Vivoactive 4S Custom Stride Length Doesn't do anything???

Apologies... That should have read "more accurate WHEN walking (autostart activity) without GPS. Appreciate any thoughts on this please ?

@ Garmin-Isabella. Can you advise anything on this at all ? Have emailed Garmin Help and was sent a ridiculous reply suggesting custom stride length is an estimated feature. Quite obviously, the term custom would imply otherwise.

5393261 said:

Can you advise anything on this at all ? Have emailed Garmin Help and was sent a ridiculous reply suggesting custom stride length is an estimated feature. Quite obviously, the term custom would imply otherwise.

Hello! How different is distance? Does the GPS record a further distance?

• Hi. My walk to work is 1.2miles by GPS. Without GPS it’s 0.9miles. Neither doubling or halving my custom stride length changes the 0.9miles without GPS. I haven’t managed to repeat longer, identical walks with and without gps but with a 25% difference on such a short walk and no variance when custom values adjusted I don’t expect it to be much better.

5393261 said:

Hi. My walk to work is 1.2miles by GPS. Without GPS it’s 0.9miles. Neither doubling or halving my custom stride length changes the 0.9miles without GPS. I haven’t managed to repeat longer, identical walks with and without gps but with a 25% difference on such a short walk and no variance when custom values adjusted I don’t expect it to be much better.

When you are walking to work, do you have a normal arm swing the entire time? Do you ever put your hands in your pockets or text while walking? If so, the accelerometer on the watch will not count those steps and the distance. Also, the more frequent the device is used in an activity with GPS signal, the more accurate the speed and distance will be on the accelerometer. 

I walk the same way wherever I go. I don’t excessively swing my arms because GPS is switched off.

You are missing the point...

I should be able to increase my stride length to close the gap from 0.9miles to 1.2miles. What I am saying is that this doesn’t work
I accept nothing is 100% accurate in this but in theory... 

If 1 mile is 1000 steps and I half the value for my step length. 1000 steps should then be closer to 0.5 miles. If I double the value 1000 steps becomes nearer 2 miles. (Values simplified)..

This doesn’t happen. The distance without GPS is 0.9miles regardless of step length set.

5393261 said:

I walk the same way wherever I go. I don’t excessively swing my arms because GPS is switched off.

You are missing the point...

I should be able to increase my stride length to close the gap from 0.9miles to 1.2miles. What I am saying is that this doesn’t work
I accept nothing is 100% accurate in this but in theory... 

If 1 mile is 1000 steps and I half the value for my step length. 1000 steps should then be closer to 0.5 miles. If I double the value 1000 steps becomes nearer 2 miles. (Values simplified)..

This doesn’t happen. The distance without GPS is 0.9miles regardless of step length set.

I am sorry, I may have confused you and I was able to get some clarification. Couple things here, first, if you are using the autostart activity it could be starting the tracking later than manually starting a GPS activity. Could we have you try to manually start a non GPS activity and see if the distance is the same as a GPS one? Secondly, when using the custom stride length feature, this will only apply to the all day activity tracking with the accelerometer. It will not apply to steps in an activity. The GPS feature is used to calibrate the step length/distance for "inside an activity". Here is a helpful article that talks more about the custom stride feature. 

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=RAsAiDCmNM2mxSkOcPQCQ8&searchQuery=custom%20stride%20length

Ok Isabella. 

my response to that would be that I also use auto start with the GPS switched on. It’s set at 5 mins for both. So starts at the same time and that’s when I get 0.9m and 1.2m.

however your second part says that custom stride length doesn’t apply to steps in an activity. So I guess that answers my original question of it not doing anything.

Why it wouldn’t work for an activity is beyond me really as surely that’s when it should apply.

mom also not really sure that, that is what the link is actually saying either. To me if you’re waking a distance and counting the steps to set a custom stride length for accuracy during activity tracking. Then it should apply when you are doing an activity.

Let’s just leave it there and agree to disagree.

Thanks for your efforts.