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Hey, I would like to use a compass with my TP2, any nice app available?
You'd only get some form of GPS compass as there is no magnetic compass in the TP2 like there is in the 3GS...
I love how apple put a relatively useless app into a phone and then all of a sudden everyone wants one
Well, it's Apple, man. they can make canned sh*t and everybody will want it. They are godlike on marketting.
As for the compass, no there isn't one, only GPS compass, and then again, you need to have a signal.
You can try this thing I found while googling and binging, Here at softpedia
jeah, f**king hype.. why the hell somebody needs a compass, although most navigationsoftwares got it integrated
iPhone users need the compass to navigate, obviously!
comingloud said:
why the hell somebody needs a compass
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We have GPS, which gives us a reference point in space. We have a G-sensor, which gives us rotation with reference to center of the earth. Problem is, these two only let our phone know where it is, and how high it's looking, whether down at the ground, up into the sky, or somewhere in between. It also tells it which way it's tilted (clockwise/counterclockwise). However, we need at least two points of reference to give an exact orientation of a device. A compass can do that with north pole being the second reference. With all three sensors a phone can not only tell where it is, but also exactly what it is looking at (not just how it's tilted or where it is in relation to the horizon). With information like this, we would also be able to teach the phone to know what it is looking at, not just where we are (as current GPS software does). Here's a great example of what's possible with a compass:
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/...-layar-is-worlds-first-augmented-reality-bro/
I can see where this is going. Sure it's fun for games, presentations, virtual tours, etc, but hey, I really wonder if someone is stupid enough to actually use to use the compass with the GPS when finding a spot. I can imagine, "In 200 Meters turn RiGhT. You are NOt LooKING at ThE RIghT WaY. In 10 MeTErs Turn your head LeFT, You have ARRiVed."
That would be me
I'm as dense as an iphone user. I get really confused when google route tells me to head east. Not good at navigating by clouds, or stars for that matter.
Philio25 said:
iPhone users need the compass to navigate, obviously!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
true as that may be, how can they see the compass if the phone is in their arse? bluetooth earpiece telling them which way maybe?
Can't seem to get the compass working. Have tried the 8-gesture several times, but it just wont work.
Tried it both indoors and outdoors in open areas, but no luck.
Anyone else have this problem?
you are not doing it in the right way... try to do it in vertical way...
20mihalko said:
you are not doing it in the right way... try to do it in vertical way...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I've tried it in every possible direction and orientation now.. Did it work instantly for you?
I've seen the calibration screen yesterday on Leo exhibition .. and I totally don't understand what I should do with the phone. Is it somehow better described in manual or something ?
Oh .. found this on YT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP3d00Hr14o
Now it even gives sense.
Dr.Sid said:
I've seen the calibration screen yesterday on Leo exhibition .. and I totally don't understand what I should do with the phone. Is it somehow better described in manual or something ?
Oh .. found this on YT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP3d00Hr14o
Now it even gives sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't work for me... I can't understand how I can possibly do that gesture wrong
The manual tells me to follow the on-screen instructions
Had the same problem but got it work with vertical gesture
I don't know how many times I have tried to get it working, but thanks to the replies to this thread I have managed to go beyond the interference-message-screen. The tip about gesturing in a vertical direction did the trick.
My sincere thanks
How come our is so slow compared to the one on the iPhone (see youtube link above)
umiss said:
How come our is so slow compared to the one on the iPhone (see youtube link above)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's probably just a crap application. I reckon the compass itself is better than the compass app makes it look.
gonna bump this thread a bit... I'm still having problems.. haven't gotten the compass to work since I got my HD2 in november, and I've tried quite a few different roms aswell...
Faulty device?
Anyone else have this problem?
johncmolyneux said:
It's probably just a crap application. I reckon the compass itself is better than the compass app makes it look.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is showing between 5 and 10 degrees difference for north, dependant on how much I wiggle the device beforehand.
Can't say it'd be wonderfully accurate anyway.
OP:
If you do the 8 gesture in one fluid motion that isn't too fast (say complete the motion in 3 - 4 seconds, it might work (mine did)
Gotta say I had almost given up on the compass. I had rarely gotten past the 'do a figure 8' screen, until tonight when i read the post about doing teh 8 vertically, not horizontally. Got a fix in about 3 figure 8's, and is as accurate as my Garmin GPSMap 60CSx inbuilt compass.
I'm not having problems with the compass...
sure, now and then it tells to do the eight-thing but I'm pretty having fun with it.....
rp-x1 said:
If you do the 8 gesture in one fluid motion that isn't too fast (say complete the motion in 3 - 4 seconds, it might work (mine did)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the tip, it worked for me too. Becuase I also had problems with the accuracy of the digital compass in the HD2, but this 8-gesture movement did the trick, and for my father's HD2 too... his compass was totally wrong, it showed 225° when the right direction was 310° (I tested it with a real, physical compass)
Have you noticed interference when pressing hardware buttons? Mine completely turn and points downwards when pressing the menu button in all compass apps and it is gradual depending on how firm you press. Seems like the buttons are interfering with the digital compass somehow. Holding down the menu button makes the needle really dance.
We have a few HD2's in the office and just playing around with all the apps. The compass seems to be either plain wrong or flaky at best. Mind you we are in a building so that is unlikely to help.
Just wondered if someone has test it's accuracy.
It's accurate.
But remember that electrostaticity will make your sensor to not work accurately!
Tried it
rphillip said:
We have a few HD2's in the office and just playing around with all the apps. The compass seems to be either plain wrong or flaky at best. Mind you we are in a building so that is unlikely to help.
Just wondered if someone has test it's accuracy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in several places, and even after re-calibration.
was off by up to 90 degrees.
It can be .. in car for example. But in on outside, no way. The error should be in degrees.
Electronic compasses tend to be very sensitive to any metal around, so watch out. But generally HD2 compass should work very, very well.
Here is video how to calibrate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP3d00Hr14o
I recommend doing it a bit slower. But this move. I totally didn't get it from the HTC description.
That's totally different from how I tried to calibrate it!
Any idea how I can recalibrate it? It's showing something crazy here...
for me it asks for calib every time i start it, maybe a soft reset?
But ye, i also did a way different calibration at first (bscly drawing a figure 8 in the air as if the bottom of the device was a pen) but doing the one shown in vid its now spot on compared to a analog compass, thx for the tip!
Hi,
I'm a proud S2 owner but I'm note sure for how long. It seems the gyro in my device is very unstable. For example, if I use Google Maps and I turn on the sensor, the map will rotate if I only the tilt the device upwards (and this shouldn't cause a map rotation).
I've also tested some other apps using the gyro (STLView by ModuleWorks https://market.android.com/details?id=moduleWorks.STLView or some artificial horizon apps) and they all share this instability.
I have an EEE-Pad as well, and there those apps are really great.
So the question really is, is it just my device or can anyone else reproduce these issues?
Thanks,
Mark
I have the same issue.
pub00515 said:
Hi,
I'm a proud S2 owner but I'm note sure for how long. It seems the gyro in my device is very unstable. For example, if I use Google Maps and I turn on the sensor, the map will rotate if I only the tilt the device upwards (and this shouldn't cause a map rotation).
I've also tested some other apps using the gyro (STLView by ModuleWorks https://market.android.com/details?id=moduleWorks.STLView or some artificial horizon apps) and they all share this instability.
I have an EEE-Pad as well, and there those apps are really great.
So the question really is, is it just my device or can anyone else reproduce these issues?
Thanks,
Mark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tested it on my sgs2 with maps and I don't seem to have the issues that you are experiencing. I even downloaded STLView and did not have this "instability" problem. Perhaps your handset is faulty?
Another possible reason is that you might have been trying to use your sgs2 in the bermuda triangle. It has been documented that the bermuda triangle wrecks havoc on electronics.
Are you sure maps use gyro ? I guess they use primarily compass and G-sensor, while of course, gyros can help too.
Did you try to calibrate the gyro sensor?
Yupp, tried calibration, didn't help.
@info5i2002
Pretty far from bermuda
In STLView, did you enable the gyro button (the button on the left side)? What happens if you tilt the phone by 90° (hold it over your head facing towards you) - does the heading swing around?
When I hold the phone level (in landscape orientation), and I tilt the phone up and down, I can clearly see the axis swing from left to right.
pub00515 said:
Yupp, tried calibration, didn't help.
@info5i2002
Pretty far from bermuda
In STLView, did you enable the gyro button (the button on the left side)? What happens if you tilt the phone by 90° (hold it over your head facing towards you) - does the heading swing around?
When I hold the phone level (in landscape orientation), and I tilt the phone up and down, I can clearly see the axis swing from left to right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeap, tried it in landscape and tilted it up and down and it seems to move only up and down only.
If the device is in a case/cover which has Magnetic Lock then the issue is normal.
issue is NOT gyro related, what's described here is unstable accelerometer and/or compass readout. i guess it's mainly due to missing magnetic calibration (try to do the "8" pattern with the phone, AND turn the phone twice around each axis). if the problem persists, than it's maybe within technological limits (and everyone faces it, although the people here are more upset about it). also possible is magnetic interference due to huge amounts metal etc...
Yes .. people often confuse accelerometer (G-sensor), electronic gyroscopes, and compass. All do different things, but all can be used in applications like maps.
I also noticed that the magnetometer of my s2 is kind of imprecise.
I have continuously swinging head indication, of about +/- 15 degrees. Moreover, the correspondance from phone orientation and indication is not linear. I get higher sensitivity towards one direction and lower towards the opposite direction...
However what I did notice, is that the magnetometer, responsible for the compass, is very sensitive not only to nearby magnets, but even to metal objects at considerable distance. So perhaps it is all just this sensor beind a tad too sensitive.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Hi,
I've done a few more tests - I placed a strong magnet next to my Eee-pad and I had no deflection when I moved the magnet. So in this case, the app is correctly using the device's gyro and accelerometer. I then performed te same test with my S2 and bingo, I had a strong deflection as I moved the magnet. This is plain silly, as the sensor I'm using in my own app doesn't rely on the compass, instead it relies on the rotation vector sensor as provided by the SDK. Now the question is, who was sloppy? Does Gingerbread perhaps not support the gyro fully or did Samsung not implement the sensor correctly? As I wrote, the same code works perfectly on my Honeycomb tablet so it's not a programming error per se.
Regards
Mark
Yes, there definitely must be something wrong with the gyro and/or the magnetometer.
Some time ago I opened a specific thread on this subject in this forum, got many "reads" but no replies whatsoever...
So strange nobody did actually notice it so far.
pub00515 said:
Hi,
I've done a few more tests - I placed a strong magnet next to my Eee-pad and I had no deflection when I moved the magnet. So in this case, the app is correctly using the device's gyro and accelerometer. I then performed te same test with my S2 and bingo, I had a strong deflection as I moved the magnet. This is plain silly, as the sensor I'm using in my own app doesn't rely on the compass, instead it relies on the rotation vector sensor as provided by the SDK. Now the question is, who was sloppy? Does Gingerbread perhaps not support the gyro fully or did Samsung not implement the sensor correctly? As I wrote, the same code works perfectly on my Honeycomb tablet so it's not a programming error per se.
Regards
Mark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now that's interesting. Could be !
My compass works a bit weird. I put it on table, let it show the north. Then I rotate the device 180 degrees .. and the north shifts like 5 degrees. It can be worse, but calibrating (waving the 8 pattern) helps .. but I can't get the error under 5 degrees no matter what.
Btw. it's common that that electronic compasses are much more sensitive to metal objects, that's not Samsung's mistake. But the sensors should not be linked.
Edit: I downloaded some sensors monitoring application. And gyroscopic sensor itself for sure is not sensitive to magnetic fields and works as it should, same for accelerometer. But then there are some IMHO virtual sensors: linear acceleration and rotation. They seem to be synthesized from more sensors, and the rotation does react on magnet.
So perhaps if someone has a different phone running Gingerbread with a gyro on board, we can see if the issue exists there as well (best would be to try it with STLView, as I know what API calls are made)
Thanks,
Mark
Dr.Sid said:
My compass works a bit weird. I put it on table, let it show the north. Then I rotate the device 180 degrees .. and the north shifts like 5 degrees. It can be worse, but calibrating (waving the 8 pattern) helps .. but I can't get the error under 5 degrees no matter what.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine does the same. Actually I can get even 15 degrees deviation. I noticed that it seems to depend on the location I am, despite apparently there should be no magnetic objects nearby. I am pretty sure that if if you try rotaring your phone at constant angular speed in the horizontal plane (with it horizontal on a table for instance) with a "compass" app running you will notice that the indicaton on the screen speeds up considerably when the phone is pointing to the north, and slows down when is pointing to the south.
Which Gingerbread version are you guys running?
I'm still waiting for the 2.3.4 update.
It would be interesting if someone could try this with 2.3.4, perhaps it works with the update?
Thanks...
Mark
pub00515 said:
So perhaps if someone has a different phone running Gingerbread with a gyro on board, we can see if the issue exists there as well (best would be to try it with STLView, as I know what API calls are made)
Thanks,
Mark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi mark,
again, what you (we) experience here has nothing, i repeat nothing, to do with the GYRO. what you mean is the accelero- and magnetometer! a gyro knows nothing about it's current position (it only detects deviations, read about a coriolis vibratory gyro for more details about the mems gyro the sgs2 is using)
most programs i know are not using the gyro for positional information, for example google maps, google sky... they are all using the magnetometer in combination with the accelerometer ONLY!
regards,
markus
Hi Markus,
thanks for the heads-up, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what's going on:
Why?
Well, for starters, I'm a software developer in a technical field and I'm also the author of STLView mentioned above. Secondly, the same app running under Honeycomb with an Asus EeePad is working perfectly, and it is using the gyro there. Yes gyro and no, not magnetometer.
The problem with the S2 as I see it, is:
either Gingerbread or Samsung have failed to implement the rotation_vector sensor, as provided by the official API, correctly. On the S2, it is using the acceleration sensor combined with the magnetometer, which is just plain silly, as the magnetometer is too unstable for correct rotation rate measurement. On the EeePad, the same virtual sensor is using the accelerometer and the gyro in combination (gyro for rotation rate and the accelerometer to eliminate gyro drift). What you get is a very accurate sensor reading, which is just not possible on the S2 as of now.
Hopefully, either Samsung or Google are going to fix this flaw, but I think the problem is more on Samsung's side as they are the ones who actually know what physical sensors are available. That's also why it would be interesting to find out if other devices running Gingerbread that have a gyro on board are also experiencing the same problems.
By the way, I'm also a pilot so I think I have a pretty good understanding of what a gyro is and what it measures, thank you very much. Next time, remember: "Halbwissen ist gefährlich"
Regards
Mark
pub00515 said:
Hi Markus,
thanks for the heads-up, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what's going on:
Why?
Well, for starters, I'm a software developer in a technical field and I'm also the author of STLView mentioned above. Secondly, the same app running under Honeycomb with an Asus EeePad is working perfectly, and it is using the gyro there. Yes gyro and no, not magnetometer.
The problem with the S2 as I see it, is:
either Gingerbread or Samsung have failed to implement the rotation_vector sensor, as provided by the official API, correctly. On the S2, it is using the acceleration sensor combined with the magnetometer, which is just plain silly, as the magnetometer is too unstable for correct rotation rate measurement. On the EeePad, the same virtual sensor is using the accelerometer and the gyro in combination (gyro for rotation rate and the accelerometer to eliminate gyro drift). What you get is a very accurate sensor reading, which is just not possible on the S2 as of now.
Hopefully, either Samsung or Google are going to fix this flaw, but I think the problem is more on Samsung's side as they are the ones who actually know what physical sensors are available. That's also why it would be interesting to find out if other devices running Gingerbread that have a gyro on board are also experiencing the same problems.
By the way, I'm also a pilot so I think I have a pretty good understanding of what a gyro is and what it measures, thank you very much. Next time, remember: "Halbwissen ist gefährlich"
Regards
Mark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi mark,
sorry - i didn't meant to be rude...
nor did i know your background; the thing nowadays is, a hell lot of people are talking technical nonsense all the time, which is quite frustrating...
i have to admit as i'm no software developer i didn't know the thing with the rotation_vector, what's sure for me was that the actual situation is caused from the accel/mag sensor, simply because of its behavior. that it would be way better to use the gyro as well for all this applications is absolutely true.
so let's hope either samsung or google will provide a fix, as you said!
glück ab, gut land!
markus
anyone can check wether their compass work properly in GPS status app ?
my compass always moving in clockwise direction and even when i put my nexus on the table, the compass still moving clockwise, tried to calibrate compass and accelerometer, the compass still always rotating..
can anyone check if this is a bug in the app itself or my magnetic sensor has trouble ?
Yeah I noticed that yesterday with a compass app.
Sent from my MB612 using xda app-developers app
so this is a known fault ?
I know for sure that the GPS status app performs an automated compass calibration so long as you move the phone/tablet correctly.
What I am not completely sure is whether you need to perform this procedure every time you re-start the app, or whether it caches the result for subsequent uses. (I had an experience in the mountains with three different compass apps that had me questioning the use of battery-powered technology)
In any event, fire up the app and rotate the tablet twice around each of it's three axes (X, Y, Z). Be careful that you don't drop the tablet! (I notice that when I do it I am trying to keep my hands away from the touchscreen, and so the grip I have isn't very solid)
If N is not in the correct place (allowing for local declination offsets), then maybe you have bad hardware or maybe your table your tablet is sitting on has a big piece of metal under it.
Spinning compass sounds like broken hardware, the Bermuda Triangle, or just noise (nearby power mains can cause a 60 Hz mag field wobble if they carry unbalanced currents - I use to work in a joint where everybody in one section of the building had CRTs that wobbled all the time). I think the GPS status app has an adjustable sensor filter, does it not (Menu-> GPS & Sensors -> Sensor Filtering - try medium or strong filtering maybe?
good luck
bftb0 said:
I know for sure that the GPS status app performs an automated compass calibration so long as you move the phone/tablet correctly.
What I am not completely sure is whether you need to perform this procedure every time you re-start the app, or whether it caches the result for subsequent uses. (I had an experience in the mountains with three different compass apps that had me questioning the use of battery-powered technology)
In any event, fire up the app and rotate the tablet twice around each of it's three axes (X, Y, Z). Be careful that you don't drop the tablet! (I notice that when I do it I am trying to keep my hands away from the touchscreen, and so the grip I have isn't very solid)
If N is not in the correct place (allowing for local declination offsets), then maybe you have bad hardware or maybe your table your tablet is sitting on has a big piece of metal under it.
Spinning compass sounds like broken hardware, the Bermuda Triangle, or just noise (nearby power mains can cause a 60 Hz mag field wobble if they carry unbalanced currents - I use to work in a joint where everybody in one section of the building had CRTs that wobbled all the time). I think the GPS status app has an adjustable sensor filter, does it not (Menu-> GPS & Sensors -> Sensor Filtering - try medium or strong filtering maybe?
good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i already done the calibration , in fact i done it in 2 different places, one in the coffee shop which i awkwardly spin the tablet around, haha. but the compass still rotating steadily in clockwise direction , tried to calibrate again in my home with no avail.
And yes, i set my sensor filtering to medium, but this setting look like only affecting gps, not the magnetic sensor.
can you try installing GPS status app ?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2&hl=en
and see if your compass is steadily moving or can point to the right direction when you put it on a table.
Working OK. Tried 3 different apps w/ compass
- GPS Status (eclipsim)
- Analog Compass (Dieter Roth)
- GPS Essentials (mictale)
Working fine here. Try taking your Nexus 7 out of the case, if it's in one. Run the app, hold the N7 FIRMLY (or do this over carpet, soft surface) and rotate in all directions. I usually draw a figure 8 in the horizontal and vertical directions.
Easy on the phone, harder on the Nexus 7 since it's larger.
Odd that it's rotating. My wifes old Aria I use for geocaching I left on top of a Nook Color case and screwed up its compass and it just gets stuck.. It'll rotate through about 270 degrees then get completely stuck the other 90. I've degaussed it a few times and that helped a little, as it mostly rotates now, but it's still not accurate. It might be 15-20 degrees off, as it still 'sticks' here and there.
PSA: The Nexus 7 compass is pretty funky period. I remembered this as I was testing just now. The compass will randomly for no reason go off about 90 degrees and rotating it around figure 8's will sometimes fix it, but most often just spinning it in place clockwise and counter-clockwise and it'll suddenly pop back to proper alignment. Don't depend on the N7's compass in a L&D Situation
Does the compass rotate when you are moving? If it only has a GPS input then if you are stationary it cannot resolve direction to any accuracy.
peterk-1 said:
Does the compass rotate when you are moving? If it only has a GPS input then if you are stationary it cannot resolve direction to any accuracy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Nexus 7 has a compass, so unless whatever app he's using has been told (or defaults to) GPS for the heading, it should be using the real compass.
khaytsus said:
The Nexus 7 has a compass, so unless whatever app he's using has been told (or defaults to) GPS for the heading, it should be using the real compass.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the point I was making. It is not know what sensors are being used. I would expect the app to use the x,y,z readings from the position sensor ( The "angle" the device is being held at) and the geomagnetic sensor but it may also use the GPS receiver to derive a direction of motion. The algorithm that pulls these readings together is the clever bit and the weight it gives to each sensor reading when it is outside expected values is the unknown / interesting bit.
bftb0 said:
Working OK. Tried 3 different apps w/ compass
- GPS Status (eclipsim)
- Analog Compass (Dieter Roth)
- GPS Essentials (mictale)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm, it seems like in a rare case, the compass can point at the right direction, but mostly keep rotating..
khaytsus said:
Working fine here. Try taking your Nexus 7 out of the case, if it's in one. Run the app, hold the N7 FIRMLY (or do this over carpet, soft surface) and rotate in all directions. I usually draw a figure 8 in the horizontal and vertical directions.
Easy on the phone, harder on the Nexus 7 since it's larger.
Odd that it's rotating. My wifes old Aria I use for geocaching I left on top of a Nook Color case and screwed up its compass and it just gets stuck.. It'll rotate through about 270 degrees then get completely stuck the other 90. I've degaussed it a few times and that helped a little, as it mostly rotates now, but it's still not accurate. It might be 15-20 degrees off, as it still 'sticks' here and there.
PSA: The Nexus 7 compass is pretty funky period. I remembered this as I was testing just now. The compass will randomly for no reason go off about 90 degrees and rotating it around figure 8's will sometimes fix it, but most often just spinning it in place clockwise and counter-clockwise and it'll suddenly pop back to proper alignment. Don't depend on the N7's compass in a L&D Situation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah i already tried to take off the case and check the compass, but still got the rotating compass, i even tried different roms, was in stock rom and now using CleanRom.
i wouldn't trust my electronics in a life and death situation, except if i didnt have anything better
peterk-1 said:
Does the compass rotate when you are moving? If it only has a GPS input then if you are stationary it cannot resolve direction to any accuracy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even when i put it on the table, the compass keep moving
peterk-1 said:
That's the point I was making. It is not know what sensors are being used. I would expect the app to use the x,y,z readings from the position sensor ( The "angle" the device is being held at) and the geomagnetic sensor but it may also use the GPS receiver to derive a direction of motion. The algorithm that pulls these readings together is the clever bit and the weight it gives to each sensor reading when it is outside expected values is the unknown / interesting bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it doesnt matter wether the GPS is locking or not, the compass keep rotating
i'm trying to make a video of this behavior, maybe i'll make it tomorrow, it's already night time , and my room's light is not bright enough..
hopefully, i'll update the OP tomorrow, with video
I'm having the same issue on the N7 I just got, it happens in any ROM I've tried so far (stock, CM 10.1, Paranoid Android 2.99, SmoothROM v4.3, etc) - when I use the GPS Status app to calibrate the compass as required it will get the accurate North heading as it should, but then the compass itself just kinda drifts in a clockwise direction a few degrees every second, and that's with the N7 immobile itself and not in motion.
I'm guessing it's just an issue with the hardware since it happens with any ROM I've tested so far, but I haven't tried any other compass apps so I suppose I should, but the apps are just pulling info from the compass hardware so, if that's just defective or not working right then yes the on-screen display is going to keep right on moving.
Also, the calibration(s) I'm doing isn't sticking: the N7 either forgets it immediately or again there's something defective about it because when I do a calibration and close the app and restart it, it's not showing the correct directional orientation that I just calibrated it to
Weird behavior, certainly. This isn't a life or death thing since I know where I'm at here in Vegas at any time, but considering how amazing the N7 is overall, little things like this just irk the hell out of me (and apparently other owners as well).
Always the Compass
I got my hands on a 2nd hand N7 32G-WiFi, and any ROM (even stock 5.1.1 up to custom 7.1.1) displays the same non working compass with GPS Status (and other apps), the compass is stuck pointing to North and/or then jumping around as I rotate the tablet . GPS alone is working.
Interestingly there's now a "diagnose sensors" tab in GPS Status, and there the "Orientation" and "Rotation Vector" readings are coherent: I can read the angle to which the tablet is pointing (respect to north) and it correctly senses it. Same goes for the Rotation Vector, once the "calibration pattern" is done (move anytime the table 1-2 time around the 3 main axis), the readings settle down and are repeatable:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(image cut to reduce size) In this case the tablet was on the table pointing north and not being moved.
So, the sensors inside the tablet are operating correctly! Still I don't understand why Google Maps (blue triangle) and/or Nokia Here wego (green arrow), and any other, cannot simply access these sensor readings. Are there other emulated "software sensors"? Do they wrongly correlate other readings inside the apps?
Interestingly I flashed this ROM lineage-11-20170221-UNOFFICIAL-grouper and there GPS Status compass display is correct! Same goes for Here wego, but Google Maps is still a miss.. clearly it's using other (hidden) sensor APIs and doing it wrong.
Some old apps, like "Check My Android" under the "Compass" sensor they are displaying directly the "Orientation" hardware sensor, no wonder if they work :good:
I'm going to use it as navigator inside the car, so I'll stick with Lineage 11 and hope app support will last long.. but I'm literally dying of curiosity on how and were are these sensor being interpreted from the apps/os.
I'd really like to get in touch with some developers, at least to pass the word and get to know a little more about the physical sensor subsystem inside android (I get the feeling on KK some "advanced emulated" sensor are not available, hence the app does a fallback on simply raw sensor values).
I understand that you always need to compensate raw sensor values, the simple compass might work ok when the tablet is flat on a surface, but then it must be adjusted if it's being held by the user plus if it's in portrait mode or landscape - with the only basic assumption that.. the screen is pointing the user
If I find something I'll report back, I really hope to discover something
(Found this old thread, using it instead of opening a new one)