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945 4.40 OWS Tracking worse after update? (see examples)

RoHyde
over 4 years ago

Hi, 

Watch is 945 with 4.40

Last year my 945 seemed to track open water swimming reasonably well. This year i started again and in the last 5 swims i noticed 2 things:

1. Sometimes within a few seconds I get like 3 signals that 100m is passed, resulting in these spikes:

2. And then there is GPS accuracy. 

This is my recorded activity:

And this is my drawing of my actual(ish) route:

This is the link to the activity:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/4907166811

I know the difficulties and challenges when it comes to OWS tracking, but for my feeling the accuracy deteriorated.

Anybody else got these same results? 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Hehe, just found the solution today with Swim2, the issue is exactly the same. On my other wrist there was a FR945, so I know that it is the same issue for sure. Switch OFF Physio TrueUp, and check if that solves your problem.

    More about this:

    forums.garmin.com/.../ow-swim-gps-loss-always

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to PG

    Physio TrueUp has been set to 'off' the entire time I've used my FR945.  I also have a slow stroke rate. 

    I'm surprised to see others have found the distance measured during their swims are accurate vs. the significant extra distance Garmin 945 adds to my swims.

    Hoping there's a fix, and soon!

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to SwimRide

    Try to switch off every unnecessary functions what might use computing resources on the fly. I do not know which are these in 945, first I would switch off pulsoxymeter, all extra physiological metrics, maybe activity tracking (I am still not sure if it is needed to OW tracking or not).

    Experiment with the settings, the new way of OW tracking has a much better accuracy potential, but I guess that it needs much more computing resources. This might overload the processor, dropping the proper OW tracking.

    Or there is a bug, but right now it seems that simple change of settings might solve the issue. Remember, most probably the problem is processor overload.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to PG

    Thanks for the tips! Will go and try it out. Next swim I will put the watch on my right arm, and turn off Physio TrueUp and other things that i might encounter and not use. Will post my results here. 

    Any idea if It will work if I put an old Forerunner 225 in the swim buoy to record "a run" for heaving a reference distance?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to RoHyde

    Another idea to switch bluetooth and wifi off for the swim. I do not remember how it was the last time, but I know that for all failed OW tracks BT was ON for sure (swim2 does not have wifi).

    If in the buoy the watch can see the sky continuously, it should work fine. Swimming option is needed only if the watch goes underwater regularly.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to PG

    I ruled out activity tracking, it does not matter if it is switched on or off. Bluetooth and Physio TrueUp remained, but bluetooth is the strongest candidate.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to PG

    I followed your tips and made the following adjustments:

    1. Switched off Pysio TrueUp

    2. Switched off Wifi

    3. Switched watch to right hand.

    And i got much better results! I had a second device in my buoy and distance was approximately the same. 

    In my next swim i will switch the watch back to my left arm, to make sure the improvements are coming from the setting changes.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to RoHyde

    Glad that your watch improved.

    Bad news for me, that mine started again the unacceptable measurement, after I changed some minor settings. However my problem might be some Swim2 bug interaction, I am not sure. I also switched back to the left hand, but i still doubt that the side change has any effect. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Two swim tracks from the past weekend. The 945 produces a more 'granular' track which suggests the 'smoothing' from the algorithm is perhaps not as aggressive as the F6. It's a 2000m buoyed swim course with buoys at 250m well it would be but the last two are missing currently so it's a matter of swimming to the 250m autolap setting.. Anyhow, ~140 difference in distance perfectly acceptable allowing for slight difference in the the start and stop positions.

    I have had smoother tracks from the 945 before so suspect the most recent software change needs a little tidying up. But I'm quite content with this.

    945 OWS GPS+GLONASS, BT, WiFi, PhysioTrueUp - basically no changes from normal use.

    F6 the same settings.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

    but i suppose you haven't swam like a drunk guy :-) - so i'd say the f6 tracked a bit better. the 945 tracks more or less sometimes like a chainsaw (same goes for mine) - so that's what garmin needs to improve. i'd also say that those extra 140m are a direct result of those small but many spikes. i also guess that you're on the latest gps fw 4.3?! on the f6 and i really hope to see the same improvements on the 945 tomorrow :-), and if not tomorrow the day after ;-). and ps: really hate you for that :D, we're still under a milder lockdown, pools are closed and the water in the nearby lake is still around 13 degrees celsius so i haven't had a swim in over 2 months...