Altimeter Fenix 5

I have had rock-solid altimeter/barometer/temperature performance since removing the connect iq watch faces a couple of days ago. Thinking this is software. Only environmental difference is warmer/more humid conditions which end tonight.

Firmware is 7.56 Beta, mode Auto for right now.

I exchanged my F5 for a new one about a week ago. All the firmware is updated, I've downloaded no watch faces. I only use the standard watch faces that come with the watch. On my new F5, I am still encountering ambient pressure problems where the ambient pressure will fluctuate 100 mbar or more (as we speak it is 150mbar off). It seems to happen less frequently on this new watch. It also seems to happen when I am wearing my fleece, but not all the time when I am wearing it. When the pressure sensor is working fine, it is within 1mbar.

This is the same exact thing that happened with the old F5. I'm echoing what others have posted on this thread before. Is it just a known problem with the F5 or is it a bad batch or what? It's getting frustrating and I'm thinking of just returning the F5 all together and switching to another watch.

K.Schuetz, thanks for the good experimental data. Looks like your watch is behaving as expected now which is good to see. What I think you are seeing with the altitude may have to do with your "watch mode" setting. It is in the barometer settings and tells the watch whether to adjust Barometer or altimeter when the ambient pressure changes. It can also be set to "auto" and tries to guess based on other factors. Can you tell us what setting you are are using? Note that this is different from Auto calibration which uses GPS during an activity to update the altimeter.

That all said, I am still seeing some erratic behavior using fw beta 7.56, in barometer watch mode, with no new watch faces. In the last 48hrs I have had one instance where the Barometer dropped 900 hPa (millibar) instantly and then climbed back to normal over a couple hours. But since I've been using Barometer watch mode, the altimeter has been unchanged except for when I started an activity using GPS; then it auto calibrated.

I'll also mention that I actually went through the warranty process a few weeks ago, got a new watch, and saw the same issues with the new one. So I sent the new one back and kept the old one hoping it was just software issues. Why send the new one back? Well the ambient pressure (when it was working) seemed to be further away from the weather station values, i.e. seemed less accurate. It leaves me wondering how the ambient pressure is calibrated internally given that the watch has to interpret some voltage or current value from the pressure sensor and assign a pressure value. Whether that algorithm plays into this issue somehow remains to be seen. But I hope that Garmin is tracking all the complaints and warranty issues and will do something.

That all said, I am still seeing some erratic behavior using fw beta 7.56, in barometer watch mode, with no new watch faces. In the last 48hrs I have had one instance where the Barometer dropped 900 hPa instantly as then climbed back to normal over about an hour.

Same exact thing is what happens to my week-ish old F5 on FW 7.10 with no new watch faces. Happened just now, the ambient pressure went down to almost nil, I restarted the watch, then the pressure sensor was at nil and like you said has been slowly climbing back to normal. On my first F5 it used to happen at least once a day and now on this newer one it happens less frequently.

Disappointing to say the least. An ABC watch where the A and B are not very reliable...

FlagWix, you're right, I was in the automatic modus and that might be the explanation why altimeter and barometer had those differences.
I switched now to Barometer mode and will repeat my measures for the upcoming week. Let's see if I’ll keep on the ground level ;-)

I think I may have just jinxed myself reading this thread :-(

Fenix 5 sapphire has been mostly okay since buying it 4 months ago - well +-/300 ft away from my actual reading - which according to Garmin is what's expected.

Anyway, as of an hour ago my altimeter is going crazy. For the first time it shot up to 5600 ft, and the graph shows -350ft increase to 5600ft in the past 4 hours. I have only been to the gym and shops so no more than +-100ft today.

Wondered if dirty/sweat might be the issue (although I religiously wash it most days after a workout), but nope. I've just powered on/off and recalibrated it back to 50ft via GPS (live at 25ft) and walking up the stairs its screaming down to -225ft. I am sat here watching the widget and it's now reporting -340ft.

Auto cal is on and barometer (which has reported no issues btw) is set to auto mode. I haven't changed any settings here since owning the Fenix.

Does this sound like the bug/issue you are finding with the F5 as well? Bizarre that mine has only started doing this today.

Worth noting I am on public release 7.10 and BLE/ANT/SNS 4.10 if that's of any use.


Thanks,

-- seems to have sorted itself out now :-D

off and on a few times plus decent hot scrub and the altimeter is a lot more stable again

After my first RMA, I used the new F5 without downloading any watchface: the altimeter issue appeared anyway no more than 1 week after. Firmware was 7.10.

Today I added and activated the No Frills watchface and soon after my altimeter started climbing rapidly (to 7k feet) and then falling again. I went back to a built-in Garmin watchface and the altimeter is settled down.

Today I added and activated the No Frills watchface and soon after my altimeter started climbing rapidly (to 7k feet) and then falling again. I went back to a built-in Garmin watchface and the altimeter is settled down.

Interesting, I deleted a Kuiu watchface and Actiface over a week ago after my altimeter problems. I kept and still currently use the Quattro watchface and have had zero issues for over a week now.