GPS - Running through Buildings

[GarethsABitFit]

Hi

GPS is an amazing thing, but why does my surge have me running through buildings and fields instead of staying on the road (I aint Superman). My daughters Garmin does not have this problem, is there anything I can do?

Many thanks

Gareth

[bbarrera]

I've seen that in DCRainmaker reviews. Surge GPS is fairly accurate, but can struggle under difficult conditions like urban and heavily forested areas. From the detailed reviews I've read, Surge GPS overall works fine, but not as good as GPS on running watches from established companies like Garmin.

If you consistently have GPS accuracy problems, then you likely have a bad device and I recommend you contact support and get a replacement under warranty.

[VivisFitbit]

Welcome to the Community @GarethsABitFit!  To improve this you can restart your Surge. Another option is using MobileRun. You can combine the stats of your Surge and your phone. To know more about this, take a look at this post. 

Hopes it helps! 

[shipo]

When I first got my Surge I ran with it on one wrist and my old Garmin on the other.  As a general rule they were both accurate, however, that was in the mid spring and as the foliage grew thicker, they both declined in their accuracy.  Imagine my surprise when one or both would have me running through the ladies locker room at the local gym and running across a lake on the same run.  You may be Superman, but apparently I have properties which make me some sort of a diety.  😛

[Rich_Laue]

It still amazes me that Gps works as well as it does.

• There are set points on the earth that send a signal out that the satellites use to.get their location. This is the gps system the satellites use.
• The satellite then sends it's location to the gps units on the ground.
• The gps receiver takes this location, and the time it took the signal to travel, which is traveling at the speed of sound,
• Figures out how far away you are and draws an imaginary circle.
• In the mean time the satellite is traveling faster than the signal it sent to you.
• Now do this for three more satellites.
• Where the 4 circles cross that's where you are,..  ok technically it is working with a sphere

As @shipo stated, if any of these 4 signals get delayed by cloud, tree cover, or a building your walking by, the Gps will be looking at the wrong distance from a satellite, thus throwing the math of

Now let's throw in the fact that your gps receiver clock needs to be accurate to 0.000000040 of a second. Break the second down to a billion pieces, if your off by more than 40 of them, your lost.