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Altimeter problem

speedtriple99
over 3 years ago

Have used the Epix 2 for six days.

Altimeter mostly ok first few days. But last two days there is weather coming in with rapid change in pressure.

So yesterday altimeter went from 96 meters to 122 meters at home. Today it showed 188 meters. Then I manually did a DEM calibration a few hours ago - to the correct 96 meters.

Now it is showing 71 meters....

I think there is room for improvement.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Tom 88
    Tom 88 said:
    The first time it reported an elevation of 192', and the second it reported an elevation of 224'.

    A difference of 32 feet (almost 10m) is very close to a drop in pressure of 0.04 inHg (about 11m). There is a sensor setting for the barometer to set it between Altimeter Only (all changes are changes in altitude), Barometer (all changes are changes in pressure caused by weather) or Auto. Which setting do you use?

    Tom 88 said:
    Would turning off the barometer and having the watch rely on GPS only address this? What is the point of using barometric pressure for elevation when GPS is so accurate these days and we know that barometric pressure can vary significantly with weather?

    Vertical accuracy is unfortunately not as good as the horizontal accuracy. From a elevation gain perspective the precision of using the barometer is much higher than using GPS.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to TobiasLj

    Thanks very much, that is helpful. Makes sense. I did read elsewhere that the barometer is important for vertical accuracy in forest and other areas where GPS signal is not as good.

    I know that Garmin Connect and Training Peaks and other apps have elevation correction that can be done after upload. Maybe using that is worth doing routinely.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Tom 88

    did anyone fix this issue on wrong elevation records on fenix 6?

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 7563284

    its using the new calibration system that all Fenixs are so yes it shouldn't be a major issue unless getting major barometric pressure swings - but even with quite sizeable (i.e. storm warnings) I am not showing major swings in altitude  always withn 0-5m of DEM altitude.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Two weeks ago I bought an Epix Gen 2 47MM Pro Sapphire watch at a REI store in California. 

    Altimeter came broken out of the box. Have tried calibrating and re-calibrating using GPS, DEM and Manual calibration.  While calibration actually goes, the next second the altimeter starts fluctuating anywhere from -7000Meters (yes, negative 7000 meters) up until +8000 meters. I live in front of the beach at sea level.  While doing an activity like running or cycling, garmin records totally wrong numbers while strava gets correct numberd. I did a trail half marathon this weekend and garmin recorded over 6000m in total climb when the actual number was 1025m, which strava got spot on.

    Have been exchanging emails with garmin (since I’m out of the country) and they have been so slow to respond, one e-mail every couple of days, asking for all the infornation/proof (proof of purchase, video recordings showing these missreadings, etc) which I have already sent and have not heard back. If they don’t come through with a good solution this will by my last garmin purchase. Have had forerunner, fenix 5, fenix 6 and actually have garmin navigation on my fishing boat Face palm tone1‍ Clown

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 6495873

    Sounds like a hardware problem. Garmin will take care of it. I've had fast service and device replacement from them before. Their US customer service could be busy right now because there were a ton of sales around Memorial Day and for every actual problem with a new device, there are probably twice as many who just don't know how to use it properly eating up their CS resources. Just keep emailing them with requests for update. There may be a phone number you can call too.