I have upgraded my HTC Desire to Android 2.2. Unfortunately I have realized that after that update, an embedded compass started acting up. I mean it's not showing the North anymore. It seems to me that it's not an issue with some particular application as I have tried with several ones available on the Market and it needs to be some bug with new OS. Anyway here is what I have figured out and what I have already done in order to get this sorted out. At this point of time, it even looks like I have just some kinda workaround:
Once I pick out 'Calibrate' menu item in Compass v1.1 (developed by Snaptic, Inc.) and then according to the instruction, start off waving my phone in a figure 8 pattern to reset the magnetometer on my device, it's not gonna fix the issue but when I start rolling my phone in a hand (side to side then top to bottom) and then it seems to me that the issue is sorted out as finally compass points out the North, but after I close the application and open it again (or open any other compass based app) the magnetometer is broken again So all what I can do is to reset the magnetometer as per above-mentioned instruction again. It just looks like the device is not able to save some compass calibration setting anymore.
Anyway I was just wondering if some of you already faced this same issue and know how to fix it permanently. I would appreciate it, if you could share any thoughts with me. Thanks in advance.
Hey folks, I don't believe that nobody experiences that issue too. Maybe you just haven't noticed that yet? Anyway could you please just check if your compass works as intended after the upgrade to Android 2.2? Personally, I really believe it's a bug with Froyo.
I think mine is also acting weird.
Wenn starting Google Maps and using streetview in compass mode it only looks up and down and I cannot look from left to right.
When i roll the phone a few times in my hand it starts working.
But after closing Google Maps and starting it again I have to do the rolling again
I was wondering that compass problem too. With ver.2.1 everything worked like a dream as I use compass mostly geocaching. After updating in every app I've tried the compass stucks pointing to approx. to the lower left corner of the screen. Sometimes calibration helps but it stuck again after a while even the app is running all the time.
"Compass" app kinda could wake up after waiting a while but usually it doesn't. In any other software won't work at all as I've tried, 5secs after calibration but nothing more.
JLillia said:
With ver.2.1 everything worked like a dream as I use compass mostly geocaching..
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@JLillia: Also in my case the compass worked as intended on android 2.1.
Anyway thanks for your answers guys! I really appreciate it! So it looks like at least 3 folks here are experiencing some issues with digital compass after the upgrade to the Froyo on HTC Desire
Wonder if there is anyone here who could disagree with us and say that the upgrade didn't cause any compass degradation on his/her device at all...
I can't say if it worked properly with 2.1, didn't use the compass a lot before.
With 2.1 I needed to calibrate it a few times, but probably not as much as I need to do now. I'm using the "compass" app and it directly tells me it detected an abnormal magnetic field. After calibrating it again, it points north. Haven't checked the correct north with a real compass, so it may have a slight difference.
I put my phone down at the table at 0 degrees N. I turn off my screen, and turn it back on. It is now pointing 90 degrees E. But the interesting thing is.. the east is actually located west, compared with the previous north :?
When I rotate my phone it displays only E or SE, always between 90 degrees E and 130 degrees SE. I can't even find north.
I can rotate my phone 180 degrees (Pointing south), it displays 130 degrees. When I calibrate the phone and I rotate my phone 180 degrees (Still south) it displays 160 degrees S. Which is kinda strange. And when I try to find the 180 degrees point, and rotate my phone again, it displays 35 degrees NE.
After another calibration the values seems to be okay...
My conclusion? Don't trust the compass at all unless you have a real compass to compare.
That person with the exact opposite experience is me
I complained on 2.1 here with many others about the compass going haywire every time you took it off-screen and its lack of stability and consistency. HTC 2.2 totally fixed this issue for me. I've calibrated it once about a week back and it's still accurate every time I'm opening it and in Google Earth.
Beware, the compass draws a lot of power in use so it'll drain the battery very fast. About as fast as playing a 8Mbps 720p VC-1 vid.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -
My problem is kinda dame that with Nakebod.
As I said compass stucks pointing to the lower left corner, it infact tells I'm holding the phone towards 120-130 decrees east, where ever I turn the phone to. Calibration helps for a while as after that the compass points approxamtely to north which is enough direction to me, but after a while or at least after swithing apps or taking compass background and back on, it stucks again to the 130 decrees.
Of course I am not using this kind of device as "for real" but I'd like to have it at least somewhat accurate. As geocacher I use compass as a tool with my hobby and I was quite happy with Desire because of the quite accurate GPS but after the update the compass is practically useless.
Just a quick update, I made a quick phone call to HTC support this morning and raised that issue. The support analyst recommended the factory data reset to see if it helps. I guess it's just a standard answer so at this point of time I'm not gonna proceed with that and erase all data on my phone. (Btw, I wonder if it's possible to backup all current data from my unrooted, unbranded Desire?)
Furthermore he promised to get back to me in next few days with some official resolution of that issue so I will keep you updated.
Try calibrating your magnetometer by waving your phone in 8-shaped moves.
I emailed HTC customer care also about the issue and the answer was to factory reset the phone. Of course that was the first thing I had already done at the minute I noticed the problem in first place so I wasn't quite fond of the idea. In fact I have reseted phone three times after the update and allways the result was the same; compass stucks.
Well, I thought that maybe I have some weird app that messes up the compass so I tried one more time...
At first after the reset I downloaded only EStrong file manager, compass and c:eo. Compass worked most of the time! I kept resuming backups and compass did stuck occasionally but not very often (+ abnormal magnetic field). I am not sure what I did leave out of the phone but now the comapss works quite fine. It is a lot more sensitive for magnetic fields than in 2.1 but usually calibration works to it.
So, the conclusion is, that even for some reason first times the reset didn't work, it did help after all. Just backup your data and give it a try. Doesn't cost more than some time. The compass DOES stuck still but is most of the time usable.
At least I left out MoreLocale2, Metal detector and some games. And I DIDN'T calibrate G-sensors after reset.
So, there is still some issues with update and compass but it COULD also be somewhat application related...
G-Sensor calibration might be the answer! Following the first factory reset yesterday which cleared the compass problem initially I reinstalled all apps and calibrated G-sensor to find the problem came back. Then I factory-reset once more last night and reinstalled all apps but didn't do the re-calibration, left the phone on for the night - no problem in the morning. Feel tempted to re-calibrate to proof the point now.
Please inform here how did it do if you re-calibrate. I have an ongoing geocaching challenge, so I won't try that until I'm sure that I don't need the compass for couple of days. After that I'm going to test if calibration is the problem as soon as possible.
I have the same problem. Have tried everything but hard reset. Still, compass worked a lot better on 2.1 :-(
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
nitemarc said:
@JLillia: Also in my case the compass worked as intended on android 2.1.
Anyway thanks for your answers guys! I really appreciate it! So it looks like at least 3 folks here are experiencing some issues with digital compass after the upgrade to the Froyo on HTC Desire
Wonder if there is anyone here who could disagree with us and say that the upgrade didn't cause any compass degradation on his/her device at all...
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Click to collapse
My compass works fine on HTC Desire on Android 2.2.
Try 3d compass, and use its calibration option. Always works for me.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
nitemarc said:
Just a quick update, I made a quick phone call to HTC support this morning and raised that issue. The support analyst recommended the factory data reset to see if it helps. I guess it's just a standard answer so at this point of time I'm not gonna proceed with that and erase all data on my phone. (Btw, I wonder if it's possible to backup all current data from my unrooted, unbranded Desire?)
Furthermore he promised to get back to me in next few days with some official resolution of that issue so I will keep you updated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wonder how does HTC support team's SLA look like in terms of resolving client's tickets as my one hasn't been resolved yet... Anyway it seems to me that HTC is not going to confirm that OTA update to Froyo could caused that compass issue.
That's why I decided on factory data reset and it looks like that helped with getting this issue sorted out. After the hard reset, my first step was an initial compass calibration and that's really all what I did. The digital compass is not maybe so precise and accurate as it used to be on Android 2.1 but finally roughly (I would say with 15° margin) points out the north so there is a progress
Just to add my 2c, I can confirm that the compass has become useless since I upgraded to 2.2 on my device. Doing the figure 8 in Compass app has short lived benefits.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Neither does my compass react in any application (tried Compass, Places directory, Google Navigation) after update to Froyo.
Calibrating with the 8 movement or G-sensor calibration does not help at all.
However, it always starts working normally when I tilt the phone to the side (so that I look on the slim side of the phone) and then start a short forward and backward rotation with the rotational axis going thru the display.
I need to repeat this every time I unlock the phone and the compass keeps on working until i lock the phone again or until I switch the application.
Weired.
I have the same problem, and it is a bit annoying. The compass works correctly if I wave the phone like in the video posted, but I have to do this every time I start an app that uses the magnetometer. My phone was not like this on 2.1.
I heard the One V does not have a compass in built. How does this affect turn-by-turn navigation with Google Maps and the like? Can anyone confirm it still works reliably?
If you use Navigator in car there are no problems, but if you intend to use it to walk, the lack of compass is annoying because sometimes is not able to understand in which direction you're going.
g
everything works fine, the Poin where am i always move as i move.
As it's mentioned already that it often annoys when we dont know which direction are we going, this can be solved by HTC Location. Somehow....
With HTCLocation, you can download maps so you can use offlinely. It also have a lot of point interest or places on the map. They can help you to get to know which direction are you in, wtihout compass.
This app was starting to act funny and not tracking my movements on my Xperia Play, now it seems to have uncontrollable shaking on both my Galaxy Nexus and a Droid Razr. Razr on stock rom, Nexus on AOKP. Star Chart works perfectly and is completely accurate it seems. Is anyone else having problems?
same issue here...however i thought it was only an ICS issue.....also, FWIW, i believe google has stopped support for sky map, so dont expect an update for it to fix the problem
I've noticed that the compass has trouble staying calibrated on the galaxy nexus.
interesting thing is, the compass in maps/streetview works just fine.
Anyway here is my fix and it's never failed.
Download Compass by catch: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apksoftware.compass
When you open it it'll tell you to calibrate or that the calibration is wrong. you then move the phone in a figure 8 while parallel to the ground.
go back into skymap, and everything will work as it's suppose to.
as far as i can tell it'll work until the phone is shut off and then you have to do it again.
it's a little annoying but this is a sure, albeit, temporary, fix.
Hello,
I am having problems with maps and navigation in my watch.
It is useless as the map is pointing wrong directions. Compass calibration does not help. Other apps user compass well but maps not
Any tip or idea?
Thank you
The Huawei Watch does not have a compass built in so it would be your phone's compass calibration that's off.
Usually when I start maps on my phone I have to do that figure 8 motion to get the compass to work properly. Maybe that's what is happening in your case? You haven't calibrated the phone yet and it is giving you the wrong direction. Or your phone might just be set up to be wrong. The OnePlus One has that problem where the compass points the opposite direction and you have to modify a file to fix it.
Hey Guys,
Just wanted to see if anyone else has noticed that when viewing Google Maps on the watch, the map rotates in the opposite (incorrect) direction as you rotate? For example, if you are looking "North" and you turn left, the map should rotate clockwise to point you "West". What I'm seeing is the exact opposite. Another test I performed was to install an app called Bearing and of course it showed the same behavior as Maps. If I was looking "North" and started rotating left, the compass would spin counter-clockwise and "East" would come up. I know that the exact direction will not be correct due to a lack of a magnetometer but rotation should still be correct. Anyone else see this?
Thanks!
..
MuF123 said:
I think this is wrong assumption and that you can't really get what you want without compass.
Any app that relies on magnetic coordinates should not move at all on hwatch...
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Well, they do move smoothly and relatively accurately just in the opposite direction so they must allow for gyro/accelerometer input. Either that or I have a magic watch. Also, after reporting it, Huawei is looking into the issue. I'm just curious if others can try it on their watches and report direction of spin....
Thanks!
Same here, i think it's a bug of map due to the lack of compas.
suitengu said:
Same here, i think it's a bug of map due to the lack of compas.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for checking, suitengu! I agree with your theory. Some software locks position or refuses to install, as it should, due to the lack of a compass. Apparently not Maps or Bearing.
I've investigated a little more. At launch maps take the phone's compass as reference, after it uses watch's gyro to turns the map.
The gyro are inverced in Gmaps, don't know if it's google of huawei fault.
Interesting to see more people notice this issue, as I already reported it in January.
here
It may well be that the Maps app uses mainly magnetic compass for the rotation and the gyros are used to filter/smoothen the rotation of the map. Not having the compass inputs messes up the algorithm...
Would like to know if other AW watches that do have compass experience different behaviour.
OnnoJ said:
Interesting to see more people notice this issue, as I already reported it in January.
here
It may well be that the Maps app uses mainly magnetic compass for the rotation and the gyros are used to filter/smoothen the rotation of the map. Not having the compass inputs messes up the algorithm...
Would like to know if other AW watches that do have compass experience different behaviour.
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Click to collapse
On the LG G Watch R it's perfectly fine. Map rotating in the right direction only with the gyro sensor of the watch. I think we need to wait till Huawei fixes this.