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Distance differences

WPKerrigan
over 1 year ago

Hello, 

I recently purchased the Garmin Descent Mk2i.  The route shown below I have done 100s of times over the years.  I have mostly used my phone with Map My Hike/Run app and it typically in the 2.5 mile range ± .02 which is perfectly ok and understandable.  What I cannot understand is that the faster I move through this route the miles seem to get "longer".  I get that there can certainly be differences between devices etc, but these routes were done back to back, exact same ground distance, but about 10% distance difference.  The 2.07 miles was set on "Trail Run" and the 2.26 on "Hike".  Both were set to SMART tracking.  I started to notice the difference as I have trying to get back in shape and started moving faster through the trails, I know I'm moving faster because of the times, but the distances continue to get shorter.  A few 0.01s is expected, but 10% back to back seems a little much.  I would love to hear any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  Just a note: in the HIKE image of 2.26 would've most likely been close to the 2.5 mile if I had started and stopped in the same place.   

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    You should get better accuracy if you enable 1 second recording instead of smart, and turn on GLONASS or Galileo satellites in addition to GPS. This will burn slightly more battery power.

    Unfortunately the GPS accuracy on the Descent Mk2 (and other Fenix 6 series devices) just isn't very good. You can search and find a lot of other threads with similar complaints. The metal case inhibits radio reception from certain angles and the Sony GPS chip favors power efficiency over accuracy. It works well enough in open terrain but in canyons or under tree cover it kind of falls apart. Garmin will probably launch a new Descent Mk3 based on the Fenix 7 later this year and I expect it to support multi-frequency GPS which should improve accuracy in challenging conditions.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Thank you for the explanation.  I probably should've done more homework on this before I spent the money.