Suunto Race - satellite settings

[freeheeler]

@moozolph
there are no specific satellite settings. it is controlled by the battery settings performance, endurance, ultra and tour.

[TrailEyes]

@moozolph I believe that it is the same as the Vertical, which means:

• Performance mode: multi-band GNSS at one-second interval recording
• Endurance mode: all-systems GNSS with single band and one-second intervals
• Ultra mode: all-systems single-band enabled and one-second intervals but at 50 percent power
• Tour mode: all-systems single-band but at two-minute logging intervals

[moozolph]

Thanks for the replies! Would not have guessed that battery settings was the only way to toggle satellite settings.

[dreamer_]

I was reading a bit about configurations. It is not possible to select only GPS mode (like on Garmin), right?
That mode is sometimes more than enough and it would help to save battery, reducing precision

[surfboomerang]

@dreamer_ I found this image a while ago. It is for the Vertical,but I think it applies to the Race as well. Like @freeheeler said, GNSS settings are managed through battery settings. There is no way to select GPS, Galileo or Glonass individually.

[dreamer_]

@surfboomerang thanks! Thinking in the watches from the competence, selecting individually each of them, it’d really help with battery when you need more and accuracy is not so important.

[surfboomerang]

@dreamer_ I regularly use the Endurance mode and in the open fields there is not a noticable difference. I guess it does matter in cities or canyons.

[dreamer_]

@surfboomerang yes. I was thinking in very long hikes, multistage races or 200 milers. For that, you’ll need a charger with you of course but I have used only GPS mode in other watches and it had been a nice workaround.

[Egika]

@dreamer_ the thing is with modern GNSS chipsets, like the one in the current Suunto models, there actually is just a very small energy difference between GPS only and all systems.

It was different before, when the first chipsets came up, that allowed for Glonass in addition to GPS.

[Stefano M64]

but if I don’t go wrong, map is only available in performance mode

[Egika]

@Stefano-M64 correct.
This is a limitation for Suunto Race.

[surfboomerang]

@Egika This is also the setting in the Vertical, but can’t you just create a custom battery mode with GPS accuracy “Good”?

This mode gives me about the same battery life estimate as Endurance mode.

[dreamer_]

@Egika have a look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcH46QiOavc&t=484s

That watch only has 19 hours with multiband, 22 with satIQ and 31 with only GPS. There’s a big difference there in a new watch. https://www.garmin.com/es-ES/p/886725#specs
Of course, the Race (and the Race S) do have much much better battery duration than that Garmin one. Suunto watches are at another level at this moment regarding battery.

But there’s one thing here. Having the ability to customize every setting makes the difference between a watch with a poor battery duration (FR965) to a watch that can survive very long races with enough accuracy (again FR965, even if it was not designed for that). Of course, even with that, the duration is worse than the Race’s. But the purpose of these posts is not to compare, but to have the same configuration options so we can extend more the capabilities of the current hardware (which is even good at a marketing level for Suunto when comparing others)

[Stefano M64]

@Egika said in Suunto Race - satellite settings:

@Stefano-M64 correct.
This is a limitation for Suunto Race.

wonder what impedes to have a customized battery mode also in Race

[Mff73]

@dreamer_
i think you are thinking like a garmin user :), or like an “old suunto” user, where GPS settings was one key of extending battery life.
I personnally was struggled in the past : should i use glonass where i am ? yes or not ? GPS only ? Is the right day to use it or no ?
Nowadays, i just change battery settings, and i let the watch do.

[Stefano M64]

@Mff73 said in Suunto Race - satellite settings:

@dreamer_
i think you are thinking like a garmin user :), or like an “old suunto” user, where GPS settings was one key of extending battery life.

just the curiosity to know why there is such an option in SV, not in SR

[dreamer_]

@Mff73 it is still a key as I posted because the differences seem to be too high (at least in all modern watches from other brands). It’s not only for very long distances, perhaps you lost your charger, it broke and you have a race the next day… It has no sense at all to think that putting limits consciously to the watch, it’s a good thing.
From a design point. Once you have a hardware in the market, everything that can be done or used in favour of the users (and the brand), can be more positive than negative. As much as I think that Suunto watches are better at this moment (that’s why I’m a happy Suunto user), Garmin has those kind of customizations that make you think that the firmware is sometimes more mature.

[dreamer_]

@Stefano-M64 about that, it has also no sense at all. Both are basically the same watch with a different screen. It is more like something has been forgotten there, like a “bug”

[Mff73]

@dreamer_
And suunto is known to keep things as simple/efficient as possible, when garmin enables all potential settings or customization (leading to so many settings…)
Understand your points, but would it give so many extra hours of battery? @Egika explains that it won’t bring that much…

[dreamer_]

@Mff73 and like to keep things simple. It is usually a good thing: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle , but that doesn’t mean that things could not be improved. The custom Mode and the only GPS is not only for Garmin, but Coros or Polar.
The Vertix 2s (MIP display) lasts 118 hours with only GPS (73 hours all systems and 43 all+ dual band). The Vertical does not allow that option. So there’s a very big difference there. You can look further for every watch/brand to note that it seems there’s something missing here, and that others have. And again, we are not comparing battery. Suunto excels at that but that same configuration is missing when in others not, and that’s clearly a disadvantage that It could be fixed for sure