SpeedPuck speed damping

[Luc Benac]

Hello,
I have been using my SpeedPuck a few times now. Assuming I paddle 30 stroke a minute at a relax pace and 40 stroke a minute when pushing, during a stroke I seem to get two speed values - one low one higher than my average speed i.e. 7 km/h and 9.5 km/h which I assume show the acceleration.
Would it make sense to set-up the SpeedPuck to dampen speed at 1s to get the "average" speed reading rather than the peak. Mind you I found it also helpful to see the peaks when doing a sprint exercise to keep me "honest".

Cheers,

Luc

[Foilman]

I set mine to a 2 second average. Works well for me.

[PonoBill]

Complicated question actually, and the answer depends on the accuracy of the Speedpuck and whether you care about true speed or are happy with a relative measure. Speedpuck uses doppler shift and updates every half second, so instantaneous velocity measurement should be accurate to less than a tenth of a MPH. This is superior to track-based speed measurement of speed and direction which is necessarily historic, and the speed error is the product of two location errors.

Instantaneous velocity is still a problem since short averaging tracks velocity over the cycle of acceleration/deceleration of the board during stroke and recovery. Assuming a stroke takes 1 second the half second samples might both occur during maximum or minimum cycle speed of the stroke. Longer averages will eliminate the problem but won't reflect increased effort unless it's sustained. There's no solution to that issue, just a choice of what you want to see.

[Luc Benac]

Complicated question actually, and the answer depends on the accuracy of the Speedpuck and whether you care about true speed or are happy with a relative measure. Speedpuck uses doppler shift and updates every half second, so instantaneous velocity measurement should be accurate to less than a tenth of a MPH. This is superior to track-based speed measurement of speed and direction which is necessarily historic, and the speed error is the product of two location errors.

Instantaneous velocity is still a problem since short averaging tracks velocity over the cycle of acceleration/deceleration of the board during stroke and recovery. Assuming a stroke takes 1 second the half second samples might both occur during maximum or minimum cycle speed of the stroke. Longer averages will eliminate the problem but won't reflect increased effort unless it's sustained. There's no solution to that issue, just a choice of what you want to see.

Thank you for the comprehensive answers, Bill.
The setup cannot be changed without been connected to a computer otherwise I would consider using:
1) No dampening (instantaneous velocity) when anticipating doing some sprint training on FW
2) 1 second  averaging/dampening when working on maintaining a steady pace in cross chop/side wind

Cheers,

Luc