New feature request: Expose GPS Altitude in the Connect IQ API

Currently the API only exposes the barometric altitude which as we know can be oftentimes very wrong unless recalibrated very frequently as opposed to the GPS altitude which is usually a little wrong but does not need any calibration. Are there any plans to include the GPS altitude in the API? Since it's already available as an activity datafield I assume including it in the API would not be too cumbersome..

Thanks!

Former Member over 10 years ago

There are three different ways to pull an altitude:
Toybox::Position::Info, Toybox::Sensor::Info, and Toybox::Activity::Info

I have not had time to test/compare them yet (on my list of things to do) but I assumed that one was Baro one was GPS and one might be blended.

Are you saying they are all the same?

thebigbadwolf_1 over 10 years ago

I won't have an activity running (this is a widget) which rules out Toybox::Activity::Info but I will compare Toybox::Position::Info and Toybox::Sensor::Info and see if they show the same...will post the result back.

Former Member over 10 years ago

I just tested all three. All work off of the pressure sensor. Even the altitude pulled from the Position::Info which really makes no sense at all.

I made a widget displaying all three altitudes, then put the watch in a plastic jar and squeezed it and saw all three change AND stay matched with each other.

Now I too would like to know how to get GPS altitude.

It is interesting to note that Activity::Info was non null and produced an active altitude even though this was a widget and I had no activities running that I know of.

hawken over 10 years ago

There has been another request for GPS altitude, and it's on the road map. GPS altitude tends to be less accurate than altitude derived from a pressure sensor, but there are some cases where using pressure doesn't really work (like in a pressurized cabin of an aircraft), so we plan to see about making this available in a future release.

Former Member over 10 years ago

Awesome, thanks.

thebigbadwolf_1 over 10 years ago

There has been another request for GPS altitude, and it's on the road map. GPS altitude tends to be less accurate than altitude derived from a pressure sensor, but there are some cases where using pressure doesn't really work (like in a pressurized cabin of an aircraft), so we plan to see about making this available in a future release.

Well on all my Garmin devices pressure sensor derived altitude will be way off in a as little as an hour so while I agree with the definition above in theory, it definitely does not seem to be the case in practice in my experience. Also quite a few rewievers of my PositionPlus widget have specifically requested me to use the GPS altitude rather than the atmospheric one in the widget after realizing how much off the altitude was.

But is good to know it's on the roadmap even though to be seen how long we will have to wait for it ;)