S9 v. 2.4.14 GPS performance and practical questions it raises

Frédéric Fiandino

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos 5 watches … wrists and ankles! Suunto is mistreating you!

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Frédéric-Fiandino @Brad_Olwin should describe the collection hehe. Small Suunto museum almost.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Yes, I know. I’m certainly not judging by that single run. I did three with this watch thus far outside. One was pretty good, one was fair, and this was the third. So, the jury is definitely out as to whether even a reset is warranted.

Do you know if FusedSpeed with us to stay as the only option or Suunto might consider driving pace/distance by GPS or footpod too, i.e. have a selection between Fused, GPS, or footpod? That would be awesome!

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@NickK I think Suunto when GPS is low biases more to watch + accelerometes = Fused speed.

I am not 100% sure how this works with pods and autocalibration but I think it gets more complex there.

However, when the pod is on autocalibration off, it only listens to the pod for distance and speed making the GPS a thing only for tracking not for speed etc.

Of course this has not much to do with GPS running performance, but with performance in general:

That DC guy again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W829SSge2Do

GPS performance was not so bad, until it suddenly stopped at all (8.22min).

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@paradize we saw that and I almost cried due to the BUG that is on Sony’s side AFAIK. (if you notice also Vantage has it)

I tested the S9 on a daily basis of 30+ days 2KM swimming per day (sometimes more) and I had great and the best tracks ever from any watch.

Its a pitty this happened to Ray to be honest.

FYI feel free to see my tracks they are with 2.4.14 (and 2.4.12) (same GPS FW)

Movescount: http://www.movescount.com/members/member1041771-JimmyKane (check August)
Strava : http://strava.com/athletes/dimitrioskanellopoulos (again Aug-Sept)

suzzlo

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in S9 v. 2.4.14 GPS performance and practical questions it raises:

I run with 3S9 (no joke) and other Spartans (in total about 5 watches) and not all perform good

Do you ever add a Polar or a Garmin to comparisons?

(I can imagine you charging all of them at home, there are not enough plugs in the world )

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@suzzlo yes a a lot of times. Coming from M400 - V800 (before SSU) and F5/F5+

Another pal of mine is also testing 935FR.

Suunto in testing has from all brands watches. They don’t go blind.

I test in hard conditions, mostly, and less on road lately (did a lot in NL).

I do mountain
Trail (run/hike)
Alpine (run/hike)
Swimming (indoors/outdoors)

I don’t hide my tests. I have a main device, my S9, that I love and the rest sit most day on a desk on a wooden branch like here (the devices I have lately and will be keeping):

Watches.jpeg

Regarding the main device:

Is on production FW
Is on the non GPS optimal hand (right)
Is always the first watch to the wrist.
The main device is the activities you see everywhere
You can check pics that I attach, some are speficially to show the conditions.

Luís Pinto

@NickK You can get pace and distance from Stryd or Milestone for Suunto.

@paradize Yes, I’ve seen it. But the takeaway from that video was that all watches but Apple Watch Series 4 weren’t good at open water swimming me thinks, at least for DCR. His Girl fared way better. Though as DCR pointed out, it has less to do with GPS performance per se, and more with algorithms. Or Sony chipset bugs as indeed, both Suunto 9 and Vantage V displayed surprisingly similar behavior for two distinct platforms…

Now, I love Apple Watch and kudos for getting things so tight, but my Suunto 9 easily lasts 4-5 days on a single charge with hours of GPS training and OHR and produces data I can export anywhere. Not to mention it looks solid like a rock and can probably survive a nuclear war. Oh, and it has buttons that are easy to press even when wearing gloves

I’m not sure Apple Watch would ever become a serious training tool. Not because Apple can’t, but because Apple doesn’t want to. That’s not their core competence.

@Luís-Pinto I know. Except there’s nowhere in the settings (like with Polar or Garmin) to use footpod for pace/distance as opposed to FusedSpeed or GPS.

My understanding is that FusedSpeed would use a footpod data if it is connected, but it will be one of the inputs. Not the sole input. I think the only way to force Stryd to be a sole provider is to turn off GPS, which kind of defies the purpose.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

My understanding is that FusedSpeed would use a footpod data if it is connected, but it will be one of the inputs. Not the sole input. I think the only way to force Stryd to be a sole provider is to turn off GPS, which kind of defies the purpose.

@NickK No that is not true

If you turn off autocalibration then the Speed/Distance will come from Stryd only and GPS will only be used to carve the track.

Luís Pinto

@NickK I see your point. We have never really been clarified by Suunto if the Fusespeed works with the footpod or is deactivated from the moment the footpod is connected to the watch.

Luís Pinto

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Thats my notion too. I always put stryd with autocalib off. Because with autocalib on, the gps enter in action for pace and distance and in consequence Fusedspeed.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in S9 v. 2.4.14 GPS performance and practical questions it raises:

I have a main device, my S9, that I love

There! Can I second this opinion?

and the rest sit most day on a desk on a wooden branch like here

Man, and I was thinking something was wrong with me and was going to sell my collection. Now let me proudly grab a similar wooden branch my wife will probably kill me with, once she realizes just how many Suunto, Polar, and Garmin units have been conveniently stuffed in various drawers.

Regarding the main device:

Is on the non GPS optimal hand (right)

Can you elaborate on that? Why it’s not GPS optimal? Because right is dominant? (I happen to wear my Suunto 9 on the right hand too but mostly because I’m ambidextrous and tend to prefer right for watches)

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@NickK said in S9 v. 2.4.14 GPS performance and practical questions it raises:

Can you elaborate on that? Why it’s not GPS optimal? Because right is dominant? (I happen to wear my Suunto 9 on the right hand too but mostly because I’m ambidextrous and tend to prefer right for watches)

Exactly the same reason I wear it on right. My problem is also that my right-hand does have a black tattoo and I get the tatoogate thingy and even Vantage cannot get the OHR. They just don’t report any values.

Back to the question about why I can list a few reasons such indeed the dominant hand that moves a lot more but most importantly it’s the side of your body that you tend to have cover at roads and trails.

As used in our society we walk to the right side of the payment for example. In this case, our hand is covered more bu obstacles such as building etc. Same happens when on the trail and you have the trees on one side.

Of course, you could change the way you walk or run and then it wont be at the “bad” arm but then again, now you know why I call the right “bad”.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos You are blowing my mind today! My only concern is while Stryd pace is pretty good, it is less accurate for me for walking, jogs, and low paced, easy runs. So, ideally I’d prefer a manual calibration over a known distance, combined with ability to drive by Stryd once it has been calibrated.

Still worth a try… Thanks a lot!

Luís Pinto

@NickK In past already made a suggestion to Suunto support to put footpod manual calibration for Spartan. I think Ambit 3 have that.

Brad_Olwin

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in S9 v. 2.4.14 GPS performance and practical questions it raises:

@Frédéric-Fiandino @Brad_Olwin should describe the collection hehe. Small Suunto museum almost.

It is true…A Suunto museum. If @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos wore them all he would be up to his armpits in watchbands

Brad_Olwin

@NickK said in S9 v. 2.4.14 GPS performance and practical questions it raises:

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos You are blowing my mind today! My only concern is while Stryd pace is pretty good, it is less accurate for me for walking, jogs, and low paced, easy runs. So, ideally I’d prefer a manual calibration over a known distance, combined with ability to drive by Stryd once it has been calibrated.

Still worse a try… Thanks a lot!

I think the Stryd is very accurate in all of those scenarios. They have worked very hard on incorporating power hiking into the Stryd. I helped beta test some of that as they are only 5k down the road from where I work. Autocalibrate off is better than calibrating over a known distance as your foot movement will change depending on walking, running etc.