HI all,
Got my English version of Amazfit last week.
I was really exited as I intended replacing my old garmin forerunner 405 with the new smartwatch.
On my first run yesterday I wore both watches and ran a usual 9km near my home.
At the end I got 9.03km on the garmin and 8.79km on the amazfit.
The difference is huge for such a distance.
Has anybody else experienced this? I guess this turns amazfit an unusable tool for Runners..!!
A.
you need to get a gps fix first, before starting the activity, have you done that?
when starting an activity, you need to wait for some 15~30 seconds, till you get a fix, and start running/biking/running around with a latex tale.
please try to re-test again, and also make sure that you have the latest version updated of the watch, 1.3.1m
Good luck!
vactirio said:
At the end I got 9.03km on the garmin and 8.79km on the amazfit.
The difference is huge for such a distance.
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Are you sure the Amazfit is inaccurate and not the Garmin? If i compare Tracklogs from my Garmin Oregon 450 GPS with the ones from Amazfit they are both quite on the same level, the Amazfit does corners even a bit better. If the Amazfit drifts in position, the Garmin does, too.
And as already mentioned, the Amazfit starts a bit off. so if you want precision, wait for the GPS to be ready.
Beleriand said:
Are you sure the Amazfit is inaccurate and not the Garmin? If i compare Tracklogs from my Garmin Oregon 450 GPS with the ones from Amazfit they are both quite on the same level, the Amazfit does corners even a bit better. If the Amazfit drifts in position, the Garmin does, too.
And as already mentioned, the Amazfit starts a bit off. so if you want precision, wait for the GPS to be ready.
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Hi 1immortal,
Yes I did wait a lot before starting.
In the fist 200m I had 40m of difference.
I thought thats ok - its the satellite fixing difference.
Then gradually this started getting bigger and bigger.
I run with friends who also have garmins and we mostly have a maximum of 50m difference in 10km which is acceptable.
found also this:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/smartwatch/other-smartwatches/amazfit-watch-impression-t3540770
vactirio said:
found also this:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/smartwatch/other-smartwatches/amazfit-watch-impression-t3540770
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That issues were fixed. Both versions (US and CN) received updates for the GPS firmware. To make sure where the problem comes from you should take a closer look on the tracklogs in a suitable app on your computer. If you provide me GPX files from Garmin and Amazfit i will have a look on it. The shown distance on Amazfit has been quite accurate to the tracklog so far, while Garmin uses other methods to show the distance so i often had different distance on tracklog and on trip computer.
Another indicator is, that the tracklog for the Amazfit is the shortest. Bad GPS receivers usually measure greater distance as the coordinates are inconsistently jumping around and therefore create more meters.
Then you should always do multiple measurements. Sometimes the GPS just goes mad. Over the years i had different Garmin devices and now and then i was walking with a speed of 200km/h and was kilometers off...
Beleriand said:
That issues were fixed. Both versions (US and CN) received updates for the GPS firmware. To make sure where the problem comes from you should take a closer look on the tracklogs in a suitable app on your computer. If you provide me GPX files from Garmin and Amazfit i will have a look on it. The shown distance on Amazfit has been quite accurate to the tracklog so far, while Garmin uses other methods to show the distance so i often had different distance on tracklog and on trip computer.
Another indicator is, that the tracklog for the Amazfit is the shortest. Bad GPS receivers usually measure greater distance as the coordinates are inconsistently jumping around and therefore create more meters.
Then you should always do multiple measurements. Sometimes the GPS just goes mad. Over the years i had different Garmin devices and now and then i was walking with a speed of 200km/h and was kilometers off...
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Hi Castra,
Thanks for the detailed answer.
I would be glad if you could examine GPX files.
Files attached.
Andreas
Okay, my name is not "Castra" btw.
Castra Regina is the ancient name of a roman fort that is called "Regensburg" nowadays. Thtat's where i come from.
I had a close look at your Tracklogs and did even look at the location in Google Street View. Really nice little town where you live. I think i will have to go to greece sometimes.
Mostly residential buildings so there is not too much influence on the signal. Anyway, the Amazfit does not perform as good as the Garmin and is drifting off in some locations. They are both not bad but the tracklog seems to be really a bit better on the Garmin.
Did you wear both watches on the same wrist or one left and one right? Was there probably someone running next to you that shielded or reflected the GPS signal? If not, the Garmin performs better here.
You did do the OTA Update to firmware 1.3.1m?
See Images, Blue is Amazfit, green is Garmin.
Beleriand said:
Okay, my name is not "Castra" btw.
Castra Regina is the ancient name of a roman fort that is called "Regensburg" nowadays. Thtat's where i come from.
I had a close look at your Tracklogs and did even look at the location in Google Street View. Really nice little town where you live. I think i will have to go to greece sometimes.
Mostly residential buildings so there is not too much influence on the signal. Anyway, the Amazfit does not perform as good as the Garmin and is drifting off in some locations. They are both not bad but the tracklog seems to be really a bit better on the Garmin.
Did you wear both watches on the same wrist or one left and one right? Was there probably someone running next to you that shielded or reflected the GPS signal? If not, the Garmin performs better here.
You did do the OTA Update to firmware 1.3.1m?
See Images, Blue is Amazfit, green is Garmin.
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Click to collapse
Hi,
Sorry about the name... and if you come to Athens I can give you a tour....
I wore Amazfit on the left and Garmin on the right. Amazfit was sometimes "blocked" by my running shirt which was not a thick one as the weather was good enough.
Its very usual that the 6 years old Garmin is blocked by the shirt (specially when its cold weather) but NEVER had a problem with that.
There was a friend running next to me but not blocking me.
So my fear that amazfit is inaccurate is probably true.
Thanks for the time spent. I think this is something runner should know before buying this watch as it turns it to be unusable.....
Latest firmware is installed.
Andreas
vactirio said:
I wore Amazfit on the left and Garmin on the right. Amazfit was sometimes "blocked" by my running shirt which was not a thick one as the weather was good enough.
Its very usual that the 6 years old Garmin is blocked by the shirt (specially when its cold weather) but NEVER had a problem with that.
There was a friend running next to me but not blocking me.
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Well as the Amazfit is quite good when you are running in one direction and then drifts away in the other it might be that it just lost direct view to some satellites and then used reflected signals which make accuracy notable worse. A person just running by your side or your own body could cause that, while a shirt should not have any influence. So if the person was running to your left it might have had a big influence on the result.
A bit more scientific approach would be to wear both watches on the same wrist and do more runs for comparison before posting that the Amazfit is unusable.
I have been using the watch for two months now and did not experience such huge differences from my other GPS devices. And i really have a close look on many tracklogs as i use it to map new paths in Open Street Maps. I always have the watch and a Garmin Outdoor-GPS with me and use both tracks.
Beleriand said:
I have been using the watch for two months now and did not experience such huge differences from my other GPS devices. And i really have a close look on many tracklogs as i use it to map new paths in Open Street Maps. I always have the watch and a Garmin Outdoor-GPS with me and use both tracks.
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I don't really agree with you
I run with Garmin for approx 5 years and I rarely got big deviations and it was always +/- 30m.
When you wear a watch you need to know that it works well in order to evaluate your pace.
As you saw in the maps Amazfit does not record well and this cannot / should not be explained by minor factors (left right hand).
The only really acceptable factor could be big buildings and bad weather. This is not my case.
I also searched on the net and found that there are some references about bad GPS reception.
Just for the info, why do you run with 2 GPS devices?
Andreas
vactirio said:
Just for the info, why do you run with 2 GPS devices?
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I do not run with two devices but when i explore new areas or when i am Geocaching i use the additional Garmin GPS to get a second tracklog and to store Points of interest as new waypoints.
That is helpful sometimes when editing in OSM.
If Garmin works better for you, stay with it.
Their devices are quite good but a bit expensive. I had a few over the last 17 years.
Another test today in steep terrain. Today i had some minor drifts from the Amazfit compared to Garmin, previous tracklogs and OSM data, see attached image.
(Garmin magenta, Amazfit cyan)
The Amazfit really should get another update but as the sensor is quite new, chahces are good to get one.
Weirdest thing is that my Garmin created 725 trackpoints while the Amazfit created 14690. Distance 6,5 km....
They should probably reduce the amount a "bit" which could also save some energy.
I've received my Amazfit Pace version few days ago, updated to last US version. I noticed than GPS accuracy inside the building is terrible. I start Run workout in the office walking around 200-300 meters inside the room. After 6 hours Amazfit counted 30 !!! km of distance. I was shocked so much. Initially I was planning to use Amazfit for itinerary tracking or geotagging tracking during holiday trip. But with such accuracy it's not possible. Anyone has the same problem?
Noramas said:
I've received my Amazfit Pace version few days ago, updated to last US version. I noticed than GPS accuracy inside the building is terrible. I start Run workout in the office walking around 200-300 meters inside the room. After 6 hours Amazfit counted 30 !!! km of distance. I was shocked so much. Initially I was planning to use Amazfit for itinerary tracking or geotagging tracking during holiday trip. But with such accuracy it's not possible. Anyone has the same problem?
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Are you serious? GPS inside buildings for sure isn't working!
alexinc said:
Are you serious? GPS inside buildings for sure isn't working!
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Amazfit show me GPS as available inside the building because of large windows. BTW, if signal is low why Amazfit distance is jumped so much? I saw that distance on the screen was counted and increased almost every second without any watch movement.
I did the same test at home. If Amazfit is located near the window then distance is not counted and stuck on 0.00km. If I try to walk inside the room the the distance start to count and after few minutes show 300-400 meters. Strange.
Noramas said:
If I try to walk inside the room the the distance start to count and after few minutes show 300-400 meters. Strange.
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It is not strange. GPS works by measuring the time signals from different satellites take to reach your device. Then your position is calculated by triangulation.
It is only accurate if you receive direct signals from satellites all over the sky. Inside a building you have no sky view so all the signals you get are reflected by objects like buildings, mountains. If they are reflected they travel a longer distance and so the calculation loses precision. That causes jumping positions and therefore creates some mileage.
Older, less sensitive GPS devices only used direct signals and were much more precise but they also completely lost position in dense forests and between high buildings.
All modern GPS consumer oriented modules on the market are optimised for a quick fix, even under worst condtitons, then comes power saving and price.
Precision is the least of the requirements as you can adjust your position to a map when using it for navigation. (Lock to road)
Good for all the smartphone manufacturers and Google Maps users but bad for all outdoor enthusiasts.
same issue
Hi!
I got the same issue. Amazfit CN version. Firmware Rel 9 (1.2.14) from XDA.
Running in forest, orienteering. Amazfit watch in Trail run mode always reports 400-500m less within 7-9km distance. Difference is confirmed by 5-6 runs.
For example today Amazfit watch: 7.97km, Endomondo (Samsung S7): 8.42km.
I see also issues with max speed, its unreal on Amazfir watch (crap should be filtered out).
I plan to do test using Amazfit and my old Garmin Forerunner 300 in next weeks to prove test results.
Kind regards,
J.
js_online said:
Hi!
I got the same issue. Amazfit CN version. Firmware Rel 9 (1.2.14) from XDA.
Running in forest, orienteering. Amazfit watch in Trail run mode always reports 400-500m less within 7-9km distance. Difference is confirmed by 5-6 runs.
For example today Amazfit watch: 7.97km, Endomondo (Samsung S7): 8.42km.
I see also issues with max speed, its unreal on Amazfir watch (crap should be filtered out).
I plan to do test using Amazfit and my old Garmin Forerunner 300 in next weeks to prove test results.
Kind regards,
J.
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Hi J.
After opening this thread I did get in contact with Huami.
I informed them about the GPS accuracy problem and they were kind enough to send me a new watch.
Unfortunately this did not help. The new watch had exactly the same bad behavior.
So I stopped using the amazfit. I found also to have more than 200-300m less at a 9Km run.
As you probably know that's too much for such a distance.
Below is the mail I did send to Huami.
I did not get yet an answer to that and I think I will not get one
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Got yesterday the new Pace. Pretty exciting I must admit.
I did a 9,5km run on purpose last night in order to test it.
On my left hand both Amazifit Pace and Garmin 405.
Unfortunately the results were not better and much disappointing
So to start I should say that I run in rural areas but in open space.
I attached to this email two GPX files in order to get examined by your team.
One from my old Garmin and One from Amazfit.
On the 9,5km run I got a liithe more than 200m of difference.
This difference is translated in 6 seconds of pace difference which is vary big for a runner.
Pace difference is shown bellow:
(strava is from amazfit and runkeeper is for garmin)
So I uploaded both GPX files on http://www.mygpsfiles.com/app/ in order to visualize them and the findings were interesting.
It seems that though Amazfit gets much more points than my old Garmin, those points are often very inaccurate.
Please find bellow some examples.
Orange trace is Garmin.
Blue trace is Amazfit Pace.
Amazfit (in blue) seems really off road.
Here it seems to loose distance. I did run as Garmin says to the roundabout
I must emphasize that its really an open space run with a very good GPS signal reception.
So it seems that its something going wrong with the GPS of the Amazfit.
I am wondering if there is a calibration problem with Europe/Greece.
vactirio said:
Hi J.
So I stopped using the amazfit. I found also to have more than 200-300m less at a 9Km run.
I am wondering if there is a calibration problem with Europe/Greece.
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Thanks for explanation and visualization. Unfortunately I can't link my workouts with street as there are no streets in forest
I am little bit surprised about this: Endomondo makes less measurements and counts more, Amazfit makes times more measurements and counts less.
I was searching answers and found this article online (type: www dot fellrnr dot com/wiki/GPS_Accuracy), must read... Explains many issues from technical perspective.
I believe and hope that issues are related to software (firmware) of GPS chip and post processing and will be solved in the next firmwares.
Please also note: "AMAZFIT includes the world's first 28 nm Sony GPS sensor". As you know first is always first and requires debugging
"Sony – GPS (with 1/10th the power!) now sampling.
You know how using mapping apps on your smartphone kills your battery? Well now there’s hope. Sony’s getting some super impressive results with their new GPS using 28nm FD-SOI technology. These GPS are operated at 0.6V, and cut power to 10x (!) less than what it was in the previous generation (which was already boasting the industry’s lowest power consumption when it was announced back in 2013)."
You can find more info online.
I completely agree that for running numbers are important. Especially for high pace 4.30 and below, because each seconds counts. I will take Amazfit to my next street workouts for marathon training to do the same gps data analysis as you did above.
My strategy is to wait for firmware updates and hope issues will be resolved.
Thanks.
Hello, i own an amazfit bip since afew weeks, and i am disappointed by the GPS accuracy. I can see drifts on my way, and the total distance is always wrong.
I am running in a city, so i beg it is a part of the reason.
Having a look at the GPS files, it seems that the watch only records the position once every 20 seconds. The frequency is really poor, is it normal? The GPS cannot be accurate knowing that...
Thanks
Hmmm, this doesn't seem normal. Pace records every 1-2s, and also records the accuracy in the internal database when doing it. The compass works fine on watch? Maybe someone else with a BIP can give more info...
I also have a BIP and the distance is totally wrong.
Actually the distance by step counter is more accurate than BIP GPS.
Also it seems to increase distance while standing still.
roughly 100 meters every 5 minutes.
And all that with perfectly clear sky.
I have a bip and I think it's accurate. I did compare with my arrival SQ-100 and no difference at all. In middle of city doing 20km and at the end the diference was only 10-50 meters.
latenhas said:
I have a bip and I think it's accurate. I did compare with my arrival SQ-100 and no difference at all. In middle of city doing 20km and at the end the diference was only 10-50 meters.
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When did you buy yours?
I bought mine 1 week ago and have the last FW: v.1.1.2.05
I just got an Amazfit Bip and took it out on hikes this weekend. The GPS distance seems to read high by as much as 30% when compared to a Garmin and a TomTom that we had on the same hike. When looking at the GPS tracks, it seems the Bip is erratic, the track zigzags a lot, which could explain the huge distance difference. Because of this erratic nature and that the Garmin and TomTom read almost the same, it points to the Bip GPS distance being quite inaccurate. For reference, compare these two tracks.
I am running firmware v1.1.1.00 on the watch. I can't tell what GPS firmware it has (how do I tell that?). Can the GPS be more accurate on the Bip or not? With GPS+GLONASS I expected much better. This post says they should be the same, but I am seeing huge differences. As a matter of fact, when sitting still I see a gain of 0.01mi every couple seconds!
Anyone have any advice? Thank you for any help you can offer!
Here is another example from a hike yesterday. The Bip is saying 25% too much distance. The Bip said I went 2 miles further, that is way too far off. If you look at the tracks closely you see that the Bip is very erratic. Closely looking at them, the TomTom seems to be following the best, it and the Garmin differ by less than 4%.
roombarobot said:
I just got an Amazfit Bip and took it out on hikes this weekend. The GPS distance seems to read high by as much as 30% when compared to a Garmin and a TomTom that we had on the same hike. When looking at the GPS tracks, it seems the Bip is erratic, the track zigzags a lot, which could explain the huge distance difference. Because of this erratic nature and that the Garmin and TomTom read almost the same, it points to the Bip GPS distance being quite inaccurate. For reference, compare these two tracks.
I am running firmware v1.1.1.00 on the watch. I can't tell what GPS firmware it has (how do I tell that?). Can the GPS be more accurate on the Bip or not? With GPS+GLONASS I expected much better. This post says they should be the same, but I am seeing huge differences. As a matter of fact, when sitting still I see a gain of 0.01mi every couple seconds!
Anyone have any advice? Thank you for any help you can offer!
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Click to collapse
Possibly A-gps update missing, poor receiving of gps signals (eg shielded/ under sleeve), interference from surroundings...
I found the AmazFit BIP as accurate as iPhone ... when it has a proper fix on the satellites.
I'm not sure on the 'other' sport settings, but in 'outside running' mode it takes a sample around every 1 second, and that sample frequency will affect the amount of zig-zag also.
The 'while sitting' or stationary setting, may still get a variation of 50m or even more depending on the momentary interference. (For 'GeoCaching' you'd have to be in 1 spot for 10 minutes to enable calculation of a more exact -around 1m accuracy- location. An averaging algorithm is included in some GeoCaching software...... but inside the BIP there is no offering for such software ).
I have the same issue, but more severe. The watch indicates the GPS signal is found and after awhile of running I check the watch and the distance has jumped 2-3 miles ahead of what it should be! The distance drawn is always all over the map for most of the run and only seldom does it actually show the route I used. It's really annoying as this happens every other time and messes up the whole exercise for me. Once I check the watch after the run it does indicate correct amount of steps and distance, but the Mi Fit app is forever stuck with the wrong data and no way to correct it. The watch was only partly visible from under the sleeve, but even this doesn't explain the problem as I used to run the whole winter with gloves and a much thicker coat completely covering the watch and didn't have these problems. Also the watch doesn't give those two quick vibrations after finding the GPS signal as it used to, which is also weird.
I saw this comparison the other day between Mi Band 2 on the silicone strap and on the metal bracelet. When on bracelet, the values were not accurate, they didn't correspond with the data on the phone, and on the silicone strap gave the correct values.
I bought this watch thinking it's an all day tracker and I'm not quite sure it's working properly, for example if I've done nothing but lounge around all day my fitbit will still show the proper calculated at rest burned cals in the display, let's say 100 an hour so after 8 hours of relative inactivity or sleep it will still display a calorie burned number of 800 or so, however wearing the stratos after that same amount of time the displayed calories burned is only 10 calories... for 8 hours? That doesnt seem right. Can you please explain what might be wrong?
The watch working more or less fine (doesn't calculate accurate steps for me) only calories you'll see from yours steps..not per hour (day calories if you don't do anything and still you burning some)
Sent from my Redmi Note 5 using Tapatalk
Man this is a bummer, thought this thing was gunna be more or less like mah old fitbit as far as calorie tracking.
My Bip’s heart rate monitor seems to be working fine when I am resting. I have detection frequency set for every 5 minutes. However, when I am working out, I am not getting anywhere close to an actual reading. The detection is updating frequently, which it is supposed to do when you’re increasing your intensity. However, the reading stays low even when it’s clear my heartbeat is well over 100. When I say low, I’m not exaggerating. Last night, the reading dipped into the 40s while I was working out. I couldn’t even come close to that while resting.
Additionally, once my workout was done, it actually gave me an accurate reading of a heart rate over 100. Just not during the workout. The app is also not showing that I was in an intensive state. Its very confusing.
Does anyone know how to troubleshoot the Bip to get an accurate HR reading while working out? This is one of the main reasons I bought the watch in the first place.
Thank you.
Same issue here..
To me It seems like the watch only gives more accurate values when my actual heartbeat is under 90-100..