Ron said:
The pace info is terrible. When running at, say, 6:30/mi pace, I may see anything between 6:30
(but rarely) and 10:00/mi. Useless. It does show higher paces when I run faster, but they are
usually way off.
That's consistent with what everyone is reporting. Something I've wondered is if people know their
instantaneous pace that accurately, why are they bothering with a gadget?
<other observations snipped for brevity>
Today I
Quoted message said:recorded a separate lap during the time I stretched after running (i.e., no motion), and it
recorded a distance of 40 feet and an elevation change of 160 feet.
not too surprising, esp. the 40 ft since that's close to what the error is in a lot of cases (at
least for me). If the forerunner doesn't show coordinates, take a regular gps, stand still, and
watch the coordinates change. The values only need to be "accurate" 95% of the time. The other 5%
they can be anywhere, from what our gps people have told me - and my experience seems to confirm.
Some gpsr have smoothing functions or ways of filling in gaps.
If I turn the mapping function on, I can usually
Quoted message said:see large differences between out-and-back coordinates that should be the same, and sometimes
there are turns that I didn't make, or that go in the wrong direction.
With a regular gps, it's not unusual (not common, but it happens) to have any given point be out of
whack giving the impression of a side trip. In my case, it can make the difference between being on
top vs bottom of a ridge. Of course, the map I'm overlaying on could also be wrong, but in these
cases it definitely looks like off-reading from gps.
Quoted message said:
Anyone else see anything like this going on? I really want this thing to work, but am very
disappointed so far. Is it possible that I just live in a GPS-impaired area?
yes. or the satellites might be poorly configured at the time you are using it. There's software
available that tells when/where the windows are good/poor. People that need to get good gps readings
(work related) wait for the good days and avoid the bad for their gps work. Solar disturbances like
the ones in early Nov (or late Oct) can throw off even the good equipment. Satellites may be out.
etc. I'm pretty sure that gps is used for aircraft - usually unobstructed view of sky (unless near
ground) 😉 - and perhaps they're high enough that they don't deal with a lot of the issues the
ground gps's have and are higher quality.
Some gps units will give a reading with a large error. Others don't give a reading until the error
is less than a desired value, I think.
If the forerunner doesn't provide satellite info (I've not seen any indication that it does, but
that doesn't mean it doesn't), then if you have a friend with a real gps, try that at the same time
as the forerunner and see what happens (note number of satellites being received - if only 3 or 4,
that's probably the problem) - that is, get a better handle on whether it's an inherent gps issue or
the forerunner. Or if you know someone locally that uses a gps, ask them what their experience with
gps has been. I've had trouble with my regular gps numerous times, but it's always been explainable
by limitations of gps and where/when I am using it - some local issues, sometimes regionally. Other
times on same route I get almost perfect tracks with different weather and satellite configs. And
then there's some routes...
FWIW, I snowshoe ran/walked with a sheep gps collar strapped to my camelbak awhile ago - testing it
for a colleague at work. Simple out/back, and came back in my same snowshoe tracks. When they
downloaded it and overlaid it on an aerial image, it was matched up almost perfectly - within a
couple feet (probably less than width of vehicle). The points were taken every second, and it
surprised the heck out of me how consistent the path and spacing was, given the blips I've had with
my gps (12xl, etrex vista) along the same trail on some days.
And no, the sheep one doesn't come equipped with buttons and screen, but the one for goats, esp.
those wearing screw shoes, does 😉
Dot
--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope
