Barometer question

OK, I don't want to give you any bad information. I don't know for sure if it's hardware related or not. It very well may be software related and fixed with an update. I just wanted to bring up the possibility. This is what I suggest. Call support, don't email unless absolutely necessary. Explain to them your issue. They can confirm if it's software related and give you an update. If it's an unknown issue, you can request a replacement if you are unable to return it to the place you purchased it at. Garmin is usually very good about sending replacements if they are unable to assist you over the phone and the issue isn't currently being worked on in the next FW update. Just remember you catch more flies with honey then with vinegar. Don't let your frustration take control over your conversation and you'll see that support is very easy to work with.

TMK17,

I apologize if I seemed to be rude. It was not my intention.
I was only trying to explain my point of view.
And I do thank you very much for trying to assist!
I'll try to find brazilian garmin support. The problem is that their support system is not very good.
Regards
Hervandil

TMK17,

I apologize if I seemed to be rude. It was not my intention.

I didn't take it as you being rude at all. No problems there. I just wanted you to know that I wasn't 100% sure of the cause of the problem. I've read post about difficulties with support in different regions. Quite a few about Australia. I've never had a problem with the support in the US. Anyway, best of luck in Brazil.

I am having this problem. It is the worst elevation data I have seen from any device. I am at about 550 feet. It generally thinks I am at 450, no matter how many times I calibrate it. My runs that start at the same point will end 90 feet below where I started, pretty consistently. (so sounds like a software problem to me but if it is the hardware, I would like to get it swapped out sooner rather than later.) Of course the pressure changes constantly, and that is not what I want to measure. I am not trying to predict the weather, I just want to see how my elevation affects my pace (so I have an excuse when I slow down!) The default for the tracks is to use this terrible data, and every time I have to come to the browser to switch it to enable the correction to known mapped elevations. This could also be off if the location was not accurate, or if I was climbing mountains where there aren't mapped roads, but I am running in mapped locations and it doesn't have to be perfect, just not garbage. And there doesn't seem to be a way to change it on the phone app. so a few questions that I didn't find answered in the manual or on the support page, because it may be a while before I can get through to support. (I will try the phone. three days for an email response is stressful for me. They did eventually respond to my other issue of heart rate and cadence/pace having major recording spikes/dips when using foot pod ... they decided it is a software issue that an update will fix.)
1) any settings to tell the watch to ignore the barometer completely and just use GPS and/or mapped data?
2) Any way to set the default for the calculations to use the correct mapped data instead of the barometer data if it can't be disabled? (Wouldn't it be nice if it was smart enough to realize that if the same point on your track shows a 90 foot difference, maybe it should just use the maps!! If there are corrections available, ...why would that not be the default!!)
3) Am I missing a way to change the setting after the fact to enable the elevations corrections via the app instead of having to get on the actual computer?

I am having this problem. It is the worst elevation data I have seen from any device. I am at about 550 feet. It generally thinks I am at 450, no matter how many times I calibrate it. My runs that start at the same point will end 90 feet below where I started, pretty consistently.

I have trouble reading your wall of text. But here are some general recommendations.

• Get some info about the air pressure at your location before and after the activity. NOT FROM THE WATCH. Get it from a local weather service or from a wall barometer. If the pressure increased during your activity, you should expect to see an altitude error of +8-10 meter per millibar the pressure increased.
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• Instead of just looking at the altimeter on the watch, look at the ambient pressure reading on the watch. It is accessible as a data field within activities. Was ambient pressure in the watch different at the start and end of the activity? Was the difference equal to the change reported by the weather service?
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• If the ambient pressure does not seem to follow the weather service, is it temperature dependent? Does your ambient pressure reading change when the temperature of the watch changes? It should definitely not do that, but on some Garmin watches it does. What happens if you let the watch get aligned to the outside temperature before you start the activity? (This will probably take around 15 minutes). Will the altitude still change during the activity?
  

Hello!
Turned off automatic calibration. I performed manual for my house (00411 m.). I ran for Sunday's run, we have here, quite hilly, about 90m difference in altitude along the way, returned an hour later home, error without autocalibration - 4m at a level above the sea 407m when returning. It seems to me - not bad. It was cloudy and the temperature has not changed by more than + 1C.
I will still take measurements and report. I think the sensor itself is not bad. But the problem is in the software.

Hello!
Turned off automatic calibration. I performed manual for my house (00411 m.). I ran for Sunday's run, we have here, quite hilly, about 90m difference in altitude along the way, returned an hour later home, error without autocalibration - 4m at a level above the sea 407m when returning. It seems to me - not bad. It was cloudy and the temperature has not changed by more than + 1C.
I will still take measurements and report. I think the sensor itself is not bad. But the problem is in the software.

a drop of 4m basically means a difference of about 0.5hpa...
thing again with va3 and the rest, it is a barometric altitude measurement... hence it is used more for measuring trends rather than absolute values.

I just climbed 64 floors during my 8 hr office desk job. I think my baro sensor is messed up.

I, too, had trouble with erratic elevation readings with my VA3. I contacted Garmin support and they actually sent me a brand new VA3 replacement. The elevation seemed to work much better in the replacement device... for a few weeks. Now it's starting to get a bit erratic again, although not nearly as bad as my previous device. At least now it usually has the correct starting elevation for my location (my old VA3 was never even close). But during a run it goes a little wonky. So I don't know... it seems like the altimeter in the VA3 is just not that great.

AllanOlesen67, I'm sorry you have trouble reading. Thanks for reminding me not to waste my time posting on forums to get insulted while my questions are ignored.

After my "wall of text" I tried to state 3 clear and numbered questions. My questions restated, with highlights in case you are interested in what my questions were that you ignored:

"1) any settings to tell the watch to ignore the barometer completely and just use GPS and/or mapped data?
2) Any way to set the default for the calculationsto use the correct mapped data instead of the barometer data if it can't be disabled? ...
3) Am I missing a way to change the setting after the fact to enable the elevations corrections via the app instead of having to get on the actual computer?"
(Hint: Garmin Support says "no" to all three. So nevermind.)

As to your non-answers, NO, it is not a problem with the air pressure at my location, nor the temperature. Unless it is because I increase the temperature during every run, in which case it is useless because I can't really help that can I? That could contribute to the trend during the run, but not the starting point being low every time. I don't care what the pressure is, I'm not a meteorologist. I'm an engineer. And no, I am not going to stand outside for 15 minutes waiting for it to measure temperature every time. Seriously??!? I just want to see a reasonable trend of my elevation like every other watch I have had, and not have to go to my computer to spend my time going into various sites and correcting something that shouldn't be so ridiculously wrong. It throws off Grade Adjusted Pace by up to 30 seconds. In my last two runs, it had me below sea level for most of the time. I'm not spelunking or SCUBA diving. I'm running. It is NOT my ambient pressure or temperature that is the problem. It is this crappy watch which was released without proper testing.

For the rest of you who can read more than two sentences at a time, and are still with me, here is what Garmin claims:

There is an open ticket on this known issue, and they are planning to fix it in a software update. I doubt this will be timely or sufficient. But there is hope and they acknowledge it. Since some of you are seeing some improvement after getting a different unit, it sounds like it is a combination of faulty hardware and buggy software. If the update will simply allow it to be turned off, then the hardware issue will be less of a problem.

I suggest that anyone with this issue call Garmin support and get added to the ticket, so they will know how widespread it is (it's more than the 6 people who responded to this one thread), and so you can be informed via email when they think it is fixed.

Thanks for reading,
Alex