Ipone 7 as barometer/altimeter

[Gunnar H]

Benefits of various use of iphone 7 have been discussed. It also have a better pressure sensor than prevous models, actually quite good. Pick your choice of app and it is a good Altimeter/Barometer if you can live with battery life etc. And if you bring the phone anyway, it weights nothing.

My iphone 7 have for months constantly showed 1 mbar less than my Kestrel 5500 weather station. I bought the 5500 less than a year ago so it should even OK with calibration.

[David Thomas]

That’s good to know.  That, the better camera and the greater water resistance might get me to change phones before I kill the current one (my usual MO).

Is there an app you like that fires up each hour or so, grabs pressure data and goes back to sleep?  So one could look at air pressure trends overnight, while in camp, to help predict the weather?  My mnemonic: “Gaining elevation without working for it is cheating.  Cheating is bad.  Bad weather is bad”. (i.e. if you’re “higher” the next morning without actually having moved, the air pressure dropped and low pressure systems typically generate more wind and precipitation).

[Kevin Babione]

I know it was just a typo, but the subject made me smile.  In 2012 my in-laws were in China over my father-in-law’s birthday and, since he’s a huge Apple fan, my mother-in-law requested (in advance) an iPhone cake for him.  Here was the result:

 

 

[Gunnar H]

I had a bit time now to look at apps for data logging. This is the one i use mostly:

http://appcrawlr.com/ios/barometer-altimeter-for-iphone-

It has an old fashion interface that works well as barometer/altimeter. It doesn’t seem to be to tough on the battery. It also has data logging but this function is useless since it only collects data when active on the screen, and I haven’t found any settings to change that. It has not really been a problem though since I normally use my Kestrel for data logging. More battery efficient, whether resistant and I can get temperature, humidity, wind etc.

Looking now at data logging apps, this one can log barometer values but that is (almost) the only thing it can do, love it or hate it:

http://appcrawlr.com/ios/barograph-a-barometer-and-altim#authors-description

It works. I have no idea of battery drainage.

Barometer plus seems to have a working graph and settings where you can control data logging interval, set reference altitude, and even fine-tune calibration if have a good reference instrument. I have only used it a few minutes now but it seems to be a good (free) app

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/barometer-plus-free-altimeter-and-barometer/id1071044152?mt=8

Being able to control data logging interval should hopefully help to mitigate battery drainage.

There apps that combines temperature, pressure and even humidity. Sounds great but I doubt it works well, Iphones have what I understand no humidity sensor and I have never managed to get good temperature reading out of a phone, it tends to generate its own microclimate. There are also loads of weather predicting apps that can show pressure, I think most of them require access to internet to work well but I haven’t looked into them. Many of them get good user ratings.

Btw if you have an Iphone 6 it could be worth testing, it should have a pressure sensor as well, but I don’t know about the quality.

[David Thomas]

Thanks for the reference on the apps.  Something I’ve done for years with my analog Thommen altimeter is put it in a clear-topped water-proofed case and a tubing adaptor so I can use it as a wide-ranging pressure/vacuum gauge.  So now my phone can serve that purpose as well as job-site camera, video, voice recorder, calculator, and contain the work plan, schematics, P&I D, etc.

[Gunnar H]

You can even have a message delivered with a sad jingle when the barometer falls. Just fill your backpack with power banks and you’re good to go!

[Author]

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