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Compass gimbal lock

Former Member over 6 years ago

My compass sometimes goes into gimbal lock. Usually when it is most inconvenient, either before the dive or when in the water.
Only a reboot of the device seems to fix this, the re-calibration fails every time. I find this issue very concerning.
The Compass is set to magnetic north and the firmware was updated to 2.50
There is no interference from other magnets or steel/iron in the vicinity.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I haven't tried that, have you? Just mailed Garmin support, let's see how it goes. There were some reports of similar problems on Fenix 5X, might be related.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

The answer I received (promptly) from Garmin support was to update to 2.6 firmware. Haven't dived since the update, but let's see if this solves it.

0 Mark_H20 over 6 years ago

The answer I received (promptly) from Garmin support was to update to 2.6 firmware. Haven't dived since the update, but let's see if this solves it.

Are you starting to understand why some of us are a little critical of Garmin and their glacial pace of updates/bug fixes yet?

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

To their credit, this is probably the most complex wrist worn device ever taken UW, but Garmin's development practices make me wonder.

I am more concerned about lack of features compared to fenix 5 such as all day stress or REM sleep calculation. Wonder if this is the case with other comparable devices such as D2 Charlie or tactix?

0 Mark_H20 over 6 years ago

I agree this is probably the most complex wrist worn device they have developed, but that does not excuse the poor tech support, the glacial pace of updates and bug fixes, or some of the issues that are so stupid it makes me wonder who was writing the spec for the Descent.

0 Volker over 6 years ago

Perhaps they will release a warning for the descent for diving like as for the jumpmaster app: "WARNING! The jumpmaster feature is for use by experienced skydivers only. The jumpmaster feature should not be used as a primary skydiving altimeter" (from the fenix 5plus manual)...

WARNING! The descent mk1 is for use by experienced divers only. The descent mk1 should not be used as a primary diving device

0 Odie21 over 6 years ago

You’re comparing an “app” to that of an entire watch. This is designed to be used independently as your dive computer, using a analog gauge is obviously included.

From a “diving” standpoint, there are still several things wrong that need to be corrected. It took them almost 4 months to come out with a “minor” update to allow the end user to choose between Magnetic North and True North.

0 Volker over 6 years ago

My answer wasn’t meant seriously. ;)

0 mickekling over 6 years ago

I just came home from a four day mountain hike, and i experienced this issue every day. The compass can’t be calibrated, the only way to fix this is a reboot.

I always keep a regular compass with me, but it would have been great if the built in compass had worked.

I updated my device before I left, and are running fw: 2.60.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Same issue repeated when diving today. Compass stuck in E. FW 2.6 obviously did not fix it.