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Fenix 6x Sapphire does not uptade GPS position when ascending.

Dima

The issue:
Position triangle suddenly stops moving when ascending relatively steep slopes (about 25 degrees and steeper). It may be stuck for 2 minutes, 20 minutes or even more. Resulting track segment is almost straight line with few points which does not reflect the actual route.
Here is the link for two tracks recorded with Fenix 6x Sapphire and GPSMAP 66i (both devices on me):
https://nakarte.me/#m=17/52.88894/93.38702&l=Otm/Wp&nktl=iXaMFWV18FyZuPJxx9QOkg

Conditions:
The watch is on the outside of my left wrist. Absolutely clear sky above, no trees and other tall obstructions around. Activity - Hike. GPS indicator shows full signal.
I have tried different GPS settings (changed sattelite systems, data recording interval) and full reset - nothing helped.

Found solutions and observations:
If I change sattelite system or perform sequence "pause - resume later - resume" during this "stuck triangle" situation, the watch almost instantly finds my correct location, not for long hovewer. Then why the watch is unable to reacquire correct position by itself?
The situation seems to be better with tall trees around.
I guessed that it has something to do with "wrong signal" refleсted from the surface, so i tried wearing the watch on the inner side of my wrist and looks like the situation is better, but it requires further testing.

In any other situation the watch performs almost flawlessly with expected GPS accuracy.
I've had this issue since firmware 4.40 and it is still there on 19.20.
I've never had such issue on my older watch - Fenix 5x.

  • 0

    Approx which cadence (steps per minute) do you have when this accurr? Under 60 perhaps?

  • 0 in reply to AndersB

    Dont know exactly, but definitely slower than walking on flat terrain or down the hill. Under 60 steps per minute is realistic.

  • 0 in reply to Dima

    Im having similar problems like you have when walking really slow in the woods (when mushroom picking) and for me its the low cadence which causes it. It seems like the device "thinks" that im standing still when it happens. I dont have any solution though, more then increasing the cadence to over 60 (more than 1 step per second). Seems to be a glitch (or bad working feature) in the software. 

  • 0

    Did some quick testing today. It looks like that pace or speed is really affecting my position and track recording accuracy, but different activity programs handle it differently. I intentionally walked on flat terrain really slowly, and while in the Hike mode the position triangle simply stops moving, in the "Track me" or "Climb" programs it moves, but the watch does not record points until I move far enough (position triangle in this case is connected with stretching red line).
    So the Fenix 6x heavily relies on accelerometer in some activites, which was not the case with Fenix 5x. And positioning lag can go to extreme (several hundred meters or more deviation) until the watch understands that I actually moved. This is absolutely unacceptable, and I would like to know about this and other possible "hidden" features in different activities while reading the manual.

    I'm gonna do some more testing on this subject.

  • 0

    I assume you have the Autopause settings to Off?

  • 0 in reply to Dima

    Have you tried Walk instead of Hike?

    There have been a few posts about Hike tracking poorly when moving slowly. Be nice to firm up whether it's app specific to point this out to Garmin.

    FWIW, yesterday I was using Trail Run ascending a slope that was just shy of 30% in places, and I saw no such problems, though that said it was a trail race and my cadence only dropped below 100 when I actually stopped to take a couple of photos (well, it's not like I was going to win, and the view was too good to ignore :) ) - so wouldn't hit the level Anders mentions.

  • 0 in reply to mcbadger

    I will try different similar activities and Walk is among them. But for now it is clear that acceleration of the watch is the main factor and it has nothing to do with steepness of the slope. It matters only because I go uphill with heavy backpack really slowly and my wrist has minimal acceleration.

  • 0

    Did some more testing and found that:
    1) GPS positioning lag only appears then your speed (pace) drops below some threshold (don't know the exact number).
    2) The lag does not appear immediately after significant drop in pace, some time has to elapse.
    3) It happens in different activities (I've tried Hike, Walk, Climb and Track me), although pace threshlolds might be different.
    4) To fix that lag I have to either sicnificantly increase my pace for next several steps, switch satellite system, or restart activity.
    5) Fenix 5x does not suffer from this issue.

    This is really unfortunate for me as a mountaneer, since slow pace when climbing mountains is a normal thing.
    What really confuses me, is that the watch is able to find correct position precisely after switching satellite system or restarting activity.
    It appears that Garmin saves the battery in this way, and I would rather sacrifice more energy for better positioning quality. Forced GPS repositioning after some time of "supposed movement absence" definitely should be added.

  • 0 in reply to Dima

    Did you try to increase the cadence (but keep the same slow pace)? I found some kind of speed threshold around 0.5 m/s when I looked at it. But i could walk slower if the cadence was over 60 (over 1 step per second). 

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