Let´s run a quarter mile and measure accuracy on the blaze.

[gretchenmoll]

As a fun project I´d like to suggest this

We all run or walk 1/4 mile HS Track Test and video tape the start-and-finish and post a link here to DropBox or a closed youtube channel.

3 Separate  trials should do just fine.

Every post should contain the following.

Height

Stride length

and fitbit blaze reported step count,calories burnt, as well as percentage in Deviancy from actual running or walking length

Wind speed for your area reported on weather.com

altitude and time of day.

Lets give their Engineers a chance to correct accuracy through the power of crowd data collection

thanks

Best regards

[Corvettekid]

Gretchen, I have done this 4 times.  3 times I got 0.18 miles and 1 time I got 0.19 miles.  That's 72% accuracy and 78% accuracy, respectively.

I'm 5' 6" and my stride is about 26".  Basically, 2400 steps for me is 1 mile.

I don't have some of the data you requested, and I doubt "wind speed" is relevant at all, walking or running.

What did you get for walking 1/4 mile ?

[tractorlegs]

Inaccuracy in distances with the Blaze is not only because of possible problems with the Blaze, but more likely problems with the GPS on the device it's piggybacking. So, there's prolly not much Fitbit engeneers can do lol . . .  The GPS on my Galaxy Note 4 is usually pretty accurate, but it does have its quirks [grin]

What I've done to make my distances more accurate is to measure my stride: (Mark a spot, run or walk from that spot 20 paces, mark the final step, measure distance with a tape measure, in inches, divide by 20, enter figure into Fitbit app) and set the app to default to your inputted stride instead of GPS data to determine distance. Open app > Dashboard > Account > Settings Gear (upper R corner) > scroll to bottom of screen > Stride Length > enter correct stride length(s) > turn off "Set automatically". This makes our Blaze devices deadly accurate with its distance.

---

@gretchenmoll wrote:

Lets give their Engineers a chance to correct accuracy through the power of crowd data collection

thanks

Best regards

---

[Corvettekid]

I'm not using any GPS to measure steps/distance.  Just the Blaze.

[shipo]

---

@Corvettekid wrote:

I'm not using any GPS to measure steps/distance.  Just the Blaze.

---

Then you have your stride length settings incorrect; that isn't the fault of the Blaze.

[tractorlegs]

Agreed ↓↓↓↓. @Corvettekid If you have the correct stride recorded, and the "set automatically" switch off, then the only variable that can make it inaccurate is the pedometer function. A Blaze can be pretty inaccurate with just a few steps, but in a long walk or run (1000+ steps) it's usually pretty accurate. I agree with @shipo, you need to check your settings 

---

@shipo wrote:

---

@Corvettekid wrote:

I'm not using any GPS to measure steps/distance.  Just the Blaze.

---

Then you have your stride length settings incorrect; that isn't the fault of the Blaze.

---

[Rich_Laue]

Is this run done with or without gps? I also would think if using gps then the data will be useless without knowing what phone was used. It also would be nice to know the reported steps versus the actual steps taken. Then this data could be put in a g-sheet.

[Corvettekid]

"Then you have your stride length settings incorrect; that isn't the fault of the Blaze."

No, the inaccuracy was the same with or without any stride length inputed.  And I did it correctly.

[Corvettekid]

Tractor, I have everything in my App as you described.  As for "deadly accuracy".....when you walk a 1/4 mile track, what does YOUR Blaze show ?  Are the steps and distance accurate ?

[shipo]

---

@Corvettekid wrote:

"Then you have your stride length settings incorrect; that isn't the fault of the Blaze."

No, the inaccuracy was the same with or without any stride length inputed.  And I did it correctly.

---

That makes no sense.

[tractorlegs]

---

@Corvettekid wrote:

Tractor, I have everything in my App as you described.  As for "deadly accuracy".....when you walk a 1/4 mile track, what does YOUR Blaze show ?  Are the steps and distance accurate ?

---

@Corvettekid, I've not walked a quarter mile track, but there are a few parks in my city that have walking paths with mileage marked clearly. Two of them have paths that are exactly one mile in length, with markers every quarter mile. I walked one of these a few months ago and counted steps each quarter mile, then got out my calculator and came up with a stride length based on that. I input the stride length, made sure the "Set Automatically" switch in the Fitbit app is set to off, and since then the tracker has been very accurate with distances. (I double check when I walk parks with the mileage marked) 

[Theo1967]

The problem I have found when setting the running stride length is that depending on the distance run it will vary as you tire. I am 6 foot 1 and had the stride length set to 3' 9", as calculated during some 5k treadmill runs.
This week I did an 11.3 mile road run, for an experiment I used the Blaze exercise set to treadmill and had Mapmyfitness running on my phone using GPS, this was informing me of each mile and split time. As this was being called I would check me Blaze.

I found that over the first 5 miles my times were consistent and the Blaze was within 0.1 mile of the GPS, as I slowed gradually over the next 6 miles the difference grew. When I finished the Blaze recorded 0.9 miles greater than the GPS.

At the moment I am not sure the best way to set my Blaze up for accuracy as there can be so reasons stride length can vary.

[bcalvanese]

I have mentioned this in other posts, but stride length is not the only factor.

If your steps are not counting correctly, this will throw your distance off a lot if the device loses the GPS signal and starts using your stride length. It will use step count * stride length for the distance.

If I walk very fast (4 mph or faster) and swing my arms as in normal walking, the Blaze only counts about half my steps. If it was using my stride length * steps for the whole distance, it would only calculate half the distance.

Another thing to consider is the stride length setting itself. Stride length changes a lot depending on terrain & pace, so it's hard to get an accurate stride length setting. I just set mine to auto.

Also, it depends on how good the GPS in your phone is. For example, I have an iPhone 7 (which has GPS with GLONASS), and the tests I have done so far are accurate well within a tenth of a mile on a 7+ mile walk.

There are many variables involved here.

[shipo]

---

@Theo1967 wrote:
The problem I have found when setting the running stride length is that depending on the distance run it will vary as you tire. I am 6 foot 1 and had the stride length set to 3' 9", as calculated during some 5k treadmill runs.
This week I did an 11.3 mile road run, for an experiment I used the Blaze exercise set to treadmill and had Mapmyfitness running on my phone using GPS, this was informing me of each mile and split time. As this was being called I would check me Blaze.

I found that over the first 5 miles my times were consistent and the Blaze was within 0.1 mile of the GPS, as I slowed gradually over the next 6 miles the difference grew. When I finished the Blaze recorded 0.9 miles greater than the GPS.

At the moment I am not sure the best way to set my Blaze up for accuracy as there can be so reasons stride length can vary.

---

Unless you use the tethered GPS mode for your Blaze, you will almost never have accuracy when it comes to distance.  As you correctly stated, stride length can vary.  I now have about 16 months of GPS tracked data which covers over 2,500 miles of running across different terrain and at different speeds.  Per my data I've run with a stride length ranging from 1,700 steps per mile (37" per step) to as few as 1,250 per mile (50" per step).  To my way of thinking, using a preset stride length is totally worthless.

[Corvettekid]

"Corvettekid wrote: "Then you have your stride length settings incorrect; that isn't the fault of the Blaze."  No, the inaccuracy was the same with or without any stride length inputed.  And I did it correctly.

That makes no sense."

That's right, Shipo...the Blaze is off on Steps & Distance, that's the crux of the matter.

Have you walked on a 1/4 mile track -- what do YOU get ?

[Pruttinyllet]

I'm not going to their job for them for free. Pay me if you want my time.

[racertempo]

Corvettekid clearly has a defective device, he has posted about his issues in many threads and nothing is fixing his issue.  I walk 100 and 500 steps (roughly the quarter mile) all of the time and my blaze is dead on all of the time.  In fact, my Polar A360 on my other wrist is FAR FAR more sensative to the wrist needing to move.  As I sit here I have 3300 on my Blaze and 2702 on my Polar.  

The weird thing is that when doing an aggressive exercise like Tennis, the Polar records almost double the steps as the Blaze.  There is no real way for me to know which is correct, but I suspect the blaze is because a singles 2 hour match gets me 2.5-3.5 miles on the blaze.  And during tennis I wear them both on the same wrist.  

Bottom line is nothing is perfect, but corvettekid cannot be convinced that the blaze is accurate no matter how many of say ours is fine......because his is not.  That is fair as I would feel the same if I was getting the same data as his.

[Corvettekid]

RacerTempo, I don't doubt that many Blaze owners have accurate steps and distance.  I'm just saying mine and many others are NOT.

We have STILL NOT gotten OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION that Fitbit acknowledges that there is a problem with Blaze's, either hardware or firmware.  Maybe it's a bad batch made early in 2016, I dunno.

All I know is that mine is off by 20-30% and I have offered to post an actual 1/4 mile walk and call out the steps/distance on the Blaze vs. the track.

Fitbit should either tell us we are right and say a firmware or hardware or recall fix is coming, or say we are wrong.  They can't tell us we're wrong, there's too many of us.

Again...nobody is asking for 98% or 99% accuracy.  I would settle for 90%.  Hell, I'd settle for them acknowledging there's a problem in the first place.

[Corvettekid]

Prutt, you're not doing it for Fitbit, you're doing it for this community.  Is your Blaze accurate or not ? Walking the 1/4 mile track is the best way to see how accurate it is based on a fixed distance and presumably you know your Stride Length.

[DibaSr]

@Corvettekid I didn't walk a 1/4 mile, but I tracked my after work walk with both the Blaze (connected to phone Gps) and UA Record. Below are the screenshots. 

Fitbit

UA

.03 of a mile isn't a big difference.