Please review this FAQ for information on how the vivoactive 3 series calibrates the altimeter.
This calibration does not work at all. The altimeter (at least on the Vivoactive 3) is complete garbage and does not work, and Garmin just won't admit it. In my case, it is always, always, always, several…
Hi Garmin,
This doesn't seem to work for a number of people for the VA3 as shown by this thread. There seems to be an issue with either the device hardware, software or the design of the ports on the underside…
For me, all of this is nothing new. But it confirms my findings, that the elevation drop during a run is related to heating up the device.
Your findings? I explained how temperature (among other factors) affects your barometric altimeter in this very thread 7 months ago.
I exactly know how a barometric elevation sensor works.
And I also do know how triangulation for GPS works and how unprecisely the elevation is with that.
So the conclusion is, that it is very dump to calibrate the barometric sensor by GPS (or GLONASS or Galileo) at startup. And since Garmin removed the manual calibration, the results get worse and worse!
As you can see from the fenix 3 picture, this is how the result can look like, with the same sensor. Only not calibrated automatically and not placed under the device (affected by wearers heating).
So I´d say, this is not what we can expect from that device!
Garmin should remove auto calibration and try to calculate the heating, so the first ~15 min of running will be straighten by software. This is what we should expect!
Your findings? I explained how temperature (among other factors) affects your barometric altimeter in this very thread 7 months ago.
Sweet!
I am VA3 user since day one and write about the VA3 barometric sensor for two years. It seems that gamin did not migrated older threads...
The last one I found is 12 Month ago. But there I reference on older threads, which does not exist any more
I have exactly the same issue. The first km or so elevation is sky high then the rest of my run is normal. Once saved into Strava I then have to login to the desktop and click ‘correct elevation’ which then brings it down to normal. Have you found a solution for this or is it a bug in the vívoactives?
While this is useful, and I have done this many times, it does not address the erratic and inaccurate readings. I do a regular walk around my neighborhood that is flat - maybe +/50 ft max when recorded accurately, that is coming back at 600 feet or more climbing. Clean port, never wear in the shower or water, etc and this still happens. Including post-reset. This is also my second watch after the first took this even further to the battery drain issue. I am a lifelong Garmin owner of many devices, but this has to get fixed!
Here is it 12-6-2019 and I will report my findings as a cyclist. I have two rides to share where I rode locally in a loop. Each ride had more than 10 loops and if i recall correctly it was more like 15 loops. When completing a loop you naturally should start at a given elevation and then return to that elevation. So each of these rides should have an elevation profile that is very cyclical looking like a series of waves corresponding to each loop ridden. This is not the case. In each case the elevation slowly drops through the ride.
I just discovered the "Elev Corrections" "Enabled or Disabled" in the online version of Garmin Connect. When the correction is turned on i get an elevation profile that looks reasonable for a looping repeating ride. The only problem with this is that the corrected data does not even make use of the GPS barometric data. Secondly it cannot be enabled by default. So i would have to go into each individual activity to correct the elevation data one at a time if I feel it is more accurate. I don't want that hassle.
The elevation profile is difficult to see as it is pan flat in Sacramento.
RIDE 1, notice the elevation profile differences between corrected and not corrected.
Blow up of RIDE 1 elevation profile Not Corrected:
RIDE 1 Corrected:
RIDE 2, again same thing
Blow up of the elevation profile for RIDE 2 Not corrected:
Blow up of the elevation profile for RIDE 2 corrected:
The FAQ is worthless. It basically says it should work. It gives no explanation as to what I've should do if it doesn't.
Worthless. All that is generic Tech Support. Untested. Consumers are stuck Former Member. Do we have a solution? Money back? Refund? Trade-in?
Hi, can you confirm the accuracy of tge altimeter please. A number of users are raising concern.im about to purchase one but if the altimeter isn't accurate I'll return it so would like some clarity of accuracy first please.