Is my Ionics' GPS off?

[Mchl496]

So I'm a long time Fitbit user.  Have been using the blaze and the surge for a while now.  I've stuck with using the Surge for GPS because my blaze always had problems with connected GPS and without using GPS.  I just got my Ionic and went running and thought my time was slower until I got back to my phone and sync'd and looked at the maps.  I'm guessing the ionic is off.  Attached are copies of runs so you can see the difference.  Early in the run with the ionic...  It showed my pace as 14 mins.

[Giampi71]

I don't get it.

So the map on the top is with Ionic and the one at the bottom is with the Surge? It this the case the distance measured is exactly the same (2.00 miles) on both pictures and the tracks are practically identically perfect. Only that in the first picture you took longer than on the second hence you were slower.

Something wrong?

[Mchl496]

Yes the bottom is the surge and the top is the Ionic.  If you look at where the 1 and 2 mile marks are... The Ionic took further to hit 1 and 2 miles.  Still the same path but a longer distance. 

[davidf100010]

It probably didn't capture the GPS signal as fast as your phone did with the blaze.

[Giampi71]

Yes, sorry, I didn't notice that. You might want to export the txc and compare them with a service like www.gpsvisualizer.com to see where the differences are. 

And then expecially to measure the real distance in the map.

[Mchl496]

I wait until the GPS is connected before I run.  I only purchased it for GPS and if that doesn't work right than it is not worth it for me.

[Mchl496]

When I try to export TCX file it says that the file could not be downloaded and that we are looking into the issue.

[Giampi71]

Wonderful...

[mlindgren]

In the first image, the total time is 14:31, whereas in the second it's 13:38. The different mile markers notwithstanding, it doesn't seem like the GPS is the issue; the recorded times are actually different. Were these both taken on the same run? If so,  [Edit: just noticed the dates. I thought maybe they were the same since the start times are so close together, but I guess you're just really consistent about when you run. :)]

Is it possible that you started/stopped the watches at different times during your run?

[Snowcrash]

It’s funny how little talk there has been about GPS accuracy.  It’s my top interest as well.

 With that said, using the Surge as your baseline is probably not a good idea.  My Surge gps was so wildly off I stopped using it. It tended to run about 10% off what my phone GPS would record.  Generally the phone gps is more accurate than tiny watch based GPS in my experience.

I have a known loop that is posted as 1 mile.  My phone gps tends to record it as 0.99/1.0 mile.  My Surge tended around 0.9 mile, and would show me running through the lake the trail loops around.

The Ionic’s first outing during 3 loops recorded 0.96/0.96/0.96 mile, and very little running through the lake.

That’s just one trial, but it left me feeling a little iffy.  It is a wooded path, so it may not be the easiest gps signal...  still, carrying the phone still seems more accurate.    I guess I haven’t decided yet if that is “good enough.”

[SunsetRunner]

I've found the Ionic GPS to be far, far better than the Surge. I used the Surge about 3 times for GPS before I gave up on it. I then used iPhone GPS and ran with the iPhone app, still wearing my Surge obviously.

[Mchl496]

My Surge has seemed to be very consistent with areas I've known were about a mile.  This path has been a little different than what I was running, so my Surge is the baseline.  I'll have to do some tests with some known distances and maybe use my phone to measure the distance separately.  My blaze's connected GPS was always completely off and would show half the distance and the map would should wildly different.

[sportsmom9698]

The gps on my ionic is off as well.  I walk/run the same route multiple times a week and my Surge was always fairly consistent but the Ionic hasn't been at all.  It also takes forever to connect.

[nmbentley1988]

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@sportsmom9698 wrote:

The gps on my ionic is off as well.  I walk/run the same route multiple times a week and my Surge was always fairly consistent but the Ionic hasn't been at all.  It also takes forever to connect.

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Mine can take up to 2 minutes to connect to GPS. Hopefully it is not hardware related and an update will fix the long waiting times. 

[Mchl496]

So I went running again and then went walking in a controlled distance that I know is a mile.  The running time and distance seemed right and different this time from Monday's run. The controlled 

[Snowcrash]

I reran my known 3.0 mile loop today.

First Ionic run said 2.88

Today = 2.81

Weather, pace, everything was the same, except I had on long sleeves today.

This is bothersome that it isn’t at least matching its own previous reading.  And if it’s literally my shirt sleeve blocking the signal...  that’s a problem too.

[SunsetRunner]

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@Mchl496 wrote:

So I went running again and then went walking in a controlled distance that I know is a mile.  The running time and distance seemed right and different this time from Monday's run. The controlled 

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What app are you using for this? Thx.

[Mchl496]

That's the Fitbit app

[SunsetRunner]

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@Mchl496 wrote:

That's the Fitbit app

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Thanks. Well I can't see any map tracking like that when viewing my walks, guess I should look harder!

[SunsetRunner]

I'll be doing my 4 mile course tomorrow and will post how that goes. 

That is super disappointing to see the GPS come in low like that for your loop.  Does the GPS on the Ionic try and use the phone's GPS before its own?  Or are they completely independent?   The shortcoming could theoretically be caused by the GPS losing your phone's signal once out of reach and then losing the distance until it reacquires its own signal.  Going out on a limb on this one..