Stand-alone GPS tracking, Endomondo, My Tracks etc.

[Jaycemiskel]

Well, when you're pushing a buggie or lawn mower, your hands don't typically move, but if you have your phone in your pocket, it'll still count your steps. So, I prefer to keep it activated. Plus, it's not really guess work if I have proof that it's pretty much the same with both on. Don't really see why it would need to be off if it's counting correctly with both on.

 

[xendula]

The step counts on my Nov edition was wide apart between Google Fit and LG Health. The new version is spot on

Since you also still use the Nov edition: your watch does not undercount steps, then? Wondering because mdw1995 and myself have seen a decrease on our Nov edition watches.

 

[mdw1995]

Since you also still use the Nov edition: your watch does not undercount steps, then? Wondering because mdw1995 and myself have seen a decrease on our Nov edition watches.

Yep. It's pretty much useless at this point. Had 5500 total steps for the day yesterday which included a 4 mile run.

 

[foxbat121]

Since you also still use the Nov edition: your watch does not undercount steps, then? Wondering because mdw1995 and myself have seen a decrease on our Nov edition watches.

I returned nov edition.

 

[mdw1995]

8.1 miles today, 5,800 steps. I have the longest strides ever Oh well.

 

[scaots]

I tried Endomondo again and it again sucked up another 50MB before hitting a limit. So I reset my watch and kept it on cellular (no BT or wifi available) and sitting there it used maybe a couple megs over hours. But when I run Endomondo it definitely immediately starts sucking data. In a couple quick tests, it used as much as 500kB in two minutes. At this point, I am just going to try using fit or my tracks or strava. I tried fit and it didn't seem to use any data, but doesn't have the map and display customization.

Steps for 3.5 mile runs are around 500-1000 for me. Weird thing is that other steps seem within reasonable range, though definitely lower than fitbit.

 

[mdw1995]

I tried Endomondo again and it again sucked up another 50MB before hitting a limit. So I reset my watch and kept it on cellular (no BT or wifi available) and sitting there it used maybe a couple megs over hours. But when I run Endomondo it definitely immediately starts sucking data. In a couple quick tests, it used as much as 500kB in two minutes. At this point, I am just going to try using fit or my tracks or strava. I tried fit and it didn't seem to use any data, but doesn't have the map and display customization.

Steps for 3.5 mile runs are around 500-1000 for me. Weird thing is that other steps seem within reasonable range, though definitely lower than fitbit.

That's strange. I've never had a lot of data transferred using Endomondo. I'm using ghostracer these days with no issues. Any chance a setting in Endomondo hasn't been set correctly? I know you have to go to smartwatches>android wear in the Endomondo phone settings to tell the app to use the watch GPS instead of phone. If it's tracking correctly, I'm sure this has already been done though.

 

[scaots]

I tried tracking yesterday off the wrist and it was very accurate. I will have to get a wrist band to see how that works. (The body is a good blocker of radio waves and a little separation can help as others have reported.) Though for now I am interested in monitoring HR and see if that seems accurate and keep myself from pushing too hard since I am getting older and really not in such great shape that I should be pushing myself too hard.

So I have been checking out other options besides Endomondo. Here is what I have seen...

Endomondo is awesome, customizable, and does it all, but for some reason appears to use tons of data running on my watch. Others have not seen this. The only other negative about it is that the text could be bolder/larger to be more legible, especially ambient mode is very thin text with no chance of reading on a even hazy day.

Ghostracer is even better. Can display whatever you want, however you want. Will upload to Strava and Runkeeper. What does the pro version get me? It is very unclear aside from additional screens of info, but two is plenty for me. I will try it today, and if it works well I will probably buy Pro anyway just to support the dev because it is perfect for my watch. Does pro get me the map? Or do I have to have ghosts for that? I don't care about the ghost feature, but a map would be nice.

Runtastic Pro display is not customizable, but displays the essentials. Ambient mode is bold text so might be visible on less than sunny day. Screen on is white background with thin text so not sure how well that will display in sun. Also starts the phone app if connected and voice queues sound on phone, not sure what happens when the connection is broken.

RunKeeper display is not customizable, but displays the essentials. In screen awake mode it uses a colored background that will not help withoutdoor contrast.

Google Fit has very limited display and odd colors with background in screen on mode so hard to read in sunlight.

My Tracks has very limited display.

Mapmyrun seems to only want to use the phone GPS, so that's not going to work.

 

[foxbat121]

FYI, Google has deprecated My Tracks app recently. It is no longer available for download from Play store. I used it before and it is a perfect app for testing GPS, not an activity app.

 

[scaots]

I tested and liked ghostracer a lot and plan to try a run in the morning. I also tried Endomondo again and didn't have any massive data use in short testing, but whatever since I will probably be a ghostracer user for now.

 

[mdw1995]

I tried tracking yesterday off the wrist and it was very accurate. I will have to get a wrist band to see how that works. (The body is a good blocker of radio waves and a little separation can help as others have reported.) Though for now I am interested in monitoring HR and see if that seems accurate....

Ghostracer is even better. Can display whatever you want, however you want. Will upload to Strava and Runkeeper. What does the pro version get me?me the map?

I've been tracking runs with this watch for 6 months and just figured this out recently. I had issues with GPS lagging or pausing during runs until recently I started wearing a 2" wristband under my watch. I've worn it for the last few weeks and GPS is nearly perfect. I also use ghostracer and I paid for the premium just to support the developer. I don't really need the additional screens. I usually just leave it on the same one and check when it vibrates each mile. Ghostracer also allows you to use the internal or a chest HRM . I tried the internal briefly, before the wristband, and it was about 20bpm different than the chest strap which I trust to be more accurate. Ghostracer has an active Google+ community and the developer participates and answers questions.

 

[miroul]

Which bluetooth chest strap do you use? I plan on buying one, i need more precision over my HR readings since i plan starting to train using intervals based on HR values

 

[mdw1995]

Which bluetooth chest strap do you use? I plan on buying one, i need more precision over my HR readings since i plan starting to train using intervals based on HR values

I haven't seriously used HR values to track workouts so I went the cheap route when purchasing a monitor just to see if I could get it to work with the watch/ghostracer. I paid $6 for the monitor reviewed below. It's worked fine for me but I don't know if it's still available. It's listed on Amazon but unavailable.

http://blog.lincomatic.com/?p=1818

 

[scaots]

So on Sunday I had total GPS failure. I use ghostracer and make sure GPS is solid before starting, but it didn't track at all on my run. I paused when I realized and took it off and got a fix but after restarting 10 ft later it was gone not recording any points at all over 34 mins. Wednesday I try again and it works for first half of run with the usual jumpiness in tracking, but last at least 15 minutes it only recorded a point very infrequently that some were .25 mile apart.
Can't wait to get my wrist band coming Monday and see if how it helps GPS. My big concern right now is worry about the integrity of the antennas in the band. Is the GPS antenna in the band? Just curious what is. Hopefully they are resilient because the stiff band definitely gets some bending when putting it on or off.

 

[mdw1995]

So on Sunday I had total GPS failure. I use ghostracer and make sure GPS is solid before starting, but it didn't track at all on my run. I paused when I realized and took it off and got a fix but after restarting 10 ft later it was gone not recording any points at all over 34 mins. Wednesday I try again and it works for first half of run with the usual jumpiness in tracking, but last at least 15 minutes it only recorded a point very infrequently that some were .25 mile apart.
Can't wait to get my wrist band coming Monday and see if how it helps GPS. My big concern right now is worry about the integrity of the antennas in the band. Is the GPS antenna in the band? Just curious what is. Hopefully they are resilient because the stiff band definitely gets some bending when putting it on or off.

Hopefully the band will make a difference. I had lag issues and ghostracer would often stop tracking in the middle of a run. Sweat may have been the issue for me. I've been using a wristband for over a month now on about 15-20 runs. The runs were between 4-9 miles and mostly in 80-90F heat and the GPS tracking has been perfect for all runs using the band. I accidentally forgot it one day and had another lag so it definitely makes a difference on mine.

 

[scaots]

Wrist band is night and day difference in GPS accuracy. I get a nice smooth track now with no jaggedness as good as can be expected.

Is anyone using a chest HRM? I would like to use one with ghostracer. Does it stop using the built-in HRM if an external is connected?

What specific HRM works for everyone with what app? (standalone of course, not having the phone with me) I bought a cheap HRM (SYNC) and it works well but only thing I found it to work with is an old version of Endomondo that doesn't support wear so that doesn't work for me. I would like to keep using ghostracer, but Endomondo would be a second choice for what it displays on wear. Thanks

 

[mdw1995]

Wrist band is night and day difference in GPS accuracy. I get a nice smooth track now with no jaggedness as good as can be expected.

Is anyone using a chest HRM? I would like to use one with ghostracer. Does it stop using the built-in HRM if an external is connected?

What specific HRM works for everyone with what app? (standalone of course, not having the phone with me) I bought a cheap HRM (SYNC) and it works well but only thing I found it to work with is an old version of Endomondo that doesn't support wear so that doesn't work for me. I would like to keep using ghostracer, but Endomondo would be a second choice for what it displays on wear. Thanks

I bought a cheap chest hrm and used it with ghostracer and it works great. I paid $6 but it's hard to find now. http://blog.lincomatic.com/?p=1818

I found the hrm in the watch to be inaccurate when exercising, about 20bpm off, so I haven't tried to run both at the same time.

 

[glenner05]

Just tested ghostracer today, especially to be able to use my ble hrm. But it didnt work. I use the latest ghostracer app from play store. In de phone app setting under wear settings i only have the option 'force gps on watch' but nothing with hrm settings. In the watch app i have cadence, barometer and heart rate toggles. When i toggle heart rate on it activates the built in sensor, not the chest band. I also tried scanning the chest belt under the watches bluetooth settings and i can see the heart rate belt. But how do I get it to work with ghost racer?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mdw1995]

Just tested ghostracer today, especially to be able to use my ble hrm. But it didnt work. I use the latest ghostracer app from play store. In de phone app setting under wear settings i only have the option 'force gps on watch' but nothing with hrm settings. In the watch app i have cadence, barometer and heart rate toggles. When i toggle heart rate on it activates the built in sensor, not the chest band. I also tried scanning the chest belt under the watches bluetooth settings and i can see the heart rate belt. But how do I get it to work with ghost racer?

Posted via the Android Central App

Maybe they can help at the Google+ forum.... someone else had an issue as well.

https://plus.google.com/116136070936435178330/posts/aPLtqdp9UfA

 

[scaots]

Maybe they can help at the Google+ forum.... someone else had an issue as well.

https://plus.google.com/116136070936435178330/posts/aPLtqdp9UfA

This does help. I bought a Polar H7 and had a hard time getting it to pair with my phone app, but once I did it showed up as an additional sensor in the watch app that was already enabled and it worked.

I have only used it once and had a heck of a time that as soon as I started my run the sensors seemed to stop updating (GPS, HRM). After several attempts, I ran a little and started toggling the sensors off/on eventually with barometer off and it seemed to work then. And I fixed my track in RunKeeper, exported it, and imported into Strava to had correct distance data. I will try it again this week and hope for better performance with the sensors and I would like to try to keep the barometer for accurate hill data.