Watch does not apply custom stride length, non GPS activities and step distance accuracy way off

I worked out my custom stride length as I was a bit confused by the step counter and distance ratio on the watch and in connect. I don't know whose stride length they have being using but steps to distance calculations are really bad.

After entering my custom stride length of 0.79metre a few weeks back,

accuracy checked against the average man's walking stride length of 0.78 as seen here https://livehealthy.chron.com/determine-stride-pedometer-height-weight-4518.html

Over a set distance that my Garmin Instinct, Forerunner 35, my phones GPS, several routing apps has deemed to be 1 mile on a consistent basis, I walked the route again using the Instinct with hiking activity running without GPS, and my mobile using strava with GPS.

Walking this distance up to the mile point my instinct registered 0.83 miles.

Strava 1 mile.

Now walking back strava registered 2 miles and the Instinct being even further out.

Strava showing full walk GPS phone tracked.

The amount of steps taken during activity used to show up after and when used with my stride length actually tallied up very accurately with the GPS distance.

So my question would be, why is my custom stride length not being taken into account during activities without GPS to more accurately track distance? Why is the watch not at least using the mens average stride length as a base for providing a steps multiplied by average stride length to assess distance?

The only thing that seems to have changed since I updated my stride length a couple weeks back, is that connect now seems to have increased the distance per steps in my daily step count tracking metrics.

You may ask why I would want a GPS watch to track activities accurately without GPS. Well, I present you this review and the idea that you can use the watch as a traditional ABC device over long hikes not using GPS to save battery. For. Instance, the reviewer mentions the distance tracking being poor but Ultratrac GPS being even worse for. Measuring distance.

"I usually turned the GPS off in order to save battery. The watch has 14 hours of battery with the GPS on; however, I did not want to have to fully charge the watch every night. I tried using the UltraTrac GPS mode (this sends out less frequent GPS pings and extends the battery life to 40 hours). Unfortunately, when I compared the UltraTrac with the mileage indicated on my maps, I found the UltraTrac distance data was no more accurate than not using the GPS. Instead, I relied on step data to measure distance. With the GPS off, the speed and distance measures were not very accurate. But the altimeter, the watch’s most critical function, worked great."

https://www.treelinereview.com/gearreviews/garmin-instinct

The most frustrating thing about this is that if the device implemented by custom stride length, it would be pretty accurate. My £25 Honor band 5 that doesn't have a custom stride length, but learns your average stride length from times you have used connected GPS by the distance travelled to steps taken ratio, performs without GPS when tracking the same 1 mile distance pretty much spot on with the GPS trackers,which is what the Instinct is capable of doing if it implements my average stride length metric into non GPS activities.

All the custom stride length does at the moment is update your step graphs distance.

Top Replies

1686302 over 2 years ago +1

Well, two years later it still isn't fixed. Neither my watch nor the Garmin Connect app does anything with my custom stride length.

All Replies

0 trux over 4 years ago

Tom said:
So my question would be, why is my custom stride length not being taken into account during activities without GPS to more accurately track distance?

You did not mention how many steps you did (resp. how many was recorded by Instinct), during the 1 mile walk. Without knowing it, it is hard to judge whether the custom stride was used or not, and whether it was accurate or not.

Tom said:
(this sends out less frequent GPS pings and extends the battery life to 40 hours)

Just an unrelated sidenote. Not that it is important, and even less for your problem, but the author of the review that you quoted, apparently does not understand how GPS works. GPS devices do not send any pings, they are purely receivers of signals from GPS satellites. Since it seems to be a rather common mistake, I felt it may be useful noting it here.

0 Tom over 4 years ago in reply to trux

In the past after finishing a non GPS activity, the amount of steps taken showed up activity data. It seems this was removed. In the last update. I expected it to be there for. Comparison after, but ended up making this post based on previous times where had the steps taken during the activity being multiplied by my custom stride length, the distance would have been very close to the GPS recorded distance.

I have quite a few issues with that article as well, the main point being recommending a GPS watch for hiking, but then admitting to not using the GPS for the majority of his trips.

0 trux over 4 years ago in reply to Tom

Tom said:
had the steps taken during the activity being multiplied by my custom stride length, the distance would have been very close to the GPS recorded distance.

The step distance can vary wildly, depending on the terrain and the pace, so without noting the number of steps at the start and at the end, it is pointless trying to guess from previous activities, whether the calculation was correct or not. Please make a new test and note the steps.

BTW, how long hikes do you plan to do, that you do not want to use GPS? It is indeed odd buying a GPS watch and not using its principal feature.

0 trux over 4 years ago in reply to trux

BTW, I just checked the Support page for the Custom Stride Lenght, and I see Instinct is actaully not listed among the supported devices, so it may be well the reason, why you did not see any difference after changing it. Since I am always using GPS for outdoor activities, not needing the custom stride length, I was not even aware of it.

0 Tom over 4 years ago in reply to trux

I mean that I have done this exact same test before over this distance but previously steps were available in the data.

I haven't bought a watch for long hikes specifically, I was just stating that as an example. What I am saying is that the watch does not seem to have applied my custom stride information to make changes when recording non GPS activities.

Sorry I haven't included step data, I was. Just after answers and when I decided today I would re-do the test hoping that the update had implemented my stride data into estimating distance without GPS.

I will do the test again later and note the step count before and after.

I think it's useful to be able to track activities to a reasonable accuracy without using GPS all the time. I am aware of the limitations of the watch using accelerometers to measure. Steps. What I am saying is based on past data I haven't included is that the steps x my custom stride length has been much more accurate that whatever the Instinct is currently using as a guide for distance.

0 Tom over 4 years ago in reply to trux

That explains it. If you go to device settings on the app, choose Instinct, then activity tracking option, there is the option to input the custom stride Length.

On the actual watch itself in the settings, user. Profile, it is not there, but things like gender, height, age, wrist, heart rate.

That would explain why it hasn't adjusted the distance, yet in the connect app it seems to adjust distance for the daily steps.

No worries, it's not a big issue, I thought I'd just save some battery life on dog walks rather than gps tracking them everytime, lol.

0 trux over 4 years ago in reply to Tom

Tom said:
No worries, it's not a big issue, I thought I'd just save some battery life on dog walks rather than gps tracking them everytime, lol.

If you are not going for a week long hike without any possibility to recharge the watch, I would not bother about it.

0 Dan.Boilermaker over 4 years ago in reply to Tom

I also recall seeing total strides listed for running and hiking activities on GC. Not sure when that disappeared.

0 Tom over 4 years ago

Did the 1 mile distance walk again tonight this time taking note of the steps before and after.

Phone GPS tracking, phone in its leather case closed and measured slightly longer than normal, looking at the track it did add some extra taking a longer route.

The Instinct without GPS measured the distance at 0.92 miles over 2,024 steps.

Steps before 17,491, after 19,515.

It took me 2,024 steps to walk a mile. 1 mile distance in meters is 1,609.34, divide that by number of steps 2,024,gives an average stride length of 0.79 metre, which is exactly the custom stride length I entered in Connect.

I worked out that the Instinct is working of a 0.73m stride length based on 0.92 miles converted to metres then divided by the number of steps I took over that distance.

I have been using the Instinct in non GPS walk recording to track working outdoors, it tells me the time, distance, ascent and descent. As there are times where I am in one place working, using GPS is innacurate for this purpose and a waste of battery life.

Maybe the Instinct is learning from the walking and hiking GPS distance and steps taken I have been doing or it has taken into account my custom stride length in the device settings and figured in some algorithm.

0 1686302 over 2 years ago

Well, two years later it still isn't fixed. Neither my watch nor the Garmin Connect app does anything with my custom stride length.