GPS reception

Sterlingtimes

facade said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

It's quite hard to get lost in a swimming pool.

Feet touch the bottom = shallow end
Not touch = deep end

I assume the OP wants to know distance swum.

Most swimming watches have a pool mode (gps off) where they use accelerometers to detect turning round and count lengths (and strokes), and then multiply this by pool length for distance.

Then you can have little graphs of speed, stroke cadence, heart rate, dissolved oxygen etc. against distance.

I have to say I wouldn't trust a 50m watch for strenuous swimming though, plus the chlorine won't do a resin case or strap any good.

Thank you. I have used watches with accelerometers for many years. They have all been reasonably or perfectly accurate. They all have a limited life. I'm also having difficulty (age 67) reading the watch owing to poor eyesight.

The Chinese Zeblaze is cheap enough to buy for experimentation [ridiculously cheap for the advertised functionality]. It is unclear to me whether measurements are taken by GPS or accelerometer.

facade

Sterlingtimes said:

wongataa said:

The GPS bit won't work well if at all in an indoor swimming pool.

Thank you. This is my concern.

It won't.

Pool mode uses the accelerometers and gyroscope to count lengths like other smartwatches.

GPS is never going to work inside a building on a £30 watch...

cerebus

Sterlingtimes said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Sterlingtimes said:

Would a GPS swimming watch work in an indoor swimming pool?

Potentially, depends on the structure of the building and the swimming pools location. I'm assuming you are only talking about functions that require GPS to work. Clearly many have other functions that use altimeters etc which will work irrespective of GPS

Thank you. The swimming pool was built a couple of years ago at the University of Warwick. There is no floor above the swimming. I'm unsure about the composition of the roof. I imagine that GPS is used to measure swimming distance. Watches I have used up to now use an accelerometer rather than GPS.

Simple way to find out is take your phone into the pool area  and see if GPS works on Google maps , free to find out that way however GPS requires line of sight so don't be surprised if it doesn't 

Sterlingtimes

cerebus said:

Simple way to find out is take your phone into the pool area  and see if GPS works on Google maps , free to find out that way however GPS requires line of sight so don't be surprised if it doesn't 

Good idea. I will try that.

Sterlingtimes

Thank you all.

I have had swimming watches before costing £200 and over. I have received the Chinese watch now. It was £35.29. It is superb. I am unsure whether it uses GPS or an accelerometer, but the stats on my first swim with the watch are perfect.

cerebus

Remind me which watch did you get again?

LunaLater

GPS won’t work but good swimming watches don’t need it to measure distance, speed etc in the pool.

Sterlingtimes

cerebus said:

Remind me which watch did you get again?

It's the Zeblaze Swim

facade

Sterlingtimes said:

Thank you all.

I have had swimming watches before costing £200 and over. I have received the Chinese watch now. It was £35.29. It is superb. I am unsure whether it uses GPS or an accelerometer, but the stats on my first swim with the watch are perfect.

It is an accelerometer, like all other swim watches indoors (pool mode).

Notice the distance is a multiple of the standard pool length of 25m.

If your pool isn't 25m there will be a setting somewhere to change it

Glad that you are pleased with it.

annafrancesca

Hi Anyone
I have just signed up to this site having googled Zeblaze swim watch not being accurate. I bought one very recently and it just isn't measuring distance. Each time it is around 40-50% of the distance I have swum (allowing for the odd couple of lengths I might have mistaken) I normally swim around 92 -96 lengths when I set it to the hour.
Can anyone help? This is my second watch- the first having completely frozen after 3 uses and you weren't able to put the charger on it- the magnetism just not allowing the watch to be put on it.