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GPS Accuracy

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago

I am wondering the F6 performance dips when the battery is low. I have a 14 hours left and did a run. The GPS route is terrible. It has been through ponds and shrinks the run down massively. The black line is the route. I have the google gps  map too and it's no better. 

Is the overall distance based on the gps data as my 4 laps are quite a bit shorter than the reality. Is anyone else having gps issues? 

I really felt the F6 was the ultimate outdoor watch but I am a disappointed at the minute, especially given the investment. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to pamarunkov

    Run 5km 26.11.2019 (1 circle is 230m) with Fenix 6 saphire titan, firmware 4.30, GPS firmware 2.60, Run settings: First 3 km GPS only (accuracy is very bad), then 2 km GPS+Glonass, record every second. It's very bad accuracy.
    https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/4286943560?share_unique_id=4

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Btw, did you see what Coros just announced? How they are improving the accuracy for track running ? Basically, they are cheating. You have to enter the lane you are using, so it's just like saying "look guys, we can't measure the distance properly with the GPS (and the accelerometer), so give us the distance please".

    Then they do some kind of average on the GPS points to draw a very nice oval shape I think. And they are using the Sony chipset. Just like Garmin. Just like Suunto. Just like Polar (fix me if I'm wrong on this).

    So even if it's nice to compare the Fenix 6 to 5 years old watches, looking at what we can buy NOW, I'm not very optimistic for great GPS precision. They traded it for battery life. Maybe it can be tuned a bit, Suunto improved the Spartan / 9 accuracy, which was quite poor at start. But I really don't hope for an accuracy superior to my beloved Ambit.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to pamarunkov

    When I see this it is clear that I will not upgrade from my Fenix 5+. This is a typical track training with it and the splits were:

    0,41km
    0,21km
    1,01km
    0,41km
    1,03km

    As tracking those laps is a challenge, I think those values are o.k., but I must also admit that my Fenix 3 delivered similar data. There are always rumors that the watch detects track training and does corrections. I don't believe that, because when I normally do the slower parts on the outer lane the distance ist really longer.

    This time I stayed on the inner lane the whole time and when I finished, I did 2 small laps around the lower right curve, because somebody stated in the forum that the F5+ would not be able to track small laps. Then I ran to the outer lane bevore leaving the stadium.

    Everything can be seen clearly! This is at least what I expect from a GPS-watch in 2019. Settings were GPS+Galileo, every second.

    There are no huge buildings around but lots of high trees with leaves.

  • +1 over 5 years ago in reply to hofster09

    Here is another example what I meant with 

    hofster09 said:
    track is most of the time about 20m off to the left

    I was running counter-clockwise about 20 laps on the inner most lane. The recorded track is off to the left (fenix 6 Sapphire, Firmware 4.65 Beta, GPS 2.60, GPS/GALILEO, smart recording ).

    On all my workouts with the Fenix  it is always to the left, never to right (in direction of movement). I wonder if it is because I wear it on my left wrist Thinking. I have to try it on my right wrist the next time.

    I must admit this is not critical to me, but I think the Fenix 6 can/should be more accurate.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to hofster09

    That's a very clean reocrding though ! But how reliable is the distance ? 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to hofster09

    Hello

    Same here.

    I switched from left arm to right arm while running this morning and the track is much in the center (even if I usually run on the right side of the road). 

    There is something strange here... But for rest of the track, it is quite a clean recording. 

    Benoit

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to RISBAC

    I'm measuring distance and pace with Stryd.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to hofster09

    and just curious, how precise was the Stryd on this ? I'm looknig at it, but it's very expensive... And since i'm running trails 99% of the time, I'm not sure if it's worth the cost to have a more precise distance. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to benvlab

    Yep, in Europe we have visible offset on all gps data. With GPS + Glonass (1 sec). I dont know if I make some tests with wgs84 geo profile - change it to the different... :/

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to RISBAC

    It's very precise. On those 400m laps above it usually measured between 390 and 400m, sometimes it was spot on.

    Though actual distance is important to me too, I think the real advantage using Stryd on trails is running power. I made some good experience when pacing trail runs with Watts instead of min/km.