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Fenix 6X Sapphire - Problem with GPS Total Distance.

Beowolfs
over 4 years ago

Been using the Fenix 6X Sapphire (Sony GPS chip) and have noticed,  it always shows a shorter distance traveled than my other Garmin products.

Last week (In order to test it) I went on a short hike. I brought along my Oregon 650, Fenix 3 Sapphire and the new GPSMAP 66i.

After the hike, the total travel distance was:

Fenix 3 Sapph. 7.59mi

Oregon 650      7.55mi

GPSMAP 66i    7.57mi

and

Fenix 6X Sapph 7.46 

So far, the Fenix 6X always reports the shortest distance.  I hope Garmin becomes aware of it and sends a fix in the near future.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to TobiasLj

    TobiasLj, with "drawn" I mean I create a new course in Garmin Connect and add some waypoints so it follows the same route I run and record.

    So drawn means not recorded but routing/navigation on the map. Which could be closer to the true distance or could also be worse...

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to TobiasLj

    Hi there,

    I did a bikeride yesterday on roads when there were no clouds. The GPS was very accurate and when comparing it to the distance derived from the GPX data (I used a program for that) the distance was the nearly the same (just like 80m longer on the GPX data). On the other hand, when running in the forest I found the GPX data to show ALWAYS like 300m longer distance, although the signale does not look noisy at all. In addition to that, the GPX distance is also equal to the one my collegue has on his FR945.
    My conclusion: the Fenix 6 has some issues when GPS conncetion is not ideal (like when running in the forest) and calculates a wrong distance. I dont know the mechanism behind that but since the GPX data of both watches is very similar it has to be some kind of software or evaluation error.

    However youre right on the point that you still can compare the runs from the Fenix 6 and also your improvements. But still I wish that the issue could be fixed somehow..                                       

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to baselpower

    Garmin is probably trying to "smoothen" the GPS data when it's under difficult conditions. I think they are trying to do what Suunto is doing : using the accelerometer of the watch to find a compromise between the GPS data (which is very imperfect) and what the person is doing (the accelerometer should tell you are not moving right and left like the GPS is thinking). But how they are calculating the new distance is unknown, and it's always too short. I don't think I ever saw it ONCE with a longer distance than expected. And I often retrace the whole workout on a map to estimate the real distance. The idea is not bad, it makes sense to try to improve the distance / pace, since the GPS data is imperfect. But the result is not great, and in most cases, the errors of the GPS are simply "cancelling" each other, the total distance is quite close to the real one.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to RISBAC

    So it seems that my whole run is a difficult condition. I'm constantly off the track for 20m or so.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Can confirm that the F6 is consistently reporting 2-3% less distance on my runs than actual. Comparing the distance to several online mapping tools as well as an old Fitbit which was accurate out of the box. Obviously the F6 under-reporting distance throws all other data (pace) off as well. This is a serious flaw on a premiere ($$$) device. 

    Can we expect a fix?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to RISBAC

    I just wonder if the algorithm "smoothing" the GPS data is any different to the FR945 (for example) or if the GPS reception is just better on the FR945.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to HondaCB

    I would agree 100% on this! But more than once it fail up to >10% in situations where a FR945 and a Polar VV did report correct. So this seems not to be a problem by the Sonychip, but within the f6 (as the 945 does it correct).

    My question is .. Is GARMIN aware of this? And willing/able to fix?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to baselpower

    20m is significant indeed. Under good conditions, the GPS is really fine. Even under difficult ones, it's the same as other recent watches and not that worse compared to the old watches like an Ambit 3 (which is supposed to be a very accurate GPS watch). Trees around? Buildings?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to HondaCB

    Many persons have reported this to Garmin. No effect so far. They don't read much the forums, I'm sure it could be more efficient to write to the support. But is it a priority for Garmin ? If they sell a lot and only a few a Fenix users are complaining, I don't think it will become a priority. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 8749181

    The Sony chip can do quite fine indeed. And the GPS distance is often ok. The Strava fix is a decent compromise for me at the moment. But the pace is wrong and it would be better to have a more accurate distance DURING the run. It must be in the list of potential problems for Garmin, but far from the top I guess...