Suunto Vector - first ABC watch and I'm confused - please help!

[neil hardiker]

Hi,

This is my first post and I'm a real novice so please go easy on me.

After much deliberating I've bought a Vector, primarily to use the barometer function as I'm a keen fisherman. According to Google Earth my home in North West England is at an elevation of 171m, so this is what I set the reference altitude to. Right now however, at the exact spot where I set this the altimeter reads 200m. Why is this? I have also noticed that the barometer reading is typically around 10-15mbar below the reading of the nearest weather station I can find which is some 10 miles away from me but at an elevation of 65m. Right now my watch shows pressure at 986 mbar whilst the weather station claims current pressure to be 1004. I have tried to read the manual but sadly very little of it makes sense to this fisherman.

I'm also surprised to see how difficult it is to find details of elevations for places in southern ireland, where I'm away to at the weekend and suspect I really need to re-set my reference altitude to my base whilst over there?

All help or suggestions gratefully received - great site BTW.

Cheers Neil

[Statius]

The Vector's altimeter will exhibit drift. That is, the altimeter is based upon air pressure readings at a given temperature. As your air pressure changes, which it is always doing, the Vector's altimeter will drift up or down. All such watches exhibit this drift, some brands more than others. You can be sitting on your couch and the altimeter will show a change in altitude, simply because the weather is changing. These watches try to compensate for drift, but you can't get rid of it entirely, except by constantly recalibrating your watch to known altitude reference points. The Core is much better at handling this. Casio Pathfinder's, IMO, are similar or a bit worse than the Vector.

[or_watching]

Hi,
Don't give up studying and re-reading the manual!!! It will eventually make sense, especially after you play with the watch more.

Here are a couple comments:
1. If you aren't moving (altitude changes) then using Baro mode is best. Then the pressure changes will reflect as Barometric pressure changes.

2. Your local weather station almost always reports a "sea level pressure". The vector can show you both the sea level pressure, and the actual ambient pressure the sensor is sensing. Make sure you clearly understand the difference and which you are seeing.

3. You can calibrate two different, but intertwined ways. Either you set a known altitude. Or you set a known local sea level pressure.
After do the cal either way then you still need to decide, based on your activity, if you want to be in Alti or Baro mode.

4. When you calibrate by sea level pressures you can safely ignore the elevation difference between your location and the local weather station. That's the beauty of it.

5. You should be able to use Google Earth to find elevation anywhere. As you move the mouse pointer around the elevation is shown at the bottom of the screen.

[neil hardiker]

Thanks guys - I will give calibrating to sea level pressure a go - thanks

[neil hardiker]

Hi,
Don't give up studying and re-reading the manual!!! It will eventually make sense, especially after you play with the watch more.

Here are a couple comments:
1. If you aren't moving (altitude changes) then using Baro mode is best. Then the pressure changes will reflect as Barometric pressure changes.

2. Your local weather station almost always reports a "sea level pressure". The vector can show you both the sea level pressure, and the actual ambient pressure the sensor is sensing. Make sure you clearly understand the difference and which you are seeing.

3. You can calibrate two different, but intertwined ways. Either you set a known altitude. Or you set a known local sea level pressure.
After do the cal either way then you still need to decide, based on your activity, if you want to be in Alti or Baro mode.

4. When you calibrate by sea level pressures you can safely ignore the elevation difference between your location and the local weather station. That's the beauty of it.

5. You should be able to use Google Earth to find elevation anywhere. As you move the mouse pointer around the elevation is shown at the bottom of the screen.

How often does one need to re-calibrate to known 'local' sea level pressures. Regularly I assume when travelling to different locations but what about when not doing so?

[or_watching]

Hi.
Here's a link at Suunto that provide a response:
Altimeter / Barometer | Suunto

Think of these two extremes:
1. If you were only at home, and watch was on the shelf like a Weather Station, and it were in Baro mode, you would generally NOT need to recalibrate. The pressure changes would be due to the weather, and watch would correctly interpret them that way. (BARO mode forces the altitude to remain fixed and interprets pressure changes at the sensor as atmospheric/weather changes (e.g. reported sea level pressure and absolute pressure both will change)

2. If you are on the go and changing altitude and experiencing weather changes at the same time, the watch, depending on it's mode, would likely get off track and need to calibrated at least daily.

Any thing in between --- my only safe answer is to say you'd want to calibrate it daily or before any activity that you care about having a correct measurement.

"As a basic rule, the altimeter will give you correct readings if the weather has not changed. Always remember to reset the reference altitude before recording with the wristop computer."
(or you can set the sea level pressure)

"it is not possible to measure weather changes and altitude changes at the same time as both are calculated by measuring changes in air pressure."

"How often do I need to reset the reference altitude?
Weather changes affect the barometric pressure every day. To have precise altitude readings, you should check the reference altitude every time before going out for an activity in which you will use the altimeter."

[bluenik]

Hey.

I just got my vector and it seems that when I have it in baro mode, the altitude also changes. Ain't it that when u have it in in baro mode the altitude should stay the same? Cause it happened that when i switched from baro to alti the alititude got changed in the first second of getting into alti mode. (p.s i have read the above posts and im just lookin for someone to confirm that it actually locks one mode when u r in the other one)

[DaveS66]

Bluenik

When you set the altitude the Vector notes the air pressure. ANY change in air pressure is used to recalculate the Altitude as unlike the Ambit the Vector doesn't know which one is changing (alt or pressure).

That is why whenever you start out and want to use the Vector as an altimeter you should set the altitude against a known reference. Next time you return to that point, unless the air pressure is exactly the same, the altitude will be shown differently.

HTH

Hey.

I just got my vector and it seems that when I have it in baro mode, the altitude also changes. Ain't it that when u have it in in baro mode the altitude should stay the same? Cause it happened that when i switched from baro to alti the alititude got changed in the first second of getting into alti mode. (p.s i have read the above posts and im just lookin for someone to confirm that it actually locks one mode when u r in the other one)

[bluenik]

Thank you ver much I think I have figured it out now :P

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