Altitude information

[woodentop]

Does anyone know if the mapping database contains any information about altitude, and if so can it be accessed? Seems a shame to have a separate (and usually unreliable) digital altimeter in the truck.....

 

[dhn]

Non Nav3 devices (those using Home 2) can use a 3rd party application to see the Altitude on the device (not that it's 100% accurate). Look in our 3rd party forum.

Nav3 devices? (those using MyTomtom) Nope.

 

[Andy_P]

Does anyone know if the mapping database contains any information about altitude, and if so can it be accessed? Seems a shame to have a separate (and usually unreliable) digital altimeter in the truck.....

For info, the altitude information is not in the mapping data.
If you use one of those third-party add-ons (e.g."Tripmaster" or "Height"), the altitude is calculated 'on the fly' from the satellite signals using some clever maths.

But it's not terribly accurate at all.

There's some more info about how it works and why it's often inaccurate here

 

[woodentop]

That's great, many thanks to you both. Any thoughts on those sub-$50 altimeters advertised everywhere? How do they work? I assume it is digitised from a barometric pressure sensor? Ok provided you set the sea level pressure correctly.

 

[Andy_P]

All I can offer is this story....

My old boss used to fly a light aircraft...

He never trusted his altimeter (which would definitely have worked on barometric pressure).

So he had a second one fitted into the instrument panel...

and of course they never matched....

So he bought a third one.....

 

[dhn]

Reminds me of the (tedious) thread at PGPSW regarding what is accurate, the gps or the speedometer......

 

[canderson]

Reminds me of the (tedious) thread at PGPSW regarding what is accurate, the gps or the speedometer......

I'd take the GPS any day, except mine agree, so I don't have to worry about it!

 

[Andy_P]

If you've not seen it Chris, here's one of the pictures I ended up using to try to prove a point!