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GPS Screwup - Twice in Two Months

Fredrik_Coulter
over 4 years ago

Attn: Former Member

Here's a link to tonight's run (connect.garmin.com/.../6253145692).  Notice that the GPS was offset to the north for the first thirty minutes of my run.  This is now twice in two months that this has happened to my GPS.  For the first year I owned my 945 there were zero glitches to the GPS.  Now two in less than two months.

Yesterday I was debating as to whether to replace my 945 with the new one that's coming out next week.  Or if I should wait and see what the Fenix 7 offered.  Since I've got a crack in my lens, there was some pressure to replace sooner rather than later.

Now that the watch has again glitched on the GPS tracking, exactly the same way it did last month, I've made up my mind.  There is no way I can replace the watch with another, even more expensive watch, if it's unreliable.  And I'd call your GPS tracking unreliable.  (The only difference is that the CPE file claims to be "Current".  But if the data is bad in the file, the expiration date is meaningless.)

I spent as much as I did on the 945 primarily because of the mapping.  Running at night on dark, unmarked roads, I need reliable mapping.  Otherwise there's a strong possibility that I'll end up lost, and spend hours trying to find my way home.

I'm getting messages from other people who are also currently being affected by the GPS glitch, so it's not my watch.  It's a more systemic issue.

So, since I'm not going to replace my watch next week with the rumored new watch, what am I going to do?  Since reliability in mapping is a very high priority, I'm holding off replacing my watch for a minimum of one year from today.  And each time the GPS glitches like this again, the one year timer restarts.  And if my 945 dies before the timer does, I'll be looking outside the Garmin ecosystem for a replacement.  Which is a pity, because I like the features you incorporated in your 945, and was looking forward to the next generation.  I'm not sure that anyone else makes a watch as good as the one I have now, when it's working.  And that brings us right back to the reliability issue.  And once I leave the Garmin ecosystem, it's unlikely that I'll be returning.

You might want to blame the Sony chip set and the data files they provide.  But that doesn't matter.  I bought a single object, the watch.  I can't swap out the GPS chips for some other brand's.  A more reliable brand.  Garmin's reputation rests not just on what Garmin manufactures but also on what your suppliers do.  And either Garmin screwed it up, or Sony did.  It doesn't matter to me.

Actually, that's not entirely true.  I suppose if the fault does lie with Sony and Garmin publicly dumped Sony as a source for GPS chips, it might be worth considering replacing my 945 with a non-Sony GPS based watch.  That's a highly unlikely set of events.

But Garmin just lost a quick $600 next week.  Let's see if they can earn it back in the future.  

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Sony or Garmin, I wonder who screwed up?

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    How about this for 'offset'? Not even close to the roads. Versus when the GPS actually worked.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    After everything you read on the forum would you still be willing to buy a newly released Garmin? After the experience with FR645M and all its problems never again, now I have 945 mature, stable, dropped in price and I am happy, the GPS offsets do not change my life, even if occasionally the tracks are shifted the data is still correct . Garmin uses all users as beta testers without paying them, indeed the new products have very high prices, in my opinion today 500 euros the 945 is worth them all and works well, the 645M at 400 euros in 2018 money down the drain, I also have a small edge 130, very simple but after some updating SW works well, the only big problem is unusable in the cold because the battery does not hold up (I only use it in spring, summer and autumn). Before Garmin I used Tom tom Spark 2, SW problems too and eventually they went out of the market, Polar I use OH1 and I'm happy, Suunto never tried anything, but I'm certainly not here to exalt the competition. This is just my humble opinion.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to DPSK

    To me that looks like a software issue, so Garmin I guess.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to DN2

    I remember for the GPS New Year issue, some other brands using Sony chip were affected.

    So there is a possibility that Sony is at fault probably for not telling something to the watch makers.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Luca

    Yes, I'd buy a new one if I thought it would be reliable.

    Among other things, my complaints about the 945 are:

    1) I'm old and would like a larger screen for the mapping

    2) I've already banged up my 945 and would like the sapphire screen so I don't do it again.  This is a combination of trail running and general clutziness.

    And there's a third reason that I forgot.  (Told you I was getting old.)  But the important issue is that it needs to be reliable.  I'm paying for the mapping, and really don't want to run down the wrong road late at night.  So there's a reason to upgrade.  But I'd rather wait until I know that whatever happened the last couple of months doesn't happen again.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to DN2

    The problem is that the software is based on data from Sony, so it could be either one.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Corpus C.

    That's an interesting loop.  Were you soaking your watch in gin before that run?

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Well, if the next watch has the new chipset from Sony that has dual channel, that might make it accurate again, but we'll see. Also if it would have buttons that would have nice premium feeling in them, like this expensive watch should have.