Any way to calibrate elevation on S6?

[NickYanakiev]

Wondering about this as calibrating to a known elevation is a pretty basic feature on Garmin watches.

Always on altimeter sounds nice on paper but not being able to calibrate it makes it far less useful than it could be.

 

[wilberforce]

I am interested in this too. I understand there are third party apps that allow manual calibration of elevation, but have not yet tried any

 

[antbob]

I have been using Altimeter+ https://apps.apple.com/us/app/altimeter/id417204570 for a long time now. It does allow calibration.

 

[michaelb5000]

I am not aware of a way to calibrate the altimeter. It is also not clear to me how it gets the initial value that it displays (I assume GPS), but generally (and this has only been 2 weeks) it has been fairly accurate. But I can't tell if "looking" at elevation, by having a complication for elevation, impacts how regularly the watch is tracking elevation; or how much it depends on the iphone (and whether the phone has an always on altimeter/barometer as well).

You can calibrate the altimeter using altimeter+, but that does not change the value or reading of the built in altimeter, so changing the elevation in A+ does not change the value in the default complication. Altimeter+ supports Aster, and so I think that is built in to both the phone and the watch, but I am not sure about that either. But Aster is supposed to generally be more accurate vertically than GPS.

Before I got the S6, I used the app Up High for an altimeter on my S3. It was faster and easier than Altimeter+. I always thought Up High showed the continuously changing system value for elevation and barometric pressure, since that is all it does and the numbers bounce around up and down by a few feet continuously. But the values in Up High on the S6 do not match the value in the complication, so somewhere in the watch there are calculations that result in different elevation values between the complication, altimeter+ and up high.

Even without calibration, the feature seems pretty useful and pretty accurate. But I think we all need more testing and experience, particularly with folks driving to a trailhead that involves a significant change in elevation, and how accurately the watch accounts for that change (without a phone around) and then how it adjusts for that initial error in starting elevation in terms of how it calculates net gain. I have only done this once (and it was accurate in starting position).

 

[antbob]

If you want accurate readings you gonna have to calibrate and maybe calibrate often depending on where you are. For example I live in the mountains and here you get quick elevation and weather changes. The way I use it is oftentimes on mountain trails you see elevation markers and those are usually accurate and can be used to calibrate and then from there it gives accurate readings for a while. Altimeter+ asks you to calibrate every 24h IIRC. Which makes sense because you need some reference point to measure against. Even the sea level is not a very accurate reference point because which sea you are measuring relative to. Having a local reference point in both space in time which is accurate in accordance with local map data makes sense. Its not just the Watch too, I have SUUNTO and its the same deal.

 

[deeddawg]

... and to follow on to @antbob's comment - remember that while GPS can give pretty accurate horizontal coordinates, its elevation accuracy leaves much to be desired.

See:

Understanding the Accuracy of the GPS Elevation Reading | Garmin Customer Support

Garmin Support Center is where you will find answers to frequently asked questions and resources to help with all of your Garmin products.

support.garmin.com

and:

Elevation for Beginners: What to Know About GPS Receiver Elevation | Eos

What is the difference between the ellipsoid, mean sea level, geoid, geoid height, and orthometric height? Here's everything to know.

eos-gnss.com

 

[michaelb5000]

If you want accurate readings you gonna have to calibrate and maybe calibrate often depending on where you are. For example I live in the mountains and here you get quick elevation and weather changes. The way I use it is oftentimes on mountain trails you see elevation markers and those are usually accurate and can be used to calibrate and then from there it gives accurate readings for a while. Altimeter+ asks you to calibrate every 24h IIRC. Which makes sense because you need some reference point to measure against. Even the sea level is not a very accurate reference point because which sea you are measuring relative to. Having a local reference point in both space in time which is accurate in accordance with local map data makes sense. Its not just the Watch too, I have SUUNTO and its the same deal.

Do you have an S6 and have you tested that against Altimeter+, including in mountain settings? I have also used Altimeter plus for years, including calibrating the initial position based on a known reference point. A+ does track elevation change pretty well when calibrated, but so does the S6. The S6 apple watch may be as good or better at tracking elevation change or gain/loss too.

The S6 also seems to me to be better and more accurate at determining initial position. When I start A+, it takes a few seconds to determine the initial position, each time it launches, and that can be off by 100+ feet or more. So calibrating it is important. But for the most part, I haven't seen that with the S6 apple watch; it is mostly displaying the elevation correctly continuously. I do think it is being calibrated by GPS and so that is part of the reason. It may also have some aspect of machine learning or memory, so it has stablized on the elevation value for my house, and isn't varying from that by more than +/- 5 feet or so each day. I have been looking though, so another test would not to look at elevation for a week or two, and see if there is variation. the apple watch though was off by about -50 yesterday; not sure why; eventually, so within the hour, it went back to the correct value and did not treat that as elevation change (or floors climbed) for me.

I should also say that since Altimeter plus doesn't have a complication that updates in real time (and now the S6 apple watch does), I mostly looked at altimeter plus on my phone over the years. So I have much less experience using that as a stand alone altimeter without the phone. Up High was much better as a stand alone altimeter on the watch vs. Altimeter+, and once Workoutdoors came out, I pretty much always use that instead, since it tracks elevation, displays elevation, and offers mapping. So better in all possible ways.

 

[antbob]

Do you have an S6 and have you tested that against Altimeter+, including in mountain settings?
...
I should also say that since Altimeter plus doesn't have a complication that updates in real time (and now the S6 apple watch does)

No, I have S5 and S3. I'd imagine S6 would be better since it takes readings more often and thus could identify and throw away any outliers with more precision so when you tracking activity over long run that could be a huge improvement. Maybe it has more precise h/w too but the point about calibration is always the same, its not magic.

3rd party apps cannot really provide useful complications like that because Apple does not allow it (Apple does make exceptions for its own apps of course). An app can only update its complication data every 15 minutes and say riding a bike downhill can cover alot of elevation in 15 minutes so that would be pretty useless. The only other option for an app is to use background session like location or workout but that has its limitations and would drain battery alot too.