Fenix 5S/5 - 10.53 Beta Release

No issues with GPS for me. I had a lock almost instantly, but did a GPS soak anyway.

Yesterday ran a 10K with pretty heavy clouds and got soaked towards the end of run where it really started to pour so not ideal for GPS reception at all. Still managed with only 0.6% overestimation. I think the problematic runs were still actually with 10.52 as I couldn't update right away. So far the 10.53 FW has actually performed just fine.

While the GPS did take quite a lot longer to acquire in this release than on my old returned F5, the accuracy appears to be very good, especially I noticed that when I was inside of a building and lost lock, the route didn't turn into a scribble and add all sorts of distance, like it has in the past. I have a little more testing to do, but not until this awful heatwave is over. It is like someone opened the sauna out there.

Im noticing (and also with FW 10.52) is that my F5S GPS now takes much more time to "lock on" the satellites. Before it would take at most 20 seconds, now takes almost a minute or more... anyone else?

Me too. In doubt if it is related to v10.53 or the update from GPS 4.40 to 2.20 (Galileo support) since I did both updates in conjunction.

When I go out of the house, run started, it takes 5 seconds to have gps locked. This morning I went out with umbrella it took 20 seconds. I am happy with 10.53.

For those still having the “EPO Expired” issue, I have been having the exact same issue with both my Fenix 5 and Fenix 5+. After some messing around last night, I found that it was Garmin Express responsible for dropping an Expired EPO file on to the watch. If I closed Garmin Express completely (close on the system tray in Win 10), then deleted the EPO.bin files on the watches before ejecting from USB, the watches would initially show “EPO Missing” until after a few syncs with Garmin Connect Mobile (GCM), at which point I got “EPO Current”. If I hooked up to Garmin Express again, the good EPO file from GCM would get overwritten by a bad EPO file from Express. So, until this is fixed, the key is to always close Express and delete the EPO.bin file before ejecting, every time you’ve hooked up the watch to your PC/Mac. Unsurpringly, my Fenix 5+ was back to it’s normal rapid GPS lock before my run this morning and the GPS track of the Run was better than my last 3 runs with the expired EPO (and yes, I did do a 30 minute static GPS soak with both watches last week, after the GPS 2.23 update). So having a curent EPO.bin file does appear to be important to getting good GPS tracks.

Whilst the Expired EPO files is obviously a Garmin data servers/Express thing, rather than device software, I’ve reported the issue to the Fenix beta team, so hopefully they can get the appropriate people to fix the bug in the data servers.

Garmin posted some info about what to do after a GPS firmware update...
In the Fenix3 and FR920XT days it was called GPS soaking.

fenix-5x-plus applying-gps-firmware-updates-what-you-need-to-know

fenix-5-5s-plus applying-gps-firmware-updates-what-you-need-to-know

Thanks for this... wouldn't a 30 min run using GPS be considered as GPS soaking? Because i've done it 5 times at least with the new GPS FW and it still is much slower than with former GPS FW and im even now getting some small errors on the path

In my case it's an issue of EPO not updating. Have deleted the EPO file and all seems fine now. I'll see if GC mobile app will start updating the EPO file properly when the current one expires.

... Unsurpringly, my Fenix 5+ was back to it’s normal rapid GPS lock before my run this morning and the GPS track of the Run was better than my last 3 runs with the expired EPO....

Thanks. It worked as you described, file dele and several mobile connect sync to reload the EPO.