who's got a kickass altimeter?

“now that my vacuum dilemma has been solved (i'm going with a dyson animal)

i want one of those cool altimeter watch thingies. i don't care about GPS (horizontal location)

suggestions?
last edited: 12/26/07 5:51:19 AM”

“High Gear wearer here. I've caught some grief from a friend of mine who has a fancy schmancy Suunto. But always when we compare mine keeps just as good a records as their's...keeping your barometer acclimated is the key to any of them in my opinion. my 2 cents..1/2 price til midnight.

this is mine.. http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?AFC-googlebase&productId=35351187&engine=googlebase&keyword=85300

I wear it daily..not just hiking...way fun at work
last edited: 12/26/07 6:05:53 AM”

“Take the altimeter watch and put it in a nalgene. Take the vacuum cleaner and pull a vacuum on the bottle. What altitude does the watch read?”

“.”

“key to understanding these things is to understand that they convert a barometric pressure measurement (an analogue measurement) to a digital value using an A2D converter. the more bits the A2D converter has the more it can "chop up" the range of measurement.

i seriously doubt if a wrist watch is going to have anything more than an 8 bit converter in it. the stated range for this watch is 29,500 - 2,296 feet... 27,204 feet. 27,204 feet / 256 (8 bits) = 106 feet per bit. so the best that this watch could measure altitude is +/- 106 feet (+/- 1 bit... assuming it has an 8-bit A2D converter).

you decide if that is accurate enough for your application. ask how many bits the A2D conversion uses and figure it out for yourself...

also, a 1 mbar change in pressure (weather related, etc) can result in up to a 30' error in altitude. these things are much better at measuring change in altitude over a short period of time than absolute altitude above sea level.
last edited: 12/26/07 1:46:03 PM”

“I got a Suuntono Vector watch for Christmas: altitude-barameter-compass. Looks OK. Still trying to figure it out.

I used to have the Casio Alti-thermo watch many, many years ago and loved it.”

“The Casio "Pathfinder" will do as well as the others.It will only register in incraments of 20 feet though.”

“it's probable being far more honest than the ones that register in 1 foot increments... the standard for the FAA is only good to +/- 3 feet...”

“Pennsy loves his nike altimeter watch..”

“I love my Casio Pathfinder....never really sure about the Altimeter, but you are right about the Barometric measurement stuff. It even tells that in the manual.”

“i'll add that my gps is amazing in this regard. it's certainly not better than +/- 10 feet but i have frequently stood next to altitude markers on the top of peaks, looked at my GPS, and the reading was exactly what was on the marker. my gps will measure altitude based on barometric pressure -or- triangulation with satellite data. i have never compared the two and just used the triangulation but this thread has encouraged me to experiment with this a bit.”

“I have a Suunto Vector. It is very accurate. I used to have an old Garmin 12 and the Vector was much more accurate than the GPS. I have a Garmin 60csx and it is as accurate as the watch. The watch is accurate to ten foot increments.

Phil, good luck figuring out the Vector. It is not exactly user friendly. The closest sea level barometric reading I could get was sixty miles away so I would calibrate the altimeter off a known altitude or if I did not know the altitude I would set my starting point at 1000 feet so I knew how high I was relative to where I started.

During the course of a long day or weekend the barometric pressure can change quite a bit so the accuracy is only as good as the stability of the barometric pressure. I was never off by more than 150 feet after a long day of hiking.”

“I have a Casio one. Apparently the trouble with the Sunnto ones is they burn through the batteries - the Casio ones are solar powered.”

“I have a Casio one. Apparently the trouble with the Sunnto ones is they burn through the batteries - the Casio ones are solar powered.”