[Feb 20 2011][Q] Digital Compass is Stuck - HD2 General

As above. I've been having this problem for about a month now. When I launch the compass, it's stuck at 0 degress north. Interestingly, the degree doesn't show on the bar above the compass, below the taskbar. I've tried waving it in a figure 8 to calibrate it, but it's still stuck.
Is there anything else I could do short of a hard reset and/or re-installing the whole thing etcetera?
For reference, I've posted a video on YouTube.
(Can't post it here yet, search PaulHong22 on YouTube)

Before any suggestions are made...
Can you prove that you currently are not at the North Pole?

With regards to your post
For clarification's sake. When I go to Digital Compass, it starts as normal, but the compass does not move when I move. Search PaulHong22 on YouTube for more, I've posted a video on the problem. As they say, pictures tell a thousand words.

I had a similar problem a few months ago. Sounds like you may have a problem with something magnetic getting too close to your phone. Do you carry your phone in a case with a magnetic clasp (closure)? If so, try not using it and see what happens.
You might also try to recalibrate your phone's G-Sensor. The procedure is as follows:
- Start; Settings; Menu (at bottom right of screen); All Settings; System; G-Sensor; follow the directions on the screen
Good luck!

Asquared:
Thanks for your response. I've tried using the compass out of range of anything magnetic or metallic. It makes no difference. I've also tried calibrating the G-sensor countless times, and again, to no avail.

Related

HTC Compass and Magnetic interference

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.

Does compass really tell the truth?

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!

A Quasi-Solution to the Compass issue

So, I happened to accidentally launch Google Sky map and found that the map auto-rotated to the direction (due west) immediately. I thought possibly Eugene373's Vibrant9 ROM had some extra GPS mojo that no one had mentioned and I was all excited until I turned my phone to landscape and saw the bearing get all jacked. After a few seconds I realized the issue with the compass is that it is not compensating for the orientation of the screen. If you hold your device in "portrait mode" and perfectly vertical, the compass works flawlessly and fast. If you change the orientation to anything off that axis (ie turn the phone to "landscape" or rotate the phone so that it is not perfectly perpendicular to the ground), the compass gets slower and further off it's correct bearing. This would explain why occasionally I seem to have "decent" compass functionality while other times it is completely jacked up. So the good news in my mind is that this should be fixable via software, and there is an immediate work around to being able to use things that require the compass to work (hold your phone in a portrait orientation).While I prefer (as I assume most people do) to view maps, google sky maps and layar with the phone in a landscape orientation, at now I can use the apps now whereas before they were completely unusable.
If someone else figured this out, please let me know. As far as I can everyone knew the compass wasn't working but noone knew "why".
K
my compass has been fine, but i read somewhere that if you need to "recalibrate" it, you just make a swinging motion with the phone in your hand. i guess the movement is supposed to reset it or something?
i dunno. hasn't been an issue for me
It seems to be calibrated fine as long as you "hold it right" (credit to Steve Jobs for that one.... )
Nope. Even when I hold it in perfect "portrait" orientation it's really, REALLY slow to adjust to movement...even when said movement is on an axis level with the ground. You're right, though, other orientations seem to completely throw it for a loop. Laying it flat seems to work the best for me.
I can usually get it to work ok, but it's flaky and nowhere close to the performance I've seen in the compass in other, cheaper Android phones. Forget about SkyMaps...when I hold the phone pointed upward to look at stars the compass just spins to wherever it wants to.
It's not just my device, either, I've personally had 2 Vibrants that were exactly the same way, and others seem to be sharing the experience (those who know what the compass does, anyway...it has nothing to do with GPS). Calibrating helps a little, but it doesn't get it to the point of what I would consider "working well."
Well, glad it worked on mine, sorry it doesn't seem to be more universal.
:|
klkarlin said:
Well, glad it worked on mine, sorry it doesn't seem to be more universal.
:|
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just curious...after your compass "settles" and you turn 180 degrees how long does it take for the compass to settle again? How does it compare with other Android phones?

Strange Compass behavior in GPS Status app

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)

Faculty magnetic field sensor?

Few days ago I replaced the battery and reassemble the phone back. Everything looks normal except the Google Maps compass direction. The north and south pole are always swapped no matter how many times I recalibrated it.
Today I use an app to check the magnetic field reading and surprisingly it fixed at 2896.27 UT.... Anyone have clue to replace the part to fix it? Thanks!
That explains why my compass always seems backwards. Just got used to it and ignored the arrow. Though, I've only really noticed anything when trying to use walking directions, so i always chalked out up to having to do with being around tall buildings and not getting accurate gps readings due to that.

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