Advanced settings

The following settings appear on the advanced settings page. Most people will never need to change these settings, but they are available here to help address problems that can arise in some unusual cases.

TCX export compatibility with Garmin Connect

CrewNerd has had the ability to export TCX data for many years, but the TCX standard leaves a lot of room for interpretation and the format that CrewNerd exported was not compatible with the Garmin Connect website. We couldn't make our TCX data compatible with Garmin Connect without risking our compatibility with other apps and websites.

To solve this problem, there is now a setting that allows you to choose compatibility with Garmin Connect. You should leave this setting turned off unless you plan to export TCX data and then import it to Garmin Connect.

Use legacy speed calculation

For most of its life, CrewNerd has calculated speed using your recent GPS location data. The "smoothing window" (another advanced setting) determined how far back along your current path to look when calculating that average. This is what we refer to as the "legacy speed calculation".

Newer phones now have the ability to get your current speed directly from the GPS receiver, based on the doppler shift caused by your motion relative to multiple GPS satellites. CrewNerd now uses this speed measurement whenever it is available, which results in more accurate and stable speed & pace data for most users.

In some cases, though, you may see better results with the old approach, so with this setting we allow you to opt out of the new algorithm.

Speed smoothing window

The speed smoothing window is only applicable when you select the legacy speed calculation. It specifies the number of meters over which CrewNerd should average your speed. A smaller window gives a calculation that reacts more quickly to actual changes in speed, but is more susceptible to fluctuation due to GPS error. A larger window makes you more immune to GPS error but will tend to lag behind your true speed when it changes.

Auto-start threshold

When you use the auto start/stop feature in CrewNerd, the app will attempt to detect the forward surge of your first stroke and immediately start the timer. If CrewNerd fails to detect that surge, then the timer will instead start as you complete the first stroke.

The auto-start threshold is what determines how much acceleration is required to trigger the timer start. The default setting works for most people, but if you find that the timer isn't starting for you right away, you can try lowering the auto-start threshold.

Stroke threshold

This setting is similar to the auto-start threshold, but it determines how much acceleration is required to trigger the counting of a stroke. The stroke threshold varies depending on which activity you select in the sport settings - rowing has a higher threshold than kayaking, for example.

The thresholds were all set assuming athletes training for competition, and in some cases could be too high. If you find that CrewNerd is reporting a stroke rate that seems low, you may want to reduce the stroke threshold. Conversely, if the displayed stroke rates are high, you should try raising the threshold.

Remember that certain types of drills that you may do can confuse the stroke detection code. Examples of this would be pause drills or cake-cutter drills in rowing. We only recommend changing the stroke threshold if you consistently have problems with the stroke rate while rowing or paddling normally.