Hi. I do want to note that I am very happy wth the Instinct. The watch is very lightweight and the option of loading routes for navigation really comes in handy. Also the battery is very good. I can truly…
Looking at the raw GPS data. There are missing GPS datapoits in the Instinct .fit files. During these missing data periods, the velocity is commonly reduced, or set equal to zero (even though I was running…
Somebody from Garmin also checking this Forum?...
Otherwise I would think about to return the Instinct and get something from the competitors range.
Thank you!
Hi all. I have just bought an instinct which I love the design of. A couple of teething problems though. Bike ride was fine, good track but running I have very poor track drawn, constantly off road, jaggly lines and cutting off corners, this on 1 sec recording trying all the gps permutations. I always wait for the tick on gps and have tried runs in locations 300miles apart. Is this a software issue? It's making my Apple Watch look exemplary with it's track smoothing. The distance recorded is always ok, under recording slightly if anything which I don't mind as th AW overestimates and it always feels like I'm cheating. I'm using 2.60 firmware. I really want to recommend this watch to a fell runner friend as it is perfect for her but feel embarrassed showing her my Strava activities.
Of note, there are a couple of other things to try that I have observed with my Fenix 5.
1. Try the other wrist, or rotate the device on your wrist 180 degrees so the orientation towards the sky is different. Reception of the GPS signals may be better, they may not. Worth a try.
2. Keep phone in opposite pocket of the wrist you are wearing the Instinct on. I have noticed that my phone signal will mess with the GPS reception. The best practice is to leave the phone at home.
3. The track is only as good as the reception capability of the area in which you are wearing it. Obstacles that block line of sight to the satellites will not be used for the "fix". The broader the degree of visibility, the better the fix.
4. Have the watch on your wrist in such a way that it can "see" the sky. Don't let it flop pointing downwards.
5. Use GPS plus Galileo, I find that provides "just enough" to be better than GPS alone at the sacrifice of a little more power draw from the battery.
6. Sync to your phone before an activity to get the latest EPO information.
7. Wait a few more seconds after the GPS gets a lock to try to acquire a few more satellites.
Of note, I notice that my Samsung S9 seems to track very well compared to the Fenix 5, but on closer inspection, the Samsung uses a lot of intelligence on the phone to "correct" the path. Apple is likely the same way. Meaning if it sees a road, it will preferentially follow it rather than cutting corners regardless of what the GPS says, much like a vehicle GPS. It will also intelligently "smooth" the track based on the available mapping data. It appears to make assumptions like "I have taken 10 steps in this direction" and "Weak GPS Fix" and will use a combination weighted between the two measurements to decide where you really are, aka "Dead Reckoning". The wrist-worn devices do not have this immense level of data to draw upon, nor the compute power to do the same with dead reckoning, Some sacrifice must be made to maintain battery life.
I used to gripe about GPS accuracy until I looked closer at the tricks played by phones. We have come to expect GPS to work just like we experience on our phones, but our phones have amazing compute power and data resources to pull from that a little wearable does not. I expect some of that is merged into Apple watches, and why they seem to behave so well. Also why their battery life is frankly terrible.
Well...
My case too, for the moment.
I've just bought the Instinct and did a first short walk in my neighborhood.
As seen here: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3667421998 I've walk on the left sidewalk and then return on the right sidewalk on the way back but the GPS is totally off like 5-10m
GPS Only, Smart Update not 1min Update as Settings.
I've received some updates today though GC app so I will give a try today again.