Hiking with battery mode Ultra

surfboomerang · 31 Jan 2021, 10:40

To wake up easy today, I decided to take a small hike. Because I was curious how accurate a hike track would be with the Ultra battery mode I decided to select that mode. According to the manual only running and trail running supports fused track.

At home I analyzed the track. I was very surprised how accurate it was. So accurate that I became suspicious…

When I selected the ultra mode, the watch predicted 74 hrs. (it was at 64%)
Opening the JSON file, I noticed the battery drainage was about 3%/hr so a quick calculation gave me about 21 hrs of battery life.

The screen went off automatically and touch was disabled as it should be in Ultra mode, but I have serious doubts that GPS was set to record every 2 minutes.

Is this expected behaviour because hiking doesn’t support fusedtrack or is it a bug and should it produce a very inaccurate track in corners etc?

Fenr1r · 31 Jan 2021, 10:50

@surfboomerang said in Hiking with battery mode Ultra:

According to the manual only running and trail running supports fused track … Is this expected behaviour because hiking doesn’t support fusedtrack.

It would certainly make total sense.

Have you tried hiking (the actual activity) with running (the sport mode setting)? See how FusedTrack engages/disengages at your hiking speed(s) for comparison?

A Former User · 31 Jan 2021, 10:58

Try the same hike in best gps mode to see if there is a difference. When we hike we are slow so maybe a 2min records is enough to give something accurate.

surfboomerang · 31 Jan 2021, 11:14

@g287-sf That’s what I wanted to find out, so I took some twists and turns in less then 2 minutes and the watch recorded those also perfectly.

sartoric · 31 Jan 2021, 11:33

@surfboomerang
Did you navigate a route ?

surfboomerang · 31 Jan 2021, 12:10

@sartoric no, just recording.

A Former User · 31 Jan 2021, 12:20

@surfboomerang Did you use walking stick ? How was the track ?
It’s to help to identify if your amrs move a lot, helping gyro captor. It’s just a supposition

Mff73 · 31 Jan 2021, 12:25

@surfboomerang
And no clues in the JSON file?

surfboomerang · 31 Jan 2021, 13:41

@g287-sf No, I don’t use a walking stick. Track was flat and open.

surfboomerang · 31 Jan 2021, 13:50

@mff73 I did some more tests after a soft reset.

Activity type “Hiking”, battery mode Ultra.
I have a very accurate track. It is following the roads and stays on track in corners and twists. Analyzing the samples.json, I see that GPS coordinates are recorded every second.

Activity type “Hiking”, battery mode Custom -> GPS mode OK.
Same result as above. Also GPS records every second.

Activity type “Other”, battery mode Ultra
Same results as hiking. Oh… and this activity type is still recorded as “Other6” in SA

Activity type “Runing”, battery mode Ultra
The watch starts asking to calibrate for fusedtrack. After calibration a very accurate track.
In the samples.json file GPS coordinates are recorded on irregular intervals. Sometime every second. Sometimes 4-6 seconds between them.

In the Summary.json file, I can see almost every setting I did for that activity except the battery/GPS mode. Is that setting saved in this file?

Fenr1r · 31 Jan 2021, 14:08

@surfboomerang said in Hiking with battery mode Ultra:

Activity type “Hiking”, battery mode Custom -> GPS mode OK.
Same result as above. Also GPS records every second.

Should that happen?

surfboomerang · 31 Jan 2021, 14:22

@fenr1r I would expect that I would see a GPS recording every 2 minutes in the logfile. That’s why I’m sceptic if the setting works correctly.
If it is really a 1 second interval recording it explains the same battery drain as when you select GPS “Best” mode

In the case of fusedtrack (so running and trailrunning activites), I can imagine that those values between the GPS recordings are calculated/extrapolated from values of compass and accelerometer

Fenr1r · 31 Jan 2021, 14:28

@surfboomerang Solid reasoning.

Mff73 · 31 Jan 2021, 14:47

@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 · 31 Jan 2021, 15:14

@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 · 31 Jan 2021, 17:49

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

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

surfboomerang · 31 Jan 2021, 19:50

@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 · 31 Jan 2021, 20:15

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

surfboomerang · 31 Jan 2021, 20:22

@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 · 31 Jan 2021, 22:15

@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…