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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 swtex15

    I don't think that Garmin can fix the GPS problem. It's not a software problem, all watch makers using this GPS chipset suffer from the same problems. The inner wrist position is maybe the best compromise in terms of antenna position and angle. The shift to the left isn't always that big, I don't think they can solve that with an algorithm. The only thing they will do if they consider it's a significant issue is changing for another GPS chipset... if they can find a good one. Or maybe dual frequency GPS will bring a real solution to improve the accuracy. But that won't help our current watches !

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    So, I mentioned this problem long time ago, but noone listen. Unfortunately it seems that if you wear the watch on diffrent hands is not afecting only the track, but also afects distance and pace to. Also this expensive ”toy” has also other major problems, if you run in diffrent directons for example... if you run a loop let say a 1 km loop on clockwise direction it reports a distance and pace, if you change runing direction counterclockwise the watch reports diffrent parameters.... different distance, diffrent pace and also the track is diffrent. I mentioned this problem since Garmin Fenix 3 model, the problem continued to Garmin Fenix 5 and now with GF 6 is the same. I dont want to disapoint you, but that is the best Garmin can do, and only solution you have is to change the brand... it is what I will do, it is too much for me... I hoped from F3 that Garmin will be better, I was disapointed with G5, and now the problem persists with G 6. I”m done, my conclusion is that the Garmin enginiers canot do better, this is their limit.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to RISBAC

    This is pure magic but seems to work for me while running too. See below the same track (other day but perfect blue sky). One on inner wrist the other one normal outside position.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to majkim6

    Can you explain which is which on the captures? Green is not from the watch right?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Crizzu

    Good luck with other brands then, because most use the Sony GPS chipset, and it's very similar. I'm testing a Suunto 9, and from my limited lockdown runs, the F6X is better. Coros is said to be a bit better, but I don't expect anything spectacular. Garmin engineers are probably mostly limited by this GPS chipset. And it's the one we see for most watches...

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to RISBAC

    First one, inner wrist, second one, outer wrist, am I right ?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to RISBAC

    Yes, green is the reference (my actual position marked on the map). (I've reported this to beta team)

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to RISBAC

    Yes, exact, not difficult to recognise, right?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to majkim6

    Yes. I'm waiting to have more runs and different conditions (forest and nature) before really concluding, but for now, it's certainly better. and the same from a Suunto 9. The human body is interfering with the GPS signal, so maybe the inner wrist position is less of a problem (just read a paper demonstrating that closer to the body could actually be better... ). 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to RISBAC

    In general I made 7k run almost the same track as on the other day, definitely inner wrist position was waaaay better along the whole run in all conditions (open field, tall buildings, partially forest roads).