Incorrect distance when hiking

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

@tomas5 keep in mind that “good” in S5 is one GPS fix per minute, not per 10 seconds. Also, “good” is achievable only with custom battery mode which is buggy (it’ll default to endurance next time, which is one fix per two minutes).

If you want to use auto pause, it makes sense only with performance battery mode and in my opinion it’s useless when traveling slowly (ie. hiking) as the watch will trigger it way too often (ie. when on slow ascends).

[Tomas5]

@łukasz-szmigiel just looking for solution how to improve performance, because when watch tracked 12km on 8km hike. It is almost unusable. 30% difference. With suunto ambit 2S I used to have autopause disabled and 10s interval and I almost every time tracked correct distance compared to maps.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@tomas5 well it tracked that because it was not paused and in 1min gps fix right ?

[Tomas5]

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos now with Suunto 5 it was 1s (best) fix and no autopause. With Ambit 2S it was 10s fix and no autopause usually. Never noticed so big difference with Ambit 2S, but now with Suunto 5, i checked latest hikes and few of them is really far away from real distance.

I hope that autopause could be implemented by step counter rather than by GPS/speed. Becouse when hiking slowly it pauses all the time, but if it would check steps it would know that I am walking and not sitting down.

[Egika]

how about not using autopause and just manually pause the watch when taking a rest?

[Tomas5]

@egika yes I try, but usually there are only two scenarios. 1) first I forget to pause or I press pause maybe after few minutes. 2) almost every time I forget to unpause.

I know it is my fault when i forget to pause or unpause, but shouldn’t technology help as to automate things instead of burdening us with doing this things manually ?

Well in this two hikes 200€ dedicated GPS device performed worst than some random smartphones with mapy.cz app or samsung health app. They had autopause enabled, but it didn’t pause/unpause all the time like suunto watch use to do.

[Egika]

@tomas5 the smartphone comparison is not fair - how long would their battery last tracking?And how much is the weight?

Anyway, the trigger of autopaus could be discussed. I don’t know if step detection would work when riding a bike or doing other sports like skiing, skating, etc. There are a lot of sports with different kind of arm movement during activity and pause.

So I guess for your use case and in a narrow valley with limited GPS reception the onyl things that could help are to enable GLONASS and use manual pause (plus you could attach a label to your back pack’s chest belt that says “(un)pause watch”. And everytime you open or close the belt for a break it would remind you

[Tomas5]

@egika Yes I enabled Galileo now and want to test next time if it will improve. And I will try to do my best to pause/unpause manually.

Should be better to test with Glonass ? I was looking for answer on forum and web but I couldn’t decide which one is better. Saw that Galileo had some problems at and of 2020 but I don’t know if this persist or not.

For pause trigger i noticed this with bike too. Even I have bought quite expensive bike pod, when i go on slow gear on step climb, I get autopause quite often, but watch should know that if I have cadence 40-50rpm it is imposible that I am resting. Maybe considering to trigger autopause by sensors (on bike, running, hike) would be better than in every type of sport by GPS only.

[Egika]

@tomas5 said in Incorrect distance when hiking:

Should be better to test with Glonass ? I was looking for answer on forum and web but I couldn’t decide which one is better. Saw that Galileo had some problems at and of 2020 but I don’t know if this persist or not.

Glonass is recommended for difficult topography (like deep canyons). And my personal experience in the slovenian alps is the same: where I could not get a fix at all with GPS or Galileo, Glonass made it possible

[Tomas5]

@egika thanks a lot, i am changing to Glonass. Lot of hikes I do is not in canyons but still surrounded by hills and forests so it can help.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@tomas5 the thing is that the s series have the best static detection among all suuntos including the legendary a3.

However depending on the movement or if going in a cottage etc that changes.

I would not try autopause as for hikes it makes no sense since you might physically pause many times.

Was there anything in particular to the place you stopped ?

[Tomas5]

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos yes I stopped next to nice waterfall. Just siting, taking photos and eating some snack. I will just need to learn press pause by miself every time I stop for some break.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@tomas5 in theory were the reception is ok , those problems (gps erratic data etc) should not happen.

The best you can do also data wise is to pause when the pause is something more than 5-10mins.

[Tomas5]

So with glonass it is not better at all. Today 7.9km route was measured as 9.23km and now i manually paused every break. I must say that compared to Ambit 2s i am very disappointed. I preferred suunto brand but i must say these are my last suunto watch ever. Again everyone with average mobile phone cheaper than this watch recorded more accurate gps track.

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

@tomas5 are you sure your watch is up to date and AGPS is fresh? I’m getting pretty awesome results with Galileo with latest firmware almost always, regardless of terrain. My last hike was in the forest, around some rocks etc and the track is very good. You will get some extra distance due to GPS inconsistency compared to official track measurements but 7 vs 9 km is a bit too much.

[Tomas5]

@łukasz-szmigiel i synced watch before hiking and firmware is up to date. Version 2.14.16. And here on forum 3 days ago some another user complained about gps measuring more than real distance too which is same issue i think. I will try next time with Galileo than. But i am loosing my hopes that this watch will perform as good as my old Ambit 2s.

[Tomas5]

there is not much problem on open area on meadow etc. accuracy is good enough. But while hiking in hills where are trees there is really bad accuracy.

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

@tomas5 have you tried other systems too? Beidou or GPS only? Same results? How do you know the distance is off? Is it off compared to different device (ie. smartphone) or official trail?

[Tomas5]

@łukasz-szmigiel i tried gps only and gps + glonass. I did multiple hikes it is always more than official distance by multiple map services and it is more than my father or my wifes phone measure too. Phones are usually much more close to official route distance than suunto 5. When i opened this thread there was issue i didn’t pause while break so i was able to accept that watch measured some distance while 20min break. But now for every break i manualy paused. But still it was off. And it can be seen on map that it jumps around route instead of strait line like it supose to be.

[Tomas5]

And i must say that i don’t have this problem while on bike. Measuring is quite correct but i use bikepod so maybe distance is corrected by bikepod which i have calibrated quite well. I believe that with 10s fix it would be more accurate since it would be more streight but there is no such possibility and i will loose ascent and descent with 60s gps fix (endurance). So this is not a good way to fix accuracy. If snap to route would be backported from new suunto 9 to older watch it could fix this great.