Auto Calibrate Elevation to Location? Baro Altimeter?

Yes the 820 does have a barometric sensor. Currently it does not support setting the starting elevation from a saved location.

Yes the 820 does have a barometric sensor. Currently it does not support setting the starting elevation from a saved location.

Thanks for clearing that up Alan, I've set a couple of locations (Work and Home) like I did with my 810, and wondered why I wasn't getting the "Elevation Calibrated " message.

Is there a way of re-setting the elevation on the 820 before the start of a ride?

You can select Navigation, the menu, then Set Elevation. I haven't tried it so don't know if the "elevation calibrated" message comes up.

Thanks for that I'll give it a try on the way home from work.

You can select Navigation, the menu, then Set Elevation. I haven't tried it so don't know if the "elevation calibrated" message comes up.

Good suggestion, so I tried it - with not so good results.

My ride Start/Finish point is the same and is at 4553 feet. Before my ride this morning, while at the Start point, I Set Elevation as described to 4553 feet.

I also recorded the ride simultaneously on my Edge 800, fenix 3 and tactix Bravo.

At the start of the ride I saw the "Elevation Calibrated ..." message on my Edge 800, but nothing on the Edge 820.

At the conclusion of the ride, about 23 miles and approximately 01:50:00 later, I noticed several anomalies with the recorded data on the Edge 820 that were different from the other three devices. But let's focus on Elevation for the purpose of this thread.

Here is what the Elevation/Duration plots look like on MyGPSfiles.com for all 4 devices:



My ride was basically 6 laps around a 2-mile circuit, a detour for a couple of miles, then another 2 laps around the same 2-mile circuit and then back to the Start point. The 2-mile circuit has a high point right around the middle of the lap.

The Edge 800, fenix 3 and tactix Bravo all started at 4553 feet and finished at 4553 feet - as they should.

The Edge 820 started at 4589 feet and finished at 4572. Not only were the Start and Finish Elevations wrong, they are different - lower at the Finish than at the Start.

The peaks for all 8 laps ridden should be the same. As indicated by the black horizontal line, those 8 peaks were accurately recorded at approximately the same value for all peaks, by the Edge 800 (limited by its 2 metre resolution), fenix 3 and tactix Bravo. However, as indicated by the solid red line, those 8 peaks are recorded by the Edge 820 in gradually decreasing values over the course of the ride.

My conclusion is that the Edge 820 does not manage Elevation well over the course of a 23 mile bike ride. Elevation Gain and Elevation Loss numbers are not even in the ballpark of what they should be. The weather was fair with a steady barometer.

For further investigation is the fact that the .gpx distance for the Edge 820 was over 45000 miles, with an average speed of almost 20,000 mph.

Another niggler was the Calorie count. For the Edge 820 it was 1,678; but it was 1,407 for the fenix 3, 1,404 for the Edge 800 and 1,407 for the tactix Bravo. All profile data, HR Zones, Min/Max HR, etc. were exactly the same across all 4 devices. My HRM-Tri was connected to all 4 devices as was the bike cadence sensor.

The final insult was the fact that my polarized prescription Oakleys darken the screen of the Edge 820, but do not affect the other 3 devices.

All in all, it was a very disappointing first ride.

Comment/suggestions?

As an "old" garmin user, you certainly know, that it takes several fw versions/month to bring a new released garmin device "on course"...;). So no unusual behavior of the 820 for me.

Here's another one:

On my Edge 800 it is possible to have the Elevation Auto Calibrate to my starting location. I saved the location, and every time I start a ride from that location I get the pop-up that says the Elevation has Auto Calibrated to that location.

I can not find the same feature on my Edge 820. As a workaround, before starting a ride I go to Navigation>Adjust Elevation and set the elevation immediately before a ride. It is a bit cumbersome, and doeasn't seem to do as good a job as the 800 in managing Elevation over the course of the ride.

The 800 has a barometric Altimeter which means it does not take all the Elevation data from GPS. This has proven very reliable.

The specs for the 820 say it also has a barometric Altimeter, but the recorded Elevation data look like all the data points come from GPS.

Does the 820 indeed have a barometric Altimeter?

TIA for any help.

I believe the feature you're looking for is called Locations. Once you have marked your location, say your home, you can go back to edit it and provide the actual elevation. Next time when you start your ride at the same location, the elevation should be adjusted to that. The link to the Edge 820 manual I provided below has instructions on how to mark a location and how to edit it.

http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/edge820/EN-US/GUID-8BD32AC3-4779-4BA1-B717-ABEEBC7E0145.html

I believe the feature you're looking for is called Locations. Once you have marked your location, say your home, you can go back to edit it and provide the actual elevation. Next time when you start your ride at the same location, the elevation should be adjusted to that. The link to the Edge 820 manual I provided below has instructions on how to mark a location and how to edit it.

http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/edge820/EN-US/GUID-8BD32AC3-4779-4BA1-B717-ABEEBC7E0145.html

Did that. Labeled the location "Start" and edited the Elevation to be 4553 feet.

There was no recognition of that location when I started the activity and no Auto Calibration to that location's Elevation.

I could find no mention in the manual of Elevation adjusting to location. My experience is that the Edge 820 does not have this feature.

If you can point me to a reference that says the Edge 820 will adjust Elevation to a location I would very much appreciate it.

TIA

As an "old" garmin user, you certainly know, that it takes several fw versions/month to bring a new released garmin device "on course"...;). So no unusual behavior of the 820 for me.

Yes, I agree with that common wisdom ... but ... 45,000 mile distances, 20,000 mph speeds, calorie count error and difficulty using it with polarized sunglasses all add up to a prompt return.

This has only happened to me once before - when I bought and returned my epix :p

Did that. Labeled the location "Start" and edited the Elevation to be 4553 feet.

There was no recognition of that location when I started the activity and no Auto Calibration to that location's Elevation.

I could find no mention in the manual of Elevation adjusting to location. My experience is that the Edge 820 does not have this feature.

If you can point me to a reference that says the Edge 820 will adjust Elevation to a location I would very much appreciate it.

TIA

I'm assuming that it adjusts the elevation based on what's configured for that location. Otherwise, it does not make any sense to allow a user to set it. One way to test is to see if the elevation is the same each time you start at that location. I'll give this a test later.