Yesterday I installed a demo of the game 'Winds of Steel' on my Epic. It uses the accelerometer to control the motion of a fighter plane, but I immediately noticed that the motion sensing was way off. It jumps from extreme up to extreme down with no mid-range. Left and right movements are fine, but the up/down issue makes the game unplayable. I checked the forums and even chatted with the developer, and no one seems to have had a similar issue. I've reset the horizontal calibration, rebooted the the phone and even re-installed the game and I still get the same thing. A friend who has a stock Epic says it runs great on his phone, so I'm wondering if it has something to do with Froyo.
I'm running the Quantum ROM with the DK28 modem and EXT4 on my Epic. If anyone else has a similar problem, please let me know. Everything else runs flawlessly on this phone, so this one has me stumped.
Thanks!
I have the same problem from running dk28 (even though I'm back on 2.1 now). Have you tried rooting and then running sensorcalibutil_yamaha ?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
You may have one of the Epics like mine that had their accelerometer borked when you went to DK28. The way I corrected it was:
1. Go to settings -> display
2. Choose Horizontal Calibration
3. Turn the phone over so it is face down, and place it so the bottom edge is hanging off of a table, so you can just access the "calibrate" button.
4. Hit "calibrate" (while phone is upside down)
5. Enjoy your properly calibrated accelerometer.
Those of us that had the problem think it is possible due to the sensor data getting written incorrectly on certain phones with DK28.
I wish I could take credit for the process I laid out, but I don't remember who told me about it a month or 2 ago.
Hope this helps!
Calibrating it upside down did the trick. Thanks! I never would have thought to try that.
I'll have to mention it to the developer in the event that other people contact him.
I don't think it's an issue with the game - I think the problem lies in the DK28 update, because I know there are lots of other programs that were affected by it, not just that game.
I'm just glad the solution worked out for you.
Yeah, this issue isn't game-specific. I can't play X-Plane or use Google Sky Map (to look up) because of it.
I've tried multiple times to fix it in 2.1, to no avail. I'm considering flashing to dk28 again to fix it and then hoping the fix will remain if I then flash back to 2.1
Update: I flashed to dk28, calibrated upside down, flashed back to 2.1, and then ran sensorcalibutil_yamaha to fix the rotation issue. It fixed my issue so now the pitch is registering correctly!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Related
Google Sky Maps. I just installed this again and am getting weird behavior. As I rotate up above the horizon everything shifts towards the west, and I can't see the sky. I used the new time shift feature to watch a sunrise..... Sun went below the horizon at sunrise?
Using Bonsia ROM, not sure if this is a 2.2 Froyo problem or what. Searches bring up mag calibration, but this seems more profoundly wrong.
It's not a Froyo problem, the compass in the Epic seems all wonky and I've never gotten it to work quite right.
Orbiting234 said:
It's not a Froyo problem, the compass in the Epic seems all wonky and I've never gotten it to work quite right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never had that problem in Eclair; sky map would function almost perfectly. I upgraded to stock Froyo and I have the same problem (and yes, I did the terminal emulator fix).
You must be in the great minority. I have yet to see an Epic that consistently gets its compass headings reliably correct nor have I ever seen Google Sky Map move nearly as smooth as any other android phone (very jerky).
My google sky also worked perfectly under stock eclair, but once I started futzing around with custom roms this and froyo that, **** got weird..
I DID however find a fix.. you need to calibrate your compass.. There's a couple ways, one long and complicated involving terminal emulators (which btw: didnt fix the problem for me) and the other, seemingly silly, "hold your phone and wave it around in a figure eight motion" which did the trick..
so.. go outside, preferably where lots of people can see you, hold your with your arms fully extended and wave it around in a figure eight..
The sillier you look, and the more people that can see you, the more likely it is to work
The figure 8 trick solved mine as well. Insanity is the answer.
Sent from my shoe, I mean....Epic shoe... I mean Samsung Epic! http://mobilehighway.blogspot.com/
Figure 8 trick didn't work for me, which is weird cuz I have a compass app on my phone and it almost perfectly points north, same goes for google maps. Any suggestions as to why sky maps isn't functioning correctly?
I wish google would fix the night mode on this app. It doesn't do a lot of good to have everything on the screen a dim red, but then have a blazing white menu pop up whenever you want to find something specific in the sky. How, exactly, is that supposed to help you keep your night vision while star gazing?
Just saw a guy with a stock Epic and his G Sky works fine. Must be a froyo thing. Don't think it has anything to do with the compass calibration...mine seems to be fine in compass apps. This problem is more related to the accelerometers... the app inverts axis or something when you rotate the phone above the horizon.
Does anyone have it working right on a 2.2 ROM?
Did some more testing using the app GPS status. It gives pitch and roll readout. In my case as I increase pitch or roll above 90deg, the readings stop at about 86 degrees and then don't change.
For some reason we're capped to less than 90 deg. Any ideas? Can someone with 2.1 try GPS status and see what kind of pitch indication you get if you go above vertical?
.... and Paper Airplane game doesn't work. Great free game that uses pitch and roll of the phone to control the plane flying through obstacle course.
With 2.2..... can't pitch up, and the plane won't climb! So I really don't think it's a G maps problem. Something is wrong with our 2.2 inclination settings.
Edit: Can a MOD change the name of this thread to include "Froyo inclination error"?
Edit: Huge thread in another area of xda. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=803242 regarding sensor calibration. Kind of deep for me.
Does this work in stock 2.2? Anyone?
Alright... I'm back on a stock DI18, full data wipe. Only thing installed is Sky maps and Sensor Debug.
Sensor Debug values are now (on a flat surface):
Pitch -179/179 (pitching up, it goes up to -150 and stops. or down to 150)
Roll 1 (will go from +/- 30)
Z Force 9.69
The same values I had with a clean install of Bonsai 1.4.
With my original install on Bonsai 1.3 (I had hit the calibrate option from Display settings, and run the su command for system/bin/sensorcalibutil_yamaha) and the z axis was -9.69, pitch values where +/- 86.
If anyone has a working g sky maps, on any build... please get Sensor Debug and post your sensor values (laying flat, and how they change as you pitch/roll the phone).
Thanks.
Hey come on... where's the community support here!
This isn't just G sky prob. Using the app sensor debug, my pitch and roll values are all over the place. When I pitch past vertical, the roll axis starts to change? Somehow the axis values are getting mixed up....
Tried the same test on a Hero and another Galaxy S. There pitch smoothly goes 0 to -90 when vertical to -180 when upside down....with no change to roll axis.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Update: Just odin'd back from DK28 to DI18, and I'm still having the same sky map problem,even though before I never had it.
Finally! Glad you are having problems too. Hope we can get this figured out ASAP.... driving me batty.
I'm going to start a new thread... this source of the Google Sky Maps problem is larger. We're either dealing with a calibration error in the accelerometers or dare I saw hardware. Please join in the new thread.
For now, download Sensor Debug from the market. Also, get the values from /data/system/ms3c_yamaha.cfg.
Let's nail this!
Credit to: abrognlie for pointing this out here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11552644&postcount=163
Figured this would be easier to find in searchs.
Problem: Your compass is backwards and overly erractic and inaccurate.
Solution: Upside down horizontal calibration
How: Plant the phone on a flat surface upside down. A low ceiling, top of a door frame etc. Make sure it's flat and facing upside down. Go to: Settings, Display, Horizontal calibration and calibrate it upside down.
Bingo bango, your broken compass should be fixed. This also cures slow auto rotation
Just tried that. Still as erratic and jumpy as ever.
DiGi760 said:
Just tried that. Still as erratic and jumpy as ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hardware problem?
The first time I used Google Maps with EB13 it told me that the compass needed to be calibrated and to move the phone several times in a figure 8 manner. I did it, and the compass has been fine. I'd never seen that before. I hadn't used the compass at all before this, so I don't know if it "fixed" a problem or if I just didn't have a problem, but I thought I'd throw it out there for people who are having problems.
edonnelly said:
The first time I used Google Maps with EB13 it told me that the compass needed to be calibrated and to move the phone several times in a figure 8 manner. I did it, and the compass has been fine. I'd never seen that before. I hadn't used the compass at all before this, so I don't know if it "fixed" a problem or if I just didn't have a problem, but I thought I'd throw it out there for people who are having problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me but it was still broken. X-Plane was unplayable, auto rotation was slow and sometimes unresponsive because the compass was backwards and jumping direction erratically. (download a compass app and check yours) North was south, etc.
The upside down trick 100% cured the issue. Not the figure 8 or the right side up calibration.
*shrug*
Wow! Best find ever! The upsides down calibration worked for my slow gsensor lanscape bug! All this time, rooted was needed for the
"system/bin/sensorcalibutil_yamaha" code to work! Very nice!
I wish I could claim credit for this (the member who deserves all the credit is styles420), and I wish it worked for everyone, but someone found this back when DK28 first leaked. It seems to help with a group of us with sensor data that gets mapped backwards during the flash. It shows up in the compass or google sky maps, but it seems to be a problem with the g-sensors that affects how the compass works.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
DiGi760 said:
Just tried that. Still as erratic and jumpy as ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try downloading GPS Status from the market. Open it and do the calibration tools. Should fix this. Also may improve your GPS (if it isn't doing well)
Possible, but it was the same on my previous epic. I haven't put too much effort into it since I don't really need a compass very often, but it would be nice to have it work for once.
djbacon06 said:
try downloading GPS Status from the market. Open it and do the calibration tools. Should fix this. Also may improve your GPS (if it isn't doing well)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already have GPS Status. I did that calibration from that again, and it is still messed up. It jumps a little less, but I can turn the phone 90 degrees and the compass rotates 180. Then I turn the compass 90 degrees the same direction, and the compass jumps backwards 90 degrees. I'm having a really hard time figuring out a reason for the pattern. I might have to sit down and draw some compass diagrams.
Worked for me. Fixed slow auto rotate as well
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
it fixes mine! thanks you for finding a fix!
Fixes mine. Thanks for posting this!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
SON OF A- I was just about out the door to get a replacement. I tried everything a month ago and gave up.
This fixed it.
Sky maps works perfect again.
Thank you and those who figured this out.
Home run battle 3d just became a hell of alot easier now. Thank you
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
tried all solutions here. no joy
Another issue, maybe?
I wonder if there might be an underlying issue here...
Was doing some research on why my battery life is garbage after EB13.
I hit on this thread because it looks like the compass sensor is consuming a ridiculous amount of CPU... I mean, foregrounded using 7% CPU when nothing else is going on.. like, no compass app or maps being used.
With my Epic pretty much quiescent, top consistently reports it (/system/bin/sensorserver_yamaha) as the highest user. Under DI18, it never even cracked the top ten.
Samsung Epic (EB13 Official) + Clockwork
wow thanks for the tip! i almost returned my epic because of this.
Amazing... how you found this out is beyond me, but it works!
Once in a while when trying to answer an incoming call the unlock slider won't respond. I will slide my thumb to unlock and ...nothing. When this happens the call will just go to voicemail . The workaround is to touch the power button to turn off screen , then touch it again to wake it up ,then the slider will work and I can answer the call. Sometimes this takes too long and I miss the call.
This is not a deal-breaker as it only happens 5% of the time , still it is annoying. I have tried different roms with no real difference. Anybody else have this problem? Any advice other than get a new phone under warranty?
Ditto. And I always act as you did to work around the issue, only difference is, I haven't missed a call due to this.
In any case, based on experience, the chance of this happening could be minimized (if not eliminated) by always locking the phone from the "desktop" (e.g. do not lock the phone when an app is running).
BACK STORY:
I remember this happening (more than once) when someone called me up after a train ride. And the last thing I could recall is that I have locked the phone while playing Angry Birds / Fruit Ninja / Zenonia 2, etc.
But it still sucks that it happens.
I guess my real question is , are all Nexus s doing this sporadically , even rarely , or is my phone defective?
question... are the phones plugged in to a wall charger when this happens?
Nope. Only happened to me when I under clocked the CPU with Setcpu using the powersave profile (I was just testing things out).
DKYang said:
Nope. Only happened to me when I under clocked the CPU with Setcpu using the powersave profile (I was just testing things out).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can happen any time any place
ransome7 said:
I guess my real question is , are all Nexus s doing this sporadically , even rarely , or is my phone defective?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if everyone's having this, but I'm with you on this. I'm on stock but rooted 2.3.3. Experienced this since 2.3.1.
EDIT: My wife has this problem too, since 2.3.1 until 2.3.3 (not rooted).
cygnum said:
I'm not sure if everyone's having this, but I'm with you on this. I'm on stock but rooted 2.3.3. Experienced this since 2.3.1.
EDIT: My wife has this problem too, since 2.3.1 until 2.3.3 (not rooted).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine did it stock , I rooted and loaded roms to see if that would fix the problem , lessened but still there
My nexus s (i9020T) has exactly the same problem. I've also tried to flash different ROMs, including CM-7rc2 and stock 2.3.3, and the problem remains.
I tried to bind Multi-touch Visualizer 2 to long pressing home button, and found the when screen is unresponsive, it can still detect press near edges very well, but not the center. While I press at the edge and drap across the center, it keeps tracking my finger correctly. In addition, Locking and unlocking the screen can solve the problem temporally. I connect my phone with adb, and tried to "cat /dev/input/event0" The behavior confirms what I see in Multitouch Visualizor 2: the when the center of screen is unresponsive, nothing can be read from the device node.
I read the mxt224 touch screen controller doc, and it seems the chip features self-calibration, and thus I believe the "lock & unlock" will trigger the chip to tune it self in some way. I've also read the driver code of nexus s, htc incredible and moto droid x, all using the same controlling chip. Both HTC and moto would send calibrate command to the chip during resume, but sumsang does not. I guess this might be the reason, but I'm not skilled enough to port the drivers
I experienced it twice so far i think, but only have the device for a little more than 2 weeks.
I am on stock 2.3.1 currently.
Beside the lock&unlock method, I discovered a new way of getting screen back to work: rub your hands a couple of times and touch again... Anyway it seem the screen is not well calibrated.
problem seems fixed with my customized kernel
Last night, I modified the touchscreen driver and mach settings a bit on the source of netarchy's nice kernel, and compiled a kernel of my own. The screen now seems working well with my new kernel
Never have experienced this on the nscollab rom which is cm7 and kernel together stable. I suggest give it a shot
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
swa2k4 said:
Never have experienced this on the nscollab rom which is cm7 and kernel together stable. I suggest give it a shot
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May I know how to perform the suggested steps, i have been experience twice since i bought it on 2 weeks ago
I would like to bring this issue up again (after so long) as I am still randomly experiencing this exact issue even with Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 (Stock & Custom ROMs). Any fix yet?
I just wanted to share this with fellow Epic 4G sufferers, er, owners. Zynga's Scrabble clone, Words with Friends has a "shake to shuffle your tiles" option. Well, not an option, really. You can't disable it. For some reason, if my phone isn't lying flat on the table, my tiles shuffle constantly. They have some bug reading the g-sensor. Here's the response I got from them:
This issue may be related to the version of the Operating System that is on installed on your device being out-of-date. Operating Systems are constantly being updated to improve stability and performance, while eliminating bugs. It is highly recommended that you update your Operating System so that your version is up-to-date. By updating your OS, you can increase the likelihood that this issue you are having with the application will be resolved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They go on to explain to me how to update my OS from the Settings menu.
Well, F#$% YOU, Zynga.
I had this issue when I first got the phone. I tried doing the calibration in Settings -> Display -> Horizontal Calibration but it wasn't enough. It wasn't until I rooted and used the command line calibration that it got fixed (and my screen rotation became much more accurate). I'll see if I can find the link to the other calibration tool.
Edit: Found it...
From a terminal or adb shell run /system/bin/sensorcalibutil_yamaha to perform a better calibration. I believe you need to have root to run this. I was amazed how much better this made my screen rotation and questioned why it wasn't calibrated correctly from the factory...
machx0r said:
I had this issue when I first got the phone. I tried doing the calibration in Settings -> Display -> Horizontal Calibration but it wasn't enough. It wasn't until I rooted and used the command line calibration that it got fixed (and my screen rotation became much more accurate). I'll see if I can find the link to the other calibration tool.
Edit: Found it...
From a terminal or adb shell run /system/bin/sensorcalibutil_yamaha to perform a better calibration. I believe you need to have root to run this. I was amazed how much better this made my screen rotation and questioned why it wasn't calibrated correctly from the factory...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I haven't tried that. I think I forgot to run that since I last reflashed my rom. I'll give it a try and see if it fixes the issue. Since Zynga isn't going to be any help.
Edit: No dice. Hmm, I was sure that would fix it. Darn.
machx0r said:
I had this issue when I first got the phone. I tried doing the calibration in Settings -> Display -> Horizontal Calibration but it wasn't enough. It wasn't until I rooted and used the command line calibration that it got fixed (and my screen rotation became much more accurate). I'll see if I can find the link to the other calibration tool.
Edit: Found it...
From a terminal or adb shell run /system/bin/sensorcalibutil_yamaha to perform a better calibration. I believe you need to have root to run this. I was amazed how much better this made my screen rotation and questioned why it wasn't calibrated correctly from the factory...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because the Epic was a last minute patch-work job, that's why. From the software (it was originally supposed to run Bada, not Android) to the GPS (they were going to use another chip or something, but Google put the kibosh on that so they had to replace it at the last minute). It was all patched up just before it was shipped out.
Our devs here don't get enough credit considering the sorry state this thing was in from the get-go.
I play the game and don't have sensor issues, what ROM are you on? I'm assuming you've already calibrated your sensor?
Yeah, I ran the calibration today. Had forgotten to do it since the last flash. I'm on rooted EC05 stock.
I'm going to play around with CM7. Maybe when I flash back I'll reinstall from scratch instead of a nandroid restore. Possible I've screwed something up.
Glad to hear that it should be working and isn't a bug in Words.
Jason
I stopped using WWF when it stopped displaying properly with AdFree enabled.
jasonsf said:
Yeah, I ran the calibration today. Had forgotten to do it since the last flash. I'm on rooted EC05 stock.
I'm going to play around with CM7. Maybe when I flash back I'll reinstall from scratch instead of a nandroid restore. Possible I've screwed something up.
Glad to hear that it should be working and isn't a bug in Words.
Jason
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, my backups were borked, best stable thing for me was stock ec05 rooted, odexed. I just remove bloatware, etc, but I still calibrate my sensor on a flat surface even though my sensor is calibrated fine.
That is funny, I have the exact opposite problem. I find that the WWF shake to shuffle feature doesn't work very will on my Epic. I have to practically hit it against the wall to get it to shuffle. lol
I have words with friends adfree and i don't have the shuffle issue and i'm on bonsai 4.0.1
I do hate zynga developing team on android ugh..... there ipod touch one is so much better...
Also they have come a long way with words with friends, the only issue/bug i have with it is the damn notifications suck monkey balls!!!
There hanging for friends is a disaster even adfree it always reloads old games i deleted and won or lost and makes me clear its data every 3 days
It needs a lot of work!!
Zynga needs to get their sh*t together on android!!! or hire some better developers. I consider the android version of both games like a direct port somehow running on android.. feels like garbage SMH i may get rid of them
So I used to run /system/bin/sensorcalibutil_yamaha as root to get a more precise horizontal calibration (the option in setting seemed to do nothing). However after upgrading to GB it seems like this executable has been removed and the option is settings still didn't seem to solve my issue. Is there another alternative on a stock GB rom? Maybe they renamed the app?
Download GPS Status from the Market. When you open the app, go to settings. There is an option to calibrate compass. Worked great from mine. Mine is spot on now.
Is there really no longer a built-in calibration app in system settings? Mine worked fine although the phone had to be upside-down like many other people's while using it.
DroidApprentice said:
Is there really no longer a built-in calibration app in system settings? Mine worked fine although the phone had to be upside-down like many other people's while using it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No the built-in Settings -> Display -> Horizontal Calibration still exists. My statement was that it never really worked for me and still doesn't. The only reliable way I had to calibrate was by running the aforementioned yamaha application while running as root.
I've tried the upside down trick and I still get jitters. For instance Words with Friends randomly shakes the tiles, even if my phone is sitting on a table. It's not so bad w/ GB as it was when I got the phone originally but I was able to solve it under Froyo with the yamaha tool and don't seem to have that option in GB :-(
machx0r said:
So I used to run /system/bin/sensorcalibutil_yamaha as root to get a more precise horizontal calibration (the option in setting seemed to do nothing). However after upgrading to GB it seems like this executable has been removed and the option is settings still didn't seem to solve my issue. Is there another alternative on a stock GB rom? Maybe they renamed the app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
machx0r said:
No the built-in Settings -> Display -> Horizontal Calibration still exists. My statement was that it never really worked for me and still doesn't. The only reliable way I had to calibrate was by running the aforementioned yamaha application while running as root.
I've tried the upside down trick and I still get jitters. For instance Words with Friends randomly shakes the tiles, even if my phone is sitting on a table. It's not so bad w/ GB as it was when I got the phone originally but I was able to solve it under Froyo with the yamaha tool and don't seem to have that option in GB :-(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
offtohavasu said:
Download GPS Status from the Market. When you open the app, go to settings. There is an option to calibrate compass. Worked great from mine. Mine is spot on now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I used to use /system/bin/sensorcalibutil_yamaha as well, and it worked very well for increasing the speed/sensitivity of rotation, but seems to be gone in CM7 (Which is built upon AOSP GB 2.3.5). I brought it up in another topic & one of the devs (I forget who) said that there is no known fix right now.
I'll try offtohavasu's tip, but I'm not gonna hold my breath! I've used it before with no success, but I haven't tried it with CM7 yet. Cross your fingers that this is the fix we need!
EDIT: no luck. I tried both the "Compass calibration" (which I didn't expect would do anything for rotation speed/sensitivity, but I tried anyway) and "Calibrate Pitch and Roll," and neither one had any impact.
not working for me either.
My rotation lag is terrible as well, and the upside down / display calibration option has not fixed it. I thought it was just me as this popped up on the last two GB leaks for me. I would love to be able to rotate my phone properly again.
Hate to tease but if I had a computer I could probably whip up a possible fix if I had my computer:/
Sent from my Samsung Legen-wait for it-dary! 4g
This certainly seems to be somewhat hardware related (as in, variations in production quality). I had issues back on Eclair or one of the first froyo leaks, including the bacwards compass that initially lead me to the upside-down calibration discovery, but my rotation speed has been fine since sometime around the release of EC05.
But how long of a delay do we each define as lag? When I had issues, I actually had to shake the phone to get the rotation to register... now, it still hesitates for about a second, but I see that at as a check to make sure it was an actual rotation instead of an incidental, momentary tilt of the phone - I would be annoyed if my screen rotated every time the motion sensor detected the slightest movement
Edit: a full second is an exaggeration, I'm seeing more like half a second of hesitation... Just trying to remain accurate
2nd edit - damn swypos, lol
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App