Team Suunto vs Team Garmin – The Roundabout-of-GPS-Doom Duel – GPS/Cycling Accuracy Test

27 Tuesday Sep 2016

Tags

820, 920xt, accuracy, edge, forerunner, Garmin, GPS, spartan, Sport, sss, ssu, Suunto, ultra

After a Half-Iron distance race at the weekend, today was still a recovery day. 10k on a bike seemed sensible enough as did the thought of combining that into a GPS test. The cunning plan was to circle the Roundabout-of-Doom.

Perhaps a faster-moving me might give rise to different GPS results than previous running-based tests?

The Teams:

Team Garmin
1. Forerunner 920XT
2. Edge 920XT
Team Suunto
1. SPARTAN Sport
2. SPARTAN Ultra

Match Conditions

All latest firmware as of 27Sep2016.
Wrist-worn except 820 (this might favour the 820 very slightly)
Cloudy, daylight, light wind, 17 celcius. No tree cover, no buildings.
15 minutes of GPS recording in a warmup ride.

Here is a clickable image of the main talking point of the match.

Results

Distance – all were in the range 9.69-9.74 and I stopped the watches whilst moving which could easily account for 20m. They’re basically the same.
Power – the two Garmins tracked the average as 200w from the same source +/- 1.2w from a ROTOR 3D+ InPower single sided crank.
Speed – was near-identical, although the 820 had a minor wobbly at 7:30 minutes. A yellow card offence.
Elevation – The 820 failed at elevation (referee wasn’t looking, otherwise a second yellow) – A surprise as in training at the weekend over 90km, the 820 and 920 both performed near identically. For the other Garmin and 2 Suuntos, I could not tell which was correct.
HR – both Suunto’s simultaneously lost the HR track from the 4iiii Viiiiva. that is almost certainly BTLE a transmission issue from the dual-band 4iiii HRM. However the ULTRA didn’t pick up the HR again when it came back on track. That is a yellow card offence.
GPS Tracking (Visible judging of the above map) – all 4 tracked the ‘pattern’. The two Garmins were off the track a few metres skewed to the East. SPARTAN Sport was ‘just’ the most accurate looking.

Result

In the GPS game there are no points won or lost for power/speed/elevation performances. So all that mattered was the GPS track in what, I have to say, were UNchallenging and near-perfect conditions. The first image shown above was indicative of the performance of the entire route. They were all very good boys and girls and performed well at any and all points they were probably no more than 5m out from each other. THAT is supposedly the accuracy of a GPS signal or thereabouts AFAIK.

A DRAW, in normal time.

For the penalty shootout I would say that the Team Suunto just edged it (pun intended) but only because of the Garmin’s Easterly skew. HOWEVER, based on this test, I would have no problems buying any of them for GPS purposes. Other recent test with these devices are <here>, <here> and <here>.

Edge 820 – The speed issuette and the elevation track were a little concerning. Personally I’m interested in neither bike speed nor, usually, elevation. But some of you are. Genuinely, over the 90km at the weekend both Garmins tracked elevation consistently – although the Edge was consistently lower. That could quite easily be put down to me never bothering to calibrate it.

Valencell to demonstrate HRV in optical sensor

27 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by the5krunner in Gadgets & Gear, Gear News, News

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jabra, Suunto, valencell

It looks like HRV level of accuracy is nearly commercially possible for optical wearables with an announcement from Valencell, below.

It has been demonstrated before at several shows but I would assume that association with medical-grade usage, even if only implied by the joint FDA/CTA axhibition, is a good thing.

Jabra, who also embed Valencell technology, have been talking about HRV for a couple of years using ear-based optical HRM. The ear seems to be one of the most accurate locations for a good reading.

ESSENTIAL READING: Jabra Sport Pulse Review

Why do I mention this? Other than an unhealthy interest in HRV I probably should also bring to your attention that Suunto’s 3rd release for 2016 will be an optical HR version of the SPARTAN SPORT. And, you’ve guessed it, it will use Valencell technology for that🙂 – Presumably their PERFORMTEK technology.

Draw your own conclusions…

———-Press Release below, in full —————

Valencell Showcases Innovations in Biometric Health Wearables at Digital Health Technology Expo sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association and U.S. Food and Drug Administration

by Ryan Kraudel | Sep 26, 2016 | Press | 0 comments

Raleigh, N.C. and WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sept. 26, 2016 – Valencell, the leading innovator in performance biometric data sensor technology, announced today that it is among a select group of technology and consumer electronics companies invited to exhibit at the Digital Health Technology Expo, sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) on Monday, September 26, 2016 at the FDA’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Other companies exhibiting include Philips, Qualcomm, Sony, Samsung, Fossil/Misfit, and Validic, among others.

Valencell will be demonstrating its groundbreaking biometric sensor technology and its ability to accurately measure RR-interval in wearable devices worn in numerous form-factors. Accurate RR-interval data is critical to the wearable health monitoring marketplace because this data is required for assessments of heart rate variability (HRV), atrial fibrillation, arrhythmia, stress analysis, and various cardiovascular conditions.

The Expo will feature presentations from the CTA, FDA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as additional government, academic and industry market leaders on consumer technology’s critical role in advancing healthcare. Sessions will discuss innovations in biometric wearables for healthcare data delivery; ways in which innovators and regulators can work collaboratively to drive innovation in healthcare technology; and how patient generated data can create positive change in healthcare delivery through empowering patients and caregivers to drive positive behavior change and reduce health risks, leading to better treatment and outcomes.

“We are honored to be invited by the CTA and FDA to participate in this event, and to have the opportunity to showcase some of our latest innovations in biometric data sensor technology for health applications, including accurate continuous RR-interval monitoring technology that can ultimately be used for important health screening applications and fitness assessments,” said Dr. Steven LeBoeuf, president and co-founder of Valencell. “The goal of Valencell’s innovation in wearable technology is to make biometric monitoring easy, affordable, and seamless with everyday living, so that more accurate data can be taken frequently enough to drive personalized health insights and guidance. We look forward to working with government and industry groups, and our partners, to help drive continued growth in this market.”

Valencell PerformTek^® sensor systems are the most accurate, robust and flexible technology available today, powering more biometric hearables and wearables on the market than any other company. The technology gives hearable devices the ability to continuously and accurately measure blood flow signals even during extreme physical activity or when the optical signals are weak. These signals can be translated into accurate, motion-tolerant biometric data, including continuous heart rate, VO₂ and VO₂ max, resting heart rate, heart rate response, heart rate recovery, continuous energy expenditure (calorie burn), cardiac efficiency and heart rate variability (HRV) assessments.

Valencell licenses its biometric sensor technology through product licensing and patent licensing, to enable customers to create custom-designed biometric hearable and wearable devices. Valencell also introduced Benchmark™, a turnkey biometric sensor system with the complete PerformTek technology package ready for immediate integration into wearable and hearable devices.

Valencell has the most cited patent portfolio in wearable PPG in the industry, which includes 37 patents granted and more than 70 additional patents pending.

The accuracy of Valencell’s PerformTek technology has been independently validated by numerous research institutions, including Duke University, NC State University, and the American College of Sports Medicine.

Valencell’s PerformTek technology is the choice of popular consumer electronics brands, including Samsung, Sony, LG, Intel, Jabra, Scosche, Atlas Wearables, Caeden, Kuaiwear, Bioconnected, and iRiver among numerous others. To learn more about licensing PerformTek, visit valencell.com/access.

About Valencell

Valencell develops performance biometric sensor technology and licenses this patent-protected technology to consumer electronics manufacturers, mobile device and accessory makers, sports and fitness brands and gaming companies for integration into their products. Valencell’s PerformTek® biometric sensor technology employs biophysical signal characterization to actively characterize biophysical signals for removing physical noise and extracting highly accurate biometric information. Valencell’s PerformTek-powered sensors are the most accurate wearable biometric sensors that continuously measure heart rate and activity. Valencell has invested years into the research and development of its PerformTek sensor technology, protected by dozens of granted patents and independently validated by the Duke Center for Living, North Carolina State University, the Human Performance Laboratory and a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine.

BSX Insight: LVL Hydration Band MASSIVELY exceeds kickstarter target

26 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by the5krunner in Gadgets & Gear

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bsx, Hydration, insight, lvl, Monitor

BSX’s Kickstarter campaign for the LVL hydration monitor is over 12.5x ahead of their initial funding goal of $50,000

This will be an activity tracker that also has optical HR and hydration level measurement.

The solution will be brought together by a smartphone app and I have seen some of the research papers that purport to offer good accuracy.

Source: TIMEINC

PROBLEMS?: I don’t see any problems with this per se. If you wanted an activity tracker that also tracks HR from a band on your wrist then you get hydration as an extra.

In reality the issues this product has to overcome TO MAKE IT A REAL WINNER will likely be:

SMARTPHONE APP :: this will probably be fine for a mass market audience. The sporty type though will want broadcastable ANT+ levels of hydration, essentially for their Garmin. Many people DO NOT WANT YET ANOTHER APP. They want INTEGRATION.
ANT+:: for ANT+ data to work then CIQ data fields need to be developed (no biggy if the broadcasting exists) so that it can be seen and acted upon.
OPTICAL HR :: If BSX can make this broadcast HR over ANT+ and BTLE they are on to a winner.
OPTICAL HR ACCURACY :: many vendors have struggled with this. If BSX are aiming for the mass market and people who just want 247 HR monitoring (as opposed to sports usage) then pretty much any solution will likely give a broadly acceptable value. Not the same for sports/fitness.

Hever: Gauntlet Triathlon – Race Report

25 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by the5krunner in Courses, Races, triathlon

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gauntlet, half, hever, iron.distance, traithlon

Castle Triathlon Series (not clickable)

The Half-Iron Distance GAUNTLET is a significant challenge. 70.3 and full distance triathlons are not for the faint hearted. The GAUNTLET at HEVER also combines the difficulty of the distance with one of the harder half-Iron bike courses in the UK.

The race organisation is very good. Lots of helpful people/volunteers/marshals are at every turn. And there need to be lots of them as this is a BIG event. Everything about the organisation is good even down to the goody bag, free race belt, copious gels and wearable T-shirt. It never ceases to amaze me how most event T-shirts will never get worn which kinda negates the point of it all for the sponsors. The Gauntlet T-shirt is a good one!!

I digress.

A puncture and cramp scuppered my chances of a top5 category finish but I was very pleased considering I haven’t really trained for this sort of thing for much more than this year. Always helps entering in the over-80s age group I find (joking, for the avoidance of doubt).

The Race & Route

HEVER is very picturesque as is the bike and run route. Great opportunities for family-spectators and for things for them to do when you are ‘somewhere else’.

Swim: A pleasant 17 degrees saw everyone in the waves off to a good start. The lake is shallow at the start and the water murky. The entire swim is good fun as there seemed to be lots of fairly pleasant people being mostly considerate whilst still competing – all squished close together! The last 3rd of the swim gets a little hairy as everyone is funnelled into a relatively narrow/shallow moat-cum-canal. Overtaking is not easy, on the other hand BEING overtaken is not easy either.

Bit of a stony run to T1 a fair way away.

The bike course is on public roads but the organisers have the permission to stop traffic. Consequently, other than a puncture and a wee, I never had to stop. The course is not flat. Anywhere. It’s either up or down. Going down is quick, going up is not. Most people will be spending AT LEAST 3 hours cycling, some considerably more. Consequently pacing is key. I paced fairly well, I thought, I could have gone faster (kinda the point of pacing) but probably hit the sweetspot near enough. A power meter definitely helps as does a granny gear at the front if you like spinning (I didn’t have one). Even with a PM, pacing is difficult, there are some fairly long a tasty downhills where you can effectively not pedal and probably go faster (power=0) and on the many hills it is super-easy to hit Zone 5 levels and burn up your cycling matches very quickly (bad).

There are two well organised fuelling stations with water/high5/banana/gels and you can grab a bottle of high5 without stopping having first discarded your own.

Even today, in September, it was hot. Salt replenishment is an issue as well as the more obvious refuelling/hydration issues. For a HIM-type race then caffeine supplementation is required DURING the race.

The run is mostly a trail run with some roads. There’s nothing too steep in the grand scheme of ‘fells’ but, nevertheless, VERY MANY people have difficulty after a hard bike. For some of the hills the majority of people I saw were walking up them – even someone in a GB tri-suit..tut tut (that’s why you don’t wear them at home races). There’s lakes and old houses and villages and the Kent scenery to admire as you run. Nice. It really is.

Promo Video:

GADGET: In a recent post I dithered about which kit to use. In the end I went for this inspired choice

Garmin Edge 820 – worked perfectly (new firmware)
Garmin 920XT – doh! forgot to set the tri sports properly in the triathlon profile. worked perfectly
Garmin HRM-TRI – always works perfectly
Garmin footpod – yeah! I can see how fast I’m running
ROTOR INPOWER 3D+ and MAS – left side PM crank – perfecto.
ROTOR QARBON Q-RINGS – awesome oval chain rings.
Adamo ISM something saddle –
A newly serviced bike that ACTUALLY CHANGES GEAR – great. That helped today.

Fuel, etc: beetroot juice, salt tabs, caffeine tabs, high5 as provided, lucozde sport, curranz.

Sorry. Very boring. All the watch features I used are available on many other brands.

Post Race: sporttracks (analysis and training load), firstbeat athlete (training load), golden cheetah (power analysis). And I had to use fit file tools to fix the 920XT’s FIT file for some reason. I think I pushed my CP curve up in places…nice.

Suunto’s SPARTAN ULTRA and SPORT :: Menus, Buttons, Functions – A walkthrough

23 Friday Sep 2016

Posted by the5krunner in Gadgets & Gear

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Tags

review, spartan, Sport, Suunto, ultra

Left: Sport (metal bezel), Right ULTRA

Suunto’s two current SPARTAN models are the ULTRA and the SPORT. They’re near-identically featured at the moment other than the ULTRA is a bit thicker to accommodate a larger battery with longer battery-life and it has a barometric GPS.

Consequently the menus are nearly identical.

As time progresses and new features are added, this post may become outdated. HOWEVER it gives you a flavour of the UI and <here> is a link to the manual.

Note: This is not a review/opinion piece – that’s for another day. It’s a mostly factual run through of the menus WITH THE AID OF IMAGES and what is there in firmware v1.1.30. If you already have one you will know all this! If not, the two watches help give an idea of the menu flow.

Menu Layout and Navigation (image, right)

The watch/time face is the ‘home’ screen. Navigation is by the touchscreen and/or buttons. You really can use either and I do use both. But I would say I use the buttons 80% of the time.

Simplistically: The up and down buttons have the same functionality as swipe up and swipe down.

The middle ‘Go’ button either moves you on to the next step or scrolls through versions of the current screen – eg shows more laps or toggles some data fields.

Swipe left/right does what it says.

Each menu list contains a top menu option to go “back”…this enables the buttons to be used on their own more easily.

From the ‘Home’ screen, going DOWN will show you: training activity; basic steps-like activity; and recovery.

Going ‘Up’ takes you to the sport stuff, navigation, stopwatch, logbook (history) and settings.

Here we have a pretty bar of each sport type on the screen. A nice enough glanced overview for the wearer. The detail is on MOVESCOUNT.

Training Activity – Hours or Distance

A token nod for basic activity metrics like steps and calories. I don’t think it needs much more than this.

Steps or Calories

So, selecting ROUTES gives me an option to go and see my bike mechanic and other routes including the mysterious “K to R” which I found on a MOVESCOUNT heat map. Moves are created in MOVESCOUNT and, to be used, you must select a sport and then, effectively, add the route to the sport. A route CAN be replaced/added mid-sport.

Had I chosen the bike mechanic route it would show me a blue line route with my current position and a compass heading. But I would not be able to do anything with that Route here other than use the middle button to zoom-in and -out.