"GPS signal lost" notification popping up during a race is extremely annoying

[A Former User]

I did a nighttime 15 time race in a local park and my Suunto 9 sucked big time. The race consisted of 3 loops (officially certified to be 5.2 mile each).

In the middle of the 3rd loop a notification popped up on the screen obstructing all the metrics. I was running pretty hard and it was dark, so the entire screen looked like a blur to me. I couldn’t see what was written there. There were two options - one on grey background and one on yellow. One of them would discard the notification, another pause the watch, but I really couldn’t tell which one was which. And if course since that was a race I wasn’t going to stop and try to read and decide which button to push. So I just went with this notification on for like 10 minutes until the watch finally regained the GPS. Later towards the end of the 3rd loop it lost GPS one more time.

Please, there should be an option to never see these notifications! Having them in a race is bad because pausing the watch and waiting for it to regain GPS isn’t an option. Meanwhile it is impossible to see other metrics that still matter like race time or HR.

Furthermore, while the notification is on there is a risk of pressing the wrong button unintentionally, which would be bad too.

Finally I should mention that the watch measured only 13.89 miles vs the official 15.6 mile distance. None of the watches come close to the official distance on this course, but at least the majority are somewhere between 14 and 15 miles. Ambit 3 usually measured 4.75 miles per loop.

[sartoric]

@silentvoyager said in "GPS signal lost" notification popping up during a race is extremely annoying:

the watch measured only 13.89 miles vs the official 15.6

Well, maybe because you’ve lost GPS signal?
I guess that fusedtrack can’t always do miracle

[freeheeler]

@sartoric
I agree, in a “race mode” this notification could be smaller… it is good to be informed about that, but as @silentvoyager says you will not pause the watch because of that.
I wouldn’t even pause it during general non racing activities.
I take bets if and when this would be implemented… … too many very good ideas in this forum that overload Suunto team…

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

I find it similarly bad design decision as with S5 “keep moving to see direction” notification. There are tons of ways to notify the user without obstructing the metrics and displaying full screen plain text is one of the worst ones.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

yes it is!

[stromdiddily]

@silentvoyager glonass does help at BT. Consistently come in at about 4.70 - 4.75 on that loop w my S9.

Surprised you lost complete connection though. Run there all the time and have never had that happen.

[A Former User]

@Łukasz-Szmigiel said in "GPS signal lost" notification popping up during a race is extremely annoying:

I find it similarly bad design decision as with S5 “keep moving to see direction” notification.

And “the watch is locked” notification when trying to hit the lap button when the watch is locked. If not for that notification I could use the lap button as backlight.

None of this notifications are useful for a pro user that uses the watch as an instrument.

[A Former User]

@stromdiddily said in "GPS signal lost" notification popping up during a race is extremely annoying:

@silentvoyager glonass does help at BT. Consistently come in at about 4.70 - 4.75 on that loop w my S9.

Surprised you lost complete connection though. Run there all the time and have never had that happen.

Yes, perhaps I should have enabled Glonass. I thought about that myself. I was surprised to see that another person’s Fenix X6 nailed the distance perfectly - 14.9 miles for the 3 loops.

It is interesting that the first loop on my S9 was pretty good, although still short on distance. But each next loop the quality deteriorated and it had cut corners more with each next loop. And finally it had lost the satellites twice on the third loop.

[A Former User]

@silentvoyager said in "GPS signal lost" notification popping up during a race is extremely annoying:

Yes, perhaps I should have enabled Glonass

And perhaps that is a topic for a separate thread. I would create a custom battery mode with Glonass enabled and use when it matters.

But, even though enabling Glonass or Galileo significantly impacts battery life these settings are not under battery modes and instead global. Why?

Now, if I enable Glonass and forget to turn it off my watch wouldn’t last an upcoming 100 miler.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@silentvoyager I can answer one question (or 2)

It’s global afaik because it affects all operations. Even altitude calibration to time sync etc.

Regarding the battery mode, I think the chip can do that but not during runtime without being repowered on. But this might have changed or was my assumption, looking at the code of the sony about 1y ago. But that is smalltalk. IT should be possible.

[A Former User]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos OK, the default may still be global but there should be an option to override that under the battery mode to allow users to maximize the battery life.

For example, I’d have Glonass enabled by default, but for running a 100 miler I’d create a custom mode with GPS only. And switching between modes would remind me how long the battery will last in each mode, taking into account whether Glonass is enabled or not.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@silentvoyager I agree. I hate GNSS switching modes as well.

[A Former User]

@sartoric said in "GPS signal lost" notification popping up during a race is extremely annoying:

@silentvoyager said in "GPS signal lost" notification popping up during a race is extremely annoying:

the watch measured only 13.89 miles vs the official 15.6

Well, maybe because you’ve lost GPS signal?
I guess that fusedtrack can’t always do miracle

I am pretty sure the distance ended up longer, not shorter due to switching to accelerometer measured distance during those 10 minutes. When I run on treadmill my watch typically measures 20-25% more than actual.

Looking at Movescount, the first loop was 4.57 mi, the second - 4.65 mi, and the third where the GPS was lost - 4.67 mi.

[stromdiddily]

@silentvoyager GPS is slowing you down! Maybe use indoor run next time?