GPS/GLONASS sgee update

Does any of you guys know how Suunto app update GPS/GLONASS sgee data? I can’t find any pattern when and in which condition optimization takes place.
My issue is that sometimes when activity is started finding satellites takes 5-10 minutes (or more) and as I dig into it, this happens only on first activity right after GPS optimization. Not sure what is doing my Ambit in that time (maybe it is decompressing the received data) but it’s getting frustrating. In rare situations there will be wrong GPS track data during that activity too (not sure I which cases, but I’m suspecting when optimization was done by SuuntoLink and not Suunto app, however can’t confirm that 100%).
If I notice that sgee data was updated and I activate GPS (ex. querying current location from navigation menu) then there is no delay when starting a new activity. Maybe Suunto app should push a notification when the GPS optimization occured just like when activity is synced, then I will be aware that on next activity satellite search will take time (and do my querying).
@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos a feature to be considered for Suunto app (Android/iOS) and maybe SuuntoLink too?
Any thought on this?

sartoric

@andrasveres
Not 100% sure about ambit but it happens

when you sync data with SA
connecting to Suuntolink via cable

@sartoric Yes I know that, but not always happens (in both cases), that’s why I was wondering: maybe a certain time of day or a certain day after last optimization, but could not find any pattern.

isazi

@andrasveres in the past, I read on this same forum that the updates need to be unpacked so if you start an activity immediately after updating AGPS then you may not have said AGPS data available. Not sure if the discussion was on the S series, though.

sartoric

Maybe it doesn’t work if the data file is not yet available, but usually it’s available at 00 GMT afair

sartoric

@isazi
Right

@isazi yes, somehow that was my conclusion too (it needs to do some stuff with the received data and it is doing on the very first access of GPS).
@sartoric I noticed 00:00, 04:00, 08:00, 12:00 and 16:00 hour timestamped updates on my watch too.

This is getting out of my hands
A notification would be nice, but also an option to disable automatic GPS optimization and activate it manually when needed could be a solution.
Or maybe I should change my habits and do a 10 minute walk around before session start just to be sure I get proper GPS lock

cosme.costa

@andrasveres which watch are we taking about?

In general, if you sync with the SA app, once a day or every two days you should have a GPS lock within seconds, it has been for me that way with the SSU and with the S9B.
I usually go for a run every two days so I sync the watch at least every two days and I get a lock within seconds. The problem is if you sync just before running and the AGPS needs to be updated in the watch, after the syncing the watch needs some more minutes to deploy the AGPS info. My advice, do not sync just before running, do it the day before or some hours before.

@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.