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    Suunto 9 Highly inaccurate speed readings

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Suunto 9
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    • surfboomerangS Online
      surfboomerang
      last edited by surfboomerang

      I already created a support request for the highly inaccurate speed reading of the Suunto 9 vs my previous Ambit 3 peak. I’m just curious if someone else noticed the same behaviour…

      This is the support request I filed:

      ===================================================================

      A couple of months ago I replaced my Ambit3 peak with the Suunto 9 Baro. I noticed that the GPS recordings of the Suunto 9 are highly inaccurate. When I export the activity as GPX and analyze it, I noticed that the calculated speed is constantly spiking up and down with about 10-20 KM/H. This is also noticeable on the screen of the watch.

      The battery setting during all the activities is set to “Performance” with GLONASS on so the GPS is set to “Best”.

      I included 3 fragments as attachment to show the spiking. Attachment 1 and 2 show the spiking of the Suunto 9 watch and Attachment 3 shows my previous Ambit 3 recordings.
      All the activities are exported as GPX from Strava.

      What I already did to try to solve it:

      • Soft reboot the watch
      • Update the watch to the latest firmware (2.5.18)
      • Enabled/disabled GLONASS

      Can you tell me if this is a known issue that can be solved in future firmware updates or that this issue is hardware related?

      ===================================================================

      And these are the attachments I included to demonstrate the difference:

      Suunto 9:
      Suunto 9 Capture1.PNG

      Suunto 9 Capture2.PNG

      Ambit 3 peak
      Ambit 3 Capture.PNG

      Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
      OnePlus Nord 4

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      • Dimitrios KanellopoulosD Offline
        Dimitrios Kanellopoulos Community Manager
        last edited by

        Can you try to upload those reading in .fit file on quantified-self.io ? I would love to see those graphs fro the fit files

        Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
        Creator of Quantified-Self.io
        youtube.com/c/dimitrioskanellopoulos
        https://instagram.com/dimitrioskanellopoulos
        https://www.strava.com/athletes/7586105

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        • surfboomerangS Online
          surfboomerang
          last edited by

          I exported the FIT files from sports-tracker and uploaded them to the Quantified self site.
          Here are parts of the same activities as my previous post:

          Suunto 9
          Suunto 9 capture 1.PNG

          Suunto 9 capture 2.PNG

          Ambit 3 peak
          Ambit 3 capture 1.PNG

          So for running (suunto 9 capture 2 and Ambit 3 capture) it looks quite ok now. For windsurfing however (suunto 9 capture 1) the spikes are still there.

          Another thing I noticed when I analyzed the files on the Quantified Self page was my heart rate graph from Suunto 9 and Ambit 3 peak. In both activities I used the same HR belt but look at the graphs below… 😮

          Ambit 3 peak
          Ambit 3 HR.PNG

          Suunto 9
          Suunto 9 HR.PNG

          Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
          OnePlus Nord 4

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          • Dimitrios KanellopoulosD Offline
            Dimitrios Kanellopoulos Community Manager
            last edited by

            the HR is not filteredd in that tool. The more spikes the worse the belt is.

            About windsurfing I am not sure I have never tested that high speed sport.

            Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
            Creator of Quantified-Self.io
            youtube.com/c/dimitrioskanellopoulos
            https://instagram.com/dimitrioskanellopoulos
            https://www.strava.com/athletes/7586105

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            • surfboomerangS Online
              surfboomerang
              last edited by

              The Ambit activity was synced from Movescount to sports-tracker. The Suunto 9 moves were synced with the Suunto App…Is it possible that the data of the Ambit 3 was already filtered by Movescount?

              I will do another run today and treat the HR belt connectors with gel to see if that will improve the readings.

              Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
              OnePlus Nord 4

              Dimitrios KanellopoulosD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Dimitrios KanellopoulosD Offline
                Dimitrios Kanellopoulos Community Manager @surfboomerang
                last edited by

                @surfboomerang yes it can be.

                I would just not trust any GPX exports from ST.

                And in general GPX

                Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
                Creator of Quantified-Self.io
                youtube.com/c/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                https://instagram.com/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                https://www.strava.com/athletes/7586105

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                • surfboomerangS Online
                  surfboomerang
                  last edited by

                  I know, but how am I suppose to export a fit file from Suunto app at this moment?

                  Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
                  OnePlus Nord 4

                  Dimitrios KanellopoulosD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Dimitrios KanellopoulosD Offline
                    Dimitrios Kanellopoulos Community Manager @surfboomerang
                    last edited by

                    @surfboomerang good one.

                    there was somewhere one hacky thing posted. I need to dig that up.

                    If you have strava sync you can via web-> Go to the activity and append in the url /export_original that will give you the .fit file that was send to strava

                    Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
                    Creator of Quantified-Self.io
                    youtube.com/c/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                    https://instagram.com/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                    https://www.strava.com/athletes/7586105

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                    • surfboomerangS Online
                      surfboomerang
                      last edited by

                      Thanks, I will try that this evening.

                      Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
                      OnePlus Nord 4

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                      • surfboomerangS Online
                        surfboomerang
                        last edited by

                        @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos I exported the same activities as before, but this time from Strava with the method you mentioned. Worked like a charm!
                        After that I analyzed it in the Quantified Self site, but unfortunately the graphs for windsurfing are identical to the one I exported from Sports-tracker. So the spikes and drops are still there.

                        I also did a new run today with the heart rate belt and some contact gel, but I still see the spikes in the heart rate graph. The Suunto App shows the HR graph ok (so it filters out the spikes)

                        Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
                        OnePlus Nord 4

                        Brad_OlwinB Dimitrios KanellopoulosD 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • Brad_OlwinB Offline
                          Brad_Olwin Moderator @surfboomerang
                          last edited by

                          @surfboomerang said in Suunto 9 Highly inaccurate speed readings:

                          @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos I exported the same activities as before, but this time from Strava with the method you mentioned. Worked like a charm!
                          After that I analyzed it in the Quantified Self site, but unfortunately the graphs for windsurfing are identical to the one I exported from Sports-tracker. So the spikes and drops are still there.

                          I also did a new run today with the heart rate belt and some contact gel, but I still see the spikes in the heart rate graph. The Suunto App shows the HR graph ok (so it filters out the spikes)

                          For HR, it is likely your belt is bad, not the sensor. When I routinely see HR spikes and I have cleaned the belt, it is time for a new one. Also, spikes can be worse in the winter if you wear fabrics that transmit a lot of static electricity.

                          Vector/T6c/Ambit 3 Peak/S5 Copper/S3/S7 Ti/S9 baro Ti/S9P Ti/S9PP Ti/Vertical Ti/Race Ti/RaceS/Ocean/Wing

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                          • Dimitrios KanellopoulosD Offline
                            Dimitrios Kanellopoulos Community Manager @surfboomerang
                            last edited by

                            @surfboomerang I need to add filtering at that tool then 😮

                            Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
                            Creator of Quantified-Self.io
                            youtube.com/c/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                            https://instagram.com/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                            https://www.strava.com/athletes/7586105

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                            • Dimitrios KanellopoulosD Offline
                              Dimitrios Kanellopoulos Community Manager @surfboomerang
                              last edited by

                              @surfboomerang btw joke as these spikes are natural to happen with others as well.

                              Now back to the windsurf issue. Could you for just my sake use a swim profile or standuppaddling? Some water profile that is designed for on water GPS. I suspect that is the issue. SUP will do I think to make the gps more relaxed on reflections.

                              S9 uses different GPS profiles for each type of movement. FYI

                              Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
                              Creator of Quantified-Self.io
                              youtube.com/c/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                              https://instagram.com/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                              https://www.strava.com/athletes/7586105

                              surfboomerangS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • surfboomerangS Online
                                surfboomerang
                                last edited by

                                Always worth a try.

                                Although I doubt that it will work because I’ve seen this same behaviour in a car on cruise control. See https://forum.suunto.com/post/16076. I used sports profile “Other” there. (or at least I think it is translated to “Other”)

                                I will try with the SUP profile for windsurfing next time. Hoping for some good wind in the near future. And of course some free time 🙂

                                Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
                                OnePlus Nord 4

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                                • G Offline
                                  GingerBeardMan Bronze Member
                                  last edited by

                                  I find, when running, if I do fartleks, intervals or other workouts that include quick changes of pace my suunto 9 will log me as having achieve super human speeds at the beginning of the interval before settling down to something more realistic.

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                                  • surfboomerangS Online
                                    surfboomerang @Dimitrios Kanellopoulos
                                    last edited by

                                    @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Because the wind forecast is not very good in the near future, I decided to test the profiles by car to see if the SUP or WIndsurf profile does make a change.

                                    I started an activity with a SUP profile and drove on the highway with the car on cruise control (about 110 km/h). Below is the resulting graph:

                                    Capture SUP profile.PNG

                                    I also did the test with the Windsurfing profile (cruise control at 100 km/h):
                                    Capture Windsurfing profile.PNG

                                    The windsurf profile looks pretty clear this time, but I doubt that this is because of the profile I think I was lucky with such a clean graph this time. As you can see on my first graph it can still spike really up and down.

                                    What really grind my gears is that the spikes are almost always identical in height and in a lot of the cases has the same drop value as the spike a second before.

                                    An example to clarify:
                                    If I drive an average of 110km/h and I see a spike of 120km/h, in a lot of cases it follows the next second with a drop to 100km/h. So it averages again to 110km/h, but the recorded max speed is 120km/h

                                    It is so common that the spikes are almost identical in height and drops that I can’t really imagine that this is a GPS reception issue. More like a GPS recording issue. Like the watch is recording too fast ahead and than slowing down to compensate…

                                    If you look at the line below, I see that the trackpoints are perfectly in line with the driving direction, but they do not have even distance between them some are closer of further apart, although I was driving at a constant speed.
                                    Capture points.PNG

                                    Is there a possibility to see the number of satellites or reception quality from the recordings?

                                    Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
                                    OnePlus Nord 4

                                    Dimitrios KanellopoulosD 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                    • Dimitrios KanellopoulosD Offline
                                      Dimitrios Kanellopoulos Community Manager @surfboomerang
                                      last edited by

                                      @surfboomerang keep in mind that the spikes are vise versa. Aka you stopped.

                                      Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
                                      Creator of Quantified-Self.io
                                      youtube.com/c/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                                      https://instagram.com/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                                      https://www.strava.com/athletes/7586105

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                                      • Dimitrios KanellopoulosD Offline
                                        Dimitrios Kanellopoulos Community Manager @surfboomerang
                                        last edited by

                                        @surfboomerang I am working on QS v2 to show those differently and support more data btw

                                        Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
                                        Creator of Quantified-Self.io
                                        youtube.com/c/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                                        https://instagram.com/dimitrioskanellopoulos
                                        https://www.strava.com/athletes/7586105

                                        surfboomerangS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • surfboomerangS Online
                                          surfboomerang
                                          last edited by

                                          Little status update:
                                          Suunto support requested to return the watch for investigation.

                                          Lets see if they can find something…

                                          Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
                                          OnePlus Nord 4

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                                          • surfboomerangS Online
                                            surfboomerang
                                            last edited by surfboomerang

                                            Watch is replaced by Suunto support. Just got my new one.
                                            My first run looks promising. No real spikes like I had before. I’ll test high speed sports soon to see if my issue is really resolved.

                                            Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
                                            OnePlus Nord 4

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