GPS/GLONASS sgee update

@cosmecosta it is an Ambit3 Vertical. The fact is I do not sync before my run, but Suunto app does it anyway (sometimes when I get out of bed my sgee data has been updated, sometimes in mid day). And if that happens then on my very first run GPS lock takes very long time. And yes, if before my run there was no sgee data updated, GPS lock is within seconds.
I was thinking to disable bluetooth sync on my watch and do manual GPS optimization, when charging it, with SuuntoLink, but then I will not have notifications.

UPDATE: as I noticed my Ambit will start deploying the updated GPS data on the first GPS use and not right after sync. Not 100% sure, but can’t explain the long lock times otherwise.

cosme.costa

@andrasveres Funny thing is that I used to own the Ambit3 Vertical but I never used it with SA, only Movescount. In my experience it was very unstable watch regarding GPS (locking it and tracks). I think this watch won’t be among the best GPS watches in Suunto history.

Then I switched to the SSU and was a big step forward for me and my needs (I lost the vertical summaries and the nice track shape when finishing a run).

@cosmecosta Never had GPS problems till now using both Movescount app and then Suunto app. Just not so recently started to have these issues and I can’t figure out why: the more frequent GPS data updates, bad GPS data, sync issues with my iPhone or just the watch is starting giving up.

Mff73

@andrasveres
Maybe it could be good to have some watch hard reset. Something could have been stucked in the time.
Not scientific suggestion though, but it could worth it to try.

@Mff73 First I will try disabling bluetooth sync to Suunto app and only use SuuntoLink for sync (it is strange to me that issues started since when the app had an update a month ago) and if that doesn’t help will do your suggested hard reset.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

Does this happen via SA or SL ? OR both ?

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos I occasionally use SL (maybe 2-3 times a month), but as I noticed it happens with SA only, but can’t pronounce 100% sure. Now I’m testing with SL only sync. So far as I see right after GPS optimization via SL the watch locks in max. 1 minute, that is far more less then 10 minutes. In the afternoon I will do a run and see how it performs on tracking.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@andrasveres SA iOS or Android ?

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos iOS (I’ll add gear info to my signature ). Thanks for looking into this.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@andrasveres do I understand correctly that iOS might not update the AGP from when you check the timestamps ?

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Not sure what is happening, it might update bad data or other format that normaly the watch expects, don’t know. All I know is that SA updates GPS data very frequently and after the update the watch is struggling to lock at first use. I check GPS data timestamp from my watch service menu.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@andrasveres could it be that you sync -> AGPS is not updated asap (eg takes a 15mins) and you try to go out with broken AGPS?

Try this

-Sync AGPS via SA

Close BT on the phone.
Wait 30 mins
check how long it takes to lock

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos I will try that too. However before my last run I’ve checked the GPS data timestamp (was quote recent), went to a run, after finish checked again and timestamp was the same, but GPS track was missing for the first 10-12 minutes.
Do you know or can ask what and how exactly the watch is doing after new GPS data gets uploaded to it? Not the S series but the old Ambit3. Just to be sure that deploy/unpacking GPS data is not done at first query of GPS, but right after it gets uploaded?

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@andrasveres Bot sure the pal I wish I knew

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Yesterday I tried what you suggested and here is an interesting thing:

checked GPS data timestemp on watch
synced watch with SA (GPS optimization took place)
verified GPS data timestamp on watch and it was updated with new time/date
turned off bluetooth completely from watch (as opposed on phone only) - just to be sure I will not turn on accidentally
waited 45 minutes
started exercise on watch and GPS lock succeeded in just ~90 seconds
I left bluetooth off and this morning I’ve rechecked the GPS lock process and it succeeded in ~20 seconds

Now as a conclusion since SA updates, correctly watch deploy it correctly in normal conditions, all I can think of is that somehow the watch timeout for sleep is the culprit. Let me detail why:

I use my watch as alarm and I place it bedside (not wearing it on my hand)
watch times out and goes to sleep
on some movement watch wakes from sleep and SA sync kicks in and updates GPS data
watch times out again and the deploy process is interrupted leaving undeployed data

What do you think? Could that be the explanation?
Anyway, I will test my theory somehow just to be sure.

Egika

@andrasveres at least I like the theory

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@andrasveres I think it might be the case. That’s was my suspicion pretty much as well

Okay, got some more test: letting the Ambit3 go to sleep for awhile => wake up => check SA if GPS optimization is made => let the Ambit3 timeout and go to sleep again (from ~20 to ~60 minites) => wake up the watch and verify GPS lock time. Did the test a couple of times, but every time GPS lock was under 90 seconds.
Now I’m more lost then before, all I can think of is: bad GPS data was uploaded or the distance from phone and watch was too long (~3.5 meters) and bluetooth transfer didn’t finished successfully during the 10 minute timeout of the watch.

This morning GPS went crazy again
Yesterday afternoon all was fine, left the watch near the phone for the night. This morming before run I’ve checked GPS sgee timestamp in my watch, it wasn’t changed, but upon starting the exercise GPS had trouble finding satellites. Ended up deleting exercise after finish because of crapy data it was collected. So definitely something fishy with Suunto app GPS data sync (at least for my Ambit3).
Will do a hard reset on watch and go full cable sync from now on and will see what will happen. If this continues like this I’m afraid the watch will end up with a “farewell” ticket on it as I refuse to waste more time on this issue.

Just a quick update: did a hard reset on watch using SuuntoLink, syncing since then only with SuuntoLink via cable, no long GPS lock time or wacky GPS tracks until now. Guess I will stick with cable sync until I see some improvement regarding “Optimizing GPS” in the release log of Suunto app.