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GPS accuracy: less accurante than 920xt?

Hi,

I did my first ride this morning with my new Edge 530.

I also used my Forerunner 920xt.

After, on Garmin Connect, I have checked both stats.

One thing that stood out. When I look at the map, my 920xt stayed more on the road and more in straight line.

My Edge 530 had more deviation and sometimes, it would show me that I crossed over the other side of the street...

I would have expected my Edge 530 to be at least as good as my 920xt.

Is it normal?

Can I do something to improve it?

I live in Montreal, Canada. I don't ride in streets with very tall building. Both devices have GPS+Glonass activated.

Thanks!

  • Hi, be pleased that you have a 920xt, in my opinion it’s the best device Garmin have ever made, both for GPS and bluetooth.  It is possible that the track is better on the 920. Sometime last year Garmin moved to a new GPS chipset from Sony. The main cited reason for the move was because the Sony chipset used much less power than the previous chipset. Many other companies have made the switch too, but all of them are struggling to some extent to get as good results with it as the old chipsets. Believe it or not Garmin seem to be the closest. I would also check that you have your data recording set to “1 second” rather than “smart” which I believe is the default, which will give you more data points. Also check to see if GPS+GLOSNASS is set, some people have better luck with just GPS or Just GLOSNASS. 

  • You would believe that chipsets get better, but it is more like they are still just good enough but get more efficient.

    My best unit was my old Forerunner 305 with the SirfStar Chipset. That beast produced rocksolid tracks, But to be fair, only a small fraction of people would buy such a clunky watch nowadays.

  • The most off course that I get is when I pass under a train track. You can see it on the image.

     

  • also try the GPS + Galileo, smart recording reduces the number of points, the longer the activity, you will notice less strava segments matched after the activity. I have been doing some testing with the 530 and its using predictive GPS or smoothing based previous points direction of travel, so when you take a corner fast the gps point is predicted to be going straighter and eventually gets back on track. 

  • Just got a 530 a few weeks ago, first ride with gps and glonass was ok, but further rides draws me to the conclusion I have a problem, probably the worst tracks of any gps device i've owned, if it sees a tree or a bunch of trees it jumps all over the place, I also use a fenix 5 x plus which is the best gps device i've owned for accuracy and everything else, it's way better than the edge 530, I've opened a ticket and sent my gps file to garmin so lets see what happens now.  

  • Yeah the 530 GPS chip is rubbish, I'm interested to hear what they say in reply to your ticket. I guess they will try to make you jump hoops until you give up by getting you to do trials with Galileo on then off then something else all along without admitting that the actual problem is the crappy Sony GPS chip that doesn't track properly. 

  • Hi xv1234, Please keep us informed.

  • I was using GPS + Glonass. I tried GPS alone, and it was a little better. I will try GPS + Galileo.

  • Ok these are the instructions i was given, word for word below, the software folder was called something else on mine, basically and correct me if i'm wrong, but  it contains gps history and algorithms , after I left the unit outside for 20 minutes to re acquire satellites, also I done map updates which took over 3 hours,  not had the chance to try it out yet, as work and weather, but will as soon as i get a chance. When they looked at my trace on my activity they agreed that it was poor, and not acceptable, the soaking of gps after deleting folder I know is important, I hope this is useful for somebody, but as I said, I don't know if it has worked yet.

     

    Happy to help today can you try this for me

    Connect the device to the computer, 

    Open the device folder 

    Open the Garmin folder 

    locate the remotesw folder 

    delete this for me epo.bin

    sync the device via express for me How Do I Install Garmin Express?

    Kind regards,

    Connor

    Garmin Europe

  • Hi, xv1234,

    Did you try?

    If yes, any improvement?