Suunto 9 with the recent GPS firmware was among least accurate GPS watches in today's 25K trail race

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

@Egika https://www.gnssplanning.com/#/settings

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

@isazi when reception is good, Galileo is scary to the point of showing me slaloming around puddles. Pretty amazing.

[isazi]

@Egika also check https://galmon.eu/

[isazi]

@Łukasz-Szmigiel yes, sometimes I get tracks in which I can see even little details, sometimes I go through buildings and jump around without a clear pattern.

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

@isazi this is also my observation and it seems very strange. I mean - shouldn’t it fallback to GPS if Galileo DOP is poor? The conditions in cases which I’m comparing are the same (low buildings, some trees, some open terrain, no hills, same location) but track quality varies dramatically from run to run. Even after checking GNSS planning (just out of plain curiosity) there’s usually around 7 - 9 sats available in total (GPS + Galileo). One run can be super precise and the other generally poor.

However, what I’ve observed is that the whole workout is either super precise or not. It doesn’t change even for long (20k) runs (during the run). Strange. Perhaps it’s related to fused track?

[stromdiddily]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Suunto 9 with the recent GPS firmware was among least accurate GPS watches in today's 25K trail race:

@Maryn I would not like any of those features on a watch. Sure you can have those eg on the s7 its super easy to install an app todo that but even me gets 0 value…

Out of curiosity, why not?

Found it pretty interesting that adding GLONASS on my Coros only added two visible satellites and did nothing for those it thinks are “good”. Sure there are a handful of GNSS mapping websites but is pretty slick being able to travel to a new place and seeing exactly what the watch is picking up.

TBH - I recently put my S9 back on the shelf for my A3P and Apex. GPS consistency, which had it ahead of the others, just hasn’t been there with this latest update.

[isazi]

@stromdiddily because it’s not that useful unless you’re an informed user already. Just knowing which satellites are on view it’s no help unless you are doing a very brief activity in an open field. For anything else you’ll have to factor the orbits of the satellites relative to the time and the direction of your movement, plus the obstacles on the way. Let’s say such GLONASS satellites you mention add little at the start, but they are rising over the horizon and in 20 minutes they’ll be high in the sky, while one of the GPS ones is going down and it will be shaded by a house when you cross the street in three minutes. What would you do?
It’s nice to have tools where they matter, but I prefer to have actionable information, and not just data, data, and more data

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@stromdiddily said in Suunto 9 with the recent GPS firmware was among least accurate GPS watches in today's 25K trail race:

TBH - I recently put my S9 back on the shelf for my A3P and Apex. GPS consistency, which had it ahead of the others, just hasn’t been there with this latest update.

I hear you and I do not deny that the last update has been great for the common public but not so well for “all” users. The cut corner issue is well known.

Most of the users (statistically) that ‘have issues’ or are not pleased, are geographically distributed in common areas from my analysis. I don’t know why but I bet it has really todo with the stuff above us.

The most funny part is that it has been like so since many years and many brands afaik.

Typical scenario for me (the location/way I test) was that the accuracy of the Spartan series was far away from my expectations in contrast to the S series.

[stromdiddily]

@isazi fair enough point. We are obviously a little more involved than the average user

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos region must have something to do with it. I look at tracks for folks in other places and often find much better results despite a seemingly common platform.

[isazi]

@Łukasz-Szmigiel so today I must have got one of the best GPS tracks ever in my home area using Galileo. Unfortunately it’s too close to home to share it, but I was very impressed!

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

Perhaps if posting here we can revive mr SilventVoyager

I can share that the latest FW for the Sony chip on both S9/S5 performs oustanding.

Regarding distance, I always get more than Stryd , road or trail. Personal. But about 0.05-0.15 to A3

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos you mean - unpublished firmware?

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Łukasz-Szmigiel yes I get (among others) Fieldtest SW to test.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Łukasz-Szmigiel FYI that is not stable nor something a normal person would benefit from.

As soon, and as across countries and continents, we can pass several tests we can say that it’s a safe FW to go ahead with.

[nseslija]

@isazi now that you’ve mentioned, I also had one of the best GPS tracks this last weekend while hiking… with GLONASS although…

[surfboomerang]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Suunto 9 with the recent GPS firmware was among least accurate GPS watches in today's 25K trail race:

Perhaps if posting here we can revive mr SilventVoyager

I can share that the latest FW for the Sony chip on both S9/S5 performs oustanding.

Regarding distance, I always get more than Stryd , road or trail. Personal. But about 0.05-0.15 to A3

Can’t wait.
Are the speed spikes/wobbles also fixed on higher speeds? It got way better in the current firmware, but there is room for improvement as it still fails sometimes

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos always good to hear that new firmware is being tested and its results are promising. Awesome!

[Brad_Olwin]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Suunto 9 with the recent GPS firmware was among least accurate GPS watches in today's 25K trail race:

Perhaps if posting here we can revive mr SilventVoyager

I can share that the latest FW for the Sony chip on both S9/S5 performs oustanding.

Regarding distance, I always get more than Stryd , road or trail. Personal. But about 0.05-0.15 to A3

I can confirm way @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos as I have been Field-testing the new firmware. We both agree the GPS is much better.

[azeanic]

Can confirm the latest GPS firmware is a lot better than previous iterations. I’m using Stryd for distance, so not sure about actual distance accuracy. But tracks are a lot cleaner and closer to where I’m actually running.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@surfboomerang I have not tested high speeds. Only up to 22km/h that is the fastest j can run.