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Altimeter with Software 9.05

Hello to all,

I recently tested the new 9.05 software during a short hike. Over the course of the 1.5-hour hike, I immediately noticed several things that aren’t working properly yet.
To compare the recorded data, I also turned on my Tactix 7 Pro. Most of the time, the H1 was just recording, and for short stretches I used the navigation to waypoints that I had marked on the map during the hike.  Unfortunately, the device also restarted once during that short time without me having made any inputs.
What bothered me the most was the altimeter’s performance. Therefore, I’d like to focus mainly on these issues for now.

As can be seen in the promotional photo of the device, the altimeter displays two areas: the elevation profile already covered is shown in green, and during active navigation, the upcoming elevation profile is shown in blue.

In fact, the blue area is just displayed for brief moments during navigation. Most of the time, however, it disappears for unknown reasons and reappears now and then (not reproducible).
I can understand that the blue section disappears when you leave the route and the device has to recalculate a new route.
At the latest after the recalculation, however, the upcoming elevation profile should be displayed again. But that doesn’t work.

The refresh rate of the altimeter on the screen still leaves something to be desired.
Every now and then, you have to shake the device or open the altimeter in full-screen mode to see the current data.
The display of the actual altitude seems very accurate, but the cumulative elevation gain is far too high when compared directly to my Tactix.
If you compare the elevation profiles of the two devices on Garmin Connect, you can quickly see that the recorded elevation profile of the H1 is very jagged.
I suspect that there is little or no smoothing applied here, resulting in too much cumulative elevation gain.

If you display the elevation profile in full-screen mode for a while, you’ll quickly notice that the scale of the x and y axes changes unintentionally for brief moments. Furthermore, parts of the profile—or the entire profile—disappear completely for brief moments as well.

In the image above, you can also see a turn-by-turn direction on the map. This feature is currently missing entirely.

Both devices were connected to a Garmin HRMPro+ during the short hike. However, the total calories burned differ significantly, and in my opinion, the H1’s reading is much too low.
In any case, it’s clear that Garmin uses a different calculation method for total calories burned on the H1 than on its outdoor watches and bike computers.

I hope these observations help to further improve the software.

Thanks for reading.

  • Can confirm that the altimeter glitches when recording an activity. The graph disappears and then reappears, sometimes spikes just appear and then disappear again. This was without navigating a course, just recording an activity. This happens in both the altimeter glances (medium and large), and in the altimeter itself.

    I've submitted a video demonstrating the behavior to Garmin Support. Device is on firmware 9.05.

  •  Thank you for providing the detailed information in your email. I am collecting the videos and information you've sent to further investigate this situation. I have also sent you an email requesting additional information, please respond to that email at your earliest convenience. For anyone else experiencing this situation with the altimeter graph, please bookmark this thread. We will post any updates to the situation here. 

  • Unfortunately, this functionality has not been improved in version 10.13.

  • Our Engineering team has released an update that addresses this, version 10.13.

    Your device can install this update wirelessly, but you can also use Garmin Express: Software Update Methods for Outdoor Handhelds

    If you continue to experience this same behavior, please create a new thread so it can be tended to.