Open water GPS drifting

gerasimos

Fifth test in open water activity

I changed the watch to the other wrist (from left to right) in case symmetry during freestyle swimming was the issue.
I followed buoys in the sea that were in a straight line (500meter in one way).
GPS signal strength was between 75–85%.
Weather conditions were excellent – clear sky.
Brief stops with the hand completely out of the water for about 1 minute, to allow the signal to stabilize.
Never pressed paused
Before starting the activity, I waited 5 minutes after the GPS indicator turned green, for better locking, and of course synchronized with the app.

— Unfortunately, still very poor results (after last upgrade), even after a soft reset / profile deletion and creation of a new one same results and with default openwater profile.

Next step: Hard reset and test again…

gerasimos

@CroShark

Looking at the logbook history, I see much better recordings with the Suunto 9 in the same places several years ago, when supposedly GPS technology wasn’t as advanced as it is today…
Let’s see after my hard reset

![alt text]( image url)

Ze Stuart

Same experience for me, the track is basically a drunken squiggle. Nothing to be done but wait for a fix.

@isazi do you know if this has been reported?

gerasimos

@Artus-Diver this such a small deviation in the GPS is (in my opinion) absololutely nomral in a sea or lake enviroment

Artus Diver

@gerasimos
Of course, as I mentioned, I don’t have a major problem, but comparing my previous tracks from before the update, they look much better.

OWS 1.jpg

I think Suunto should investigate this.

Ars Vitae

I agree, same for me, since December 2024 GPS goes crazy as hell. Previously, I had not noted any problem. Let’s hope Suunto is aware of this and is working on a fix. I have let go the accuracy of this watch in the pool, but if this negative trend continues for open water swimming it will mean that the brand is moving away from supporting disciplines such as triathlon and swimming marathons.

Ars Vitae

To give an example:

Ze Stuart

I have one better. I started and finished within a few meters of each other, and swam in relatively straight lines up and down the beach, going down ~100m, back and so on. I know the distance because of the grounds on the beach, and can measure it using satellite maps…

If anyone wants to say ‘GNSS soak!’ I cycled for about 30m to the beach, and let the watch ‘soak’ for about 5m while getting ready. It had copied the bike ride to the watch before I swap, so it will have had opportunity to update the A-GPS.

This was with a Race, not a Vertical.

Then this was with a Vertical. Better… but for an out-and-back swim in calm water, not great.

Ars Vitae

@Ze-Stuart This is really crazy. Suunto, what happened to your devices…!?

gerasimos

@Ze-Stuart Exactly the same GPS behavor .
maybe @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos can give an andvice

Pavlas

I should mention again that my brother has no problem with Ocean. Ocean’s last firmware is from December? So I would look for a problem somewhere after that time.

Ze Stuart

@Pavlas yes, I think as long as the firmware rollback also rolls back the firmware of the GNSS receiver I think we could have decent OWS again.

Artus Diver

@Ars-Vitae said in Open water GPS drifting:

I agree, same for me, since December 2024 GPS goes crazy as hell. Previously, I had not noted any problem. Let’s hope Suunto is aware of this and is working on a fix. I have let go the accuracy of this watch in the pool, but if this negative trend continues for open water swimming it will mean that the brand is moving away from supporting disciplines such as triathlon and swimming marathons.

Can you share your pool swimming experience?
What do you think about the “new” algorithm?
What are your thoughts on swimming style recognition?