Whoa, I didn't know our phones did this. How cool!
Yeah it definitely has it, but it's not advertised because of how woefully inaccurate it actually is.
Didn't know that either, thanks!
Actually mine works fine. Temperature is withing 1 degree as long as I don't use my phone much, so it doesn't heat up skewing the results, barometer also seems fine, the couple times I checked at airports or from weather channel and adjusting for altitude, it was within couple mbars. At least with barometer, you can adjust it to correct value, if the error is big, where with temperature the main issue would be to keep the phone at ambient, so don't get surprised at error if you kept it in your pocket, or played game. There is also humidity sensor and I was shocked when it showed 100% humidity on a foggy evening, as it should, so that seems to be working fine as well.
I haven't had similar experiences with mine, although perhaps not using the phone could provide slightly more accurate readings. I live in a pretty humid area and have found even on the most humid of days it doesn't register properly.
You must have newer hardware -- I don't think either my 900T or 900V have humidity and air pressure sensors.
Frank
I found a sweet app called Thermometer Plus. The reason I like it is mainly the selection of semi-transparent widgets (displaying different sensors). I have the one with temp and humidity (set to update every 5 mins I think) on my main home screen so I use that to adjust my AC, etc. accordingly, mainly to keep humidity in a reasonable range.
Galaxy Sensors is also cool to see all of the device's sensors. It also has a widget, but it only displays the temp.
Frank Westlake said:
You must have newer hardware -- I don't think either my 900T or 900V have humidity and air pressure sensors.
Frank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought mine in November so it's not that new, I think all N3 have it, but they don't show normally.
If you check Antutu benchmark under hardware, it should show all sensors.
Androsensor program will show all sensors readings, or type *#0*# on stock dialer, then click sensor, should show all the hardware and if it's working.
Pete is correct, all variants have it.
Related
Now i love my desire... Its fantastic but it isnt without some issues...
One ive noticed that could be a problem esp when your working with reality overlay apps...
The compass doesn’t seem to work that well...
Its slow to respond to movement and even when it does move its horridly inaccurate. north seems to have a room for error of 60-90 degrees.
Has anyone else noticed this? Is it the same for most digital compasses? or do i have a faulty module?
Hi Nutsy,
I've also noticed these issues with the compass in the Desire. I've worked with magnetic compass chips before and I think it's all to blame on the way these compasses work:
To sense the earth's magnetic field they use a two- or three axis magnetometer. Although it's a very accurate way to sense the earth's weak magnetic field, it's also very sensitive to any other magnetic field. That means that the presence of ferromagnetic materials (like iron) or electrical currents in the vicinity might really screw up your compass reading.
So electrical wires, iron piping, laundry machines (almost anything that you would find indoors that runs on electricity or contains iron), will interfere with your compass.
a good alternative would be to use a gyroscopic compass like they do on submarines, but I don't think these fairly expensive devices aren't used in mobile equipment yet. So the only thing to do is to stay away from anything that might interfere.
The slow response to movement might be caused by internal filtering. These analog sensors produce quite an amount of measurement noise. In order to cancel this, they probably use some sort of filtering algorithm like this one:
step 1 -> Take a new sensor reading.
step 2 -> Add it to a buffer that contains the last 25 readings.
step 3 -> Calculate the mean value of all measurements in this buffer. This will be the compass heading that is sent to Android OS or your application.
step 4 -> Repeat this cycle every 25 milliseconds.
Hope this answers your questions. Of course if you compass readings never make any sense under any circumstances, the thing might just be broken...
Friendly regards,
Joost
Ps.
There's an App in the market called "Metal detector" that actually uses the interference "problem" with the compass to detect ferromagnetic metals.
Wow Thanks for the really detailed reply...
Im glad its not just me then... Didnt really want to RMA it over a dodgy compass unit.
And thanks for letting me know about that app... sounds usful... I guess it could be used to detect wireing in plaster as well?
You're welcome.
In theory you could use it to detect metal or wires in a plaster wall. I've just tried it, and it works quite well. On the other hand, I really don't want to risk electrocution by trusting a telephone to find electrical wires...
My compass is shocking. Actually points closer to South whenever I open Compass or a programme which uses the compass like G-sky. I have to calibrate it every single time.
Thing that annoys me, is if I calibrate, then exit the programme and immediately re-open the programme, it doesn't remember the calibration, it reverts to pointing in a ridiculous direction.
I want to hit it with my fist.
Addtitionally, think it's broken?
jimmymagix said:
My compass is shocking. Actually points closer to South whenever I open Compass or a programme which uses the compass like G-sky. I have to calibrate it every single time.
Thing that annoys me, is if I calibrate, then exit the programme and immediately re-open the programme, it doesn't remember the calibration, it reverts to pointing in a ridiculous direction.
I want to hit it with my fist.
Addtitionally, think it's broken?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yesterday I found out the same thing... Sometimes I cant even get it working after calibration. I was beginning to think that this happened because I dropped it once pretty hard. What should we do next? Can this be solved by replacement with warranty or something?
Smauglys said:
Yesterday I found out the same thing... Sometimes I cant even get it working after calibration. I was beginning to think that this happened because I dropped it once pretty hard. What should we do next? Can this be solved by replacement with warranty or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure your phone isn't in a case which uses magnets to keep it closed, as they affect the compass. If you're affected, take your phone out of the case and try again. Also, try out in the open, away from structures which may contain a lot of ferrous metal.
In my case the problem is due to powered-on wi-fi module. Turning off wifi, compass works fine. Could Anyone elserepeat my experience?
poldie said:
Make sure your phone isn't in a case which uses magnets to keep it closed, as they affect the compass. If you're affected, take your phone out of the case and try again. Also, try out in the open, away from structures which may contain a lot of ferrous metal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I know that. Tried out doors, and wheres no metal... When I had the G1, the compass worked normally.
In my case the problem is due to powered-on wi-fi module. Turning off wifi, compass works fine. Could Anyone elserepeat my experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried what you said. It did not help for me. I turned it of completely.
Smauglys said:
Yes I know that. Tried out doors, and wheres no metal... When I had the G1, the compass worked normally.
Just tried what you said. It did not help for me. I turned it of completely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just went outside to test it again. And I think I found how to get it working. If i launch the compass application, and try to turn the phone in the flat position (on its back), then the arrow moves in random directions. But if i lift the phone that it is facing straight to my face, and then turn left and right a few times, like a steering wheel, the compass "calibrates" as I can see. And then when I lay it down again flat, it starts to work normally. Can anyone try this, if you understood my instructions?
A more accurate way of calibrating the compass is by rotating the phone twice around each axis, ideally you should do this away from anything metallic or any interfering magnetic fields preferably outside.
Er......
Where is the compass?
I dont seem to have a compass! In my list of apps there just isnt one called compass...
The Analogue Compass app is very buggy for me so I use the Compass app -> http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-apksoftware-compass-qAC.aspx
When taking readings, I;
Always have to recalibrate on startup as far too many objects cause large interferences within the sensor making it go astray, even the charging cable causes it to go berzerk. The known working routine is to calibrate by fast twisting and turning the phone [I do it after running the built-in figure 8 calibration routine]
Keep it mid-upper body height with no metals nearby (jewellery/belt/metallic objects minimum >5ft away), holding still and level across the x-axis
Point the upper-end of the phone in the direction I want the bearing of (this depends on the type you use though, I use the digital type)
I spin the phone around and then retake 2 more readings for a total of 3 readings - averaging them out for a final mean reading
I only have 2 directions calibrated through professional consultation when this room extension was built a few years back and know the rough directions all sides this property faces, but in particular, I'm 100% sure of the exact degree reading one wall faces. This app using the built-in compass sensor reads that bearing spot on everytime after calibration (fluctuation is 1-2 degree max).
Some friends in a Lithuanian Android forum, suggested to do this, like it is shown in the video. Works perfectly every time. And I thought that something was wrong, because I never had to do anything like this on my G1.
Youtube video ID, because I cant add link because of spam protection http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP3d00Hr14o
After trying a few programs Catch's Compass, Google SkyMap, GPS Status etc, Bubble, etc, etc. I am finding some reproducable strangeness between the Gyro and Magnetometer(Compass). Compass
Example: Try Catch's Compass (I Prefer Catch's Compass because you can use the dial to align former north's).
I Put the Phone on a Non mettalic flat surface. (I algned it with the corner of an all wooden table).
I let it wander awhile until it settled on north...
I turn the outside Dial to align the Red lines with where north is pointing.
Rotate the phone 180 degrees and aligned with the corner of the table again.
I Look where North is pointing Now...Mine is consistently off by 20-30 degrees from the original North(original red lines helped measure)
Strangely i try the two 90 degrees in between and one Matches the first orientations North the other 90 matches the other North from earlier.
I also Noticed that when I plug the phone in that North Suddenly points towards my Micro USB port..That didn't surprise me too much.
I returned My first phone because of this...My second one does it too...I tried google sky maps and A full moon wouldn't even stay on screen when aimed...This one puts it on the fringes now.
I tried all these things outdoors as well as indoors.
I tried several different methods of calibration 1 axis figure 8s, 3 axis figure 8s, 3 axis flips, etc...the results improved from stock but after dozens of attempts the strangness prevails.
Am I on a second clunker or do the rest of you get this Anomoly...ie sensor issue?
I don't know what to make of your compas test because it seemed relatively fine to me, but Skymap has never been 100% accurate for me on any device and this one is no exception, but its accurate enough for me to get an idea as to what I am looking at.
adrynalyne said:
I don't know what to make of your compas test because it seemed relatively fine to me, but Skymap has never been 100% accurate for me on any device and this one is no exception, but its accurate enough for me to get an idea as to what I am looking at.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try Getting North to match up when you rotate the phone 180 degrees its a simple test and let me know your answer.
The magnetometer on mobile phones tend to point to the nearest electrical source.. so if you're testing it test outside (and not in a city, if you can), since inside a house there's too much interference. Even a laptop within a few feet will throw it off.
Also, they're *very* noisy - having tried to write compass apps I've got a lot of respect for someone who can make the raw data behave like a compass convincingly.. If they showed you what was really happening the jittering pointer would make you seasick!
So as long as it's pointing to more-or-less north, that's pretty good really.
btw. The best results I've seen have been from google maps, which seems to maintain a pretty good compass direction outdoors.
Just got the GN for Sprint 2 days ago and have so far enjoyed my selection. I have run across an issue with the onboard barometer though. It seems to always read way lower that the pressure actually is. With every app I use it on it reads 1.2 mercuries low inHg and about 35 hPa low depending on which app I use. Is there any way to calibrate the sensor to compensate since not all apps have a calibration option?
Zero responses? There has to be some way to calibrate it since it uses a piezo system and not actual mercury.
Depends on where you are. It's not corrected for height, so if you are 1000ft above MSL, you'll read 1 inHg low because that's the actual pressure. Your local weather station/airport altimeter setting have corrected for altitude, so places like Denver, CO don't scare people by telling them the local pressure is lower than at the center of hurricanes.
Various apps have a built-in correction factor that you have to manually enter. Barometer HD and Barograph are two that I've found so far that have a correction setting. You have to play with it until it reads the same as the weather man says. Barograph seems cool because it periodically takes the reading, instead of telling you what it is every half a second. You only see the power of a barometer by observing the pressure changes over several hours. Another graph over time app I just found is Barometer Monitor. There's no correction factor, but it does allow you to specify how often it measures the pressure.
Hey Guys,
got my new Note II yesterday, but already having 2 problems.
The biggest is the light sensor; the Screen keeps adjusting it's Brightness like hell.
Read out the Sensor data, which is going from 0 to 13 lux when I cover the Sensor with my hand.
Do you experience the same?
Also my USB wire plug is very loose. Also normal?
try turning off auto brightness...
and yes USB wire IS a bit loose
Jamal Ahmed said:
try turning off auto brightness...
and yes USB wire IS a bit loose
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, just bought it brand new, I think this shouldn't be on a 600€ device
Does your Light Sensor Value also jump around in same light conditions?
Low-Light mine goes from 0-28, normal it goes from 400~ to 80.000 sometimes, which results in frequent readjustment in brightness.
Thats very irritating for me, cause I use it everytime
Would be nice if someone could give me his values/behavior of the sensor with AndroSensor or so.
Will return this device then
substancer said:
Well, just bought it brand new, I think this shouldn't be on a 600€ device
Does your Light Sensor Value also jump around in same light conditions?
Low-Light mine goes from 0-28, normal it goes from 400~ to 80.000 sometimes, which results in frequent readjustment in brightness.
Thats very irritating for me, cause I use it everytime
Would be nice if someone could give me his values/behavior of the sensor with AndroSensor or so.
Will return this device then
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got my GT-N7100 and am having the same problems. Very irritating. Need this to work for better battery life. Tried a program from Play Store called Lux, but it works the same, maybe a little better. But Lux is showing the sensor readings varying all the time even when the ambient light hasn't changed at all, thus the brightness fluctuations. I am rooted, but on Stock ROM. Wonder if a custom ROM would fix it, or if it's a defective sensor.
Anyone else experiencing this?
580guy said:
I just got my GT-N7100 and am having the same problems. Very irritating. Need this to work for better battery life. Tried a program from Play Store called Lux, but it works the same, maybe a little better. But Lux is showing the sensor readings varying all the time even when the ambient light hasn't changed at all, thus the brightness fluctuations. I am rooted, but on Stock ROM. Wonder if a custom ROM would fix it, or if it's a defective sensor.
Anyone else experiencing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The default auto-brightness should not be updating so fast that it flickers You might want to get it checked out. Or if you use a 3rd party app, reduce the time interval of the update.
And do note, there is a difference say, with your back towards the sun, you face the phone towards you, or towards the floor. So when you are on the move, expect values to change.
Stock auto brightness is woeful in my opinion. It was the same one my Gnex so I have used Luxbon both with good results. Takes a bit of tweaking but brilliant when set up.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
I'm not an expert at light sensors, but look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Os3HyCR5Q
I'm moving phone, holding camera still.
It looks like light sensor problem on galaxy note 2.
Can you check yours GN2?
Use code *#0*# and enter sensor test.
promi said:
I'm not an expert at light sensors, but look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Os3HyCR5Q
I'm moving phone, holding camera still.
It looks like light sensor problem on galaxy note 2.
Can you check yours GN2?
Use code *#0*# and enter sensor test.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not in the brightest room but I have 2 60W light bulbs above me and my sensor has 0 when the phone is towards me and 20 lux when it is towards the roof. And yes it's stable with the values.
Guys Hi,
After the last update, my watch suddenly stopped counting floors and Altimeter, Barometer is not working. Resetting and rebooting does not help. I have checked permissions also. Any ideas?
Hi! I had the same problem.. I had the floor objective to 150 floors, I changed it back to 10 and it started counting again
Even I'm facing the same issue since the update.. Restarted & even did a hard reset.. still the same
Hi guys I'm just refreshing this thread..
I'm currently having issues with floor count being widely inaccurate and counting way too many floors. I've noticed this behaviour for a few weeks now. To give an example, a few days ago it clocked up to 252 floors and is still clocking phantom floors even when walking on flat ground.
I've calibrated the alti-barometer app and the barometer reading is fine but the altimeter is completely off. It's reading NEGATIVE values (between -60 and -15m) and I live in a high-rise apartment. I've checked the altitude for my location using other webapps and Android apps and they are reading between 5m and 10m for my location.
Same problems. Altimeter, barometer not working. No sleep tracking, no floors, battery from 5 days to 1... Warranty issue. Samsung changed the matherboard and now working again...
lgxmedia said:
Same problems. Altimeter, barometer not working. No sleep tracking, no floors, battery from 5 days to 1... Warranty issue. Samsung changed the matherboard and now working again...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also had to get my motherboard replaced. So many hardware problems with this watch. I can't believe Samsung are being so oblivious to them and not acknowledging them.
Changed two sensors and one mother board on first watch. Third time when it fails received a new watch. Again changed sensor two times, waiting for third failure and I will ask for money return and buy newest Garmin. Galaxy watch is not serious product.
minervino96 said:
Hi! I had the same problem.. I had the floor objective to 150 floors, I changed it back to 10 and it started counting again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same problem here, floor count stopped working and no measurement from the barometer sensor spontaneously, with the floor objective unchanged at 10.
I changed it to 5, just to see if "changing it" would make the difference.
It did, if you reboot the watch after changing the floor objective. :victory:
Many thanks for the tip. I was about to send it back for repair.
Update: since above post (december 6) the barometer sensor stopped working overnight every night I was wearing the GW while sleeping (in "good night mode"), but I was able to revive it with above tip, giving me the opportunity to test different settings to see if I can wear the watch without the barometer sensor stopping. These are my observations:
- After revival of the sensor I can see in the barometer widget when the sensor stopped working.
- I haven't seen the barometer sensor having problems during the day if it works fine in the morning (after a revival).
- A manually started training stops the barometer sensor, an automatically detected training doesn't, although today the sensor stopped 30mins áfter a detected bike trip.
- If I keep the watch on the charger overnight, the barometer keeps working.
- Sleep tracking is intermittent for some reason. It will stop and then continue after an hour or so. The sensor stops when also sleep tracking stops, but doesn't come back "on" when sleep tracking does.
- A reboot before putting the watch in Good Night Mode didn't help to prevent the sensor/sleep tracking problem.
- Disabling detection of REM sleep does not prevent the sensor/sleep tracking problem
- The sensor revives after changing the floor objective and reboot, but watch and phone need to be fully synchronized (sleep tracking/training data) for revival to work.
All in all, I haven't found a setting to prevent this problem. It is clearly a software bug, not a hardware failure. I hope that the new update (R800XXU1DSL1) will solve the problem.
congusto said:
Same problem here, floor count stopped working and no measurement from the barometer sensor spontaneously, with the floor objective unchanged at 10.
I changed it to 5, just to see if "changing it" would make the difference.
It did, if you reboot the watch after changing the floor objective. :victory:
Many thanks for the tip. I was about to send it back for repair.
Update: since above post (december 6) the barometer sensor stopped working overnight every night I was wearing the GW while sleeping (in "good night mode"), but I was able to revive it with above tip, giving me the opportunity to test different settings to see if I can wear the watch without the barometer sensor stopping. These are my observations:
- After revival of the sensor I can see in the barometer widget when the sensor stopped working.
- I haven't seen the barometer sensor having problems during the day if it works fine in the morning (after a revival).
- A manually started training stops the barometer sensor, an automatically detected training doesn't, although today the sensor stopped 30mins áfter a detected bike trip.
- If I keep the watch on the charger overnight, the barometer keeps working.
- Sleep tracking is intermittent for some reason. It will stop and then continue after an hour or so. The sensor stops when also sleep tracking stops, but doesn't come back "on" when sleep tracking does.
- A reboot before putting the watch in Good Night Mode didn't help to prevent the sensor/sleep tracking problem.
- Disabling detection of REM sleep does not prevent the sensor/sleep tracking problem
- The sensor revives after changing the floor objective and reboot, but watch and phone need to be fully synchronized (sleep tracking/training data) for revival to work.
All in all, I haven't found a setting to prevent this problem. It is clearly a software bug, not a hardware failure. I hope that the new update (R800XXU1DSL1) will solve the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but I received that update and my barometer stop working! With no reason! I try to change the objective but no results. Reset and reboot didn't work either.
Only as Info... longer Story:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/smartwatch/gear-s3/samsung-gear-s3-sensors-t3889064
Short... Please check this Code:
Code:
*#0*#
If "scared"... see attached Video.... in theory nothing will explode.
Maybe...
Best Regards
Charging the floor objective stopped working for me as well, so I am getting stuck on this. As soon as I am back home I intend to go back to an older firmware (e.g. BSA4) to see what that does.
This might work to fix floor count and barometric pressure.
I found info on the Samsung site about cleaning the sensor with warm water. I tried it in conjunction with something else and it is early days but seems to have worked. I cleaned the atmospheric barometric sensor (the small hole) on the back of the watch by VERY GENTLY using a wood toothpick with sharp tip blunted to loosen gunk, presumably soap, dust etc and then flushing the particles away with warm water. Don't STAB at it, just very gently rub the blunted tip around it using no downward pressure whatsoever. I had 12 floors today, despite doing none, but in the past few hours no more phantom floors have registered and my altimeter reading of 35 metres has stayed steady. Before, it was ranging from -8 to +70m! I hope this may help some people and again I emphasise be very gentle. It may even just need flushing with warm water, but for me there was a solid mass of soap in there. Let's know if it helped anyone. I will report again in a couple of days to see if I was being over optimistic.
@Maccyb122. Just to understand your situation better, was your watch showing unstable air pressure values or no values at all?
TIA
Thanks for the question. It was showing unstable air pressure.
congusto said:
@Maccyb122. Just to understand your situation better, was your watch showing unstable air pressure values or no values at all?
TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maccyb122 said:
I found info on the Samsung site about cleaning the sensor with warm water. I tried it in conjunction with something else and it is early days but seems to have worked. I cleaned the atmospheric barometric sensor (the small hole) on the back of the watch by VERY GENTLY using a wood toothpick with sharp tip blunted to loosen gunk, presumably soap, dust etc and then flushing the particles away with warm water. Don't STAB at it, just very gently rub the blunted tip around it using no downward pressure whatsoever. I had 12 floors today, despite doing none, but in the past few hours no more phantom floors have registered and my altimeter reading of 35 metres has stayed steady. Before, it was ranging from -8 to +70m! I hope this may help some people and again I emphasise be very gentle. It may even just need flushing with warm water, but for me there was a solid mass of soap in there. Let's know if it helped anyone. I will report again in a couple of days to see if I was being over optimistic.[/QUOTE @Maccyb122 after the cleaning other day, the sensor continue still OK?
Thanks
Enviado desde mi Pixel 3a mediante Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately my friend, I have to say no, it didn't fix it. After a day it started acting erratically again. I called Samsung support and they have suggested that the sensor may indeed be faulty. Luckily there is an official Samsung repair centre close to where I live ans and I will be taking it to them early next week for repair or exchange. Ironically a friend of mine did have success by cleaning the sensor, but it didn't work for me.
Maccyb122 said:
Unfortunately my friend, I have to say no, it didn't fix it. After a day it started acting erratically again. I called Samsung support and they have suggested that the sensor may indeed be faulty. Luckily there is an official Samsung repair centre close to where I live ans and I will be taking it to them early next week for repair or exchange. Ironically a friend of mine did have success by cleaning the sensor, but it didn't work for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a pity, have you try to cleaning again?
Enviado desde mi Pixel 3a mediante Tapatalk
I did check it. Used a magnifying glass to look at the sensor grill. It's sparkling clean. Can't do any more. When I get a chance to take it in to the service centre, I'll report back on what happened. The watch is performing perfectly well in all other aspects of health, just the floor count is a problem. My hobby is mountaineering so the Altı-Barometer accuracy is important. Never had a problem with the S3 Frontier. I'm a little bit disappointed. I'm sure they'll fix it.
Another update
Change to status. This morning my Altı-Barometer was registering no data whatsoever and reinstall of app and reboot made no difference. It's also completely stopped registering floors. Steps and other sensors are ok. I will be at the Samsung Service centre in about 15 minutes to have them take a look. My guess is that after all the erratic behaviour the sensor has died, given up the ghost, kicked the bucket! Lol
Maccyb122 said:
Change to status. This morning my Altı-Barometer was registering no data whatsoever and reinstall of app and reboot made no difference. It's also completely stopped registering floors. Steps and other sensors are ok. I will be at the Samsung Service centre in about 15 minutes to have them take a look. My guess is that after all the erratic behaviour the sensor has died, given up the ghost, kicked the bucket! Lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any news? Have you check the status of sensor in test mode?
Enviado desde mi Pixel 3a mediante Tapatalk