Fitbit tracks my driving.

Belsie1968

Hi All,

Can anyone tell me how I stop my FB tracking my driving?
I work on a mine site and do a fair bit of driving.( slow driving as the max speed is 40km). So today I was in the car, I synced my FB then drove 3 minutes, then synced my FB again and had gained 298 steps! (without stepping out of the car)
The girls in my office said to have it on my non dominate hand but sync it to my dominate hand. This isn't working....... I have increased my steps to 12,000 to counter act my driving but I'm thinking I will have to increase it to 18,000 to actually get 10,000 per day.


Any help would be great :flowerforyou:

Belsie1968

Fitbit trackers use a 3-axis accelerometer to understand your motions. An accelerometer is a device that turns movement (acceleration) of a body into digital measurements (data) when attached to the body. By analyzing acceleration data, our trackers provide detailed information about frequency, duration, intensity, and patterns of movement to determine your steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, and sleep quality. The 3-axis implementation allows the accelerometer to measure your motion in any way that you move, making its activity measurements more precise than older, single-axis pedometers.
Fitbit trackers have a finely tuned algorithm for step counting. The algorithm is designed to look for motion patterns most indicative of people walking. One condition for a motion pattern to be recognized as a step is the motion must be large enough. The algorithm implements this by setting a threshold. If a motion and its subsequent acceleration measurement data meet the threshold, the motion will be counted as a step. If that threshold is not met, the algorithm won’t count the motion as a step. Other factors can create enough acceleration to meet our threshold and therefore cause some over counting of steps, such as riding on a bumpy road. Equally, it's possible for the algorithm to undercount (not meet the required acceleration threshold). Examples here include walking on a very soft surface such as a plush carpet.


Well that explains it completely :bigsmile:

2essie

You can cancel out the steps added from driving by booking the exact time you started driving and the exact time you finished driving. Log it on the fitbit site under driving and it will cancel out the steps it added. I don't know if you have a timer on your fitbit. If you have, set it as though you were going to record exercise so that you have the exact start and stop times. Then, log it on fitbit.

sodakat

On the phone app you need to click on "active minutes" and on the Dashboard the place you enter activities is under "Activity" by hovering over the tile and chosing "more". Then you will need to search for the activity. The one I use is "Automobile or light truck (not a semi) driving". I drive school bus and have to do this twice a day. Its a PITA but I've found no other way to counteract the jiggling around that affects fitbit's counting.

CM9178

You can cancel out the steps added from driving by booking the exact time you started driving and the exact time you finished driving. Log it on the fitbit site under driving and it will cancel out the steps it added. I don't know if you have a timer on your fitbit. If you have, set it as though you were going to record exercise so that you have the exact start and stop times. Then, log it on fitbit.

I've only had mine a week and this is already driving me crazy (no pun intended).
on Friday, I was on a trip, in and out of the car at least 15 times, and I kept forgetting to set and/or turn off the timer. So it ended up counting a bazillion steps that I didn't actually take. I guess there really isn't anything you can do about it though.

maoribadger

Try an app called drivebit. Logs to fitbit for you and you just press start and stop on your phone

CM9178

Try an app called drivebit. Logs to fitbit for you and you just press start and stop on your phone

still have to remember to do it, and that's probably more annoying than having to press the button on the fitbit itself.

maoribadger

True story. TBH i do neither, I have the One instead of the Flex and I wear it on my accelerator side so its not as much up and down movement of my leg and it doesnt seem to over track so I leave it. Just thought if the OP was someone who had their phone on the dash it might be helpful as pressing the flex into activity mode can send those details to the sleep section and you then have to go and move them, drivebit eliminates that. Each to their own just trying to help

CM9178

True story. TBH i do neither, I have the One instead of the Flex and I wear it on my accelerator side so its not as much up and down movement of my leg and it doesnt seem to over track so I leave it. Just thought if the OP was someone who had their phone on the dash it might be helpful as pressing the flex into activity mode can send those details to the sleep section and you then have to go and move them, drivebit eliminates that. Each to their own just trying to help

Yeah I have the one and keep it clipped to my bra, so it isn't on a leg at all, and after a 20 minute drive to work, it sometimes logs as much as 150 steps.