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    Problem of cumulative elevation gain

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Suunto 9
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    • P Offline
      PatBess @Brad_Olwin
      last edited by

      @Brad_Olwin In the S9B diary, the elevation is not right, so it’s the watch, not the app. Should an algo correction improve cumulative elevation accuracy ?
      How can we explain the issue to Suunto ?

      freeheelerF Brad_OlwinB 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • freeheelerF Offline
        freeheeler @PatBess
        last edited by

        @PatBess
        I’m not 100% sure but I think @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos knows this kind of issue already and might have forwarded it to the developers. It’s not a brand new discussion for my info. We’ve had in mainly for non Baro watches where the offset is much bigger

        living sideways

        suzzloS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • suzzloS Offline
          suzzlo Moderator @freeheeler
          last edited by suzzlo

          @TELE-HO yes, it has been discussed, and someone (sorry I could not remember who) give some ideas for improvements… I think it has been passed to developers, but how knows… anyway it seems to be not so easy to include this little up/downs… for me it’s annoying, because my Suunto has no baro, so there must be ¿7m? of elevation to accumulate it…

          Ahh now I could remember that some of us, say that we will be happy signing a NDA and testing new FW with changes for this issue

          BR

          Suunto: Race, S9Peak, Spartan Sport Wrist
          Garmin: FR745, Edge 530
          SA topics:

          • Guides - https://forum.suunto.com/tags/guides
          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • ? Offline
            A Former User @Brad_Olwin
            last edited by A Former User

            @Brad_Olwin said in Problem of cumulative elevation gain:

            @TELE-HO @silentvoyager @stromdiddily I have noticed this issue on smaller ascents/descents as well. I normally do much bigger climbs and descents, on the larger ones the S9b does a very good job. Would be interesting if it was the app and not the watch.

            The error is proportional to a number of climbs rather than the total ascent, and my estimate that it is on the order of 3 meters per climb. So if a run consists of one or two big climbs the error is relatively small to not be noticeable. But if a run goes on rolling terrain with constantly going up and down the error accumulates quickly.

            In my custom trail running mode for small to medium runs I have total ascent next to the current altitude on the same screen, so I often watch the two metrics together.
            I can tell you that the total ascent increases in chunks and with a noticeable delay. For example I keep going uphill and I see that the altitude goes up but the total ascent stays the same for awhile, then increases by 10-12 feet (3-4 meters). If I crest a hill quickly it doesn’t capture the last few meters of the climb. But I noticed that if I stop at the top and wait for about 5-10 seconds then the total ascent may go up.

            So it is definitely the watch itself that does some sort of delayed averaging in addition to the threshold to filter out small pressure changes. But I think the way watch does that is overly conservative.

            suzzloS MarynM FredMtF 4 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 4
            • suzzloS Offline
              suzzlo Moderator @Guest
              last edited by

              @silentvoyager yes I think it’s 3m for baro, and 7m for non baro units (or something similar)…

              Suunto: Race, S9Peak, Spartan Sport Wrist
              Garmin: FR745, Edge 530
              SA topics:

              • Guides - https://forum.suunto.com/tags/guides
              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • suzzloS Offline
                suzzlo Moderator @Guest
                last edited by

                @silentvoyager ehh,m you were the guy that proposed new algo https://forum.suunto.com/topic/3078/let-s-talk-about-elevation-gain-counting-on-suunto-watches!!!

                Suunto: Race, S9Peak, Spartan Sport Wrist
                Garmin: FR745, Edge 530
                SA topics:

                • Guides - https://forum.suunto.com/tags/guides
                freeheelerF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • freeheelerF Offline
                  freeheeler @suzzlo
                  last edited by

                  @suzzlo
                  yep and i was happy that suunto does not count the meter when i adjust a skiboot buckle or something similar… but the truth or the target for good ascent calculation is somewhere between these 3m and bending down to pickup a snack out of the backpack on the ground 👍

                  living sideways

                  ? 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • MarynM Offline
                    Maryn Silver Members @Guest
                    last edited by

                    @silentvoyager I also did notice same behaviour

                    Suunto Vertical, Suunto Race, Edge 530, Vantage V, Suunto Wings, Polar H10&Verity Sense

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • ? Offline
                      A Former User @freeheeler
                      last edited by

                      @TELE-HO said in Problem of cumulative elevation gain:

                      @suzzlo
                      yep and i was happy that suunto does not count the meter when i adjust a skiboot buckle or something similar… but the truth or the target for good ascent calculation is somewhere between these 3m and bending down to pickup a snack out of the backpack on the ground 👍

                      @TELE-HO, read the post linked above. I don’t advocate for removing the threshold. Bending to tie laces isn’t a big deal. The real issue is windy weather. Even with the threshold wind gusts may produce a lot of false elevation changes. But the algorithm could be improved to more accurately track the changes once the threshold is exceeded.

                      freeheelerF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • freeheelerF Offline
                        freeheeler @Guest
                        last edited by

                        @silentvoyager
                        how its solved will be up to the developers i guess… last week i thought of maybe letting fusedalti check more often or filter too fast climbs? maybe not for paragliding…!

                        living sideways

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                        • Brad_OlwinB Offline
                          Brad_Olwin Moderator @PatBess
                          last edited by

                          @PatBess Suunto is aware of issues with altitude but it is a difficult one as arm movements for example need to be filtered out of the altitude gains. My altitude has been fairly reliable with the S9b, most of the time FusedAlti is activated and my gains/losses are close to those I have obtained with other watches.

                          Vector/T6c/Ambit 3 Peak/S5 Copper/S3/S7 Ti/S9 baro Ti/S9P Ti/S9PP Ti/Vertical Ti/Race Ti/RaceS/Ocean/Wing

                          ? 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • ? Offline
                            A Former User @Brad_Olwin
                            last edited by A Former User

                            @Brad_Olwin It isn’t a difficult issue at all. I’ve described the algorithm in details in my post (linked above) and it can be described in just a few sentences. By the way, I am a developer in a very well known software company myself.

                            Brad_OlwinB stromdiddilyS 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Brad_OlwinB Offline
                              Brad_Olwin Moderator @Guest
                              last edited by

                              @silentvoyager said in Problem of cumulative elevation gain:

                              @Brad_Olwin It isn’t a difficult issue at all. I’ve described the algorithm in details in my post (linked above) and it can be described in just a few sentences. By the way, I am a developer in a very well known software company myself.

                              I know you are and I am not a software developer so definitely out of my league here. I agree that the averaging may be overly conservative as you posted below. However, if less conservative do you believe it would then be more accurate? I know enough about the testing to suspect that different averaging approaches were likely attempted.

                              Typically I watch total gain and elevation on long climbs that are not very fast so I do not see the delay in averaging. In non-baro watches the situation is much worse. Unless I am doing a big climb the elevation gain/loss is typically well below the actual value.

                              Vector/T6c/Ambit 3 Peak/S5 Copper/S3/S7 Ti/S9 baro Ti/S9P Ti/S9PP Ti/Vertical Ti/Race Ti/RaceS/Ocean/Wing

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                              • stromdiddilyS Offline
                                stromdiddily Gold Members @Guest
                                last edited by

                                @silentvoyager can you walk me through how your proposal would handle a point to point route of 3m up, 2m down every 10m over 100m run?

                                Unless I’m reading it wrong, you’re suggesting that the “going down” calculation doesn’t kick in until you’ve triggered the min threshold from your “recent high” reading. Wouldn’t this end up with 0m descent over my example run?

                                Always carry a flaggon of whiskey for snakebite; and furthermore, always carry a small snake.

                                User of pretty much every watch since the Ambit 3 Peak. Now back in the family w SV :)

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                                • ? Offline
                                  A Former User @stromdiddily
                                  last edited by

                                  @stromdiddily Do you think the current algorithm would produce non zero descent? It would be good to try but I doubt the result would be any different.

                                  ? 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • ? Offline
                                    A Former User @Guest
                                    last edited by

                                    @stromdiddily Just to give you one specific example - not exactly what you are asking for but something that I’ve actually done. I once had hill repeats on a very small hill where I went up and down about 5 and half meters - that was the difference between the high and the low points based on the elevation profile. I didn’t have any better hills in that area. I went up and down 30 times. My Suunto 9 counted only 90 meters of total ascent and 90 meters of total descent.

                                    freeheelerF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                    • freeheelerF Offline
                                      freeheeler @Guest
                                      last edited by

                                      @silentvoyager
                                      I’m not a software developer either, pure mechanics… but would it be possible to count every meter, store it and smooth the graph later with doublecheck of the independently stored gps alti graph?

                                      living sideways

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                                      • Fiox89F Offline
                                        Fiox89 Bronze Member
                                        last edited by Fiox89

                                        On a recent excursion I noticed that the watch (suunto spartan) correctly records the right total elevation, but when it goes to synchronize the track on the application this is different. Also, the track log on the watch shows a different measurement, once the activity is interrupted, the same as the app.

                                        From what I understand, the problem occurs when the recording of the activity is interrupted, so it is in the post processing of the data. Can anyone confirm?

                                        Suunto Spartan Sport
                                        FW: 2.8.24
                                        SA: 4.17.7 beta

                                        Dimitrios KanellopoulosD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • Dimitrios KanellopoulosD Offline
                                          Dimitrios Kanellopoulos Community Manager @Fiox89
                                          last edited by

                                          @Fiox89 no post processing of data is done at all

                                          Community Manager / Admin @Suunto
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                                          freeheelerF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • freeheelerF Offline
                                            freeheeler @Dimitrios Kanellopoulos
                                            last edited by

                                            @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos
                                            then smoothing the graph isn’t possible either as I understand…
                                            there will be different options.
                                            Suunto teams will solve that, I’m sure 👍

                                            living sideways

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