GPS Performance really poor? Contribute to find it out

Regarding the GPS signal strength: you can read out the GPS signal strength every second in a datafield. I did this and included it in my datafield (YARF) in two ways:
1. You can visualize the signal strength live during your workout by activating it in the YARF's settings. By doing so, the signal strength is shown live as a ring similar to garmin's initial GPS fix.
2. Independently of the setting above the GPS strength is written to the fit file and can be analyzed in Garmin Connect afterwards.

The read signal strength is one out of 5 values:
QUALITY_NOT_AVAILABLE = 0 -> the ring is gray
GPS is not available

QUALITY_LAST_KNOWN = 1 -> the ring is blue
The Location is based on the last known GPS fix.

QUALITY_POOR = 2 -> the ring is red
The Location was calculated with a poor GPS fix. Only a 2-D GPS fix is available, likely due to a limited number of tracked satellites.

QUALITY_USABLE = 3 -> the ring is yellow
The Location was calculated with a usable GPS fix. A 3-D GPS fix is available, with marginal HDOP (horizontal dilution of precision)

QUALITY_GOOD = 4 -> the ring is green
The Location was calculated with a good GPS fix. A 3-D GPS fix is available, with good-to-excellent HDOP.

Notes:
- I don't own a Fenix 5, 5X nor a FR935. Therefore I need your feedback what is working and what not. You can help me to get one by spending me a beer or so (see the links in the app's description)

- The contributing to the fit file is very buggy from garmin's side. Please give me feedback whether the contributing was successful (successful is, if you can see a graph in your workout on Garmin's Connect site.

- Furthermore I am interested in those graphs regarding GPS signal strength of a Fenix 5.

The app can be found here (it's the link to the german's website. I hope the english speaking guys are redirected to the proper website):
https://apps.garmin.com/de-DE/apps/46016194-1fdf-4f9b-ae8b-16ceba51a548

It looks like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqlmsfw8r05gqmd/YARF%20-%20Fenix%205.JPG?dl=0

Please share your results (the fit files) here and let's see how the internal status is. Maybe also some FR935 users contribute to this. Thanks.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Interesting!

I'm about to run a comparison run with 935 and F5 this evening in the woods. Would be very interesting to see the results.

Is there any chance to have a corrupted fit file afterwards or do you think everthing is safe? I'm using Sporttracks with a special fit-file-import-plugin (from OMB). So I can see customized data tracks in sporttracks as well.
I would use your datafield as a possibility to get the gps data into the fitfile only. Is there anything to configure or is it enough to include the datafield in my running app?

I'll keep you informed about the results!

0 topcaser over 8 years ago

This comparison would be super cool. The fit file will not be corrupt. Nevertheless there is a good chance that the signal strength graph will not appear. If so I have to debug it. Please let me know.

BTW: this feature is only available for FR935, Fenix 5 and 5X. Other watches are not supported since they have too less resources (yarf needs already 16 kB and only newer watches support 32 kB with data fields). If someone wants to try this on older watches I have to write a yarf lite version which omits some other functionality.

0 topcaser over 8 years ago

What you could do until today evening is to start a dummy workout with this data field in place. Just a few seconds are enough to see whether the graph is shown. You can examine it in garmin connect mobile for example and double check whether the graph shows up) you can delete the workout immediately after this review.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

I tested a short walk outside the office and started by intent without gps fix. I got a fix later during the test.

=>
1.) The fitfile was readable. No problems here.
2.) In Garmin connect the gps strength was always zero.
3.) The datafield shows a connectiq-icon with an "!"

0 meste7 over 8 years ago

Regarding the GPS signal strength: you can read out the GPS signal strength every second in a datafield. I did this and included it in my datafield (YARF) in two ways:
1. You can visualize the signal strength live during your workout by activating it in the YARF's settings. By doing so, the signal strength is shown live as a ring similar to garmin's initial GPS fix.
2. Independently of the setting above the GPS strength is written to the fit file and can be analyzed in Garmin Connect afterwards.

The read signal strength is one out of 5 values:
QUALITY_NOT_AVAILABLE = 0 -> the ring is gray
GPS is not available

QUALITY_LAST_KNOWN = 1 -> the ring is blue
The Location is based on the last known GPS fix.

QUALITY_POOR = 2 -> the ring is red
The Location was calculated with a poor GPS fix. Only a 2-D GPS fix is available, likely due to a limited number of tracked satellites.

QUALITY_USABLE = 3 -> the ring is yellow
The Location was calculated with a usable GPS fix. A 3-D GPS fix is available, with marginal HDOP (horizontal dilution of precision)

QUALITY_GOOD = 4 -> the ring is green
The Location was calculated with a good GPS fix. A 3-D GPS fix is available, with good-to-excellent HDOP.

Notes:
- I don't own a Fenix 5, 5X nor a FR935. Therefore I need your feedback what is working and what not. You can help me to get one by spending me a beer or so (see the links in the app's description)

- The contributing to the fit file is very buggy from garmin's side. Please give me feedback whether the contributing was successful (successful is, if you can see a graph in your workout on Garmin's Connect site.

- Furthermore I am interested in those graphs regarding GPS signal strength of a Fenix 5.

The app can be found here (it's the link to the german's website. I hope the english speaking guys are redirected to the proper website):
https://apps.garmin.com/de-DE/apps/4...b-16ceba51a548

It looks like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqlmsfw8r0...0Fenix%205.JPG

Please share your results (the fit files) here and let's see how the internal status is. Maybe also some FR935 users contribute to this. Thanks.

both links lead to nothing...

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

@meste7: you have to look in the connect.iq shop and search for yarf.

@topcaser:
Another short activity. This time I waited for the fix but still no yarf-datafield visible because of the connectiq-icon with the "!".

Have a look: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1700765166

0 topcaser over 8 years ago

Ok, thanks for sharing. This test showed several things:

1. The basic mechanisms behind the fit file contribution do work.
2. If the data field crashes (crash means it shows the "!") this means that there is probably a variable not properly initialized. These sort of things are unfortunately not detected by the simulator.
3. When the data field crashes it does not work any more and doesn't contribute to the fit file (therefore you see 0 in the graph all the time)
4. In your linked workout you can see that the datafield writes exactly one value in the signal strength graph at the beginning (it is before the data field crashes). The value is 4, which means very good reception quality.

A few questions:
1. Just for interest: did you activate GPS signal strength in the YARF settings (this is just to get a live impression of the signal strength and is independent from contributing to the fit file)
2. Can you please provide me the content of a file on your watch? I need this to track the problem down.

The file's name is ciq_log.txt and it resides on your watch I think it is in directory APP -> EVENT_LOGS

0 topcaser over 8 years ago

Hä, my post I did a few seconds before is gone. The forum said it will be moderated. Never had such a thing.

In short: When the data field crashes, no contribution takes place to the fit file. Can you please provide me the file (or the content of the file) on your watch? It's name is ciq_log.txt and reside in APP -> EVENT_LOGS

0 topcaser over 8 years ago

MESTE7, I updated the links. Thanks for sharing.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

This is the content of the ciq_log.txt

ERROR: Too Many Arguments Error
DETAILS: Failed invoking <symbol>
STORE_ID: 460161941fdf4f9bae8b16ceba51a548
CALLSTACK:
@PC = 0x00000000
@PC = 0x00000000

ERROR: Too Many Arguments Error
DETAILS: Failed invoking <symbol>
STORE_ID: 460161941fdf4f9bae8b16ceba51a548
CALLSTACK:
@PC = 0x00000000
@PC = 0x00000000