Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Where Did I Go?

I admit it. The number of blog posts have been few and far between the past couple of days. So what has been the delay(s)?
  • I've been running
  • I've been working
  • Toss in some sleeping, yard work, etc.
I've run with just my 610 the past two runs. Runs of 90 minutes and 75 minutes. I have noticed that the 610 still continues to measure routes shorter than my 305. Still within a 0.4-0.8% range. The start bug seems to be gone (for now) if you clear the screen, but I still notice up to a 7-8 second difference between Time and Moving Time on that first mile in some of my runs. Still think there is some sort of delay when starting the watch.

Also, looking at some of the GPX tracks, it appears that the 610 seems to cut the corners short, thus maybe causing the slightly shorter distances.

Compound this over a 75 minute run, you get a different of 0.06-0.07 miles over a nearly 9 mile run. Examining the GPX data, I haven't seen the apparent "jaggies" that I saw when using my 1st Garmin 610 watch. I am running using my new watch with Every Second recording.

Also, I am still running with my old 305 HR strap, I am supposed to be getting the new strap that comes with the 610 today.

After 5 days with the new watch, here a my pluses and minuses for the watch:

Pluses:
  • Vibration Alert and actually being able to hear the watch
  • Size of watch. Nice and small.
  • Variable on watch are just as easy to read as on 305.
  • I like the magnetic charger. I've woken up too many morning where my 305 slipped off the dock and was dead.
Minuses:
  • Auto Scroll: Time-of-day window cannot be shut-off
  • Automatic Upload to Garmin Connect, etc. is kind of quirky. Takes a long time, the ANT+ agent seems to get stuck at 44% for minutes on end.
  • Clearing the Timer Started/Lap windows manually in the hopes that the GPS accuracy doesn't pop-up.
  • Apparent delay when starting the watch. Seems to lose 0-8 seconds on that first lap.
  • Rapid decrease in pace when taking corners (especially sharp turns).
If my 305 could vibrate for alerts, I would prefer the 305 over the 610. I know the 310xt vibrates.

Editing: A commenter alerted me to a GPS review of multiple GPS watches by DCRainmaker. See: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/06/2011-sport-device-gps-accuracy-in-depth.html

Look at the results for the "Rambling Loop" test. Notice how the 610 comes up way shorter than the other devices. I wonder where I've heard that before...

3 comments:

  1. It's hard to base accuracy on an aerial photo, since they often are not properly aligned in Google Map, Google Earth, etc.

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  2. Gpsmapper, but I have pictures plots with both my 305 and 610 worn on the same run and the 305 seems to follow the turns as I run them. If I have time I'll post them.

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  3. That's a much better test then. Would like to see them.

    ReplyDelete