Garmin Instinct GPS TOO accurate.

Was delighted to find how easy it was to upload gpx. files to my Garmin Instinct. I need gps for biking the back roads of of rural Virginia. Started merrily down the road, it indicated my first turn. Wow, this is working! But I found as I rode along I would get an 'off course' alert if I so much as deviated from the shoulder of the road to the middle of the lane. There seems to be a 1 foot wide sweet spot that you must stay in or you get the 'off course' message and the thing becomes annoying as it tries to find and get me back on course. Is there any way to set it so the the 'on course' tolerance is wider? 

  • This has been a problem for years on Garmin watches and other navigation devices. Short answer is 'no', I'm afraid.

  • Would changing the navigation setting from bearing to course help? Bearing is to keep you pointed exactly on heading. The course setting, not to be confused with map courses, is to stay on heading but allow some drift.  

  • The on/off course notifications do this on a lot of garmin watches according to reviews. It can become annoying.

    It's also a case of the GPS being inaccurate, rather than "too accurate". If the GPS has you offset to 5m already from the route it can register as off course when the offset gets even worse such as under tree cover, valleys, hillsides, weather, high walls/hedges, tunnels etc.

    I have used my Instinct for Navigating 50+ routes, I often have issues where the watch shows me quite a bit off course when I know for a fact I'm right on the correct track.

    Quite often despite me waiting several minutes for the GPS to soak, it will show me offset to the side of the route when starting navigating. It gets much worse in difficult areas such as navigating in woodlands under tree cover where it can show you as much as 50ft off track according to the scale on the map navigation screen.

    The 5K runner review from a few years ago mentioned the Instincts GPS issues.

    "Garmin Instinct Review THE GPS Summary: After finally completing my formal test I found that the Instinct’s GPS performance in that test was mediocre. In easy GPS reception conditions it was good but when buildings or trees were involved the GPS performance slipped notably and the overall score was 65% and a good Garmin on a good day would normally give up to 79%, with other, non-Garmins scoring even higher. So here we are typically talking about positional accuracy often being more than 5m away from where it should be and some times a lot further away. In more day-to-day, ad hoc usage my perception was that the Instinct was generally better than my formal test suggested.

    This general level of accuracy is fine for seeing a nice post-hike track of where you have been. However the Garmin Instinct is a navigation device and I certainly noticed that sometimes it didn’t quite recognise that I’d visited Waypoints when a pre-determined course had me set to go to them and when I knew, for sure, I had been to the exact spot. So if you are looking for a precision navigation device then the Instinct is NOT for you. However, it will be ‘broadly alright’ for most people’s casual hiking and adventure needs."
    the5krunner.com/.../

  • The on/off course notifications do this on a lot of garmin watches according to reviews.

    I would be happy if sounds On course/Off course would be different. Riding on a bike, sometimes I hear a few Off course/On course signals. I do not remember if I heard odd or even amount of signals, so later when another signal comes, I do not know if  I just really am Off course, or Instinct only has good signal again. I would start petition for different sound Off course/On course, If I knew it has any meaning.Slight smile