Ionic GPS Inaccuracies

[MP4]

Hi, 

I'm a new Fitbit user, bought an Ionic on Monday and I'm having some issues with the GPS. Went on a couple of runs (at a track) and the gps seemed to be completely out both on the distance travelled and pace per kilometre.

I'm a long time strava user so yesterday I went for a run with both the Fitbit Ionic going and the strava on my iPhone running at the same time. Here are the results:

Strava - 7.9km   @ 4:15/km

Fitbit - 7.2km     @ 4:34/km

The difference of 0.7km is quite big and the difference in pace is also worrying. I waited till both had connected to gps before starting the run and I run in London where gps signal should be good. 

Is my Fitbit Ionic GPS not working correctly? Any help/advice would be appreciated. 

Thanks

Matt

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity

[topo_treker]

Mine too, gives me exact GPS track whenever I request an exercise be
tracked. It just gives me the wrong distance covered.

[SantiR]

@SunsetRunner Thanks for your reply and for providing those important details. Very interesting information!

Did customer support got in touch with you? 

@topo_treker Thanks for your reply as well. Did you contacted customer support back regarding this?

What did customer support had to say?

Keep me posted! 

[Rokkett]

If anyone has advice on this I'd greatly appreciate it. Do you know how to calibrate your Ionic to be more accurate? I have noticed lately that mine is not as accurate as my phone GPS or my Forerunner. I verified it by running on a track that I was certain of the mileage. My phone and Forerunner correctly logged the mileage, but my Ionic was about 4 minutes late per mile. Any suggestions, or have any of you noticed this issue?

[Rokkett]

Yes, I have noticed that my Ionic GPS is not very accurate, compared to my phone or Forerunner. I've noticed as much as a minute per mile difference (slower). I was also having issues with the app as well, until I upgraded my phone. Really disappointed that their flagship device is this inaccurate.

I've posted as well with my issue: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/Ionic-GPS-Inaccuracies/m-p/2918906#M68186

[GTPune]

I run laps on a very narrow rectangular path but attached picture is what my ionic records. Due to this waywardness in recording, I get total distance which is 300 to 600 m more than the actual distance of 10 km. Are you seeing the same?

I get much better path recording on my Moto phone.

[SiegelRacing]

I had the issue where "suddenly" my GPS went from connecting in under 10 seconds to not connecting for over 20 minutes. After several hours of tech support and factory reset, etc, I was about to replace it and realized that my connection issues started after swapping to a stainless band. I swapped the original band in this morning and the GPS connected before even leaving my garage...

[topo_treker]

Glad your problem is solved. Mine is not and I plan to give up on Fitbit. I'm researching the market and will replace it with another brand on black Friday.


Sent from Samsung tablet

[picydera]

The half marathon today resulted  into a measured distance of 21,7 km. It was in an open area. I think that an inaccuracy of 500 meters is not acceptable. Even my TomTom runner cardio wich is 4 years old is way better with its GPS. I’m really disapointed about this function of the Fitbit Ionic.

[Giampi71]

Are you really sure the actual distance was 21.095 meters?

I often run races were the actual distance were far off than the official ones, most notably an half marathon of 23 km.

[picydera]

I’ve checked the distance of this by looking at the statistics of other
Strava runner who also ran this race and it was even a bit shorter, 21.1 km.

If it stays this inaccurate after an update, i’ll hope Fittbit will be more
honest in there product specs.

[Ericws]

Mine is spot-on accurate.

[Ericws]

---

@Giampi71 wrote:

Are you really sure the actual distance was 21.095 meters?

I often run races were the actual distance were far off than the official ones, most notably an half marathon of 23 km.

---

Exactly.  Nobody runs perfect tangents in a race, unless they are the true elites or pros with a small amount of people near them.  Races are measured at the perfect tangents.  Everyone always gets worked up if their GPS is not exactly 5k for a race, or exactly 13.1 for a half.....

[picydera]

This is just a screenshot of a part of the list from the people who also ran the same race. They all ran almost the same distance, as you can see. I think I made my point if it comes to the accuracy of the fitbit Ionic. I’ll hope a firmware update will solve this problem

[Ericws]

I don't think you made your point.  Sorry. Maybe you ran poor tangents.  Everyone always gets mad at their GPS watches for not perfectly measuring a measured certified race distance, when the GPS is not measuring the perfectly certified race course- it is measuring what the person ran.  Fitbit Ionic not immune to this.  I see it on any board I have read....

[SunsetRunner]

@Ericws about that you are absolutly right. Many times during races the distance was off according to GPS from what was officially claimed and not only by Fitbit but my mobile, too. However, Fitbit does something weird when it tries to connect. I noticed that when cooridnates don't change ( either it's connecting or doing don't know what ) the distance is changing. I understand that probably when there is no GPS connection it uses stride to estimate distance but if I am not moving waiting for connection to be establish then there should be no any distance measured. What I mean is that this whole "help" to the GPS in Fitbit during run is not necessary. I prefer to have no readings at all and then when it connects just distance in straight line between two waypoints than some bogus data out of thin air. This doesn't seem to happen during cycling though ( maybe because stride and steps are not part of this activity ) so it can be done. I found GPS accurate enough. What isn't is how data is being interpreted based on type of activity. Being off 500-700m in 10km distance is quite lot. I pretty much stopped relying on Fitbit when exercising and started logging manually using data obtained from other devices. Since Fitbit doesn't provide any sophisticated analysis of the data ( GPS, HR ) so I'm not missing anything but I like to have it logged.

[Ericws]

I think you must be operating on a different level than I do on this issue!  Maybe I am not a strong enough athlete that I can discern what you are describing.  All I know is that when I do my workouts, and look at my Ionic, my distance, pace and heart rate look to be where I'd expect them to be, and when I finish, the GPS is accurate for distance.  Not sure exactly how you do what you do- I recall your using some calculations and things like that which are beyond my math abilities and beyond my fitness needs.  All I can say is that in both of my 5k's this summer, it measured my distance as 3.12 miles, and on my measured routes it nails the distance.

[Ericws]

One other thing- GPS does communicate with satellites, so let's assume that there is a bit of a quirk in the communication and you run 200 feet while it is reconnecting- if the clock is running, and the signal picks up again, any GPS watch would connect the dots, right?

[SunsetRunner]

@Ericws and looking at the TCX data from GPS based activities it does connect dots. The problem is that measuring the distance seems to be slightly detached from GPS readings and if you analyze the capture coordinates than you may notice that the distance changes when coordinates don't. Distance is somehow "assumed" without having any GPS readings and never corrected. I posted here the full analysis of captured data and things simply didn't add up. I can't make up something that is confirmed by math. There are some inaccuracies in the coordinates ( which shows on the map later as for example running on the river in my case ) but it's nothing so significant to affect the distance of the run so badly. Moreover, if you compute the total distance between all captured waypoints it is coming pretty much accurate ( few meters difference between mobile phone - in that case, any of them may be slightly off ). But the distance measured in the TCX data shows something different. Also, from TCX you can find out how many times and for how long the connection was lost. It's all there. No guessing needed. Raw numbers captured by the tracker show it all. If the pace is based on wrong distance then it is a problem if you run for a pace ( I do that a lot as this is how I learn to distribute energy during long runs - by changing pace and stride during the run ). Customer support contacted me but by telling me to use connected GPS in the email ( do they even know that Ionic doesn't have connected GPS feature? ) and mentioning instructions for Versa ( so yet another copy-paste advice-for-all ), which I don't have - well, totally useless response and a waste of time. Bottom line is that anyone can add numbers and run simple math formulas to find out that there is apparently something wrong with the data. Not everyone wants, not everyone has that knowledge but it's not hidden and requires a little of effort but it's totally doable.

[picydera]

Thanks for your reply. Indeed you’re right, but in that case it means that
the gps lost its signal to many times. Even my old TomTom runner Cardio was
way more accurate and almost never lost the signal. In my opinion Fitbit
isn’t developped enough compare to other sportwatches such as Polar, Garmin
and TomTom and has a lot to learn if it comes to GPS knowledge.

[picydera]

Thank you for your response. It could be possible that it is a fabric
error. Today I putt Ionic into a factory reset and updated it. We shall see
if this helps. If not my reseller takes it back for repair.