Swimming GPS accuracy of Suunto 5

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@tomas5 it’s not the first time I see this. Actually I had the same with my s9P.

I’ll keep you posted. Let the next week start to get some feedback.

Tomas5

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos i will compare next week with old ambit if weather will be still good. I don’t swim open water a lot. But it was strange that i had to wait on other side of lake to gps to catch signal. Never noticed this with ambit 2s.

sartoric

@tomas5 The antenna makes a big differnce

Tomas5

@sartoric it is possible, thats reason i posted here and not contacted suunto directly because it is possible that it is normal for S5. I wanted to know experience of other s5 users. I wasn’t satisfied with accuracy when hiking too. But thanks to other users i found out that on average, combination gps+glonass is best for hiking and accuracy is quite well.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@tomas5 different chip friend.

I have exactly the same issue. Once the hand stays a lot in the water it drops the gps and take a lot of time to find it. 10s or so.

So it requires effort to keep the pace and track ok.

Suunto is investigating it with Sony. Was not like this before. Possibly it’s a regression of a recent fw update on the gps chip. I have tracks from 2018 that are perfect.

Tomas5

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos thanks for info. If it will be fixed it would be great. I don’t swim much but i like to track it if possible.

Tomas5

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos next summer is here in few months, do you know if there is some progress in solving this issue?

Djordje S

@tomas5 I have the same issue with S9.Had to wait 10-30 sec to update parameters.Hope it will be fixed before summer

Kai Sly

@tomas5
Breaststroke is probably not the best choice for OWS Swimming distance measurement accuracy. All watches (Polar, Garmin, Suunto etc.) have an issue because of the GPS Signals and the arms not surfacing. If you want accurate distance readings, you should always put the watch in the Tow float or under your Swim cap.

Tomas5

@kai-sly i had ambit 2 for many years and it worked well, that is why my expectation are that this should work.

angela angela

@tomas5 None gps watch works on breast stroke unless you put the watch under your swimming cap.

Tomas5

@angela-angela i had ambit 2 on my wrist and it worked much better than S5. It doesn’t record while swimming, but when i was on end of lake and i wanted to go back i just put my hand for 2-5 seconds and it got gps signal to record my position. With S5 it take around 20 seconds which is much more harder to do when swimming in lake where depth is too deep.

vinay

@tomas5 For those interested, I just checked an activity from yesterday where I did about 1km of openwater swimming halfway my trailrun, using the Suunto 5. I do have Ambit 2 and Ambit 3 watches too, but I never used those to track swimming as I don’t have the appropriate chest strap. Using a Wahoo as it communicates both in ANT+ and Bluetooth. Plus I like how you can switch activities in the Suunto 5. Indeed the swimming track looks jagged as if it only picks up a point every couple of seconds whereas the running track is smooth. It doesn’t bother me too much. Also because I’m not fast or efficient with swimming so the logged track is smooth enough for me ;).

In the attached picture, you see both part of the run and of the swim. And yes, I’m bad at swimming a straight line too ;).

Tomas5

@vinay thanks for info, i think your track looks pretty good compared to main. I usually get fix only when i purposely stop and take my hand out for multiple seconds. I am swimming breast stroke only. So while swimming watch are close to water surface but rarely above surface. But i will do more of openwater swimming next next few weeks so I will see how it will work.

vinay

@tomas5 Well yeah, could still be that swimming motion is different from mine. I definitely don’t qualify as a skilled swimmer and even though I’d love to call mine a breast stroke too, it may not look like that ;). But chances are I am actually dragging my arm deeper through the water so that may not be the cause. Would the kind of water matter? I was swimming on a small lake, so no salt water. Just trying to find out what the differences are. To be sure, I’m using the regular 5 which, just like the Ambit watches has the external GPS antenna. So not like the more recent 5 Peak which has the antenna under the screen.

Egika

@vinay even a very thin layer of a few cm of water will fully block the GPS satellite frequencies. Remember: Civil GPS is using 1600MHz frequencies. These are microwaves, similar to those used ina microwave oven (2400MHz), where their only purpose is to be absorbed by water.

Plus the signal propagatino delay will be differenz under water. Since the whole GPS navigation is based on signal propagation times of a few nano seconds, this will also have an effect.

Conclusion (as said before): Forget about getting anything out of a GPS receiver if the antenna is not frequently lifted out of the water.
If you swim breast stroke, put the watch under your swimming cap or into a buoy etc. Everything else will result in random data.

DMytro

@egika said in Swimming GPS accuracy of Suunto 5:

Remember: Civil GPS is using 1600MHz frequencies. These are microwaves, similar to those used ina microwave oven (2400MHz), where their only purpose is to be absorbed by water.

Ah cool, funny way to think about it like that, that’s for sharing!

ActiveJiggy

Is the GPS accuracy setting set to best? It’s also possible to combine navigation systems.

freeheeler

@activejiggy
neither of these settings improve the fact that gnss signals don’t go thru water

vinay

@egika Fair enough. You’d expect Suunto might come up with a swim-gps pod at some point. After all they also have a digital HR sensor that’s good for swimming. Putting the watch on your head or on a floater might solve the GPS issue, but you’ll use some functionality like measuring your cadence etc. Plus of course I’d be worried to lose the watch if it isn’t secured.

So yeah, you can move the watch to another place so you win some (GPS reception) and you lose some (cadence etc). I’m personally fine with the way it is now but for someone who values better GPS reception when swimming, a separate GPS dongle may be good. Might be nice if it also works for those with a Suunto 3.