Frequency of GPS polls.

[oeagleo]

Does anyone know how frequently the AW polls for gps signals? Oh, and I've heard that if you have your cell phone with you, the AW doesn't use it's internal GPS, but the GPS of the cell phone, is this correct? I'd like to know which is more accurate, as a walk I did the other day through a park the GPS track had the appearance of perhaps once every 30 seconds to poll the position. The Garmin I have will do once a second, and it's pretty decent. Any Techno-geeks in here?

 

[iamasmith]

It's not as simple as that, the API in iOS is abstract and you ask for the level of accuracy that you need. It's then down to the device, driver subsystem etc. to give you the accuracy that you want.

The best precision is https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/kcllocationaccuracybestfornavigation

vs

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/kcllocationaccuracybest

In your case if you are using a tracking app then it may well attempt to conserve battery power and use something less accurate.

 

[ftaok]

I just remembered to check this for you. I took my most recent run and looked at the tcx data. It indicates that the GPS was ping every second.

This was with iSmoothRun using the AW+iPhone mode. So the iPhone's GPS was the device supplying the coordinates.

If you're really interested in finding out more, download RunGap (it's freemium app) and sync it to Heath, which should then allow you to email yourself the tcx file. This file will show your coordinates and time. You'll be able to see how often the GPS is pinged using whatever app/device you choose.

Good Luck

 

[oeagleo]

I just remembered to check this for you. I took my most recent run and looked at the tcx data. It indicates that the GPS was ping every second.

This was with iSmoothRun using the AW+iPhone mode. So the iPhone's GPS was the device supplying the coordinates.

If you're really interested in finding out more, download RunGap (it's freemium app) and sync it to Heath, which should then allow you to email yourself the tcx file. This file will show your coordinates and time. You'll be able to see how often the GPS is pinged using whatever app/device you choose.

Good Luck

Ah! I already use RunGap to "share" my files with other web-based apps, (Garmin Connect, Suunto Movescount, Strava, etc) never thought of checking to see what's actually "inside" that file. Thanks!

EDIT: Just checked the .TCX file, and it appears that the polling is "randomly" done at 1 - 3 second intervals. Sometimes even 4 seconds. That would explain the somewhat "choppy" track in some places; okay, I'm cool with that, it's appearing somewhat like Garmins "Ultra Track" I think it is.