my two cents' worth, and see what the reactions are. I'm globally quite happy with my F5, but the GPS accuracy is beginning to get to me. I am one of those boring guys who run the same track "most of the time" :-). Since I have my F5, it has not once come close to the correct distance on my regular run, it has not once given me the same distance, and it shortchanges me on distance between 7 and 10% as compared to the same track measured as a course plotted on the Connect app (total distance as per map 5.8km, GPS measured runs between 5.23 (!) and less than 5.5 km). It deviates between 3 and 5m off the path/road on virtually the whole run, cuts corners, and my average pace as a consequence gets slowed by about 10%. I have now resorted to editing my tracks to at least get the correct distance and a semblance of correct average pace.
I have similar experiences on longer and different tracks. None of these tracks are in particularly "covered" locations, although the standard one starts and ends between (medium height) buildings and runs through moderate tree cover (park, not forest) for about 2/3 of the distance.
What bugs me is this: a certain degree of inaccuracy is fine, after all, it's a small device, moving constantly, in a not-so easy environment. But to have a systematic deviation from reality which is between 7 and 10% on a relatively short distance (imagine what this does to a 20k run!), and 10% to the average pace makes the device pretty pointless as a tracker for running. I'd hate to see the result tracking a 25k hike in in dense forest which I tend to do every now and then...
If we then consider the price - my previous tracker cost half as much with similar GPS performance - it becomes pretty depressing.
I'm happy with a lot of the other features (navigation, notifications, barometer, compass etc, as well as battery life). But for a so-called flagship device from a company which specialises in GPS equipment, I think this is not an advertisement, to put it mildly.
There are other bugs, but those are simply annoying: e.g. alarm can only be set on phone/pc, not on watch (otherwise any change is lost after sync), alarm set for "once" will instead go off every day, sleep tracking works on a basis of hit 'n miss - and these can probably all be solved through better firmware. But the GPS problem is probably hardware, given that it's not changed after several firmware updates. Shame.
Question at the end: I read somewhere that BT connectivity issues which are worse on F5 than on 935 are maybe related to the casing - the F5 has more metal - could that be the case also for the GPS, i.e. that the casing interferes with the signal? That would explain the unexplainable...
Ah and yes, the one time I did contact Garmin support, I only got questions, and once I had answered those, radio silence...

Just to complement - today, GPS in its infinite wisdom decided that I was only to run 5.24 km out of the 5.8 on my track. Consequence: 30 secs lower pace, drop of one point in Vo2 max, and a black mark (unproductive) on my training status. Yay! At this stage, I can only grin, edit my run, and feel sharp.
Incidentally: no idea why the massive difference this time (clear sky, no leaves on the trees...)

Tried GPS+Glonass. Zero difference in accuracy (5.34km total). Today (back to GPS only) 5.39 km - with starting and returning points about 10m apart, corners cut, track off the path/road in some places well more than 10m, running through buildings.... I'm going to leave it at this - it's just too depressing to look at - worse and worse the more you zoom in. My method of correcting overall distance is useful though, because it at least allows me to have an overview of the whole run that more or less corresponds to reality.

Tried GPS+Glonass. Zero difference in accuracy (5.34km total). Today (back to GPS only) 5.39 km - with starting and returning points about 10m apart, corners cut, track off the path/road in some places well more than 10m, running through buildings.... I'm going to leave it at this - it's just too depressing to look at - worse and worse the more you zoom in. My method of correcting overall distance is useful though, because it at least allows me to have an overview of the whole run that more or less corresponds to reality.

Try it with a foot pod ...

Good day!

Roughly, from mid-October 2017, has changed dramatically the distance calculated with GPS tracking the same route. If you had calculated the distance of 5 kilometers, it now calculates a 4.3 kilometer. Also checked the measurement on the map is 5.34 km. All reflected on the attached pictures. Tracking is a UltraTreck.
Tell me, please, what could be the problem.Good day!
Fenix 5 Sapphire WiFi, 6.0
ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1280126.jpg

Tracking is a UltraTreck.

That's the problem. UltraTrack is for very long hikes on cost of worse GPS

Sorry Wojtek - that's not the problem. I don't use Ultratrac, and I had the same result again this morning - 5.34 km when it should have been at least 5.77. Looking at the gps track, it cuts corners, diagonal track where it should be straight etc. Yesterday and today I had a pace/lap difference of well over 1 whole minute between km 3 and km 4 - granted, km 3 is uphill, but that kind of difference is absurd. Down to bad GPS reception/receiver, period.
AlexPl - just edit your track and insert the correct total distance - at least it will give you an average pace that resembles reality, even if you can't do anything about ridiculous lap times. You may also want to restart the watch - that forces recalibration of the GPS, just as running somewhere else will. Sometimes that improves things - sometimes it makes them worse; for example, I run a longer and different track every second weekend, and GPS outcomes on my "standard" track the week after are always different from the week before - mood of the day, I guess...:cool:
@Wojtek, I refuse to fork out another $200 for yet more equipment just because one item (which was very expensive to begin with) does not work as advertised. Had I known this, I would probably have done FR935 + footpod. As it is, I have an F5, and I'll hang on to it until I can justify to myself replacing it.

I have some history with Garmin watches: FR620, Fenix3 then Fenix 5. For FR620 the initial issue with GPS tracking was kind of fixed. For Fenix 3 it was average. I was expecting some big improvement in the hardware for Fenix 5. Simply said Fenix 5 is worse than Fenix 3 at this level. I have to use a calibrated foot pod to avoid pacing errors. Garmin chosed to ignore this issue: this tread have been unpin, answers from Garmin consumer service have been disrespectful to their most loyal clients. So this will be my LAST Garmin device.

Had an F5 before moving on to the FR935 due to GPS accuracy issues (not bothered about the actual track but the worst part were the irregular 1k autolaps) and it looked like a hardware problem although some claimed in could be fixed in software. What's the verdict 6+ months later for those who stuck with the F5 ?