A Post-Firmware Update Question About GPS Location

[EnjoyToday]

Hello All!

I have a (new) Surge and when I look at my Dashboard, the GPS location always has either the wrong starting point, the wrong ending point or the path has me somewhere I wasn't (like in somebody's kitchen).

This is true on 100% of the times I have used the GPS. On almost all activities, the start is in the wrong place. A few times it was blocks & blocks away. Then, a diagnoal line will connect me to a certain place actually on my walk or run. The path and/or ending point are also often wrong whether or not the start point was correct.

I sometimes also have gaps in the route. As far as I can tell, it isn't a dead zone because other walks in the same place will have no gap. But, I understand each day has different signal strength form weather, etc.

Part Two is that I can walk or run, for example, 1 mile. The report on dashboard will be much less or much more than the mile. And, the reported distance does not necessarily match the GPS mapped distance.

Some Troubleshooting:

There are no large buildings around and no big trees.

I am getting a signal. I'm pretty sure the Surge has a very good receiver bacasue a couple of times I had it under my shirt, sweatshirt and winter coat sleeve & the GPS still worked. (But even under no sleeves, I get the errors.)

I did make sure I have the latest firmware and I also have done several restarts.

I don't have any phone or other bluetooth item with me that might cause interference.

I tried taking the portable Garmin GPS from my car with me and its map is OK, but the Surge was wrong.

Here's My Routine:

I will be at the beginning of my walk or run, standing very still.

I'll set the activity on the Surge.

Then, I wait for the GPS to vibrate my tracker, letting me know it is active.

Then, off I go.

(A few times I've waited at least 60 seconds after the vibration before I move. The route still has errors.)

GPS is important to me because I don't have a smart phone. I also like to bicycle (a lot) so GPS on the Surge will be awesome to have if it's accurate. Today it is in the 30's out, so I'll try my first Surge Ride (Yay!)

Attached is a screen shot of a very short walk. I apologize for not having one with more errors to share, but I deleted these from my activity list before I thought of asking you all.

The attached map should have the starting & ending points in the same spot. (Where the ending spot is shown)

The starting point is off, but not by as much as usual.

And, this one has me doing the u-turn at the wrong place. I was 3 blocks farther away when I turned back.

On this activity, I watched the tracker to see if it paused or something else. All looked normal.

Searching this group shows many people who had the problem before the firmware update which solved it for them.

Do any of you experienced users have a suggestion that I may try for accurate GPS? I sure appreciate your ideas!

Thanks Much & Enjoy This Day!

Paul

[VivisFitbit]

Hello there @EnjoyToday! I'll be happy to work on this with you. I also want to thank you for providing us with the details and the picture of your issue. I'd like to recommend that you restart your Surge tracker. This will help to fix any issue your tracker may have. Some times high buildings, trees and weather may cause an interference on your GPS signal. Please let me know if you're still having issues with. 

[EnjoyToday]

Thaks for replying & for the suggestion. Hopefullly it will help someone in the future.

As I mentioned in my question, I don't have large trees or buildings and have done several restarts and a bunch of other troubleshooting. (And, called technical support.)

In the 55 days between my post & this reply, the Fitbit has been returned to Fitbit.

I could not solve this GPS problem (it got worse) and it would not hold the charging cable wothout taping it on, battery life was mere hours without GPS, and there were numerous other problems. So, I gave up.

Perhaps I will try another one- Maybe a different model?

Thanks for tyring to help.

[VivisFitbit]

Hi @EnjoyToday!  I appreciate the time you took to share your experience. If you still have your Surge tracker. You can give a chance to MobileRun feature. To have more information you can take a look at this great post. 

Let me know how it goes!