Altimeter calibration using maps data

Garmin- why not calibrate elevation data in the background every time GPS is acquired? I tried it today but calibration only takes place from the altimeter widget.

Enabling automatic calibration would mean not having to deal with this manually every time!

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

This is all pretty interesting and seems to explain why my 5 plus always seems to be off by 200-300 feet. I live on the 30th floor. I'm assuming that during the night the default settings calibrate my watch to the first floor of the building. Sounds like I should turn off the continuous option?

0 Crispin_Ellisdon over 6 years ago

Sounds like I should turn off the continuous option?

You’d probably be best seeing if specifically turning off the Auto Cal.>Not During Activity setting fixes the big offset you get. The Auto Cal.>During Activity shouldn’t impact you unless you are doing a GPS recording activity on the 30th floor (generally unlikely, but I wouldn’t presume to know your specific activity habits).

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

hi using 5x which costs a fortune and its autocal "not during activity" simply doesnt work. my ancient Ambit2 had always right altitude without a single manual calibration. any ideas?

0 Seren over 6 years ago

It would lessen the need for calibration if the alti/baro switch worked better outside of an activity. Lack of movement ( e.g. watch on desk) is the straightforward case, more difficult is determining whether movement is causing the pressure change or it's the weather (or both simultaneously). Suunto uses a threshold change per unit time to do the switch but Garmin should be able to use the gyro/accel or even compass to distinguish walking on flat vs gradient....isn't this what floors climbed does?