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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.
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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.
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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)
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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!)
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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?
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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.
im considering buying this phone,but i hear there's problems with the GPS. my current phone has a great GPS receiver and i use it a lot for day to day navigation.How much will i be disappointed if i were to expect the same from the galaxy s?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/search.php?searchid=42858169
Here in holland I have no problems with the GPS reception...
Personally, I found that straight out of the box the gps was dreadful, but an hour later after I did the simple gps fix, it navigated me on a hundred and fifty mile round trip with no problems at all.
The fix is simple and easy and takes literally no skill. When you take your sgs out of the box, see if the gps works for you, then try the fix. If there is still no joy then take it back and say the navigation is busted and you want a different handset.
I'd certainly say its worth trying at least. Chances are can get it working and everything else that you like about droid is better on the galaxy .
It's worth remembering that the gps is not battery friendly and you'll need a potent (2A output)car charger to keep you running on the move.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Basically, in summary:
1) In late firmware, the lock is quite quick, especially compared to car GPS units. Maybe not as fast as some other phones, but fast enough. Certainly faster than my Garmin Forerunner
2) The accuracy boundaries on this phone are wrong sometimes (at least in XXJM5), but this may be a bug in that specific pre-release.
3) With JM5, the unit seems to only lock onto 8 satellites max, but, some people are saying apparently newer firmware's are locking onto more
4) People are complaining of issues getting locks when moving with the unit. However, I've experienced this on ALL GPS units I've owned. AGPS should help with this though (but I've never tested initial lock whilst moving except in a firmware where GPS was 100% broken for me).
5) In some cases, the GPS goes skitzo, this might be fixed in later firmwares
6) Finally, sometimes the track is a bit off to the side, and doesn't handle cornering well.. This is likely related to (2). But this makes it useless for fitness at the moment
Anyway, the GPS is usable, but there are serious accuracy problems with it still. Samsung has said that they are working on optimising GPS for a September update. My best advice is wait until then, because if it isn't fixed in September, the possibility that it is due to poor hardware design seems to grow significantly..
thank you for your valuable input,this forum really is the best on the internet.I'm gunna be buying it next month anyway,so lets see if the update fixes the GPS or not.To be honest,theres no other phone that can match it,so theres no alternative to this phone even if the GPS IS dodgy
The GPS sucks so hard that I'd rather use a regular map for navigation.
My Galaxy S has no gps problems. The first time i went out from house to check GPS accuracy I got GPS signal after 3 seconds. It's stable in 100% cases.
Acquiring signal is not the issue. I don't understand why people keep comparing signal to accuracy. it's not the same thing.
Exactly, there are people in other topics that are just inflating the whole issue, their claims are way exaggerated, and the original issues has already been fixed on newer firmwares, yet they refuse to accept it.
AllGamer said:
Exactly, there are people in other topics that are just inflating the whole issue, their claims are way exaggerated, and the original issues has already been fixed on newer firmwares, yet they refuse to accept it.
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Go for a 20min jog then and show a track of your perfect GPS. I have a lower standard than many of them, but all tracks I saw lost lock excessively at some point or another..
I haven't tried it myself, but can on tuesday.
damn,so many different opinions on this issue.also not being able to track my runs is a BIG minus but still not a deal breaker.day-to-day city navigation is a must though.
It's just as simple as that - you don't check gps functionality just by its fix time. you put it in your car, and start driving - if it's accurate (highly unlikely), gewd. if not - go back here and whine.
kingofkings2603 said:
damn,so many different opinions on this issue.also not being able to track my runs is a BIG minus but still not a deal breaker.day-to-day city navigation is a must though.
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The big problem is that many of them seem to be testing quickly from their chair.. There is overwhelming evidence that the GPS doesn't work accurately, but barely any showing it does.. In fact, in one case, I saw someone claim the unit was working perfectly, but the track they showed was on a straight highway, and was fluctuating excessively between both sides of the highway. And the most vocal of those who claims it works perfectly don't seem to be posting logs..
There is also some confusion between whether it is "fitness grade" or "car grade". Car navigation GPS can snap to tracks, and has more room for accuracy errors, because it can assume you always exist on the closest road, and if you use directions, it can assume you took the correct turns when it told you to do so (and correct itself a bit later). That's what most car units seem to do, and it helps compensate for most inaccuracies. It can lead to a bit of pain though if you make lots of turns, some of which aren't correct. Some people are possibly happy because they have used dedicated car units before which suck (some navman's take at least 5 mins to get a basic lock, negating any benefits of having them), but, since some phones offer better directions apparently, people are complaining it should be better.
Fitness grade requires MUCH higher resolution to be usable, because the distance is shorter (generally), and if your GPS veers off course, it gives you a false indication of jogging distance. Garmin forerunners feel generally like they are within 1 or 2 meters a of the time (but occasionally veers off 3), but from what I've observed standing still, the flaws may be less visible when moving, but simply appear as slightly off course.
Then there are those people who stare at the SNR/locked satelites for hours at end without checking whether the long/lat is actually correct, or the accuracy boundary (they see 5m accuracy, but don't actually check if it is accurate within 5 meters). I was one of these, until I realised that the accuracy boundary was wrong..
Part of the issue also comes down to firmware though. People are using pre-release/leaked firmware (which might not even be complete) and are judging the GPS quality based on that. No comment needed except, don't assume that Samsung aren't working on fixes because there is no fix in pre-release firmware.
I haven't properly tested either though personally because I use a forerunner for jogging (waterproof), and since I fly, I prefer to use maps to understand locations better. I did notice though that leaving my phone on my desk for a long period of time sometimes allowed the signal accuracy boundary to not include me (ie, allow a position of 20m away from me, but show 5m accuracy) intermittently. And this might explain the fluctuations in position many others have gotten..
Either way, it is debatable. The biggest issue is that the assumption so far is that everyone got exactly the same hardware, and exactly the same revisions. But the other problem, is that GPS quality is open to opinion, because in some areas, roads are so far spread out that even inaccurate GPS works fine for driving. It really depends on your needs. But the facts are, the accuracy of the GPS isn't worth debating anyway currently, because Samsung have already told us they are "optimising" the GPS in Sept, which may make this unit as good as a garmin forerunner anyway. All any of us can tell you as that we'll know the TRUE potential of the unit after the september patch.
But for me anyway, I think the GPS is fine (I don't need perfect accuracy, even if I needed this as a fallback in a plane)
The GPS is bad to the point of being unusable for car navigation or fitness tracking. Yes you may get a lock in GGps test but when moving the reported location is all ov
er the place.
andrewluecke said:
Then there are those people who stare at the SNR/locked satelites for hours at end without checking whether the long/lat is actually correct, or the accuracy boundary (they see 5m accuracy, but don't actually check if it is accurate within 5 meters). I was one of these, until I realised that the accuracy boundary was wrong..
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Case in point to illustrate what andrewluecke is trying to explain here about the accuracy not being exactly...well, accurate. Take a look at the attached screenshot. My GPS had a great fix with accuracy of 5m (the best it's able to report), stable for a few minutes, everything was working perfectly. Or so it seems. Except for the slight problem that I was actually standing where the red dot is... There's no scale on the screenshot, but it's a good 30-40 meters off. And that's quite common for me.
Case_ said:
Case in point to illustrate what andrewluecke is trying to explain here about the accuracy not being exactly...well, accurate. Take a look at the attached screenshot. My GPS had a great fix with accuracy of 5m (the best it's able to report), stable for a few minutes, everything was working perfectly. Or so it seems. Except for the slight problem that I was actually standing where the red dot is... There's no scale on the screenshot, but it's a good 30-40 meters off. And that's quite common for me.
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Exactly Case_. The point of the accuracy measurement is to say "you are somewhere within this range". But, with the Galaxy S, it isn't, and that shouldn't happen, at least not as often as it does (except maybe at the beginning whilst obtaining a lock"). Professional systems have something known as RAIM and FDE which detect when the accuracy may be incorrect due to external factors (such as shonky satelite, or serious atmospheric interference). But this happens a LOT, and I would have thought it affects GPS units equally (unless the Garmin forerunners in fact DO ship with fault detection, which could explain it, in which case, Samsung should implement fault detection and exclusion too, to make it usable).
Anyway.. What I am trying to say is summed up easiest with Case's post.
Fatherboard said:
Acquiring signal is not the issue. I don't understand why people keep comparing signal to accuracy. it's not the same thing.
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It most certainly is an issue. It takes a minute or longer to acquire a lock in some cases despite stationary and clear line of sight.
The people who stomp their feet with "The GPS is fine" are no different than the iPhone4 users who claim there is no attenuation in their phones.
In my case with the DDJG4 update, I see some minor issues.
Once in a while when I am at home (indoors with no visible satelites) my location shifts from bangalore to toronto. All my stuff changes to that. It looks like AGPS is not turned on or buggy becuase 80% of the times it works well. Does anybody else face the same problem ?
So when my phone takes me to toronto, i restart the phone and everythng is back to normal
SOmetimes, the location service fails to find where I am and shows Toronto in Google website. Is there anyway to avoid this.
It's just like what most people say, you can get a fix, and GPS seems fine. Try to use it, and it's a whole different story.
Somebody on the forum posted a link of a run, where the SGS GPS went everywere but on the straight line, it even made a hilarious loop. Too bad i can't find it.
People need to stop saying "Firmware updates fixed it already" as that's just not true.
Hah, there it is, posted by sjdean.
Desire, and SGS GPS.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...52.48542,-1.742063&spn=0.014138,0.045319&z=15
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...=52.48082,-1.761761&spn=0.01414,0.045319&z=15
Guys,
I spent 2 weeks of holidays (my wife almost left me for that) mostly trying to find out why GPS performance on my P970 is so poor, losing satellites fixes every so often and sometimes no fix at all although 'seeing' satellites. I did not find a 'real' solution, even after tests on both mostly Huexxx 7 and lately boype's 0909, too.
Best results now on boype's 0909 CM7 but with adapted gps.conf and gps_brcm_conf.xml. Nevertheless, the result is still disappointing, far away from satisfying.
However, during all these checks, I found that satellite's receiption is depending on the way I hold the device in my hands, at least on MY device. Whenever I hold a finger on the top left of the chassis (just above the location where the GPS chip is located, see pictures), then receiption improves by 0 up to 14 db (!!!).
Also the number of 'seen' and 'used' birds increases from 6 to 10 easily!!! However, the fix did not become more stable through that.
Pls check on your devices if you can verify the same behaviour.
If so, what could be the reason (i do not put any pressure on the device)? And is there anything that we can do to make this improvement permanent, i.e. put a piece of 'aluminium foil' between the back lid and the device or something similiar?
Let me know your remarks, guys.
No problem at all. Riding on the tram right now. Fix on 12 in few seconds. Sure it's not because of your position? And 6 is enough to fix the position.
@eighty-four
I appreciate your info, and you are surely right it is depending on my position. My question was a different one though: Do you observe the same reaction as soon as you put the finger on top of the device; i.e. increase of signal strength?
BTW You attached an impressive picture, would like to aks you are you still on AOKP beta 1.1 ICS 4.0.4 and how do your files gps.conf and gps_brcm_conf.xml look like? Can you share them?
AOKP 1.1, no any GPS fixes
Hard to say about reaction while on move. But didn't noticed any noticeable changes.
Can't check now - I'm in home.
I've been using Marvel v9 since released, with the GPS "Tweaks" installed too.
I'm getting GPS signal, sometimes really fast, some others i need to wait for a couple of minutes (maximum 3 minutes).
There are certain times though, that it doesnt lock no matter what, just like in your situation. It manages to find many sattelites (7+) with an average decent signal strength but it refuses to get a gps fix location.
I believe it has to do with the temperature of the chip (i couldnt get easy GPS fix at winter) because now that summer passed by and used my GPS a lot, i had no issues... might be the clouds, might be the stars alignment and zodiacs ... i really dont know.
It's not that accurate and fast though for city driving. Some turns are being announced way too late (Sygic Aura) and the error treshold is about 10meters mostly, rarely goes down at 5meters.
I guess it's a chip manufacturing bull**** rather than a "case construction" or antenna problem.
@morx
I just wanted to check if others can verify better receiption when holding finger on top.
I agree it seems a hw or engineering defect, nevertheless I am trying to optimize the settings in order to compaensate at least partially.
Interesting you mention the temperature: In my research I came across a relationship between temperature and gps accuracy. Our (and any other gps chip) uses a oscillator hw module for precision timing. These oscillators' accuracies depend on the temperature and are measuered in PPM. There is also a setting in the gps_brcm_conf.xml that refers to this, it is "FrqPlan". The usual value in CM7 is "FRQ_PLAN_26MHZ_2PPM_26MHZ_300PPB". However, other values do also work, like "FRQ_PLAN_26MHZ_2PPM_26MHZ_100PPB".
You can check details in THIS post.
Would be interesting to determine if different values lead to better results.
I had no clue that chip temperature had a side effect on GPS fix !!
When i was writing my concern about that, i was feeling stupid until i saw your redirection to that post...
hmmm there are many factors which can be put on the table about optimization and troubleshooting.
Later on, i'll give a try keeping the cellphone with both hands, different angles, one handed on top/bottom etc...
Interesting thoughts.
I'm on CM10 nightly and always had blazing fast fixes until yesterday. I activated GPS in my car and after 3 minutes it fixed (in Osmand), after some more minutes the fix got currently lost.
Due to my big custom 3500 mAh battery I couldn't place my phone in the cradle therefore I simply laid it onto my dashboard. Maybe because of this the signals were harder to receive.
I will switch back to the normal battery today and try to test your variant.
Sent from my LG-P970 using xda app-developers app
I've only now discovered that the issues I've been having with certain apps are because the One has no magnetic compass sensor, only a digital compass. Is there any way to enhance the compass accuracy or otherwise calibrate it?
I ask, because when playing Ingress, my orientation is never even close to correct. I have to manually adjust the screen (while driving, ACK!??!) if I want to follow along with the route I'm driving, and of course the arrow is never pointed in the right direction which can make deploying resonators a little more confusing.
I'm also starting to get into geocaching, and without a working compass app, I have to carry another phone or an actual compass along with me. So spur of the moment geocaching can only happen if I happen to have one at the time.
And of course I'm sure everyone's heard about Sky Maps not working properly either, which is just a bummer.
Bumperoonie, Surely someone out there has similar problems or the knowledge to tackle this... anybody?
Hey all,
I moved recently and now rely a lot on google maps (and other location apps) to go to places.
Whine the location of the device fave been spot on, I have an issue with positioning and vector... What I mean is the device reports direction with a 90-degree error. If I am on the crosswalk facing one of its directions, the phone shows me that I'm perpendicular to the crosswalk and when I move up or down the crosswalk, it shows me moving sideways... not sure how to explain it better...
If I'm in a car and moving, the dot moves correctly on the map but I'm being shown as moving sideways on that map...
After doing a Google search on the issue, it seems that other people are also having this problem.
I've tried recalibrating, using the live view to calibrate (which works for a moment and then breaks again) Also tried clearing the cache of google maps, (but other GPS apps are also affected)...
Does anyone know how to deal with this problem?
Try turning off improved accuracy or vice versa...
Clear system cache.
blackhawk said:
Try turning off improved accuracy or vice versa...
Clear system cache.
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Click to collapse
All of this has been tried. even board replacements does not fix it...
it seems to be some kind of a software issue...
Screen rotation is set to manual or automatic? Try switching your settings.
Google Play System Update is up to date? Should at least be from 1st March 2022.
we have a crab in disguise among us... 'transformers~~ shell fish in deguise~~'
jokes aside, the GPS is known to be very unstable. I have the issue come and go... and from what I've heard it's due to signal disturbances.
You'll want to report the issue to Google if you are using Google Maps
Use common sense (or develop it) to navigate.
Constantly being led by a smartphone on the streets is a lousy and dangerous way to live.
Develop a mental picture with critical way points of where you are going and then concentrate on navigating the real world by memory. With practice it becomes 2nd nature.
If it's a complex navigation effort break it down into manageable blocks with start/end way points.
For the car a dedicated GPS is more practical and reliable, but you still need to use common sense for when it glitches... and it will.
GPS is just an aid to navigation... like a map.
Do you have a permanent magnet somewhere inside your phone case, or other source of magnetism that would confuse the on-board magnetic compass?
KingFatty said:
Do you have a permanent magnet somewhere inside your phone case, or other source of magnetism that would confuse the on-board magnetic compass?
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KingFatty came up with my initial thought. Might be some magnetic interference.
I do know the exact issue you are talking about though. I knew I was facing south (I have an actual compass) but my phone said I was facing east. But I solved it with a simple recalibration. I have to recalibrate at least weekly.
You say you have had board replacements to rule out a hardware issue but if it was a software issue then surely everyone would have it? I can confirm that right now, the orientation is correct on my phone. It could be a firmware issue for your specific device but this requires the manufacturer to fix it.
That leads me to think its some kind of outside interference like a magnet in a case.
richhaynes said:
KingFatty came up with my initial thought. Might be some magnetic interference.
I do know the exact issue you are talking about though. I knew I was facing south (I have an actual compass) but my phone said I was facing east. But I solved it with a simple recalibration. I have to recalibrate at least weekly.
You say you have had board replacements to rule out a hardware issue but if it was a software issue then surely everyone would have it? I can confirm that right now, the orientation is correct on my phone. It could be a firmware issue for your specific device but this requires the manufacturer to fix it.
That leads me to think its some kind of outside interference like a magnet in a case.
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Samsung's don't like magnets, truth
It may be the earth's magnetic field in your location. It isn't uniform.
It's actually began a cyclical pole shift which will take hundreds of year to complete. Magnetic anomalies with become more common as the reversal draws closer. I doubt the latter could be the cause but the former could.
I think magnets may indeed be the issue. My bag's phone pocket has a magnet on its latch so it might be the thing confusing the phone. The problem is that from more than 20 different phones I had over the years, the S21 Ultra is the first one to exhibit such side effects from magnets...
I use a car mount with wireless charger, and the mount itself creates a magnetic field that confuses the phone's compass so the phone re-calibrates the compass based on the navigation driving etc. When out of the charger, the phone is still interpreting the compass as though it's in the mount with the magnetic influence, so you just need to recalibrate the compass and it will fix the issue until next time it automatically recalibrates while under the influence of a magnetic field.
That's just how compasses work, they sense existing magnetic fields, and the closer a magnet is to the phone, the stronger the field. If only there was a way to tell the phone you are putting it next to a magnetic field so it knew not to recalibrate itself at that time.