Explore function is terrible?

[Arsenic17]

I started using Explore Tile to track my hikes in the wilderness of Colorado. While at the same time using my real GPS (eTrex Htx) to compare. Af
First impression is the battery life was crazy.I was getting 8 + hours on a single charge using Explore function. Second impression. It's GPS distance tracking is out to lunch.
Only an
7.5 mile hike, it read 11.5 miles. One a 8.5 mile hike, it had 14 miles. I know GPS is on because it shows your track. That was right. But wow, way off on distance. I wonder if ituses steps somehow?

Also WPCentral Fix your ****ty site I am done posting here. This entire message lagged by 5 seconds. Way too much Java and ads. Seriously. I am about done wit it

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I started using Explore Tile to track my hikes in the wilderness of Colorado. While at the same time using my real GPS (eTrex Htx) to compare. Af
First impression is the battery life was crazy.I was getting 8 + hours on a single charge using Explore function. Second impression. It's GPS distance tracking is out to lunch.
Only an
7.5 mile hike, it read 11.5 miles. One a 8.5 mile hike, it had 14 miles. I know GPS is on because it shows your track. That was right. But wow, way off on distance. I wonder if ituses steps somehow?

Also WPCentral Fix your ****ty site I am done posting here. This entire message lagged by 5 seconds. Way too much Java and ads. Seriously. I am about done wit it

I'm quite sure the distance calculated is based on the steps you've taken - is there a hiking mode in the band 2? I remember reading that

As for the windows central site being slow - what were you using to access it? Was it a browser or the app?

 

[Arsenic17]

The Explore Tile from what I understand is the Hiking Tile. It shows a Guy with a walking stick as the icon? Though I am not sure.

It's weird because using the explore tile will plot a good map of where you hiked. The distance should be taken from this. However, it always vastly overestimates my distance, by 50% about. If it was based on steps, it would make more sense. But then again, why doesnt it just use the GPS which is clearly on and tracking the entire time.

Site much better today. It was so horrible before when I was on IE. Now on Chrome, it is better. But seriously, there is 16 ads on this page I just counted. I dont think that is even allowed. Disgusting.

 

[longlifexs]

Just a thought: could it be that the latter number is in km? It was the first thing that crossed my mind because I had issues with MS Health using miles where I wanted it to show kms when sharing workouts on FB. I guess you would notice that but still wanted to mention it.

 

[Eric Oud Ammerveld]

Try disabling the GPS Saver.
I think this is what causes my running to report twice as fast.

 

[luke31]

I started using Explore Tile to track my hikes in the wilderness of Colorado. While at the same time using my real GPS (eTrex Htx) to compare. Af
First impression is the battery life was crazy.I was getting 8 + hours on a single charge using Explore function. Second impression. It's GPS distance tracking is out to lunch.
Only an
7.5 mile hike, it read 11.5 miles. One a 8.5 mile hike, it had 14 miles. I know GPS is on because it shows your track. That was right. But wow, way off on distance. I wonder if ituses steps somehow?

Also WPCentral Fix your ****ty site I am done posting here. This entire message lagged by 5 seconds. Way too much Java and ads. Seriously. I am about done wit it

I agree 100%. Went hiking in Acadia National Park, and distance with the GPS enabled explore tile was horrendously off. So was elevation. It claimed the summit was 200 feet higher than it really was, and then kept fluctuating by the order of hundreds of feet when I was just standing still there. Hiking is critical for me, so I made an appointment with the Microsoft store to hopefully get my band replaced.

 

[gwinegarden]

Just a thought: could it be that the latter number is in km? It was the first thing that crossed my mind because I had issues with MS Health using miles where I wanted it to show kms when sharing workouts on FB. I guess you would notice that but still wanted to mention it.

Sounds right, to me. 8.5 miles is 13.67 km

 

[Jens Ansorg]

Originally posted by Eric Oud Ammerveld
Try disabling the GPS Saver.
I think this is what causes my running to report twice as fast.

where please? Cannot find that setting for the hiking mode

 

[Arsenic17]

I dont think Explore has GPS saver. Though, I think it is on by default since the battery life in Explore mode is 10 hours or so.

Thanks for tip about KM, but I dont see that setting anywhere on the device, and it explicitly shows miles on the website. It would make things more accurate if somehow it was a bug showing it in km though.

I did another hike a few days ago. It was about 7.5 miles actual distance, and the Band Explore said it was 11.3 miles. I had a friend with me that also has the Band 2. His distance was slightly more than mine at the end, more like 11.8 miles.

Elevation gain has been spot on for me though each time. And the GPS track map also is perfect. It really doesnt make sense the distance is off so much....

 

[longlifexs]

I tried the Explore function in Berlin last weekend and it seems ok. After the walk the it said 7.13 km and when I measured distances on Google maps now, I came up with 6.36 - however, I didn't follow my route super closely when measuring on Google maps, so I think the Band's distance is pretty accurate.

 

[Roland Stoll]

Try disabling the GPS Saver.
I think this is what causes my running to report twice as fast.

That's currently not possible for the Hike app, only for Running, Bike, ...