Map activity GPS track wrong side of road


hello

i am wondering why when I look at the map tracks from my walks, whether on the watch or in the connect app, the track ia correct but it is plotted on the opposite side of the road I am walking on - example:  I walked south 4km, on the east side of the road, however the track is drawn on the west side.  Similarly I did another walk where I walked north on the west side of the road, but the track is plotted on the east side of the road.  Can someone explain why this occurring ?

  • don't know which country you are in but:

    delete the cpe file to make sure current data is downloaded to watch

    make sure you have configured the right GPS datum for the map you are using. eg in the UK use OS grid etc

    Let GPS settle before you record any data

    Don't forget "Garmin GPS receivers are typically accurate to within 10 meters"

    So from wherever you are, draw a circle of 10 meters around you and that the level of accuracy to expect.

    Look at this site for tables of GPS testing and accuracy https://fellrnr.com/wiki/GPS_Accuracy

    You really need to do exactly the same walk multiple times, say 10 or more to see any pattern in the GPS track.

  • Thanks for the reply.  I am in Toronto Canada and using North American map datum.  I have gps set to GPS+Galileo, I can try another.  I am okay with 10m accuracy, my issue is the entire track is on the wrong side of the road; if I cross the street it moves to the opposite side. (This doesn’t occur with a test with Apple Watch).  I will try again.  Albeit I was in the city with tall building but the sky view was not impacted at any given time during the walk.

  • Ok, you have to run any tests several times to see if the results are consistent or not.

    Have you got it set to 1 sec or smart tracking ?.

    If you are comparing to another watch you must test both watches at the same time to get the same conditions.

    You said there were tall buildings ?. You may think you have a clear view of the sky but it depends on where the satellites are in the sky, it changes every minute as they are travelling 16000 miles an hour, that's 4.4 miles a second and all in different directions. Every day will give you a different possible accuracy as the number of satellites visible and their angular difference to each other and you matter.

    With buildings etc the signal can reflect off them and give false position info

    Depending upon which apple watch series you have it may need a phone connection to get location info which means its the phone gps in use, or it may have its own gps. But apple also use a different gps chip to garmin. 

    Its known that the Garmin Sony GPS chip has issues in the fenix but they use the sony chip as its really low power and that gives you an amazing battery life (thats what I like).

    I have a F6x Sapphire and my use case is hiking and I have no issues with my track.

  • This is a known issue with Fenix 6. It has a Sony chipset for Global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Fenix 2, 3, 5, and 7 series have their chips from MediaTek (or Airoha as its subsidiary). Sony chipset tries very much to conserve battery at a cost of accuracy. It provides just an ok accuracy, but performs worse than its predecessor. 

    In Fenix 6, in my experience putting the watch on my left hand, the direction that you move also shifts the gps location to the left side. For example, moving on a clockwise loop, puts you outside of the loop, and moving counterclockwise puts you inside that loop. 

    it’s a curious thing that only Sony engineers or Garmin antenna designers can explain what’s going on. 

  • Yes, that matches my experience. I wear the watch on my left wrist and the track is almost always offset a few feet to the left. My old Forerunner 935 with the MediaTek chip was more accurate.