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Help Does Anyone's Compass Work Correctly?

I was just about to make a thread about this. Now my Sky Map app is useless haha. My compass either spins or points in the wrong direction. Any one know of a calibration possibly for this issue?
 
Saw on xda forum: calibrate the setting in display tab at bottom. But when you do it, have it screen facing down. Sounds all types of screwed up but works. Just use the edge of a table and peek under the phone to hit the calibrate button.
 
holes45 said:
Saw on xda forum: calibrate the setting in display tab at bottom. But when you do it, have it screen facing down. Sounds all types of screwed up but works. Just use the edge of a table and peek under the phone to hit the calibrate button.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, that fix won't do anything for a wonky compass. That fix is intended to calibrate the Epic's accelerometer and fixes the lag some are experiencing when rotating their phone from portrait (vertical) to landscape (horizontal) and back, but won't do a thing to calibrate the wonky geo-magnetic sensor that the compass relies on.

The upside down calibration fixed my phones lag when rotating orientation, but didn't do a thing for the compass, which remains screwed up since the update.
 
I've been hard resetting today for a problem with vibrate and every time I have to recalibrate the horizontal. After I do the upside down method, the compass works again.
 
Instead of setting the phone down on a level table screen up, turn it screen down. You will have to press the calibrate button so just put the phone on the edge of the table to access it. This is in settings under Display and all the way at the bottom is the horizontal calibration thingy.
 
I noticed something. If you try to read the compass with the phone laying flat, it is wonky. If you hold the phone up vertically, it seems to work just fine...just the opposite of how it worked with 2.1. I wonder if that was intentional on Samsung's part.
 
My compass wiggles around a bit, but it still points North. It goes insane if I have the phone vertical, or any other orientation than flat.
The compass on the Tricorder app is steady as a rock and points correctly.
My Google Sky Map works just fine too. No wobbling at all.
 
thecraigj said:
My compass wiggles around a bit, but it still points North. It goes insane if I have the phone vertical, or any other orientation than flat.
The compass on the Tricorder app is steady as a rock and points correctly.
My Google Sky Map works just fine too. No wobbling at all.
Click to expand...


Did a search and found no apps under Tricorder. Are you sure that is the correct name?
 
Found this old post about the compass at:

Samsung Galaxy S series and their twitchy magnetometers- tech advice needed

As far as I can tell, it's the same hardware magnetometer as the iPhone, which has no problems. So either it's a software flaw, or they wired it poorly, or something within the phone is generating a magnetic field or has been imbued with some effed up magnetic properties. I would tend to think it's the last one, as I've observed the compass jumping 180 degrees when I open the slider keyboard - this makes me think the battery or something else on the lower half of the phone has become magnetized and is screwing with the compass (which might explain how I can never get it calibrated, no matter how many times I wave it in a figure-8).

My compass has never worked, it is annoying, but not the end of world, and without a compass I probably can't find the 'end of the world'.

arewin
 
I can confirm that calibrating your hoizontal with the phone upside down on a flat suface does fix the compass issue.

From the home screen:
-Press menu -> settings
-Choose display
-Scroll to the bottom choose horizontal calibration.
-Place the phone screen side down on a level surface. Click "calibrate". (I put mine at the edge so I could peek under and click the "calibrate" button without picking up the phone)
-Wait a few seconds and you're done.
 
What bit of hardware makes the HTC Sensation work as a compass without Internet connection?

What are the specs and what are good/bad specs for this?
 
I had found that any compass application on my Epic made a great level, but a really lousy compass. It would respond smoothly and predictably to changes in orientation with respect to horizontal, but was completely erratic when held level, regardless of direction or surroundings. Skeptically, I tried the "upside down" calibration method above, and it worked! I now have a compass again. Note that I tried calibrating horizontal in the usual manner (right side up) first, and it had no effect. But upside down, and my phone was fixed! Who got the idea to try this? What is going on in the phone that makes it work? I'm just glad that it did.
 
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