Hiking with battery mode Ultra

[Mff73]

@surfboomerang
Maybe the JSON is not really raw data. I don’t know. Maybe the watch uses GPS every 2 minutes, but records estimated positions each second, based on différents sensors.

[surfboomerang]

@mff73 True, that is what I would suspect from fusedtrack. If GPS coordinates are also calculated for other sport modes wouldn’t they also have fusedtrack support? It also doesn’t add up with the battery drain.

[A Former User]

@surfboomerang i try “classic walk” with my dog in Ultra and the results are pretty good.

https://www.suunto.com/move/anthonydurand600/6016ec70a8592d54a4d2f4aa

[surfboomerang]

@g287-sf That is exactly my point.
How can a sport mode without fusedtrack capability and a 2 minute GPS recording interval be so accurate? Did you also watched your battery drain?

[A Former User]

@surfboomerang this afternoon i was at 100% (14h00) now at 21h14 i’m at 92% (i use the everyday FC tracking)

[surfboomerang]

@g287-sf During the activity I mean.
The watch predicts the time left in different battery modes before you start the activity. Roughly this comes down to 4%/hr for Performance mode and <1%/hr for Ultra mode.

I selected Ultra mode this morning and started my hike with 64% battery left. It dropped 1% every 20 min. So basically 3-4%/hr. The same as when I select Performance as battery mode

[A Former User]

@surfboomerang i don’t check it.
During your activities, did you let HR sensor on ? During mine it was turned off, i turn on Suunto Plus SAFE. Maybe it.was a bad idea…

[Brad_Olwin]

@surfboomerang The first 15 to 20 min the watch will be adjusting FusedAlti and I guess does some other things. Dimitrios has stated before that FusedTrack does not engage for 15 min or so. Because of this, on a short exercise you are unlikely to notice that much of a difference. You will need 3-4h minimum to see a major difference in battery use.

[surfboomerang]

@brad_olwin I would understand it if GPS is only on best the first 20 minutes for the FusedAlti mechanism, but a difference after 3-4hr I don’t get.

What if I start my activity with 12% battery left and I get a notification at 10% asking me if I want to switch profiles? I would expect it would go in effect immediately instead of taking a couple of hours. With a battery drain of 3-4%/hr that would mean that my watch is empty before the Ultra mode kicks in.

That also would mean that a lot of reviews/tests on the internet are wrong, because most of them test the fusedtrack technology on a 5 km run or so.

What about selecting GPS mode OK in a custom battery profile? Shouldn’t that go into effect immediately?

[zadow]

@surfboomerang One more question - do you have any ETA/ETE/remaining distatance fields on your display? If so, then watch automaticaly switch to best GPS as they are trying to calculate ETA/ETE. Just like when you switch to navigate display. so, as @Brad_Olwin suggested, check the accuracy after 20 minutes, and make sure that there no any fields referring to ETA/ETE or remaining distatnce to POI or to end. If you have any of those field on your current display, even when there is no route for navigation loaded, watch switch to GPS best.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

At the first x minutes until Fused Alti kicks in the watch is in Best GPS mode.

After that it will switch.

One should never test on battery consumption with 1-3hours of activity.

Hiking due to slow speed wont use fused track

[surfboomerang]

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos Check!
I never expected fusedtrack to be active. I just wondered how bad/good the track would be with a 2 min interval.

[surfboomerang]

@zadow Never thought of that. I do have ETA and ETE fields on one of the displays.

[surfboomerang]

Ladies and gentlemen… we have a winner! @zadow

I removed the ETE/ETA fields and gave it another try. After 15 minutes the Ultra kicked in and GPS was recorded every 2 minutes.

Learning something new every day

[zadow]

@surfboomerang I was doing exactly the same test in the past. And exactly for the same purpose - just to see, how it works And I ran exactly into the same situation as you did. I asked here in this forum as you did and I got a great explanation from @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos. So, thanks but all the credits goes to @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos

[Fenr1r]

@zadow It seems odd. I wonder why the presence of data fields that will continue to report null values requires (or was chosen to initiate) precision tracking. Is there something obvious?

[zadow]

@fenr1r Well, better ask @Suunto, I am just a messenger, not a designer

[Fenr1r]

@zadow OK. Just wondering if you’d been told the “Why” as well.

[Mff73]

@fenr1r said in Hiking with battery mode Ultra:

@zadow It seems odd. I wonder why the presence of data fields that will continue to report null values requires (or was chosen to initiate) precision tracking. Is there something obvious?

maybe the glass is not half full, but half empty (or vice versa ), maybe it is by design that, if there is one field or screen that needs “best” precision, then, best precision is set.
Effectively, it could be the opposite : if user doesn’t set best , then all data needed would have been “blank” or “null”, and then users will ask why

[surfboomerang]

@mff73 Maybe it is just how we interpret things.
The manual describes the following note in the battery power management section:

If while exercising you start navigating or use navigation data like estimated time of arrival (ETA), the GPS goes to Best, regardless of the battery mode.

I read that note, but it never crossed my mind that ETA could interfere when you’re not navigating a route or if you turn the Navigation to “Off” in the activity settings.

Now, with the background knowledge it is obvious, but before it wasn’t.