Do Fitbit / Google consider the following GPS route tracks to be within the expected quality / performance for the built in GPS on the Charge 5?
I've scribbled on the actual route I took where it deviates from the built in GPS. From an almost 6 mile run, the GPS appears to have not functioned for an aggregate total 2.5 miles of it, at times apparently having no connection for around 1 mile of running. I'm not talking just an inaccuracy or 10's of meters, I'm talking around a mile out due to lost connection!
Same run a few days ago...
It had most of the same issues at the same places, though on this occasion it had no problem at the lower right hand side of the map, which is under trees - it got all the nuances of my route under those trees one day, but didn't get any connection that part of the route the other day.
When I used the connected GPS with my phone on an earlier run, it didn't have any issues at all, so I don't think there's any inherent issue with GPS signal in the area.
(Almost the same route as the above built in GPS tracks, I just made a small longer detour in the middle)
My question is...
- Does fitbit / google consider those first 2 maps to be acceptable / expected quality from the built in GPS? Is it really that bad? Or do I potentially have a faulty unit?
At the moment I feel a cheated, because the built in GPS is really the only upgrade that I was interested in above the cheaper models, but if it isn't tracking for ~40% of my run, then to me that seems incredibly poor. I got the charge 5 so I could leave my (bulky) phone at home and run with a much smaller mp3 player for music instead, with the Charge 5 recording my exercise and route in place of the phone.
Even more annoying, I was watching the GPS connection status on the watch during my run, and in most of the areas where it just shows a straight line, the GPS did keep intermittently saying it was connected - albeit very briefly - before it lost the connection again.
I don't understand why it couldn't at least record a 'marker' of my location at that point where it told me it was briefly connected. If it had, then those straight lines would have far better approximated to my route. On the first map above, I made sure that I saw the "connected" status at each of the changes of direction (holding my arm out like a prat until it said connected, even if it only flashed connected briefly) , in the hope that then it only needed to interpolate from those points in a straight line, which would have been at least adequate.
But clearly, now I look at the map, a good number of those times the watch briefly said the GPS was connected, it clearly didn't record any position at that moment, and has instead drawn a much coarser straight line that's missed all those changes of direction.
I did the route in an counter-clockwise direction, and I'm even more puzzled that the GPS seems to have remained connected running through the first green area which is totally covered under trees. Yet on the return part of the route, there's a part which should be horizontal on the map (going to the right) where the trees are only on one side of the path, and not overhanging the road/path, with the other side and directly above totally unobstructed sky where I even saw the fitbit say (at least briefly) that it had a connection in this part, yet the route on the map doesn't record any position along that part.
It's even struggling on the residential streets towards the end of my run, away from the trees. Just normal residential area.
When I read the instructions, it does seem to acknowledge the GPS might have some difficulties at times. But really, do they have in mind that losing GPS connection for ~40% of the route is considered to be working properly?
I'm still waiting for my cardio fitness score to change from a range to a single value, which the instructions say it should do if you do a number of runs with the GPS enabled. I'm beginning to think the GPS in the unit is just too poor for that feature to work, and I may be waiting a long time before that ever happens, if it ever does.
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