This discussion has been locked.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

My FootPod data is incredibly erratic lately

It's Garmin's footpod. I've had it for about 10 weeks. It calibrated itself (to 99.3) after a few runs, with Autocalibrate on. It seemed pretty good during treadmill runs, by which I simply mean it returned pretty darn consistent pace data, giving smooth pace lines during treadmill workouts, and the distance/pace data it reported seemed to match with my own perceptions of my pace and speed changes etc. It was mostly useful because it was really consistent. One example during a short treadmill run (on a wobbly cruise ship in pretty choppy seas nonetheless haha):

In the last couple weeks it's been dreadful, erratic and inconsistent. The pace fluctuates wildly over short periods - a few seconds or tens of seconds - and is so far off of the distances my treadmill measures (like >10%) that it is basically now untrustworthy. The speeds it reports varies by as much as ±1 mph, or pace ±1:30 min/mile even at totally constant treadmill belt speeds. Here's a representative tracing from a short, slower run from tonight; I increased the belt speed by 0.1 mph at the halfway mark, then a couple of times in the final quarter. But for the first half of the run, and then from the halfway mark to about 90% the treadmill belt speed was at a constant. But the pace graph looks like seismograph:

I do use it on a couple different shoes, which I know can affect calibration, but could that cause this much spiky data? I am careful to make sure the Pod is clipped on tonight and doesn't slide around. The battery is < 2 months old but I changed it after tonight anyway, and have re-paired it with my watch (fenix 6XS) even though I know it might reset my calibration.

Could it be the movement of rotating my wrist to look at the watch that does it, by changing the distance between the antennas? Seems far-fetched, but I was checking the watch a lot. Some sort of interference? Low battery? Loose connections inside? Or has it maybe just failed?

Has anyone else seen erratic data returns like this? Any suggestions or insights or experiences like this?

Thanks a ton for any assistance at all!

Top Replies

tmk2 over 5 years ago +1

Anthony W said:
Could it be the movement of rotating my wrist to look at the watch that does it, by changing the distance between the antennas?

No, unless you inadvertently change your pace when being distracted…
Anthony W over 3 years ago in reply to indysmo +1

I found a perfect, but costly, solution. I bought a Stryd pod.

All Replies

0 tmk2 over 5 years ago

Anthony W said:
Could it be the movement of rotating my wrist to look at the watch that does it, by changing the distance between the antennas?

No, unless you inadvertently change your pace when being distracted by looking at the watch.

0 Anthony W over 5 years ago in reply to tmk2

hey, thanks, yeah, thought of that too; maybe a momentary slight variation but not enough to account for the huge variations I'm seeing. I might just see if I can swap it with a new one.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Have you tried changing the battery? When my HRM battery gets low, I get super weird and erratic results. Especially if it was working fine for the first 10 weeks and no major firmware update.

0 Anthony W over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Thanks for your reply! I did indeed, and also have taken to power cycling the watch before starting a run, and it has been much better!

And I ordered a Stryd.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Anthony W

Strugle with footpod showing erratic measurements. The reading jump to 2min/km and then back to the correct pace. This happen 5 to 10 time for some rime up to 2min long spikes. Did reconnect with Fenix5 without improvement. Any advice?

0 Fozziebear over 5 years ago

I have been having problems with my footpod for a while now. So much so that Garmin sent me another free of charge thinking that the one I had was faulty. I have been experiencing the same erratic behavior i have with the other one. Some runs on the treadmill it registers speed, cadence, and distance fine. Other times my pace and cadence charts are similar to yours and sometimes worse. Last night i did a 6 mile run on the treadmill at the same pace the entire run. My paces via the footpod, in order of miles, was 10.37, 10.27, 10.10, 9.23, 9.29, and 9.34. The run cadence chart ranged from 164 to 179. I never changed the speed on the treadmill. Basically I am probably going to buy a Stryd footpod. The garmin ones are just too unreliable.

0 indysmo over 3 years ago

I was hopeful someone here had found a solution. I've had my footpod 2-3 year and overall, it has been pretty solid when on the treadmill. Lately though, I notice that as the start of runs, the recorded pace drops significantly and only seems to correct itself either after brief stop(s) or after a lap counter. I've replaced the battery and checked calibrations. Anything else to look at? If cadence is in fact coming from the footpod, those numbers are consistent throughout the run. Any new suggestions would be welcome. My footpod is synced to a Forerunner 235.

0 Anthony W over 3 years ago in reply to indysmo

I found a perfect, but costly, solution. I bought a Stryd pod.

0 indysmo over 3 years ago in reply to Anthony W

Thanks! I read you earlier post about Stryd and have been reading their product notes. Sounds like it is very accurate, even when used indoors. If I understand their docs correctly, with my FR235, the outdoor distance (and maps, etc.) will come from the Garmin (when the GPS is on) but everything else from Stryd. If that is in fact true, I think that works. The power training data is interesting.