Yet another Maps / Tracking question

I've had the unit for a couple of weeks and done some tracking tests. Like others, I was seeing bizarre geometric shapes until I synced my track. My questions: why are some of the initial "points" way off in locations? E.g. I walked around the block and tracked it on the device -- perfect location tracking. When it was sending points to the Map as I was walking though, the points were all over the place, including huge jumps to places that were nowhere near my walking path. Then when I synced, it seems that I had to do something for that specific track before it displayed properly. Second question: if I'm out in the backcountry for a week with no internet access, does that mean that my track is going to look completely nutty until I eventually log in and sync things? People who will be trying to follow me will think we've gone crazy, walking through the middle of lakes, etc. I'm really puzzled -- there was nothing in the documentation that suggested the actual upload would be just a single point, rather than the accumulated points since the previous send interval. Thanks for any help or advice.

0 twolpert over 3 years ago

Therefore two types of track points - sent and logged. Sent points are transmitted via the Iridium satellite network in more or less real time. Logged points are not transmitted to the web site until you sync.

You independently control the intervals for the two types of points. The sent points interval choices are limited by your plan. Expensive plans allow down to 2 minutes. More reasonable plans are limited to 10 minutes or more.

Logged points can be saved at intervals down to one second. Clearly, the logged points will produce a smoother track - once you sync.

There are any number of reasons why a track point may be out of position - but I doubt that you actually have that problem because you say the track is OK once you sync. Things such as multi-path which affect location accuracy would affect both sent and logged points.

What you are seeing is the sent points connected by straight lines. On that map, the ONLY positions which reflect where you were are the blue circles which represent the actual sent points.

0 DL NY over 3 years ago in reply to twolpert

Thank you for the reply.

I am assuming that if I do not have an internet connection (wifi or cellular network) that syncing will not affect the Map, is that correct? (In other words, if I'm in the backcountry and have no internet connection for a week, the only thing that will appear are those specific sent points.)

Thanks again!

0 twolpert over 3 years ago in reply to DL NY

That is correct.