Footpad calibration with Garmin 235...?

Yes - there is an auto calibration function for foot pods.

However I have found my factor on a treadmill can be somewhat different to outside due to a slightly different running style on the treadmill. As such, have found I need to manually enter a different value to best match the treadmill.

Yes - there is an auto calibration function for foot pods.

Too bad it doesn't work quite yet... :( (at least not on my watch)

I finally got around to reporting it to Garmin (I wanted to be sure it was still a problem with 3.30); we'll see what they say.

Symptom is the Calibration Factor does not change despite Auto Calibrate being set to "Enabled". I've togged the Enabled/Disabled, I've used "Set Value" to change it off 100.0 to something else, I've removed and re-added my foot pod (SDM4), all to no avail. This exact footpod works fine with other Garmin devices.

That feature has never not worked that well on any device. It seems to need a very precise set of criteria to trigger a value but not quite sure what! Anyway as I mentioned earlier it gives, for me, about 93 outdoors but on the treadmills I use I need to much lower to about 89.

Well, it worked pretty well for me on my fenix3 and 610 when I had those, and works well enough on my 920xt(*). Just get it to that level and I'll be happy.

At present foot pod auto calibrate doesn't work AT ALL on the 235. Not a big deal considering the other fires Garmin needs to be putting out, but it is a distinct failure on Garmins part that the footpod calibration doesn't budge when set to Auto Calibrate.

(*) though one or more went through phases of it not working, I don't remember whether it as fenix3 or 920xt or both

Sorry to go slightly off topic here but I've also got a footpad which I used with a previous Garmin unit. I used it then because the other Garmin wouldn't have otherwise been able to calculate my cadence. As the 235 measures cadence as part of its activity tracking anyway is there any point in using a footpod with it?

Sorry to go slightly off topic here but I've also got a footpad which I used with a previous Garmin unit. I used it then because the other Garmin wouldn't have otherwise been able to calculate my cadence. As the 235 measures cadence as part of its activity tracking anyway is there any point in using a footpod with it?

Outdoors - no point at all. Indoors - then yes as the foot pod tends to do better than the internal accelerometer for pace and distance.

and when the auto calibration works, you wear the footpod on outdoor runs so it's calibrated for your stride and ready to use on an indoor run

Except when you need a completely different factor indoors as I have found.

That said if you had calibration factors before can't you just manually put that into the 235? A different watch doesn't need its own value - well unless you only use a particular watch in a particular environment with a particular pair of trainers.
From what I understand once you get a value (or input one) it won't generally automatically change again unless the computed value is radically different.

Yes, I can explicitly set calibration factors I know work well (derived on other Garmin watches).

That is why this bug is an annoyance rather than a significant issue. It is still a bug that needs to be addressed even though I have a workaround.

I'm unsure about your thoughts on the matter, Tim, but I do prefer documented functions to actually work correctly.

Of course documented features should work.

Auto-calibration worked fine for me with my 235. I did one easy paced 6 mile run with it outdoors with the foot pod paired and it has been pretty much dead on for paces up to marathon pace on the treadmill ever since.

The other day though without the foot pod the watches accelerometers did a horrible job. I was doing a Hanson's style strength run of 1 mile intervals with .5 mile recoveries. The intervals were at 8:00 min/mi pace and the recoveries at 9:45. My watch without a foot pod read the intervals at 8:30 pace and recoveries as 9:15.