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Temperature Sensor tracks what?

Josh
over 2 years ago

I have an i2 solar and notice "temperature" everywhere. Is this my body temperature, or outdoor temperature? There is zero tooltips or help info that explains this. 

Whats a real life example of why I would need to know this? I looked at a tennis workout I did and noticed my body temperature there. Can someone tell me why I should care about this?

  • +1 over 2 years ago

    The device has a temp sensor inside for such things as altitude correction.  Yes, when it's on your wrist, depending on external temp and airflow the reading will be related to some extent to skin surface temperature.  Your "body temperature" refers to a physiological temperature (ie: internal temp).  The more deviation away from skin surface temp the less it will read the skin surface temp, such as biking in the winter.

    ABC watches need the temp sensor to help calculate altitude correctly (some wear the watches outside the skin or old school Suuntos were very good about small deviations reflecting altitude change and they even recommended to wear the watch until its case temp stabilized and then calibrate).

    How the Instinct series have two temperature displays:

    1. From either the internal or external temp sensor (ie: Tempe)

    2. The temp displayed in a widget will be pulled via Connect when a phone with a connection is available from an online source 

    I would suggest if you don't know, yoy probably don't need to care, particularly for tennis where you're not changing altitudes, but if you're serious, you can see your temperature acclimation using it.

  • 0 over 2 years ago
    Josh said:
    Whats a real life example of why I would need to know this?

    Besides what 9641143 wrote, the internal thermometer is an excellent tool for example for measuring the water temperature when swimming, bathing, or diving. Due to the 24 times higher thermal conductivity of water vs air, the sensor is practically unaffected by the body temperature when submerged (unlike in air), and it indeed measures the ambient temperature of water.

    Another practical example, when the internal sensor may be helpful for reading the true ambient air temperature is when you also use a HRM chest belt. In that case you do not need to keep the watch on your wrist or elsewhere on the body. You can keep it in such way or on such place, where it can measure the air temperature easier - that may be useful for tennis too - you could keep the watch on the side of the court in your bag (in a shadow), while wearing the HRM (best would be using the HRM-Pro Plus, since it does not even need to be in permanent connection with the watch, it can sync the data with the watch, when you are saving the activity).

    Josh said:
    There is zero tooltips or help info that explains this. 

    In such case, the user manual is always the best place to start seeking the information:

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to NoTrux
    NoTrux said:
    ABC watches need the temp sensor to help calculate altitude correctly (some wear the watches outside the skin or old school Suuntos were very good about small deviations reflecting altitude change and they even recommended to wear the watch until its case temp stabilized and then calibrate).

    BTW, Garmin self claims in several documents that their barometric altimeters are not temperature-compensated, and that's the exact reason they recommend warming up to get the body and the watch to the work-out temperature first, then calibrating the altimeter, and only then starting the activity.

    See for example: Barometric Altimeter Accuracy of Fitness Watches | Garmin Customer Support

    Changes in Ambient Air Temperature
    Since barometric altimeters are not temperature-compensated, changes in ambient air temperature can affect altimeter accuracy. If drastic changes in ambient temperature are experienced, calibrating the altimeter will restore accuracy.

    On the other hand, I saw several posts from users of the external Tempe sensor, claiming that the elevation data got much more accurate and stable with the purchase of the sensor. So perhaps the altimeter is temperature-compensated only in the case that the temperature comes from the external sensor (which would make sense). Or one of the sides is not right.