GPS Status 2 for Adnroid 1.5 - G1 Apps and Games

Hello all,
As developers start to use firmware 1.5 I have updated the GPS status app to work with the new firmware.
The good news is that I no longer have to use internal APIs. Some features have been removed or changed:
- Screen orientation settig has been removed as it can be configured globally in 1.5
- Magnetic declination setting is removed too, but the good news is that declination is now automatically calculated (without internet access) based on a geomagnetic model. The model also gives the absolute value of the magnetc field at your location which is also displayed.
- finally: the GPS is not automatically turned on, because average programs can no longer turn on the GPS (it is possible only by using the system settings program) (GPS switch appliction will no longer work)
Have fun, comments are welcome.
Rudolf

If you start the app without enabling GPS first, it crashes right away.

Karolis said:
If you start the app without enabling GPS first, it crashes right away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, noted the issue.

Crash on 5.0.1Gr3.
I switch GPS ON before launching.
It shows the first screen, and "force close" ...

i hope this works because GPStatus is my favorite app.

g force registers at 1.00 as default... it doesnt seem to be as accurate as gps status was on 1.1, or its more sensitive i dunno.

without moving, my heading goes frim 78-81deg.

joeydsmith said:
g force registers at 1.00 as default... it doesnt seem to be as accurate as gps status was on 1.1, or its more sensitive i dunno.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, I've detected this too. It seems that the new formware is doing much less filtering than the 1.1 version. This gives a faster response with much more errors. Unfortunately I cannot do anything about it at the moment.
Having acceleration at 1.0 g is correct (at least GPS Stus 1.5 works the same way) as we are standing on the surface of the earth Thats a different stiry whether it is correct to call it "acceleration" for ordinary people (I know Einstein would not mind it )

lol yeah cant u jsut make it x-1? or sumthing lol, but yeah you are right we exipreince 1 g all the time.

joeydsmith said:
lol yeah cant u jsut make it x-1? or sumthing lol, but yeah you are right we exipreince 1 g all the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Version 1.4 did that, but that was not correct.
The problem is that acceleration is a vector not a scalar. I.e. I have to add/substract vectors not scalars...
example:
- If you would accelerate horizontally with 1g and in addition the earth has also 1g gravity, you would feel (and your phone would measure) approximately 1.41g (sqrt(1g^2+1g^2))
- on the other hand if you would accelerate vertically (upwards) with 1g, your body would feel 2g
The real problem: it is not possible to measure the direction of your acceleration (and according to Einstein its not even distinguishable from the gravity at all).
Maybe I will assume that the acceleration is horizontal (which is true for most ordinary people, moving on the surface of Earth). The rest (astronauts during launch, parachute jumpers) will get slightly wrong results, but I'm hoping they will have better equipment than relying on their G1

Rudolf i am a fan of your gpsstatus.apk and since i load the 1.5 in my dev phone i wanting for your upgrade. really i do not understand what happens with this firmware but i think that the compass do not work anyway and all operations that in the past (and that work in my g1-not updated- phone) put to work the compass now is not responding...i have my compass pointing near the east!!!...
may be (that you says) is the automatic magnetic declination are actuating but the pointing i shure that is a mistake...
i am very fustrated and worried if this issue and if you can help me to understand this, it would be very appreciated...
meanwhile i thanks so much your work and hope gpsstaus.apk go to work in the future at least good that we have working in the past...
best regards and electronics greetings from spain

I noticed a small problem with the magnetic declination, the mag declination here is - 6° 39' west according to ngdc.noaa.gov, anyway when the compass moves slightly west from north it shows -1 to -6 then jumps to 350...

rhornig said:
Right, I've detected this too. It seems that the new formware is doing much less filtering than the 1.1 version. This gives a faster response with much more errors. Unfortunately I cannot do anything about it at the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Running average of the last 5 results would smooth it out, but yea less responsive, if you hooked it into the accelerometer to notice a suden change to reset the smoothing should take care of responsiveness...

unicornio said:
Rudolf i am a fan of your gpsstatus.apk and since i load the 1.5 in my dev phone i wanting for your upgrade. really i do not understand what happens with this firmware but i think that the compass do not work anyway and all operations that in the past (and that work in my g1-not updated- phone) put to work the compass now is not responding...i have my compass pointing near the east!!!...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like the compass is being influnced by a magnetic field, try waving the phone in a figure 8 to get it to reset itself.

koxx said:
Crash on 5.0.1Gr3.
I switch GPS ON before launching.
It shows the first screen, and "force close" ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Fixed (hopefully) and updated the first post.

delta_foxtrot2 said:
I noticed a small problem with the magnetic declination, the mag declination here is - 6° 39' west according to ngdc.noaa.gov, anyway when the compass moves slightly west from north it shows -1 to -6 then jumps to 350...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yepp. Thats a bug. Thanks for finding I will fix it for the next release.

unicornio said:
Rudolf i am a fan of your gpsstatus.apk and since i load the 1.5 in my dev phone i wanting for your upgrade. really i do not understand what happens with this firmware but i think that the compass do not work anyway and all operations that in the past (and that work in my g1-not updated- phone) put to work the compass now is not responding...i have my compass pointing near the east!!!...
may be (that you says) is the automatic magnetic declination are actuating but the pointing i shure that is a mistake...
i am very fustrated and worried if this issue and if you can help me to understand this, it would be very appreciated...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After firmware upgrades or if you experience strong magnetic field the internal compass must be recalibrated. Check the heading reading in the upper left corner. If it contains ?, ?? or ??? after the number, then your compass is inaccurate and must be recalibrated.
As alsready mentioned, you should draw big 8s in the air with your phone for about a minute. If everything goes well, the ? marks should go away and your compass should be much more accurate.

rhornig said:
Thanks. Fixed (hopefully) and updated the first post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works now ! thank you !!!

delta_foxtrot2 said:
Running average of the last 5 results would smooth it out, but yea less responsive, if you hooked it into the accelerometer to notice a suden change to reset the smoothing should take care of responsiveness...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Good idea, however the android framework itself should do the filtering (i'm already using the slowest possible update frequency which means the highest filtering). I will wait until the final 1.5 firmware comes out, and then revisit the issue.

Yay. It works. The compass does look a little faster

Related

Automatic Orientation Switching Program Idea

Ok i know the tilt SHOULD have had an acceleromter (gsensor) but it doesnt and i KNOW we can remap a button to change the orintation but what IF it would do it like the touch pro does?
Ok heres where my idea comes in and i hope it hasnt already been thought of but is it possible to create a program that wold use the camera to detect which position the device is in theoretically using the first image captured or viewed (not quite sure exactly how the camera soft works) and comparing that to the next (saving image and then deleting once compared).... it sounds crazy and i dont even think it can work but it was JUST AN IDEA..what do you guys think?
Yes, it can work but why would I want to waste my working memory with running the camera in the background if I finally only would have to push a button to get the same result?
However, if you have a need for such application, simply have a look at the video on the following page:
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-gsen.html
The Kaiser indeed doesn't have an accelerometer, so the above program is useless.
And about the camera - if you want to slow down your phone badly and run down your battery in a couple of hours, go for it....
dang guys why so negative..never said i was gonna make it but itw s just an idea...calm down fools
pazookie said:
dang guys why so negative..never said i was gonna make it but itw s just an idea...calm down fools
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good idea, but it would drain the battery too fast.
-m
Along a similar line though, have you all seen the GRemote program somewhere on XDA? It uses the G sensor to track the motion of the phone and translates that to mouse movement, essentially turning the phone into an external mouse (among other things). Well, I thought it would be cool to have a similar function but use the motion identified by the camera instead of the G sensor, so it would be like a mid-air mouse...yeah I've been smoking crack.
snooginsguy said:
Along a similar line though, have you all seen the GRemote program somewhere on XDA? It uses the G sensor to track the motion of the phone and translates that to mouse movement, essentially turning the phone into an external mouse (among other things). Well, I thought it would be cool to have a similar function but use the motion identified by the camera instead of the G sensor, so it would be like a mid-air mouse...yeah I've been smoking crack.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hahahaha good idea tho but i guess that makes 2 crackheads

[Q] Compass Calibration

I've read complaints of GPS and G-Sensors being out of whack, but didn't see anything on forum about compass calibration.
I noticed on my i9000 yesterday that while tracking myself on Google maps, that the compass should me pointing about 20 degrees to the right of the direction I was actually driving. In aviation, we call that crabbing, and it's normal based on wind, but not in a car.
I turned the direction my phone was pointing and the heading on the vehicle in the map started tracking properly. I guess my phone needs a little compass calibration.
Any idea where to this from? I'll dig around in the debug settings when I get some time, but hoping others might have found it already.
Thanks.
there are some free compass apps on android market that will display an actuall compass on your screen - and those will have a calibration tool you use when setting the compass up
No need for a special command.
Just turn the device 180 degrees and backwards two or three times in any program which uses the compass and it will be calibrated.
I'm a pilot too and I actually purchased a magnetic compass for my car and noticed the same thing. Haven't tested the phone's compass in my car though.
Are you forgetting some planes have Compass Deviation Cards to compensate for errors caused by the aircraft itself perhaps? Remember, cars have a significant amount of electronics, and a magnet in the alternator that can affect the direction of the compass (the magnetic flux created by the car is actually what triggers traffic light changes, so it probably isn't miniscule).
Btw, not sure crabbing is the correct term here (normally crabbing is isolated to wind I think). Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm still PPL).
Not sure about google maps, but I have noticed my hardware GPS (Navman's and that other rubbish which will be collectors items soon) actually use track, rather than heading.
distortedloop said:
I've read complaints of GPS and G-Sensors being out of whack, but didn't see anything on forum about compass calibration.
I noticed on my i9000 yesterday that while tracking myself on Google maps, that the compass should me pointing about 20 degrees to the right of the direction I was actually driving. In aviation, we call that crabbing, and it's normal based on wind, but not in a car.
I turned the direction my phone was pointing and the heading on the vehicle in the map started tracking properly. I guess my phone needs a little compass calibration.
Any idea where to this from? I'll dig around in the debug settings when I get some time, but hoping others might have found it already.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
compass
I have a galaxy s and so does my daughter we both have a compass app from android market installed on our phones , both phones will not display the correct direction i have also tried a friends galaxy and his is exactly the same .
I have a xperia X10 and that displays correct directions with the same compass installed so i can only assume it is the phone at fault , i love the phone but this is annoying and i wonder if it is related to the gps problems this phone appears to have ?.
good old fashioned magnetic compasses don't work in my car, regardless of where i install them
it will always point EAST, very annoying, good thing it doesn't affect my GPS or my SGS i've yet to test the compass mode inside the car.
As i've taken it for granted no compass will work inside my car, as it has speakers every where and metals all around.
before there was such thing as a GPS, i used to be a good old scout and used maps + compasses to find my ways when driving in unknown streets
andrewluecke said:
I'm a pilot too and I actually purchased a magnetic compass for my car and noticed the same thing. Haven't tested the phone's compass in my car though.
Are you forgetting some planes have Compass Deviation Cards to compensate for errors caused by the aircraft itself perhaps? Remember, cars have a significant amount of electronics, and a magnet in the alternator that can affect the direction of the compass (the magnetic flux created by the car is actually what triggers traffic light changes, so it probably isn't miniscule).
Btw, not sure crabbing is the correct term here (normally crabbing is isolated to wind I think). Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm still PPL).
Not sure about google maps, but I have noticed my hardware GPS (Navman's and that other rubbish which will be collectors items soon) actually use track, rather than heading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
andrewluecke said:
).
Btw, not sure crabbing is the correct term here (normally crabbing is isolated to wind I think). Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm still PPL)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you're correct about crabbing...it's the term I learned for landing with a cross-wind and yawing into the wind to maintain your track to the runway. It's just what came to mind looking at the vehicle indicator and the roadway, it looked like a plane landing on a runway and that's what popped to mind.
Thanks to everyone else about the compass app in the market, I'll check it out.
Probably best to grab a real compass and compare to your phones one.. Then you'll know for sure.
But for GPS apps, track makes more sense because especially whilst driving, the phone has no way of knowing if it is pointed towards the front of your car.
(Btw, for non-pilots, when I say track, I refer to the direction you are actually going, rather than where you are pointed towards).
I'm a electronic engineer, A compass actually show where the magnetic field is more effective as North (and South) but what does make the differ is electronic compasses are more sensetive and may effected by a little change in magnetic field (for example holding a little ironic screw around it) so it may show wrong direction based on your country (and sometimes region). so the manufactors calibrate it on an avarage in order to make it working all around the world. but if it is not satisfying go to a service center they calibrate it for you!
(if you're geeky one you can do it on service menu yourself but it takes time to do a good calibration!)
mdh_heydari said:
I'm a electronic engineer, A compass actually show where the magnetic field is more effective as North (and South) but what does make the differ is electronic compasses are more sensetive and may effected by a little change in magnetic field (for example holding a little ironic screw around it) so it may show wrong direction based on your country (and sometimes region). so the manufactors calibrate it on an avarage in order to make it working all around the world. but if it is not satisfying go to a service center they calibrate it for you!
(if you're geeky one you can do it on service menu yourself but it takes time to do a good calibration!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HI, mdh_heydari
ok, but how to calibrate? even if it is time consuming and difficult. What is the procedure in SGS I9000?
sircm4x said:
HI, mdh_heydari
ok, but how to calibrate? even if it is time consuming and difficult. What is the procedure in SGS I9000?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are 2 ways, the best one is some little fixes in android kernel and the other one is making mods for famous navigation softwares like Google Maps.

[Q] Compass pointing at right direction, but jumping some degrees

Maybe you can help me diagnosing this. My compass is calibrated, so it points to the north correctly, but it is not steady, it jumps around 20 degrees (10+, 10-). Already tried 8 pattern calibration and the ms3c_yamaha.cfg deletion, but it still jumping. There's nothing around to mess with magnetometer, it works like this even if I am in the middle of a grass field.
A video of my SGS running some compass applications:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8urdsB4V_w
How is your compass? It stays pointing north, solid as a rock, or it jumps a little, like mine?
Thanks
Probably you need calibration or recalibration...
Regards
nice design on the compass app
what modem do you use, maybe it's related (probably not^^) I'll try my compass later outside, I'm currently surrounded by computers and walls so It wouldn't be tooo accurate if I tested now I would imagine.
I will edit my feedback into this post^^
EDIT:
also jumps
Mine is working perfect
I have the same issue.
I noticed also that if I tilt the phone from a horizontal position, tilting the upper side (with the cameras and plugs) to the up or down, it changes the angle drastically.
The GPS is quite bad also.
benoitb85 said:
I have the same issue.
I noticed also that if I tilt the phone from a horizontal position, tilting the upper side (with the cameras and plugs) to the up or down, it changes the angle drastically.
The GPS is quite bad also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tilting does'nt affect the angle in my SGS...
Its possible that you're using it somewhere that is causing angle deviations. Like near metals, magnetic field etc
Gps is quite Good. It gets locked within 2-5 sec without any wifi/network assistance. Don't know why some people have issues with their GPS in SGS.. :-\
miro666 said:
Probably you need calibration or recalibration...
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you calibrate?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
miro666 said:
Probably you need calibration or recalibration...
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there another way to recalibrate, a hard way, maybe? Moving the phone in the eight pattern seems to calibrate, because it points to the magnetic north, but it's not steady, as I mentioned before.
theduckking said:
nice design on the compass app
what modem do you use, maybe it's related (probably not^^) I'll try my compass later outside, I'm currently surrounded by computers and walls so It wouldn't be tooo accurate if I tested now I would imagine.
I will edit my feedback into this post^^
EDIT:
also jumps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably not. Until now, 5 different modems: JPA, JPE, JPX, JPY and JPG.
After some research, the only way to fix a faulty compass seems to put the south pole of a strong magnet in the north pole of the compass, then repeat vice-versa. I don't think I wanna do that. I hate to send my phones to be fixed, but I'm running out of options.

[Q] GPS Issue

Anyone else have issues with their GPS?
Mine seems to get confused about where I am even though I have high accuracy enabled for location.
If I just go by the voice prompts it would get me lost.
It tells me to keep going on a street I've already turned off of.
The map seems right but is as if the gps needs to be calibrated or something.
Will Rickards said:
Anyone else have issues with their GPS?
Mine seems to get confused about where I am even though I have high accuracy enabled for location.
If I just go by the voice prompts it would get me lost.
It tells me to keep going on a street I've already turned off of.
The map seems right but is as if the gps needs to be calibrated or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine did this for like 5 minutes and then locked on and was perfect every time since.
Will Rickards said:
Anyone else have issues with their GPS?
Mine seems to get confused about where I am even though I have high accuracy enabled for location.
If I just go by the voice prompts it would get me lost.
It tells me to keep going on a street I've already turned off of.
The map seems right but is as if the gps needs to be calibrated or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is finnicky as well for GPS games like Ingress. It's a noticeable lock on lag difference compared to the HTC One M8 which was pretty much spot on every time without much drift. I hope it'll get patched in the future :]
Sometimes the solid circle inside my GPS icon flashes rapidly and other times the whole icon appears and disappears several times a second. Any idea what's going on with that?
When using Waze to navigate, I often lose GPS lock if the phone is resting on my leg. Returns when I lift the phone.
I downloaded GPS status and did the compass calibration thing.
We'll see if that makes any difference next time I use it.

Magnetic Field Sensor Glitch

We've discovered a problem with the Magnetic Field Sensor over at the OnePlus forums.
It's causing the 'button' mechanism in Cardboard to constantly go off. First video shows the issue in a normal situation - you can see how it peaks every few second.
Second shows it with a strong magnetic field near by - still has an issue.
Really looks like a hardware issue - so we need to test this out and reach out to OnePlus and get them to acknowledge the issue. You can test the sensor using this app - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tdt.magneticfielddetector
You can read more here https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/ghost-touches-when-using-google-cardboard-vr-games.450793/page-2
blackalice said:
We've discovered a problem with the Magnetic Field Sensor over at the OnePlus forums.
It's causing the 'button' mechanism in Cardboard to constantly go off. First video shows the issue in a normal situation - you can see how it peaks every few second.
Really looks like a hardware issue - so we need to test this out and reach out to OnePlus and get them to acknowledge the issue.
+1, Just observed the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/...ardboard-vr-games.450793/page-3#post-14974557
Happy to say that Carl Pei has already commented. Lets see where this goes.
I've checked the compass in google maps seems to be totally fine, seems more accurate than my MotoG3 in side by side tests.
i guess its not a hardware problem, because the pulses are too steady like intended. its looks like the sensor does a reset or gets demagnetize for a better calibration
maybe that's the reason why the level drops within a high magnetic environment like that hard-drive test.
while in low magnetic environment the level rises +40 uT because the higher voltage needed for the reset causes a stronger EMF than the surrounding.
but the EMF sensor doesn't add multiple EMF values, it only shows the actual value, that's why you can see the short drop of 64uT in the 2nd video.
in both cases the we reach nearly the same level of 70-80 uT which could be the default re calibrate level.
it doesn't effects the reading of the EMF direction because that impulse is too short so it looks fine in google maps or what ever app you use.
its just unfortunately that the VR apps uses EMF differential as a trigger mechanism
@blackalice nice post! I hope OnePlus will look into this as a real problem, and come up with a fix for it.
I hope as much people as possible test if they have the same spike, and report it to OnePlus
(maybe edit the post/title and ask for testers)
Is there any workaround for this? I can't watch vr videos, 360 videos on cardboard or other vr video apps since it is constantly resetting my view.
Latest update on this issue.
http://i.imgur.com/b3u8tn1.png
blackalice said:
Latest update on this issue.
http://i.imgur.com/b3u8tn1.png
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, if that's true, kudos to them for their dedication and commitment.
blackalice said:
Latest update on this issue.
http://i.imgur.com/b3u8tn1.png
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hah ! not to say i told you so... but.... https://youtu.be/JQS1m65WUCI?t=40s
Just to let you know, since this wasn't posted here yet:
Carl Pei said:
We got a couple of testers, software engineers and hardware engineers to the office this morning (Sunday) and have resolved this. It has been determined to be a software issue, and our engineers have now already have written solution for it. If the solution passes QT, expect it merged in the upcoming OTA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source: OnePlus Forums
P1nGu1n_ said:
Just to let you know, since this wasn't posted here yet:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, it was... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=67387451&postcount=7
Hastaloego said:
Actually, it was... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=67387451&postcount=7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, looked for links, but it's posted as a screenshot. That's why I didn't see it :good:
any news on this problem? I still got this problem in OxygenOs 3.2.1
Try updating to 3.2.2 then
any news on this problem?
I had this issue on 3.2.2 and virtual reality was almost unusable because the magnetic sensor keeps getting triggered, what causes videos/games to pause/go to menu
I can test at home on FreedomOS 1.5: OxygenOS 3.2.6 based.

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