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Treadmill - distance and cadence issue

Lietchi
over 3 years ago

The past few weeks I've noticed that my distances have been off on my treadmill runs (underestimating my distance). When looking at the data more closely, it seems to be caused by incorrect cadence data.

This an example of a treadmill run before the issue started:

And this is an example of a more recent run:

I'm sure I'm not 100% consistent in my running cadenceand arm movement, but this is a bit extreme! The fact that there are drops to the same speed and cadence (half of what it should be?) over and over seems very odd. 

Any ideas on what the issues is? I'm wondering if it's hardware related (a faulty sensor?) or software related? I'm nearing the end of my 2 year warranty, so it would be good to know if I need to get a repair done.

FYI: I haven't noticed any other issues: my GPS activites seem fine, my indoor rowing shows a good stroke rate, my step counts for daily activity seem OK too.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Lietchi

    Replacing the watch will probably NOT solve the problem.

    Garmin is saying that outdoor runs are used to set the treadmill calibrations. But in your case they are saying September is not recent enough. So just exactliy how recent does the outdoor run need to be?

    I have given up trying to use the Vivoactive 4 for Treadmill walking or running. It never gets the cadence right even after a walk or run the previous day.. BTW the plain Indoor walk or run does the same thing - cadence or pace is a mess.

    So in the dead of Winter we are supposed to go outdoors and run or walk so that tomorrow we can use the treadmill? That's just NUTS!

    I really don't ever seem them fixing the indoor activities so they work cocrrectly, not after 2 years of ignoring the problems.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 4411990

    The thing is : while the distance was sometimes a bit off overall, manual calibration (based on indoor runs) worked fine and there were never such wild swings in cadence or pace as now. It worked fine for nearly two years.

    So I think my issue is not the same as yours. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin-Kevin

    I have just bought a second hand vivoactive 4, since I was informed that it could take up to a month to have my vivoactive 4s replaced/repaired.

    Lo and behold, this watch has exactly the same issue! Highly suspicious, and after looking at my runs I have come to the conclusion that my problems started after the latest firmware update.

    Which hardly seems coincidental. So the latest update didn't just fix some cadence issues, it seems to actually have created them too in my case... Is the software development team aware of this issue, and are they working on a fix? 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Lietchi

    You would have known it was not the watch that was causing the problem, if you had seen all the posts on exactly the same issue.

    As I said before: I really don't ever seem them fixing the indoor activities so they work cocrrectly, not after 2 years of ignoring the problems.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 4411990

    But I don't think the issue is fully understood. Why is it not affecting everybody if it is a firmware bug? My VA4S-watch gets cadence and distances right (or at least close) on treadmill activities.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    I’ve had this exact same issue on three different VA4s.  Each was rock solid for a while, but then flaked out. Garmin has no answer.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Garmin-Kevin

    I confirm the same problem. Walking on the treadmill at 6km/h does not detect cadence. But count the steps in the day section. I hadn't noticed this problem because I use the garmin footpod. But the vivo4 should also detect cadence without the sensor on the shoe.