Garmin 500 Elevation
Just noticed on my Garmin that when I am in the house the elevation sits at -171 ft so my ride data is wrong as looks like I am under the sea!! How do I get teh elevation to correct itself as my house sits at 95ft above sea level.
Do I need to factory reset as never used to do this?
Do I need to factory reset as never used to do this?
Specialized S Works Venge
Argon18 E114
Specialized Langster Single Speed
Scott Spark Expert 29'er
GT Avalanche
http://www.glasgowgreencycleclub.co.uk
Argon18 E114
Specialized Langster Single Speed
Scott Spark Expert 29'er
GT Avalanche
http://www.glasgowgreencycleclub.co.uk
0
Posts
I've found it's not very good at absolute values, but good at detecting changes. So it shows you the gradient you're riding up etc
I think the problem is that that the barometric altimeter in the garmin is based on air pressure and temperature and therefore readings inside the house will be wrong (i am no scientist, this is educated guesswork!)
I've got both home & work elevation set (as per the OS map), so altitude is correct when setting off on a ride.
Atmospheric pressure is no different inside a house than out. As MRS says, if you want absolute values to be correct then you need to re-calibrate. If you have a barometer in the house (not many do!) you can see how much atmospheric pressure changes over a few days via the scale.
Relative values shouldn't matter so much - but I need to check my commuting history to determine the variance of the recorded altitude - I think there is a fair error though and I tend to think that the mapping websites might be a better way to assess the climb in a route. They may tend to under-report overall climb but the advantage is consistency.
Even on a relatively short ride/run on a circular route the ascent and descent values always differ by a small amount,
Recent 32Km ride has 409M ascent and 449descent.
Mapping may be the way to get the most accurate altitude recorded as opposed to GPS or barometric but from memory I think my Polar HR used to be fairly accurate for altitide, more so than the GPS my Nokia uses.
To get it calibrated you either need to leave it with a good GPS signal for a good while before you start and it will slowly calibrate using the GPS signal, or you can program elevation points with a known altitude. If you press the start button within 30m of one of these points, it will immediately calibrate to the preset altitude. You can get the correct elevation for a known point using http://www.bikehike.co.uk - just plot a tiny course where you want to start and press "show elevation data".
If you don't get it calibrated before you start, the elevation data will be skewed as it'll be calibrating itself throughout the first part of the ride.
It's a shame that they didn't make it a bit smarter, and have it default to the last known altitude if it's initial GPS fix is in the same place as where you turned it off.
Did what you said and turned it on, on teh bike outside and just left it..................slowly went from -271 ft to about +91 ft which according to an web site I found with elevation points on is pretty spot on.
Will turn on and leave from now on before I set off so it fixes itself!
Happy Days
Argon18 E114
Specialized Langster Single Speed
Scott Spark Expert 29'er
GT Avalanche
http://www.glasgowgreencycleclub.co.uk
A barometric altimeter is far more accurate than a GPS one. Elevation correction found on some sites is very good in some areas but poor in others depending on the mapping used by the site. I stopped using it in the UK.