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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 dallasrpi

    Does Garmin support even read these threads?  Someone suggested I install the beta and send email to some beta email address.  I don't want to install a beta version unless the beta is a fix (and someone else in this thread indicated its not).

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to dallasrpi

    I'm not sure if Garmin reads these or not. Some people in other threads have indicated that Garmin doesn't, so that's the best I can speak to that.

    As for the beta, I have installed the last 4 or 5 versions, and none of them have made any difference for me. I keep trying each new one as its released, so I'll update here if one ever fixes the problem.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to dallasrpi

    I can understand your position but I think that is better to do it because more people will report the issue to beta team more probability we all have to have issues solved. So, please install the beta version and report to them the issue.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Simone.01

    I may do that.  I've been looking at a couple of my other friends Fenix track data and this seems very widespread.  

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Yesterday I went for a trip with my bike and I just checked the track and for biking the track is mostly spot on.
    The watch was mounted on my handlebar and the track even shows correctly when I switched road sides.
    It really is a huge difference with running (and yes I did compare tracks were I usually run and which never give a correct track)!
    I also compared with another cycling activity 2 weeks ago where I did have the watch on my left wrist and that activity also has a very good track.
    So I guess there must either be a difference in how the running and cycling activities work or it must be due to how our arms move while running?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Ceten

    i experienced the same. 

    GPS perfect on cycling. 

    It may be the fast swinging arm movement while running.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Punch

    I haven't gone on a bike ride yet, so it's good to know that the watch is capable of giving an accurate GPS track. I don't think the arm movement is the problem, though. Almost all of my runs are right beside a friend with the Marq Athlete. His tracks are spot on almost every run. We even switched watches one run just to see what would happen, and the Marq continued its good tracks while the Fenix continued on its merry way out to the left. As far as I know, the Marq and Fenix 6 internals are pretty much the same (I'm open to being corrected if I'm wrong on that), so I'm hoping it's something software-related that Garmin can fix.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to swtex15

    I've been doing some experimenting with wearing the watch differently during runs and walks...left wrist, right wrist, outside of wrist, inside of wrist, upside down, etc. My most consistent GPS tracks over 4-5 activities have been while wearing the watch on the inside of my wrist. Wearing it on the outside left wrist shifts the tracks left, wearing it on the outside right shifts the tracks right, but wearing it on the inside of my wrist (mostly tested on the left) gives me straight, mostly accurate tracks. I even had one walk where I flipped the watch from inside to outside back to inside a couple times, and you can see the path jump to the left at the exact point I flip the watch to the outside of my wrist. Wearing it on the inside feels awkward during a run, so I may just live with the less accurate tracks and hope for a software fix in the future. But it does seem from my limited testing that the watch is actually capable of tracking correctly (albeit when worn somewhat awkwardly). I'm interested to see if anybody else can get similar results.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to swtex15
    swtex15 said:
    I've been doing some experimenting with wearing the watch differently during runs and walks...left wrist, right wrist, outside of wrist, inside of wrist, upside down, etc

    Very interesting esperiment, thank you! Had you tried also to compare different wrist settings? For example wearing in left wrist but settings right wrist in settings. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Simone.01

    I tried this. It is still the same. As far as I know, setup is only used for gesture recognion and doesn`t affect GPS performance.