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Ultratrac is inaccurate, so anyone have an on-wrist charging solution ?

doug.steel
over 7 years ago
I "ran" the West Highland Way Challenge Race this weekend with my 935 using Ultratrac (it took me 29hr59m so needed the extra battery life) and distance is widely out (trail is 155km, 935 measured 177km). I ran also wore an HRM-Tri and have had the watch since October so have done many calibration runs and hikes.

The gps trace has lots of extra wiggles in the trace that I didn't do, I would have expected Ultratrac to have missed points rather than added extra.

I'm not expecting Ultratrac to be spot on but 15% error seems a bit much.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2729930801

As a test I ran a 60k race last month with the same settings and recorded 62k which is much more reasonable, so I decided to go with it. It was about 5k out at 80k so within expectations, it was in the later stages that the inaccuracy seemed to get worse (perhaps because I was slowing down and my stride changed)

Given I no longer trust Ultratrac, does anyone know if there is a charging cable or cradle that can be used when the watch is worn on the wrist ?
Don't particularly want to have to attach the device to my pack while charging as I want to look at it while running.

Thanks
Doug
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    Elbo is correct that too many features are added to the 935 and fenix watches, features that don't properly work and are in reality just gimmicks.

    Why doesn't ultratrac have two settings? Poll for GPS every 30 seconds, poll for GPS every minute. Ignore the gyroscope for hikes and walks. This would provide much better tracks and save Garmin trying to query gyroscope and other badly designed sensors for slow activities that they aren't best designed to help.

    A simple GPS frequent polling would work for most people on walks and hikes. If anybody can calculate how to do that without going back to the Fenix3 that did this successfully and provided better UltraTrac function then please post here!

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    I now have one of these and will try it next spring. Earlier this year I charged my watch on the go attaching to my backpack which worked, but made it awkward to see.

    Track was much better than using ultratrac Grinning

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    You could try this charger. I haven't used it while running myself but apparently it works for others.

    https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/11/the-best-garmin-charger-only-9-for-a-two-pack-of-these-pucks.html

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I also experienced that using ultratrac results in a horrible track so I just used the cable that came with it and charged my watch in my pocket.  I couldn’t look at my watch while charging, but It didn’t take too long to charge.  I plan to do the same thing again for a 105 hour race.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to doug.steel

    I've got several of these on order as stocking stuffers.  Will be interesting to see how they work.

    I'm probably not going to use in practice as it would negate the performance improvements that I see with UltraTrac.  Testing a loaner 935 at the moment and my results have been impressive.  Pretty much matches up with my Fenix 3.  It's very sensitive to pace calibration so that's a limitation of UltraTrak in general.  That means if I calibrate at one pace and then run faster my distance will decrease.  The reverse is also true.  It produces a relatively solid track although I question whether it would be accurate enough to follow navigation on a complex course.  I never use navigation so it's not a personal concern, just an observation.  I haven't come to any conclusions regarding battery consumption yet.  Need a few more samples.