Garmin 705

[Ikonic]

My friend and I both have Garmin 705's With the Diamond Rush race on Saturday we measured similar distances, I had 40.11km anh he 40.2km but on the elevation he measured 666m and I measured 737m. That is a huge difference and I would like to know if anybody has an explanation or have you had a similar experience before.

Yes, I have already given it some thought that he walked around the mine dump

[SeaBee]

Different firmware levels?

[Minion]

By elevation, do you mean total ascent? I believe the smoothing algorithm for this is quite sensitive to variations in the data points which affects what it considers to be an 'ascent' and what not. Were you using Smart Recording or 1 second recording? If on or both of you were using Smart Recording, then it may not be basing the calculation on the same data points.

 

What do the altitude tracks look like when you import them into GTC or SportTracks and what ascent values do these programs report. If the two altitude tracks look the same, then the difference is probably due to smoothing problems in the total ascent algorithm.

 

It could also be due to different firmwares. I know that one of the things FW3.2 was meant to correct was the total ascent figures displayed on the Edge itself. On older firmwares they were often very different from the values calculated in programs such as GTC or ST (using the same raw data file).

 

Another potential firmware problem is 'altitude drift'. FW2.9 can be quite slow to pick up the initial altitude and there can be quite a bit of drift during the ride: I've had ride files that say my house is 50m higher at the end of the ride than the start even though the weather has been unchanged throughout the ride. FW3.1 and 3.2 were supposed to correct this.

[MichaelI65]

FW3.1 and 3.2 were supposed to correct this.

 

Check the Garmin forums before upgrading your 705 firmware, especially to FW 3.2. There have been lots of problems reported (https://forums.garmi...splay.php?f=21)

[Ikonic]

Thanks guys I really appreciate your input.

[Minion]

Check the Garmin forums before upgrading your 705 firmware, especially to FW 3.2. There have been lots of problems reported (https://forums.garmi...splay.php?f=21)

True. That's why I'm still on 2.9. I can live with the problems the later ones correct, but not with the new problems they create.

[SeaBee]

Yeah, I agree, stay the heck away with all your might from 3.2 firmware. Having some funnies in elevation is way better than not having your ride recorded at all (as was the case with me).

 

Other issues included speed spikes (again), spontanious auto-pause (when moving - maybe related to losing sattelite signal) and a couple of other small ones.

 

Personal favourite, which I fortunately missed out on - spantanious bricking of device. It simply does not turn on any more!

 

I went back to 3.1 initially and then my 3.1 elevation funnies re-occured and also went back to 2.9. And I'll remain there untill I read good reports of some FW level post-3.2