Request - Paragliding alti-vario

The D2 have been replaced by the D2bravo already. And the Bravo is based on the Fenix3. So I suppose that the internal delays are just the same (not usable during a flight). Meanwhile I have contacted the developer support team directly. I have asked very specific questions regarding electronic concept of the fenix3 platform (sensor sensitivity, internal sensor delays, integration factors, ...). So far I haven't got any answer (a little frustrating!!!). I had also a deeper look into the connectIQ SDK. So far I have not found a possibility to play a frequency modulated sound depending on the vertical speed. Furthermore it seems that there is no 'direct' way to read any sensor results. Basically the watch is updating a kind of information structure every second. This structure is holding all measurement results (position, height, ...). It is even not clear (not documented) if the height is a result of the barometer sensor or the GPS height or a combination of both (the most likely variant). There's is no control how the height is calculated (integration factors, ...). As a consequence we have to live with a minimum delay of one sec in any case as long the SDK is not giving any direct access to the sensor results and the app is able to define a higher sampling rate (refresh rate of the sensor results). And the current firmware seems to calculate the actual height using quite high integration factors (3..5sec). This makes sense for hiking apps but it is a no-go for a variometer app.
Unfortunately I am quite sure that the SDK will never provide possibilities like we would need to implement a proper vario app because this would influence the power consumption of the watch significantly.
But If it turns out that the sensor quality is high enough and a future release of the SDK is providing the necessary funtionality I will be the first buying a F3 or D2bravo just to implement (and use) a nice variometer app ...

cu @ cloud base

simple

Rather than try to turn the Fenix3 into a full on vario with beeping, how about something simple and useful
When paragliding I find 3 peices of information is all i really need, outside a simple beeper vario, that is Glide ratio, Altitude, and speed. and rather than setting it up as an activity that you need to stop and start make it a simple watch face or a widget that would be on all the time essentially.
adding a speed of ascent/decent 3 or 5 second average would be great use.
Set up as an activity is okay, and you can add much more data like Glide ratio required, distance etc. just having it up all the time on a watch face would be nice.

anyway, as one of the most active threads, you would think there would be something for paragliding, especially since garmin was a sponsor of the Red Bull XAlps race. Despite that it really seems Garmin is ignoring the free flight market. Where is Garmin gps messenger sos thing, like SpotDevice or Delorme? every comp pilot must fly with one of these and garmin has nothing, seems wierd

Can you explain why a full-blown app is preferable to using a built-in activity profile with a few custom data fields?

not app, widget or watch face

Can you explain why a full-blown app is preferable to using a built-in activity profile with a few custom data fields?

well paragliding can be 4 or 5 hours or longer and it would just be simpler to just have a widget with the data, no need to start an activity, probably better would be a watch face so you could always have the info availiable; altitude, speed, baro trend and time.

well paragliding can be 4 or 5 hours or longer and it would just be simpler to just have a widget with the data

Widgets have a timeout. They exit and the device returns to the watch face after some pre-determined time period. I think the timeout value is one minute on the 920, but something like 15 seconds on the vivoactive. Not ideal to have to activate the widget and wait for it to initialize every time you want to see the data.

probably better would be a watch face so you could always have the info availiable; altitude, speed, baro trend and time.

None of that information is available to a watch face.

The only options that could work are data fields (limit of 2 custom fields per activity type), or a full-blown app.

Travis

Check out Single Hike Field v2 - just add a small, seperate variometer

Hi Guys,

I've been using a simple 4 field data screen (elevation, bearing, speed and elapsed time) for casual flying with a helmet mounted (separate Sonic acoustic vario from Brauniger). Take a look at the Single Hike Field v2 in the Connect IQ store. Adds time, distance, battery and GPS to the basic fields I've been using. I can't get it to work on my Fenix 3 at the moment however it's probably user error:)

data field

Widgets have a timeout. They exit and the device returns to the watch face after some pre-determined time period. I think the timeout value is one minute on the 920, but something like 15 seconds on the vivoactive. Not ideal to have to activate the widget and wait for it to initialize every time you want to see the data.


None of that information is available to a watch face.

The only options that could work are data fields (limit of 2 custom fields per activity type), or a full-blown app.

Travis

Thanks for all the information Travis. I think with the limitations you mention, a data field screen is probably the best solution. How about a 3 data field screen with a large field for speed, large field for alltitude and small field for Glide ratio. Usually when flying your wrist is kind of far away and only get chance for a quick glance sometimes so big numbers are important for me anyway. Glide ratio is only important when on glide so you have more time and less busy, so smaller is okay. I will have a look at the 4 data field screen Choppy mentioned.

How hard is it to pull up these data field screens? Do you need to go into menu setting or somthing at time consuming as going to navigation? I really want that information one push of a button away, like the compass, elevation, temp, etc. but no timeout... I am using the fly activity app on my bravo d2 now sometimes, so that works pretty good but now sure what happens when i leave it running all day. Anyway, like the watch, but not finding it that convinient or useful when flying.

Jeff

screen orientation

Also, would it be possible to rotate the screen 45 degrees so you could read it easier when flying paraglider hands are vertical. A lot to ask, and probably not possible, but it would make it nicer to use.
thanks
jeff

Update

Just checking to see if anyone was still working on this app.