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vivoactive 3 Series Poor GPS accuracy and reproducability.

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Poor GPS accuracy and reproducability.

Former Member over 5 years ago

Hi guys,

I've got a Vivoactive 3 music and in general I'm quite happy with the device. However, lately I noticed that the GPS accuracy of this device is actually really bad (almost a little bit a shame for a sportwatch).

I'm using data recording every second and I'm using both the GPS and Galileo system (since I'm living in Belgium).

Some examples of the accuracy of recent activities, regarding runs in open areas near a canal. Even though I like swimming, I'm not doing this during my run. Neither am I randomly running across the streets.

In open areas within the city (there is no real high-rise overhere), the GPS is really starting to do some crazy sh*t. I'm actually on the Bondgenotenlaan and also on the opposite site as the one that is registered with this Vivoactive. In general, reproducability (returning through the same street) is very low as well. In Europe, the Galileo system should provide us accurate GPS data with an accuracy up to 1 meter. However, errores measured by the Vivoactive here are more on the scale of 10 M's.

Places were the Vivoactive really screws things up are on a running track near the city, partly in a forrested area. The difference between the registered route on the vivoactive increases up to 15% (registering 850 meter per lap, while as each lap is 1000 meter (blue)). As you can see, accuracy on certain spots on the track are characterised by really low accuracy (green arrow). In addition, since I run several laps on this track, you can also clearly see that reproducability of the data is low as well, with an enormous scatter in between the GPS location of succesive laps.

Anyone experiencing similar problems? Is this normal for a Vivoactive? Is the the accuracy you get and you kind of have to live with?

Any other tips on how to increase the accuracy? Are there devices with significantly better GPS sets?

Regards,

Michaël

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0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Yes. GPS accuracy very bad last few days.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Yes. GPS accuracy very bad last few days.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Very inaccurate in London last feed days, both with my Vivoactivr 3 and a friend's Garmin. Thinks I'm running a km in 1 min 30.sec! Start and end location wrong - I didn't run across a lake and stop at another. Route location jumping around all over. Used the same route previously with no problems. Rich

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

I have been having the same problem and also my pace has not been accurate either - I know I am going slow but the watch says I have having an amazing pace. Any ways to solve this?? Thanks!

0 7682966 over 5 years ago

Hi Michael

Sound like a universal issue. I have the va3m as well in Sydney Australia. Same route as normal but the gps is way off. Has only occurred the last few days for me. Hopefully enough people report to garmin to resolve the issue.

Happy running.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

I had the same issue the other day! Yesterday I went running in a location I have been running before, normally my V3 would track this path with no problem. However, yesterday the system could not find the route, went running off the path several times and tracked my run in middle of the water. It also accidentally just jumped to the other side of the water and back after some time. This really ruins my stat as I cannot edit anything of my path!

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Hi guys,

Thanks for the answers and too bad you are experiencing similar issues.

I hope Garmin experts will give a follow-up on this question.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

I'm also a bit puzzled by the poor accuracy. I've also got the GPS+Galileo (I live in Norway).

Pace 6:38/km for 12km with the Vivoactive 3:

Vivoactive 3

Pace 5:28/km for 10k with the Garmin Forerunner 935:

Garmin Forerunner 935

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

Thanks for this comparison Havkros! This answers already one of my questions, that there are devices with better GPS sets as the vivo!

Still think garmin should advertise this better and transparent tho. Still awaiting response from a Garmin mod ;)

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

Still.. I want to point out that I'm happy with the accuracy of VA3, as long as it doesn't get any worse. :P However, I find it strange that the GPS+Galileo is that much off. Just for fun, here is the same track with the Polar Vantage M watch. Pace 5:08/km for 8km:

VA3 is way better than that one at least