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newby questions instinct solar tactical (inaccurate Gps, sleep tracking)

Former Member
Former Member over 3 years ago

Hi,
I'm new to Garmin and have some questions. I recently bought a Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical, basically for running and other outdoor activities.

Running: When I go outside and start the Run functionality, it takes several minutes until the Gps circle on the right top is full. If I start running before that is the case then incorrect data like an obviously wrong speed is displayed. Of course I could wait several minutes standing in the cold before starting to run, but that is not feasible. What am I doing wrong?

Sleep tracking: I used to have a really cheap Mi Band which told me when I slept. In Garmin I have to set my sleep time in the app. I don't have fixed sleep times and the watch keeps on waking me up because it detected a low heart rate or tells me that I should move or other stupid notifications that come from the watch itself, like 'move marker cleared'. How can I set the watch to detect when I'm sleeping instead of just tracking the times I set manually?

Also, do I really have to use the app to set the sleep times or am I just too blind to find where to set it on the watch itself? Every time I start the app it creates an icon in the status bar and I have to kill it in the app settings to get rid of it (Android) , I really don't like to start this app.
So far I am very disappointed by this watch and only use it to display the time and use the timer when cooking. Hopefully someone can point out how to use it in a less frustrating way.

Thanks in advance, Didi

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Regarding the GPS, the watch gets satellite location information from your phone and computer when it syncs. If you hold menu-> settings-> about and scroll down you should see your CPE as either current or expired. If expired, sync with Garmin Connect until it says current. This should improve your GPS lock time to around 30 seconds if you are outside. Keep in mind your CPE will expire again after several days so sync regularly. 

    Im not sure about accounting for your unpredictable sleep schedule other than turning the alert itself off.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 3 years ago in reply to 8299722

    Thanks for the quick response! That sounds like something similar to downloading ephemerides in the 90s, I had expected there were some clever algorithms nowadays to avoid that. I just was writing that this does not work after I synced the watch with garmin connect and garmin explore one after another when some moments later I saw that it now displays "CPE: Current" Muscle. I think I know what this did and I know I will receive a much quicker Gps fix now. Thank you so much for pointing me there.

    Sleep tracking is not the focus of this watch, but I think it is completely useless then because in fact almost nobody has really fixed sleep times for 365 days a year, I will switch it off. Hmm, I guess if it cannot detect when I'm sleeping it also cannot suppress warnings while sleeping which means I have to disable the Move functionality entirely.

    Anyhow I think I will sell this watch again, I guess I'm way too old to wait for my technical equipment to be ready before I can start. I always run the same route along a river crossing 2 bridges so I can easily measure the distance using osm and the time with a simple casio stopwatch whose batteries last for years. So can run without being connected to the internet, even without having a smartphone or an app at all First placeTrophyMedal. And for navigation I'll use the good old unbreakable garmin geko MuscleMuscleMuscle so please don't stop supporting this old stuff Nerd

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Hi! I can totally sympathise with your feelings. Without loading ephemeride data, the fix on most modern GPS watches still takes longer than on offline phones, probably because the chips are supposed to use less power.

    And always being online with your watch kind of makes it redundant, because, apart from heartrate monitoring and thus HRV calculation, your phone can do the same, and better.

    Also, Garmin Connect and the cloud services are a huge privacy invasion. I certainly don't want my private routes to land in some heatmap - as they would.

    Versatile sleep tracking on Garmin watches, even though it's mostly analysed 'in the cloud', is worse than on cheaper Fitbit and other bands and watches from years ago. The newest watches have offline sleep tracking, which is kind of cool, though. If you want that at all.

    With Garmin in general it's: Are you prepared to pay that amount money for that amount of features that work that amount of time? It's the reason why I would not buy an Instinct Solar at full price, or a Fenix, although the maps would be nice.