Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Bring back manual calibration of the altimeter

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago
I don't own a VA3, but my wife does and I'm posting on her behalf. Garmin has decided to remove manual calibration of the altimeter to a know elevation with the recent 5.0 FW update. Altitude readings on the VA3 are now completely dependent on your GPS signal. Depending on weather/cloud cover, buildings or trees, and how many satellites are available at the time a GPS signal is obtained, Garmin states on their support website that a + or - 400' discrepancyisn't uncommon and is acceptable for their watches. See the link below.

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?fa...Type=noProduct

If you'd like to have the manual calibration returned to the VA3, simply post a "yes" to this thread. If you want to post more, or if you don't want manual calibration to return, you're of course welcome to do so too. My intention is to contact support in a few days and direct them to this thread. The more people who respond, the better chance Garmin will consider returning this option in a future firmware update. Please keep in mind when posting that this thread is in no way a demand or requirement that Garmin make any changes, but simply a request by VA3 owners.
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    Yes PLEASE! I live by the sea, and it's quite annoying that I seem to be running around under the surface of the water after the update... GPS elevation is often 30-50 feet below my actual elevation resulting in negative values. Manual calibration worked perfectly well on my VAHR, so I can't see any reason why it shouldn't on the VA3. I'm beginning to feel that my upgrade to the VA3 was more like a downgrade...
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    Yes, please, bring back this option.
    And the possibility to deactivate automatic calibration too!
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    The altitude measuring never worked with the manual calibration either, so I don't care about the removal of it. But the barometric altitude sensor should not show +/-60 meters during a run in the flat-flat-flat Denmark. Garmin must fix it with GPS or other methods.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago
    OsiMik I'm not sure what you mean by manual calibration never worked. When you entered a value while manually calibrating it didn't save?
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    @TMK17: it worked for a while then changed back to some strange readings anyway.
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    @TMK17: it worked for a while then changed back to some strange readings anyway.


    just an update in order to be fair to Garmin:
    - after GPS calibration (start activity with GPS active, stop activity after a few min) the readings of the altimeter are correct and stable within +/- 2 m of my actual altitude location in the house during last > 12 hours.
    This is much better than ever since November 2017. Will check during the run tonight and update.
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    interesting to see that Garmin changed the location of the Altimeter port from under the button to the side of the watch with the VA3 music...
    Are they admitting a bad design of the VA3 ????
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    just an update in order to be fair to Garmin:
    - after GPS calibration (start activity with GPS active, stop activity after a few min) the readings of the altimeter are correct and stable within +/- 2 m of my actual altitude location in the house during last > 12 hours.
    This is much better than ever since November 2017. Will check during the run tonight and update.


    Yes but then during the run he goes back completely crazy and im back under the sea level
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    Yes but then during the run he goes back completely crazy and im back under the sea level


    Well, no big changes from SW 3.50 to SW 5.0, the same pattern.

    I did 10 km run on the flat route +/-3 m. The recordings are 1. with SW 5.0 and 2. SW 3.50 are attached. Third recording is made by my fellow runner with FR235 (GPS altitude).