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Shift in GPS track depending on wrist

dallasrpi
over 4 years ago

As an avid heatmapper / run every street I'm particularly interested in more accurate GPS tracks.  I've been perplexed by why has appeared to be a shift of my GPS tracks to the left of where I run no matter what direction I run in.  So if I run an out and back on a road it looks like I've practically run a loop because its shifts it off the road on both sides.  In general my tracks are off the road and sometimes its more egregious than others.  I took to running on the wrong side of the road (with traffic instead of against) to get it more centered.  I then did an experiment and changed my watch to my right hand.  Low and behold my tracks started looking significantly better!  I figured there must be some sort of setting I was missing.  I found the wrist setting in my Fenix 6 and changed it from "left" (the correct setting) to "right" and it made no difference.  


Wearing the watch on my right wrist example here:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/4692022516  - I ran on the side of the road against traffic and its shifted to the right, which is closer to the middle of the road

Wearing the watch on my left wrist example:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/4488678027 - notice how all the tracks are to the left where you would be running against traffic off the road

Really neither of these examples are very accurate as they don't capture where I really ran but at least with wearing it on the right hand it will actually show on the road I was running on.   I don't know if this is an intentional shift or not.  Also I'm not a fan of wearing it on my right hand (again wrist setting seem to make no difference in my tests).  Does anyone have any info on this?  

Also this isnt a one off test. All my runs with my Fenix 6 are like this and I found many with my Fenix 5 as well.  Additionally I have done several runs with it on my right wrist and they consistently produce better results every time.

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  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to majkim6

    Smart recording is taking fewer GPS fixes and joining the dots in between, so not really a fair comparison. The quality of the Fenix 6 recording could also be influenced by the tree cover, time to fix, satellite positions (the HDOP varies by time of day), how long you stood still after getting the fix; car engine interference...

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Fursty_Ferret

    Fursty_Ferret:  Um, yes?  What do you expect it to do?  Apparently you have skipped reading most of the thread where I said I understand there are general inaccuracies and its expected.  The point is that things are shifted and yes this could for sure be something that was either programmed intentionally that is not performing correctly or something that might be fixable.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Fursty_Ferret

    Car engine interference?  For real?  Tree cover?  Its Winter (OK technically just turned Spring but it has been Winter for most of my Fenix 6 runs)...and these are largely just neighborhoods.  How long I stand around after it tells me to go?  Really?  If thats an issue then they should not give the green until its actually ready...   I frankly dont buy any of these ideas for my stated problem.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Aboslutelly the same with me( Fenix 6x Pro worn on left wrist)! Even posted a topic about it a few months back. What I observe is that when I`m moving on open places, track is pretty accurate, but when I go under some trees or around buildings immeditelly shifts left considering the direction of movement.

    To me it seems like software issue, when satelate coverage goes down. If it was harware issue track would go all over the place and not consistenly on the left side.

    Screen below is from yesterday:

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to agrarina

     @dallaspri  @pietero @7162912 did you send a report to [email protected] after test in a beta version? To solve the issue is very important to do it. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Simone.01
    Simone.01 said:
    sent a report to o[email protected] after test in a beta version.

    Have you considered adding this as your personal signature?  :) 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to who knows

    I will do! I think is very important that all peolple think to have an issue will report to developers details about it. 

    Unfortunately somebody write here but not to them and some issues are not solved. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Just want to throw out there that I have also consistently seen this behavior with my Fenix 6 Pro. The far majority of my runs are with a friend who has a Marq Athlete, and I would estimate 90% of his GPS tracks are within 1-2 feet of our actual path. My tracks look like I strapped my watch to a 6-foot pole and held it to my left side for the duration of the run. The tracks for every run are very consistently 5 or 6 feet to the left of my actual path. Smart vs. 1-second recording doesn't change it. GPS only vs. GPS+GLONASS doesn't change it. Soaking in open skies for 5-10 minutes doesn't change it. Updating with every new beta firmware doesn't change it. I haven't tried wearing it on the right wrist yet, but I may try it out to see what happens...can't see myself doing that on a regular basis though. In the end, it doesn't change how much I love this watch overall, but I just wanted to confirm I'm seeing the same behavior on my F6 and can't seem to figure out a way to get the tracks more like my buddy's Marq.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I've also noticed this on multiple runs, even when running through open fields. The track mostly follows the road but always shifted to the left side of the road. I also wear the watch on my left wrist and tried starting the activity a few minutes beforehand but that didn't change the resulting track.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to swtex15

    I'm surprised this hasn't actually gotten more attention.  My brother also has a Fenix 6 Pro and started heatmapping.  I went to look at his maps and same thing...everything is shifted left...  The watch strapped 6ft pole is a great analogy!