S9 barometer problems

Anssi Auvinen · 22 Sept 2020, 18:27

I noticed that my watch is not giving right altimeter data anymore. For example I downloaded bike route from strava which was recorded with barometric device and it had about ~1400m of elevation gain. When I finished the same route, i had only 1088m of elevation gain.

Today I the went to bike ride with my S9 and Garmin handheld device and the result differed quite much: S9 535m and Garmin 615m. After I rode one uphill, I stopped to check the elevation and it took about 3 minutes form my S9 to get to the same elevation as garmin, so barometer is working but really slowly.

Also checked some routes that I had ride multiple times. In june 49km had 650m of elevation gain and same route in september 522m.

I have updated the watch couple weeks ago for latest version and I have also left the watch for water and rinsed it on running water to clean the barometer holes.

Is there something else what I can do or do I have to just send it for the repair?
It’s just over 2 years old, so no guarantee left

sartoric · 22 Sept 2020, 19:13

This post is deleted!

sartoric · 22 Sept 2020, 19:16

@Anssi-Auvinen
Did you try a soft reset?

Anssi Auvinen · 22 Sept 2020, 19:25

@sartoric

No, I have not reseted, but I think the update did a reset in september and the problem has been longer.

sartoric · 22 Sept 2020, 20:23

Well … you can always contact suunto support to check if it’s faulty

Brad_Olwin · 23 Sept 2020, 12:31

@Anssi-Auvinen How do you know the Garmin is correct and the S9 (baro?) faulty? Are you sure you have the baro version? On the new watch face does the face show air pressure or steps?

Anssi Auvinen · 23 Sept 2020, 12:40

@Brad_Olwin I have run the faulty data through elevation correction service and that shows the same result than garmin handheld device. And yes, im sure that i have baro version. Also S9 baro did show right data in the summer.

Brad_Olwin · 23 Sept 2020, 12:42

@Anssi-Auvinen A soft reset is to hold the upper right button for 12 seconds and the watch will reboot. No reason to do a hard reset now. If you use quantified self, could you post links so we can see altitude profiles? QS will allow import of Garmin fit files and will import from Suunto app.

Anssi Auvinen · 23 Sept 2020, 13:04

@Brad_Olwin

This shows quite much the reason, when I waited ~3 mins at the top of the hill, S9 reached to the same elevation.

Checked the garmin data, but I think the export from the device is not from every second so the exported gpx is not accurate enough.

Anssi Auvinen · 23 Sept 2020, 13:08

Here’s the qs link: https://quantified-self.io/user/0NQynLXMmLPswXyjLJcHqdLJvam2/event/DzCcIqqv3jthDHJHh00L

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos · 23 Sept 2020, 15:04

@Anssi-Auvinen then it didn’t manage to calibrate it self in time. Or calibrated incorrectly. But 1h to get a good precision is too much. Did you calibrate at start? How was the GPS conditions ?

Brad_Olwin · 23 Sept 2020, 18:14

@Anssi-Auvinen You can merge the two files for the same activity, that might help for looking at the altitude. Merge the fit files for S9B and Garmin in QS, there is a button for that.

Anssi Auvinen · 24 Sept 2020, 05:42

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Gps conditions were fine and I have not ever calibrated it at the start.

Today again short ride Suunto 122+m, Garmin 185+m, Strava with elevation correction 196m+.

Anssi Auvinen · 24 Sept 2020, 05:45

@Brad_Olwin You can clearly see even with that S9 data what is wrong. I repeated the same hill 4 times and it does not show the same elevation every time down or up. Right elevation came if I waited some minutes without moving.

Mff73 · 24 Sept 2020, 05:53

have you tried cleaning your baro sensor ?
too much delay in correct altitude/pressure reading may come from sensor being “blocked” by some dust or else.

You can eventually try also to downgrade firmware to previous one and see if your guess that it is FW related is true.

Anssi Auvinen · 24 Sept 2020, 05:54

@Mff73 Yes, I had the watch one night in water and after that i rinsed it with running water.

Anssi Auvinen · 24 Sept 2020, 06:00

Here you can see that is just working too slowly.

Mff73 · 24 Sept 2020, 07:04

@Anssi-Auvinen
Are you with Android SuuntoApp ?
If yes, you could also try to import the SA raw data file into QS and see GPS altitude registered by the watch. We may be able to see something different. Raw data files can be found in the phone (see this link https://forum.suunto.com/post/33052)

But if you sensor is clean, and “just” behave slowly, and if you think it is like that only since latest FW, i personnaly would have downgraded FW to be sure of this (if you are able to reproduce the phenomenon).

Anssi Auvinen · 24 Sept 2020, 07:07

@Mff73 Im iOS user and I think this problem started before the latest update (I have only checked data from last couple weeks), but I can try to downgrade next week.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos · 24 Sept 2020, 08:20

@Anssi-Auvinen can I have a QS link ?