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Stairs vs. Elevation

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‎04-20-2017 14:31

‎04-20-2017 14:31

My FitBit Surge seems only to measure elevation in floors.  I find this a ludicrously unhelpful unit; all the maps I've seen measure elevation in metres or feet, trying to relate a FitBit log to the real world is more complicated than it should be. It's a bit like measuring distance in football fields, or calorific intake in burgers.  Surely there must be a better way.  Is there a 'fix' that will allow my FitBit to count elevation in real-world units rather than in units?

As far as I can see, one FitBit 'floor' is about three metres.  The unit's lateral sensitivity is great, seeming to measure distance down to about 500mm.  Beside that performance, the inability to measure elevation to anything better than three metres seems a missed opportunity.  Maybe someone has a fix?   

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‎04-21-2017 00:21

‎04-21-2017 00:21

I'm not sure there is a fix as it's not designed to work the way you'd like it to.

 

It doesn't track elevation as such but floors. You get a floor if it detects a rise in elevation of 10 feet (based on changes in air pressure) while walking. If all your walking uphill was in exactly 10 feet units then the floors multiplied by 10 would give an approximate elevation. But life is not that simple. Some floors don't get recorded because you only climbed 9 feet, others because you paused during the 10 feet climb.

 

Because fitbits work by detecting changes in air pressure it can only detect changes in elevation - it doesn't know how high you were to start with or how high you are now. So, it's just not possible to use the fitbit floors to get an accurate estimate of height or total climb. 

 

If you had GPS switched on then it could use this to report actual elevation but this would not be related to floor tracking. If you'd like to have this then you could raise a feature request for it. 

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‎04-21-2017 02:55

In response to SteveH

‎04-21-2017 02:55

Hi Steve,

Thanks, that’s helpful. As I use the GPS when out hiking, I’ll look at the feature request idea.

Cheers,

Robin

Robin Dickeson
Saltings, Windmill Field, Bosham PO18 8LH, West Sussex, UK
+44 (0)1 243 573 405 or +44 (0)7 867 510 738 or robindickeson@mac.com
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