Magnetic compass shows senseless and flickering values

Bug Reports
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#1

REPRODUCIBILITY (% or how often): 100%
BUILD ID = OS VERSION (Settings > About product): 4.1.0.24
HARDWARE (XA2, Xperia 10…): Xperia 10 Single SIM
UI LANGUAGE: German
REGRESSION: (compared to previous public release: Yes, No, ?): no

DESCRIPTION: Compass shows senseless and wrong values with no coherence to the orientation of the phone.

PRECONDITIONS: Switch location on, open GPSinfo, read compass direction

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. Switch location on
  2. open GPSinfo
  3. read compass direction

EXPECTED RESULT:compass direction is shown stable +/- tolerance

ACTUAL RESULT:numbers flicker senseless without any dependence of the orientation of the phone

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:this also affects the map orientation in Pure Maps and OSM Scout.

(Please ALWAYS attach relevant data such as logs, screenshots, etc…)

#2

Did you calibrate the compass (magnetic sensor)?

After opening GPSinfo, turn around once in every direction and rotate the phone around every axes. For me the readings are quite precise after that procedure. You need to repeat it I think after rebooting the phone.

6 Likes
#3

No I did never. Before the last system updates the compass was completely unusable. Now it first time begins to show al least SOMETHING.

edit: @kraemera I did now what you wrote and it works much better now. Thank you so much!

#4

You’re welcome. You can see the compass calibration value in the GPSInfo app. I agree however, that besides this the need for calibrating the sensor is not very obvious. There should be implemented some hint, when the sensor is turned on.

1 Like
#5

No this is absolutely not obvious. The calibration values should be stored permanently without the need to recalibrate every time the magnetic sensor is turned on.
It would be fine if Jolla could integrate a control panel for the magnetic sensor into Settings/Location. It should provide a way to recalibrate and store the magnetic sensor calibration data.

1 Like
#6

This cannot be stored but needs to be done from time to time.
And it is nothing about Sailfish but the way magnetometer sensors work.

One example for Android…

Install OrienteeringCompass and see the pulley menu - calibration…

And I would have thought it is common knowledge (known since at least N9 times)
(just kidding :wink: )

1 Like
#7

Exactly such a ‘calibrate Compass’ button is what I want!

#8

It is not a calibrate functionality but just documents that it needs to be done.
Calibration is done by just executing some ‘eights’ (and if you get used to it you just do it).

2 Likes
#9

Exactly this works really, as you said:

After executing three ‘eights’, one in each dimension, it works perfect with reading stable values in GPSinfo and map rotation in Pure Maps also works.