Connected GPS failure

[hawkyou]

I walked Bloomday a 7.5 mile race today. I used the exercise "walk" connected GPS feature. It only tracked 6.8 miles and the map is missing a large stretch. Not sure why this happened. Really sucks.

[mvan231]

I have actually noticed the exact same thing. I tried driving with it going and it tracked everything just fine. But interestingly enough, it didn't log any distance. But the GPS trace was spot on. It may be something with the device shaking / shocking in each stride while trying to keep up with the GPS lock. Its frustrating th emost because like you said, other apps have no issue keeping the signal active and tracking everything without a problem. 

[GarethDPhillips]

Maybe the most obvious explanation has been staring us in the face, the bluetooth LE connection doesnt like the phone, or blaze, or both, shaking around?  Just doesnt seem logical that this would matter, who knows. 

I do know its bluetooth related, as I have said many times, stopping my phone scanning for my Bluetooth LE key finder fob has made an improvement, but not good enough to call it reliable. 

I had the worst experience last nigth in weeks, and that was after a full phone reset !

[mvan231]

yeah it is ridiculous on so many levels. I will try without my armband and
holding the phone in the same hand as the blaze and see if that helps...
otherwise, it seems like I am going to get the refund. I can't keep getting
annoyed by this stupid GPS. I am no pro runner but I at least want my maps
and distances to be accurate and repeatable.

[GarethDPhillips]

Have you had chance to test since your restore ?

[mvan231]

No not yet. And I don't really plan on running while on vacation either but
when I get back home I will for sure.

[GarethDPhillips]

A couple of other settings I can't recall if we discussed?  "Always connected" in the app, and "Notificaions" on the Blaze. How do you have these set usually @mvan231 ?  Always connected is supposed to make connections more reliable, and notifications presumably require a persistent connection to work. I wonder how you, and others, have these set?

I tend to have notifications turned off as I find them annoying, rather than useful, especially on a run. But I may see if having this set to ON (on the Blaze) makes a difference. 

I think I have tried the "always connected" setting in the app both ways, with no difference. I did turn off the "All Day Sync" as I assumed the extra sync traffic over both Bluetooth and Cellular wouldnt help the issue, but actually, I dont think the phone syncs during a connected GPS session anyhow? 

[mvan231]

On iOS there is only one extra setting and it is for all day sync. We don't
have always connected as an option but the device is always connected for
notification purposes.

Either way, we shouldn't have to do anything special for the connection to
stay alive. Fitbit should account for all scenarios. This is supposed to be
a running and Fitness watch for easy use. This is not by any means a
science experiment put together by a middle school kid. They have an issue.
I hope they fix it someday but based on the activity on this thread it's
not going to get better anytime soon.

Hoping they resolve it but when I get home from vacation I plan to test
mine one more time and see. Then it will go in a box back to Fitbit and I
will find something better suitable like the Garmin or TomTom watch maybe.

[climategary]

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@mvan231 wrote:
On iOS there is only one extra setting and it is for all day sync. We don't
have always connected as an option but the device is always connected for
notification purposes.

Either way, we shouldn't have to do anything special for the connection to
stay alive. Fitbit should account for all scenarios. This is supposed to be
a running and Fitness watch for easy use. This is not by any means a
science experiment put together by a middle school kid. They have an issue.
I hope they fix it someday but based on the activity on this thread it's
not going to get better anytime soon.

Hoping they resolve it but when I get home from vacation I plan to test
mine one more time and see. Then it will go in a box back to Fitbit and I
will find something better suitable like the Garmin or TomTom watch maybe.

---

The Surge really does work flawlessly. I use the Blaze for everyday stuff, but now using the Surge on my runs that I upload to Strava. Thanks for that, by the way, @mvan231! I love metrics and Strava and Fitbit give me so much data to play with. 

Maybe Fitbit could do a swap for a new Surge, so you can stay in Fitbit community?

Enjoy your holiday. 

[mvan231]

Yeah maybe. We will see. I might just stick with it and realize that I have
to use a separate app or use the Fitbit app tracking instead of on the blaze

[GarethDPhillips]

Hi @mvan231

I ran with my Blaze on my right wrist last night (I usually wear my watch on my left) as I was wearing the surge on the left side. I happen to carry my phone in a velcro arm band on my right arm (no real reason why, just habit / preference). This meant that the Blaze was even closer to my phone than usual. 

It tracked the run with 100% accuracy, which is the first time it has done this in a long time. I usually get a disconnect at least a couple of times, sometimes permanent. 

Could be a total fluke, but I thought I would mention it. I will try this again next time out.  I was wondering, do you run with your Blaze on the same arm / side of body as the phone, or not?

I did reboot the phone prior to the run also, which flushes running apps and memory usage etc I guess. I have done this before for some runs, and some times not. Not sure if it helps or not. 

I also turned off WiFi, but nothing else.

[jezdoit]

I use the map my run app,which I have checked the mileage for accuracy, however my blaze comes up short on milege consistently even after adjusting the stride length upward to the point of being longer than my actual stride length. Im manually syncing my blaze but still comes up short

[GarethDPhillips]

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@jezdoit wrote:

I use the map my run app,which I have checked the mileage for accuracy, however my blaze comes up short on milege consistently even after adjusting the stride length upward to the point of being longer than my actual stride length. Im manually syncing my blaze but still comes up short

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are you using the connected GPS feature so that the run uses your phone's GPS?  (you will see a map of the run afterwards)

If you are, the two should be very close as it is GPS that is used for distance, not just steps. If you are not letting the Blaze use GPS, then all it can do is estimate distance based on steps. I have found that it is never totally accurate, but then that isn't a surprise. It does a fairly good job I think .

Im assuming you do use connected GPS, as you have posted in this discussion. In that case, I dont believe the stride length makes a difference ,as the distance will be taken from the GPS data, not calculated using steps / stride. In that case, the distance tracked with the Blaze when compared with Mapmyrun should be very close. 

[jezdoit]

I do see the map at the end of my run so I assume iam gps connected
..shortage starts off slightly off, but increases as I go along ending up
2/10's of a mile or more short

[GarethDPhillips]

That is odd. Others have reported issues with accuracy but I can't say that I have, at least not too much. I have general issues (terrible issues) tracking a run, but when it works, the distance is about right in my experience.

 It may be that the line taken is smoothed in one service versus another, and that accounts for a difference. I have tracked runs in two tools many times, and whilst there is always a difference in some of the metrics recorded, its never been significant. 

yes if you are seeing the map in the Fitbit dashboard after the run, you are using connected GPS (i.e. the Blaze is logging the GPS track via the data received over Bluetooth from the phone)

lucky you, I find that this often goes wrong, and disconnects. It may be that you are suffering occasional disconnects, and that is the reason for the run distance falling short. Do you see any odd cut corners, or straight lines in the Fitbit route versus the other?  That would suggest that the GPS connection was lost momentarily. 

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@jezdoit wrote:
I do see the map at the end of my run so I assume iam gps connected
..shortage starts off slightly off, but increases as I go along ending up
2/10's of a mile or more short

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, 

[bbarrera]

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@GarethDPhillips wrote:

This meant that the Blaze was even closer to my phone than usual. 

It tracked the run with 100% accuracy, which is the first time it has done this in a long time. I usually get a disconnect at least a couple of times, sometimes permanent. 

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We know that the Blaze doesn't deal well with missing GPS datapoints from temporary BT dropouts, so yeah, anything you can do to improve BT connection (like moving phone closer to Blaze) should help. BT works at 2.4GHz which is blocked by water, and your body is mostly water.

[mvan231]

Well with iPhone a reboot doesn't flush memory. I have to manually clear
the ram to do that action.

To answer your question though, I do usually have my blaze on left wrist
and phone in my armband on right upper arm. I have seen that water can
block Bluetooth connections (human body is mostly water, maybe it's blocking full strength Bluetooth?), I am guessing especially Low Energy BT.

I will be running again tomorrow finally and will test it out as well.
Might have to start wearing my phone on my left arm. I also wear mine on
the right due to personal preference. I like to feel balanced I gusss lol.

[GarethDPhillips]

I can't say that wearing the blaze on the same side is the cure, but it was
interesting to see​ it work nonetheless.

I'll keep wearing it on that side and report back.

When I've seen successfully tracked runs the blaze was still on the
opposite side to the phone.

[mvan231]

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@GarethDPhillips wrote:
I can't say that wearing the blaze on the same side is the cure, but it was
interesting to see​ it work nonetheless.

I'll keep wearing it on that side and report back.

When I've seen successfully tracked runs the blaze was still on the
opposite side to the phone.

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Yeah I agree. Maybe it helps a bit? I don't know. But I will try the same. That would be really nice if it did provide the answer. 

[GarethDPhillips]

I've tested indoors and can move the blaze and phone to opposite ends of
the house and they don't disconnect, so seems bizarre that being 2 - 3 feet
apart will be the cause, but having exhausted anything else logical, maybe
this was always the cause. Who knows. I have to admit i kind of refused to
admit it could be.

Many more tests needed i think.

[mvan231]

But you were running right? I think it's something to do with running and
the combo of being opposite side of body