Boston! I'm wondering if I just stumbled upon why my friends data looks so bad. In the Fenix 5 manual they talk about an UltraTrac mode where the GPS and sensor data is recorded less frequently. This certainly looks like why the data is not uniformly recorded. And the processed data looks so poor. I will ask him how he set up his watch...

Thanks for motivating me that maybe a Garmin device CAN be used to get somewhat decent track data.

GPSResults will see changes in frequency as lack of GPS signal and will filter it out, I think KA72 does the same. This is why we advised not to use "smart logging" with the GW60, you loose all alphas, hours and distance gets shortened.

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bartontb said..
Boston! I'm wondering if I just stumbled upon why my friends data looks so bad. In the Fenix 5 manual they talk about an UltraTrac mode where the GPS and sensor data is recorded less frequently. This certainly looks like why the data is not uniformly recorded. And the processed data looks so poor. I will ask him how he set up his watch...

Thanks for motivating me that maybe a Garmin device CAN be used to get somewhat decent track data.

That will be it, bartontb. As the other guys have pointed out the recording interval must be set to 1 sec.
Vosadrian, Yes made the mistake of going to the touch screen and, it's fair to say, its next to useless in the water unless you lock the screen before hitting the water.

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Boston! said..

bartontb said..
Boston! I'm wondering if I just stumbled upon why my friends data looks so bad. In the Fenix 5 manual they talk about an UltraTrac mode where the GPS and sensor data is recorded less frequently. This certainly looks like why the data is not uniformly recorded. And the processed data looks so poor. I will ask him how he set up his watch...

Thanks for motivating me that maybe a Garmin device CAN be used to get somewhat decent track data.

That will be it, bartontb. As the other guys have pointed out the recording interval must be set to 1 sec.
Vosadrian, Yes made the mistake of going to the touch screen and, it's fair to say, its next to useless in the water unless you lock the screen before hitting the water.

I think they could have designed the user interface to be much more water friendly. I regularly change settings on mine accidentally as the settings are entered by holding your finger on the touch screen.... which is the default action of water on the screen in the shower!!. A bit more thought into typical useage cases so that important actions require the button press would have made it much better. Also, it would be good if the lock screen icon did not cover the screen so much. The icon only comes up when it senses touch on the screen, but water is constantly on the screen when windsurfing, so mine is only readable about half the time. Atlest when I swim, it seems to work OK without locking the screen. Seems to be water spray drops that cause the most issue rather than full submersion.

I should say that I really like the watch. When not in a water environment it is great. Excellent battery life. Easy to upload activities via phone. Light and smaller than most smart watches. Had mine for nearly 2.5 years and wear it daily, and it is working as good as new and even has the original watch band!!

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Boston! said..

bartontb said..
Boston! I'm wondering if I just stumbled upon why my friends data looks so bad. In the Fenix 5 manual they talk about an UltraTrac mode where the GPS and sensor data is recorded less frequently. This certainly looks like why the data is not uniformly recorded. And the processed data looks so poor. I will ask him how he set up his watch...

Thanks for motivating me that maybe a Garmin device CAN be used to get somewhat decent track data.

That will be it, bartontb. As the other guys have pointed out the recording interval must be set to 1 sec.
Vosadrian, Yes made the mistake of going to the touch screen and, it's fair to say, its next to useless in the water unless you lock the screen before hitting the water.

As we sometimes say in the USA, BINGO! when things work out correctly :) . I got a message from my friend this morning that, indeed, he had set his Fenix 5 to smart mode recording, which explains the crappy data he was getting. He should be good to go now. Thanks all for the help!!

Back to the original thread topic... Last week my GW60 also became a hockey puck when both bands broke off.

More on FIT v1 and v2. The Timex Ironman GPS watch produces FIT v2. I know this since Dashware 1.9.1 cannot read it, but Strava and GPSBabel 1.6.0 do read it, as do Garmin Basecamp, Garmin Connect, and gpsies.com. When converted to GPX the Timex produces lat-lon, elevation, and time.

The changelog in GPSBabel mentions FIT v2 for the first time in 27 June 2017.

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Boston! said..


Open the activity in any Web browser. Select the settings icon. Select "export to gpx". Done. ??

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Boston! said..


Open the activity in any Web browser. Select the settings icon. Select "export to gpx". Done. ??

Hi Boston, what app do you use on your Garmin watch to record all your trip data? and how do you then get this plotted into a nice map as you showed here in your posting? Sorry all new to this, but just got a Garmin Fenix 5X for my mountain trekking but eager also to use it for the windfoil tracking if possible? Aka the map with course plotting as you showed here and potential total distance, max speed and other fun facts from the day on the water?

Hi Cyber. It is just the standard Garmin connect app. Download it to your phone, pair it with your watch and it will do the rest.