First test with new suunto 7 firmware (small review)

Brad_Olwin

@jorgefd78 Good photos and write up!

isazi

Hey @jorgefd78 do you prefer your post here (lounge) or in the S7 section?

JorgeFD

@isazi oh sorry! S7 is better of course

Brad_Olwin

@jorgefd78 Done

Bulkan

Good review! Kudos!

JorgeFD

for your plesure. you can compare both tracks and play with them

https://www.mygpsfiles.com/app/#8emXFP83

Mff73

@jorgefd78
nice, also not easy to compare as these are two different days But looks nice enough.
what is battery consumption difference, if you have noted it ?

JorgeFD

@Mff73 I can’t tell you exactly because I did the test with 80% time screen always on and playing a lot with waypoints and track. But in one hour the consumption was 20% more or less

Brad_Olwin

Here is a comparison of FusedTrack on S9b and S7
https://quantified-self.io/user/dwRCM1JtltMCKS5E4SYCPN0s4lj1/event/Xa3aGjmJ0SXvwBrLmNTq

and here is a comparison of S9b on Performance with S7 on FusedTrack
https://quantified-self.io/user/dwRCM1JtltMCKS5E4SYCPN0s4lj1/event/yPmxy78bSJmphqqTjU5C

I changed the second link to more recent one, the S7 ran out of juice before I finished.

Egika

@Brad_Olwin thank you!
second link does not work for me.

And first link: there are some strange straight lines in the S7 track (and also a little unexpected loop)…

Brad_Olwin

@Egika said in First test with new suunto 7 firmware (small review):

@Brad_Olwin thank you!
second link does not work for me.

And first link: there are some strange straight lines in the S7 track (and also a little unexpected loop)…

Should work now, QS is slow for me this morning.
This is much older firmware, so compare to the second link, which is the firmware you have. I think it was improved. For me, the S7 on FusedTrack sometimes has issues when stopped or moving very slowly.

Randy Penn

First of all, I’m from Colorado also, so I’m very impressed with your hike! Second, the S7 track is just terrible. I can’t figure out why Suunto can’t figure out how to get even acceptable results. I don’t know if the GPS chip is that bad or what, but honestly, I’ve never seen tracks as bad as what the S7 produces on any GPS-capable watch, no matter how cheap. It’s such a shame, because I love everything else about this watch (except the battery life), but poor GPS tracks are a non-starter.

Brad_Olwin

@Randy-Penn said in First test with new suunto 7 firmware (small review):

First of all, I’m from Colorado also, so I’m very impressed with your hike! Second, the S7 track is just terrible. I can’t figure out why Suunto can’t figure out how to get even acceptable results. I don’t know if the GPS chip is that bad or what, but honestly, I’ve never seen tracks as bad as what the S7 produces on any GPS-capable watch, no matter how cheap. It’s such a shame, because I love everything else about this watch (except the battery life), but poor GPS tracks are a non-starter.

I changed the second link so you have a comparison of FusedTrack on S7 with 1s fix on S9. I disagree, the tracks on the S7 are very good considering this is a 10s GPS fix.

Egika

@Randy-Penn and I have a totally different experience. GPS has been spot on with my S7 so far! Can you show examples of bad GPS readings?

Randy Penn

@Egika I was referring to the first one in Brad’s post (the link isn’t working anymore), but the second one is similar. Zoom in and take a look at it. The S7 track wobbles and jumps all over the place. I’m probably just being too picky, but I expect more accurate results than what I see there.

Brad_Olwin

@Randy-Penn Remember, this is with 10s GPS fix not 1s, there are a few spots where the S7 had difficulty and apparently lost the fix, this happens predominately when I am standing still, I was getting water at one of these and in one place for ~15 min.

Fenr1r

@Brad_Olwin Did that happen in the first comparison’s Boulderfield or were you doing laps with the S7 paused or something else?

Brad_Olwin

@Fenr1r No laps, I leave the watch running when I am doing long mountain efforts. You can see in the Boulderfield where the S9 is having issues not the S7! @Randy-Penn Both watches are on FusedTrack for the first link and both can have their issues. If I was running here it probably would have been much better as I do not see these issues when running. A lot of the mountain trips I do have slow sections.
In the Boulderfield we were stopped getting water. I should add that I was using poles for both of these trips, that does not help the FusedTrack I imagine.

Fenr1r

@Brad_Olwin Interesting - the S9 did seem to be doing its own 100m (or maybe 90yd) sprints while the 7 proceeded along! Like an eager (weirdly older) dog zipping back and forth while the (odd) puppy calmly waits with the water. Thanks.

marty313

@Brad_Olwin The update arrived two days ago. My main grievance with my Suunto 7 had been that the battery was empty after 2 h of tracking my sea kayaking. I go on the same 14 km solo trip every weekend. Even when fully charged, the watch would go into power save mode 2 km before the end of my trip.
After the update, I set GPS update from 1 to 10 seconds. I found that tracking my cycling has reduced accuracy now, whereas it had been 99 % accurate before.
However, the new setting is perfect for paddling. Today, the battery was at 75 % after completing my trip. The map was as accurate as ever. This is absolutely phantastic!