Virb Elite Altimeter Problems

Former Member over 11 years ago

I did a good deal of testing the virb elite over the weekend and comparing its altimeter to other S model handheld GPSs. I drove to the beach and up and down garages. It looks like it has a good steady sensor but we need firmware improvements. Garmin please help asap.

1. The altimeter simply cannot read accurate unless I can enter a calibration altitude. See for yourself by turning the unit off and on a couple times while staying in place. The altitude will be +/-40 feet each time. My other GPSs will do it to if days have passed, but it holds fairly accurate on short term reboots(They must save my last calibration altitude). How can any altimeter be worthwhile without being able to set it up?

2. The altimeter apparently will not read unless it has GPS lock. This is a flaw. The altimeter shouldn't and isn't tied to gps fix on other units. If I turn off GPS (on VIRB), altimeter will never read anything. Having a working altimeter could save someone in a pinch if unable to get GPS lock (not saying that Virb was intended for navigation).

I am fairly new to this forum. It is encouraging to see that Gamin's folks are listening and making progress and that this isn't just an place for us to whine about are issues to each other.

I would appreciate hearing something back concerning these problems and any possible fixes.
Yes-I have a told tech support...

0 schinder over 8 years ago

First of all, "Garmin people" usually don't participate in these forums.

Second, you're joking, right? There have been two generations of VIRB since the Elite. With the X, they "solved" the problem by removing the barometric altimeter entirely. It's back in the Ultra 30, but from the reviews I've read, once again there's no way to calibrate the altimeter. I don't know if it's any better than the Elite at self calibration. Garmin apparently doesn't view this as a problem to be solved, since they deliberately did it again. And given their usual practice, there won't be any more software updates to the Elite, since a quick check shows they don't sell the Elite on their web site any more.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Also, posting in the VIRB forum may help, this thread is in the VIRB Edit Forum

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

I'm not joking, I'm just following up this thread which was created back in 2013 and got several replies from users who made the same bad experience.

Obviously, this problem is still not solved in 2017. Buying a new device with more money is not considered solving problems. Getting a new firmware for the existing device would be helpful. I don't think the altimeter of the Virb Elite is broken as it is a Garmin device built on dozens of years of experience in this domain. It must be kind of a software problem, and therefore I hope for one more, one last update.

This is not the only thread, there are others outside the Virb Edit forum but keeping them on top at intervals of some months may help, too.

0 schinder over 8 years ago

And I was one of them that complained. It's been a very rare occasion when the altimeter on my VIRB Elite has been accurate enough to use rather than having to replace the VIRB track with the track from a device where you can calibrate the altimeter before hand. The biggest error I've had on the VIRB Elite was something like 2000 ft. Good thing VIRB Edit (whose developers actually do participate here) makes it so easy to replace the track.

But the VIRB Elite is done. There will be no firmware updates for it. For one thing, they'd have to come up with UI to enable you to enter an elevation for a device they don't sell any more. And since the exact same problem occurs on the Ultra 30, Garmin just doesn't care about this problem. Complaining about it here does no good anyway, since Garmin people by and large don't participate here. If you really want to talk to Garmin, use the official channels that they've set up.