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Is confusing the hell out of me. It says to set the elevation which I did 5280 (Denver) and set an interval, which I did (20 seconds) and now it wants to drop the elevation to 5260. What gives? Starting to think that this thing is more trouble than it is worth.
It's broken, send it to me :rolleyes2Quote:
Originally Posted by Rontele
Bah. Not a chance. I had a store credit at Bent Gate with this little puppy screaming for me to buy it. I will figure it out. After I get a PhD from Cal Tech ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by cj001f
you set an interval of 20', not 20 minutes? And the barometric pressure changed just enough for it to register w/o you actually moving?
maybe..........
the altimeter works on temperature (usually your hand is a good provider of static temperature) and barometric pressure (the pressure the air exerts at this altitude). as the barometric pressure varies in the daily/nightly cycle, the seasons and the current weather, your watch will be relatively out-of-sync with the real altitude, unlike a GPS, which can triangulate from sattelites. you can verify this by opening and closing the windows of a moving car: with closed windows (higher pressure inside) the watch will display lower altitude than if you open the windows.
there are two ways to set the current altitude -- one is to use the real altitude obtained elsewhere, the other is to use the current barometric pressure converted to sea-level values, which is what every weather site reports. in both cases slight undulations in pressure (running ac, a fan, etc) can throw it off by a few meters.
if you're not looking for _exact_ certainty suunto's watches are great! i've left my watch un-adjusted for two weeks, hopped on 3 planes to across europe and climbed a peak. my watch was within 5m from the real altitude. it is also great at the altitude i live in (7000ft, 2200m), which is above 24% of the earth's atmosphere (normal barometric pressure here is 700mb, vs 1000 at sea level).
all in all, don't expect your watch to be 99.999% correct. i know i've done over 50000 vertical meters this year, but how much exactly, i don't know :)
Following the instructions, I set the interval at 1 minute. I did not think I could set it for feet (?). The barometric pressure has not changed thankfully.
between your hand (temp) and air currents within the home/wherever, the pressure on the sensor has changed enough to change the displayed altitude. Don't get bent out over 20' - the altitude you calibrated it to is likely off by more than that <cough not really a mile high>Quote:
Originally Posted by Rontele
suunto can switch between feet/meters. if barometric pressure hasn't changed temperature may have. does in undulate wildly?
i had my watch sitting at home all day. looking at the history it changed up/down at every interval:
11:00 2190
12:00 2185
14:00 2190
15:00 2185
16:00 2180
17:00 2170
18:00 2160
and now it shows 2165. note the altitude decrease with the day's heat passing. the barometric pressure hasn't changed significantly, it's all temperature (the room is quite sunny).
That makes sense. Thanks guys. I am really looking forward to using it and learning all of the functions. :D
I gave up on trying to figure out all the features of my Suunto. Seriously, the thing is more complicated than most computers, and once I pressed ONE wrong button, and the thing started beeping ever 10 minutes or so, and I had to take the battery out to stop it... :cussing:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Baron
Mine does that too. Mostly when I'm in water (swimming, hot tub, etc.). Annoys the hell out of me.
Fortunately I have a friend at school that is a Cal Tech grad. She is pretty much the smartest person ever when it comes to anything computer related. Needless to say, I will drop the watch and the instruction manual off with her to figure everything out. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Baron