F5 - Barometer settings/modes/issues

Thank you ....All makes sense.

Things get quite tricky when the weather is so changeable here, guess that the limit of ABC watches. I do think the Altimeter readings are much better on the F5 than the F3.

Perhaps Garmin will add features to use the accelerometer to adjust the watch mode in the future if that's possible.

On a side note the Barometer arrow is still not ideal even when the Baro storm settings are set to register small pressure changes. The arrow is almost always horizontal even when a storm alert message has popped up.

Thanks everyone for the help
Glen

I now own an FR935 and have noticed the same issues as with the F5, no surprise since it's the same software :
1. no fine-tuning of the local pressure to match a calibrated barometer
2. no setting of the altitude using MSL Pressure (due to the lack of #1 no doubt as it would then be "off")
3. The offset on the FR935 is about 1.2mbar which amounts to about 10 meters

I now own an FR935 and have noticed the same issues as with the F5, no surprise since it's the same software :
1. no fine-tuning of the local pressure to match a calibrated barometer
2. no setting of the altitude using MSL Pressure (due to the lack of #1 no doubt as it would then be "off")
3. The offset on the FR935 is about 1.2mbar which amounts to about 10 meters

Write all these things to beta team, i did it some time ago... maybe they decide ti implement this feature...

I did some hiking on Saturday and climbing on Sunday with my FR935 (which as said earlier is basically a plastic F5). The altitude registered by the barometer (which was calibrated via GPS at the start) was very accurate I have to say.
Then again, it was perfect weather, only sunshine and no pressure changes. I have not checked whether the pressure level matches that one from a station (as I don't have a station). I think the barometer does a pretty good job so far with stable weather conditions.

Having said this, I would highly appreciate a constant recalibration of the barometer when a certain signal strength from GPS is available as throughout a multiple hour activity pressure conditions will probably change. Something similar to the Suunto FusedAlti feature would be great.

One thought: Does the watch recalibrate altitute if an activity is paused and resumed later (when resuming it does reacquire GPS signal, so does it also recalibrate altitude)? This might be a little workaround.

Drop Garmin an email.
Check my thread
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?376355-Altimeter-continuous-calibration-via-GPS

I did some hiking on Saturday and climbing on Sunday with my FR935 (which as said earlier is basically a plastic F5). The altitude registered by the barometer (which was calibrated via GPS at the start) was very accurate I have to say.
Then again, it was perfect weather, only sunshine and no pressure changes. I have not checked whether the pressure level matches that one from a station (as I don't have a station). I think the barometer does a pretty good job so far with stable weather conditions.

Having said this, I would highly appreciate a constant recalibration of the barometer when a certain signal strength from GPS is available as throughout a multiple hour activity pressure conditions will probably change. Something similar to the Suunto FusedAlti feature would be great.

One thought: Does the watch recalibrate altitute if an activity is paused and resumed later (when resuming it does reacquire GPS signal, so does it also recalibrate altitude)? This might be a little workaround.

I did some hiking on Saturday and climbing on Sunday with my FR935 (which as said earlier is basically a plastic F5). The altitude registered by the barometer (which was calibrated via GPS at the start) was very accurate I have to say.
Then again, it was perfect weather, only sunshine and no pressure changes. I have not checked whether the pressure level matches that one from a station (as I don't have a station). I think the barometer does a pretty good job so far with stable weather conditions.

Having said this, I would highly appreciate a constant recalibration of the barometer when a certain signal strength from GPS is available as throughout a multiple hour activity pressure conditions will probably change. Something similar to the Suunto FusedAlti feature would be great.

One thought: Does the watch recalibrate altitute if an activity is paused and resumed later (when resuming it does reacquire GPS signal, so does it also recalibrate altitude)? This might be a little workaround.

No, GPS calibration of the altimeter only happens at the start of an activity and not each time I've found, possibly because the GPS accuracy was not good enough (no way to check what it is unfortunately as there isn't even a satellite chart like on the old FR205).

The F3 used to have a continuous calibration and it was a mess, for some reason Garmin never managed to do as well as Suunto with their FusedAlti...In any case it's a tricky equation because if you do continuous calibration you might as well use GPS elevation directly and lose the granularity of BP changes which are preferable if you're trying to get accurate D+/D- numbers when running or cycling. Maybe different when climbing a mountain.

One fairly easy workaround is to calibrate the altitude manually by using a "hotkey" for widgets, you can then go to the altitude widget and recalibrate from there, either by entering the altitude manually or using GPS altitude. Have found it to work but haven't checked the impact on D+/D-. It would be better if there was a way of showing GPS elevation so as to know if/when to calibrate.

EDIT - wait, actually you CAN show GPS elevation and you can see it drift quite a lot more than Barometric altitude, hence the messed D+/D- data without BP.

Exactly. I added GPS elevation in my activities screen along with the BP elevation, but did not have the chance to go hiking to check the deviation

EDIT - wait, actually you CAN show GPS elevation and you can see it drift quite a lot more than Barometric altitude, hence the messed D+/D- data without BP.

So with that info and the ability to calibrate during an activity thanks to the widget hotkey or directly with the sensor settings, it's not too bad, probably prefer that over an unreliable continuous calibration.

Yes, that would be a nice alternative, if continuous calibration is not reliable