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Altimeter – continuous calibration

simonjharris
over 5 years ago

Does anyone know how the continuous calibration of the altimeter works? How often does the recalibration take place?

On Sunday I was skiing between 1600-3200 m, yet when I reached a point which I knew to be 1800 m, the altimeter read 1950 m. I checked and saw that continuous calibration was enabled in the settings, but how does this feature work, and how often? When I manually calibrated using DEM, it changed straight to 1800m, so there was obviously no problem with the calibration process itself.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to tess

    thanks for the clarification, that all makes sense now. 

    I've only used the GPS elevation a few times, because I don't expect it to be very accurate, so I usually only use it as a last resort if I don't have any idea what the actual elevation is where I'm standing.  But then, after knowing my exact location I can access a topo map and verify, and to my surprise, my watch is usually within a few feet of known elevations whenever I did use the GPS.  The last couple times I used it was on a neighborhood walk, where I know the elevations of the various hills within a few feet, and it was right where I expected it to be on the peaks and valleys. I live in SoCal, where the skies are usually clear and sunny, with few trees, so that might help, but I'm not sure.  I always have 5 bars on the GPS signal strength field.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 5693709
    5693709 said:
    I live in SoCal, where the skies are usually clear and sunny, with few trees, so that might help, but I'm not sure.  I always have 5 bars on the GPS signal strength field.

    I'm your neighbor to the north in the Seattle area.  Usually cloudy, Evergreen trees everywhere and I struggle to get a good GPS signal.  Looking forward to visiting your location.  The husband and I are going on a four day weekend to San Diego next Friday.  Time to get away and enjoy some sunshine.  Slight smile

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to tess 
    looks like you may be bringing the weather with you:

     .FRIDAY...Cloudy with a slight chance of showers in the morning,
     then mostly cloudy in the afternoon. Highs around 64.
     .FRIDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening...becoming mostly
     cloudy. Lows 45 to 50.
     .SATURDAY...Mostly cloudy. Highs around 63.
     .SATURDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of showers in the
     evening, then chance of showers overnight. Lows 44 to 49.
     .SUNDAY...Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers. Highs
     around 62.
  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to simonjharris

    I had the Fenix 5 and currently have the Garmin instinct.  In both cases, the altimeter was useless.  I could set it for my current altitude and within a few hundred feet of elevation gain it would be off and over the course of a hike wildly off.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Duncan

    I replied to your other thread with an explanation of what you may have been experiencing with your altimeter.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 5693709

    Sorry to dig this thread.
    I see that with 16.70 firmware:

    • Improved altimeter auto calibration during activities for MARQ and fenix 6 Pro devices.

    Did this get any better?
    I don't have anymore the F6S Sapphire, but have now a 945 lte, and it suffers from same problem.
    With continuous calibration values are much higher than for example suunto.
    Some examples here forums.garmin.com/.../altimeter-continuous-auto-calibrate-during-activity

    I am curious to know if garmin was able to really fix this.