Elevation problem

Former Member over 5 years ago

I did read a lot of discussion here:

elevation-consistently-inaccurate-reading-too-low

Looks that I am not alone who has problems with elevation. Problem which happen in my case is ONLY during activity. I also think that there are several different problems.

I did check pressure and elevation graph in watch during the day (holding ABC and scroll), values were OK. I did compare pressure with my weatherstation and very close national weatherstation. I did stay at home during all day so altitude was same but elevation in watch change a little (+-5m).

I did start mtb ride at 5:30pm and for 1h ride I did make cca 17km. I did make several small up and down hills. Before I did stop activity I did see that elevation is not correct because I did start and stop almost at same place.

Here are graphs just after I came home:

you can see that elevation at the end is higher. I did start at 228m and stop at 264m.

pressure graph, I was SHOCKED, how pressure can change so much, cca from 1016 to 1022. I did find out that it happen during descent.

I did check my local weather station:

I also check national weather station, and there is also nothing strange. I did put marks to be able compare with watch 6 hours graph. I think, there is something wrong with sensor or with firmware of Instinct.

I did export activity to GPX and then enable elevation correction in web and export that too. Here is comparison

Blue is original GPX with elevation based on barometer. Green is GPX which has elevation correction enabled.

The significant change start at cca 0.55h = 33min of ride during normal descent.

In other threads someone mentioned sweat can make some problem. And there is also thread where rain is mentioned. Do you think that this can be problem in my case? It is 4 hours after I finish my activity now. Watch still showing wrong values of pressure and elevation. If it is problem of sweat or water then how long it takes to dry? or is it going to correct itself?

What I also know is that instinct is slow in elevation reading.

I can see that in fast descent. Another day I went slower on downhill and also slow down before next uphill. Results was quite OK. Of course, barometric altimeter will not catch all small hills.

Settings:

- altimeter auto cal = off

- barometer watch mode = auto , Tell the true, I don't understand this settings clearly.

thanks for any comments

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0 Selcuk over 5 years ago in reply to Artgrrl

As everyone knows heat affects pressure.On hot days pressure goes down gradually so I think this problem is caused because of your body temperature. While you are doing sport your body temperature rises. Watch gets hot and sensor in the hole reads pressure less than it should be! Than watch computer calculates elevation wrong. İs it possible?

0 F.Palmer over 5 years ago

Hello guys!

I am also experiencing problems with the altimeter/barometer.

The altimeter only works when the GPS is activated. It does not update the altitude otherwise.

The barometer does not work. It constantly shows the values 83886 all the time.

I have already tried do calibrate the altimeter (using GPS, because manually the watch reports that the calibration has failed?). I have also tried to clean the port and reset the watch, but nothing has changed.

Anyone of you has faced similar issues? Do you what can I do?

0 isazi over 5 years ago in reply to F.Palmer

I believe this is a device problem and you should contact support to have the device replaced.

0 Rocko99 over 5 years ago in reply to isazi

First time using the new watch during an activity-default settings. This is a 12 mile walk on mostly flat ground, a couple of hills. Said I did over 12,500ft elevation gain! Would this be from sweat as others have talked about?

0 PMO over 5 years ago in reply to F.Palmer

You need to get a replacement watch from Garmin. I (and many others) had the same problem. Nothing can be done by you, except getting a new replacement watch.

0 Rocko99 over 5 years ago in reply to PMO

How hard was it to get your replaced and how long did the process take?

0 GeoffR over 5 years ago in reply to PMO

No, this is not an example of the elevation smoothing caused by sweat. If you continue to get results like this, you should contact Garmin Support and have them look at the data.

You could try "soaking" the sensor (in a bowl of warm water with a touch of dish soap) to see if that clears anything off the sensor.

0 PMO over 5 years ago in reply to Rocko99

Only three days to get a replacement by UPS (I think it was UPS). This was in the States. Things can be drastically different in other countries, though.

0 Rocko99 over 4 years ago in reply to GeoffR

Thanks. I did contact Garmin and they said 1) take it back to where I got it-2) they could look at the data and possible a new firmware update would cure this.

I have set the barometer to Altimeter and calibrated before an activity and it hasn't done it again-but these have not been long walks.

0 SHU over 4 years ago in reply to Rocko99

Hey guys,

did anyone see improvements due to firmware-updates?

Im most of the time on the newest beta but the issue (slow altimeter height) seems still to pe present.

I sent a mail to the websales for hopefully forwarding it to the support/developers.

My favourite solution would be (i think) simple: If GPS is on anyway --> Use GPS height

This would solve my problem to 100% --> If height for certain activities is important for me, i would activate GPS anyway --> Solved

Maybe there will be improvement in the future