Sleep and altitude recording is way off.

Having my Fenix 5S Plus now for 1,5 years, I still have an issue with sleep recording and altitudes.

First of all regarding sleep measurement. Hardly ever, my watch provides the right sleep time. Almost always, I'm missing the first couple of hours of my sleeping period. Very strangely, according to my watch, I fall asleep around 2 or 3 am while I'm certain that I fell asleep before midnight. Before this watch, I had a Huawei watch which was far more accurate.

Then, the next issue, altitude. I never paid attention to it until I noticed quite a few topics on this one in this forum. I have similar issues like wrong altitudes in the height profile and altitude meters that are far off. I live in the Netherlands and below sea-level which is obviously something Garmin isn't aware off because I can't manually enter the right altitude because there's no option to provide a minus in the calibration menu. That would be really helpful. Furthermore, I had a run this morning where my altitude various between -58m!!! and -87m!!! which is impossible. The altitude here is -8m. Also the difference between high and low is too big. I don't come across any bridge or hill to justify that kind of difference. The Netherlands are quite flat you know. Looking at my watch now, it says -91m. Incredible.

Settings for altitude calibration are:

Automatic calibration: "During activity" is "At start" and "Not during activity" is On.

0 Narziss over 4 years ago

ErPo said:
Furthermore, I had a run this morning where my altitude various between -58m!!! and -87m!!! which is impossible

www.correrunamaraton.com/.../

0 RunR over 4 years ago

You could try to calibrate the altimeter with DEM.

Last week there were some stormy weather changes, this of course influences the barometric measurements.

Some Huawei watches don't have a barometer, this might work easier for the user, but it's definitely less accurate.

0 ErPo over 4 years ago in reply to RunR

Thank you Alan,

The accuracy comparison of my Huawei and my Fenix 5S Plus was related to the sleep registration.

With regards to altitude, I've installed the latest beta firmware to see if that helps. The altitude issue is mentioned in the release notes. So far it seems to be more accurate. Nevertheless, I'd like to submit a feature request to also enter negative altitudes when calibrating manually. The nearest location with a positive altitude is miles away. ;-)

0 RunR over 4 years ago in reply to ErPo

The missing negative calibration is really weird as the dead see is 420m below sea level and there hiking, running etc. obviously possible. The Tiberias Marathon happens at -200m. Obviously these things are not known to American developers.

0 ErPo over 4 years ago in reply to RunR

Well, in the open it shouldn't be a problem to calibrate using DEM. But you're right, American developers are not used to negative altitudes unless they're diving.

0 JanH over 4 years ago in reply to RunR

Especially the ones working at Garmin. I repeatedly had the feeling that they are not using the watches themselves. There are so many usability bugs that shouldn’t go unnoticed...

0 Data over 4 years ago in reply to RunR

Large parts of my area are at negative altitudes. Calibration to negative values works just fine on my Fenix '1', why it is not supported from Fenix 3 onwards is just strange.