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Continued GPS Issues

About a month ago I replaced my Edge 820 with the 830 primarily due to needing more battery life. I know how Garmin products get rolled out - basically a public beta then slowly but surely get better over time. That said, the two pictures below show the GPS track of my 820 vs the new 830. The picture of the 820 track was from my last ride on that unit about a month ago, the picture of the 830 track is from my latest ride in the exact same area after about a month of use with the new unit. I've ridden this trail approximately 2 dozen times over the last month and it has yet to get any better with any fw update/beta.

Most will say that GPS will struggle in some areas no matter what, but the problem I have with that is my 820 had no issue in the areas that the 830 looks like an apple watch (very bad).

I'll probably also get crucified (which is fine) by some saying they've had zero issues whatsoever. I will concede that I have basically zero issues on road rides but for obvious reasons those are generally less of a challenge for a gps unit.

The settings are identical between the two units - GPS+Glonass, 1 sec recording, same mounting position, same everything. Because of my frustration and wanting to see what was going on I set up a data screen that simply shows GPS accuracy as well as signal strength. I have NEVER seen this screen display anything but 9 feet accuracy and full signal despite two laps of the same trail being significantly far apart from each other in terms of GPS track. Either the accuracy field is a complete gimmick or the trail somehow moves in the 20 minutes or so it takes me to get back around for lap 2.

Does anybody "in the know" have some idea as to whether or not anything in the works for FW updates will ever solve my problem? I'm open to any and all suggestions to include ditching the 830 altogether. It's a shame because I like many of the other new features associated with the 830 and the touchscreen finally works great. For what it's worth no FW update/beta has ever made any noticeable difference whatsoever in accuracy, I'm currently on 4.10 (the latest picture is from this FW).

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0 hulster over 4 years ago

I have read in several forums about issues with accurracy especially in woods or valleys. But seems not everybody is affected.

As long as Garmin does not give a clear statement here I would propose - if it is still an option - to send it back, and wait until the situation has been clarified.

Btw: Your header/subject is not very useful. Stating an issue with GPS accuracy anyhow may get more attendance. So people might thought about a feature request and not an issue.

0 macnuts over 4 years ago

Have you tried GPS beta firmware too?

Not sure if GPS fw had been updated with 4.10; check you device and if GPS is not 2.42 then you may try that beta fw.

0 bglover11 over 4 years ago in reply to macnuts

Yes! Forgot to mention I'm on 2.42.. didn't seem to make a difference over the previous GPS fw.

Good suggestion though

0 bglover11 over 4 years ago in reply to hulster

Thanks! Good suggestion, I fixed the header.

Ya it seems as though my only two current options are to either return to my 820 and wait for a while until Garmin irons out something with the 830 or to just put up with it. Hoping for a magic option 3 though..

0 Jaran over 4 years ago

Thank you for this post bglover11. I have exactly the same issues as you have and there are not only multiple reports about it in this forum but also in the neighbour forum of the Edge 530, see e.g.

https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/cycling/f/edge-530/166694/gps-accuracy

https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/cycling/f/edge-530/168753/edge-530-gps-accuracy-is-fixed-at-3m

https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/cycling/f/edge-830/167482/rubbish-gps-help

https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/cycling/f/edge-830/165787/poor-gps-recept-edge-830

forums.garmin.com/.../912695

Similar posts appear over at DC Rainmakers comment section about the Edge 830 (https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/04/garmin-edge-830-cycling-gps-in-depth-review.html/comment-page-2#comment-3287210) and for example in a German mountain bikers forum (https://www.mtb-news.de/forum/t/garmin-edge-830-530.890931/page-7#post-16025229).

I have compared recordings of my rides from the Edge 830 and my GPS-only Suunto Ambit 2 and found the latter one to be almost always spot on the tracks. This is also true when recording the same tour with both devices at the same time.

And yes, I'm on the latest firmwares too and see the issues using GPS+GLONASS (Galileo had some other issues and never appears to be better in accuracy that GPS/GLONASS on the Edge 830).

I'd also like to know if this is a matter being worked on or is this just a big batch of devices with a loose antenna or something?

That being said apparantly the 830 and the 530 uses a new chip from Sony which does appear to have similar issues in other devices like the Suunto 9 watch. Here's a comparison between a multi-generation older Suunto Ambit and the Suunto 9 where you can see in the screenshots that the newer Suunto 9 struggles too where the older Ambit is better on track: https://besthiking.net/gps-accuracy-suunto-ambit-suunto-9/

0 bglover11 over 4 years ago in reply to Jaran

Interesting, I knew that the new Edge devices used a new chip but I wasn't aware of the seemingly related issues with the Suunto 9. Thanks for that info..

I'm still within my return window at REI so I'm tempted to swap it out for a different unit in hopes that maybe I got a bad one

0 DBD.2020 over 4 years ago

I agree GPS accuracy is not good . Does 'lock to road' improve the trace or throw it right off?

0 bglover11 over 4 years ago in reply to DBD.2020

I have no idea how Lock On Road would work on an off-road ride but haven't tried it. Seems to be for navigation/routing purposes anyway which I don't use off-road.

0 DBD.2020 over 4 years ago in reply to bglover11

Worth a try I think (until Garmin sorts out the overall poor accuracy of the GPS chip).

On my unit if Lock On Road is enabled the triangle does lock to the road - either to the street outside my home or to the fire trail in the bush land outside the back fence if that's closer and it locks to road even if not navigating or routing and even though the toggle for Lock on Road is located at Profile > Navigation > Routing.

On the Mountain Bike profile Lock on Road is off by default. If you turn it on and your routeable map recognises your trail it should lock onto it. Your screen shot shows a mapped trail so it might work. If your trail is not on the map the unit might have trouble placing your triangle on the trail you are on rather than a near by one that it does recognise.

0 hulster over 4 years ago

Would be great to see some comment from GARMIN here.

Due to some summer sale I have ordered an 830, but if not any solution provided I will strictly send it back. As being a mountainbiker I need an acceptable accuracy, otherwise it is impossible either to navigate and/or find specific traisl.