I have two areas where I think improvements could be made relatively easily; data smoothing and data resolution.
Both areas may get improved automatically, when the official CdA Ant+ profile is released. Garmin and Wahoo and others will probably implement CdA data fields similar to their power data fields, with no smoothing as well as rolling 3s, 30s etc. and lap averages. But, this may take a while. I personally don't think the profile will get released before Garmin has their own CdA measuring device ready for the market.
So, in the meantime...
1) Data smoothing
I firmly believe that all smoothing should be done solely for display and analysis purposes, and that recorded files should contain the raw, second-by-second CdA values.
Would it be possible to make CdA smoothing optional in the AeroPod, just like power smoothing is? To move smoothing to the Garmin CIQ App - and with a shorter rolling window?
As it is, changes of position are manifested very slowly in the CdA numbers. In this example, transitioning from riding around in the base bar to riding in the extensions takes almost the full 90 seconds to manifest itself. Obviously, for testing it's easy to work around, but for real time feedback while racing (in events where that will be legal), the time lag is too big.
2) Data Resolution
As it is, the resolution is 0.004 CdA units. What will the resolution be, when the switch is made from transmitting HR values to transmitting true CdA values? 0.0001? 0.001?
In the mean time, would changing the scaling to improve resolution be possible? right now AeroPod can handle CdA values from 0 to (4 * 220) / 1000 = 0.88 (I'm assuming that Garmins don't permit HR's above 220). That is a very wide range. The resolution could be doubled by calculating CdA as (HR + 75) * 2 / 1000, if one could live with a CdA measuring range from 0.15 to 0.59. I think that most users could live with that range.
Thank you
