This may be a stupid question but do cases with magnetic closures mess up the GPS of a nexus one in anyway? I remember reading something to that effect with the G1 a few years ago but am unsure if it's true or not.
It shouldn't affect the GPS itself... It will (obviously) affect the compass though, so perhaps the orientation may be misreported. GPS works on satellite signals, not geomagnetic forces.
Thanks for the answer.
it might effect the camera, i do not have a case for my Nexus (use holster) but I had a case with a magnet clasp on the cover that effected the camera on my Nokia N97, but with the fone in a case how are you going to use the GPS ?
arimus said:
it might effect the camera, i do not have a case for my Nexus (use holster) but I had a case with a magnet clasp on the cover that effected the camera on my Nokia N97, but with the fone in a case how are you going to use the GPS ?
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Good point. I didn't think of that. The camera in the nexus one, as in most modern phones, uses a piezo ceramic motor for its autofocus mechanism. While not exactly working in a similar manner to standard electromagnetic motors, they are still influenced by the magnetic field. That said, you're not going to use the GPS or camera while the phone is in the holster, and the effects should be limited to that situation.
Oh, and if it's any comfort, I work with fMRI using moderately high field strength (3T). I have walked in the room with my phone before, and even though it is tugging to the scanner in my pocket, it still works completely fine today. A typical pocket magnet is 2-4 orders of magnitude weaker (1/100 - 1/10000 the strength). It will not damage anything in the phone permanently. Either that, or I have been extremely lucky.
Thanks for the answers. I ended up going with this Seidio Innocase Case and I couldn't be happier. No magnets to ruin your phone in this case
magnets can also screw with the capacitive touch screen.
Search for my post where I made a desk and a car mount using super strong hard drive magnets. I've been using it all day every day, no effects on anything except the compass when attach to the mount. Screen, touchscreen, camera, gps, totally unaffected. Compass still works fine when not mounted.
Related
Ran across this today searching for cases for the Epic. Anyone using one? Its interesting in that it locks the slider during normal use and hinges open if you want to use the keyboard.
http://www.pdair.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=10100000_10000000_11001061&products_id=31414
Now this looks like quite a nice case for functionality.
Now if they just took off the whole part in the back for the clip and form fit the corners a bit more and offered it in more colors that'd be nice.
This may be the best thing I can do for now, I have been scouring for a jelly case to slip over the epic, since I never use the keyboard
Now, if somebody has the ability to cleanly cut aluminum and wants to sell a matched set consisting of this case with a hole cut in the back for the hump on the extended battery the other guy is selling to poke through... (strokes credit card and sighs)
It's hard to tell from the pics... does the case snap onto the lower half, or does the phone just rest inside?
How firmly does it secure the phone when the case is closed? Does the power button still cause the two halves to separate a little, or are both held firmly in place from both sides?
bitbang3r said:
Now, if somebody has the ability to cleanly cut aluminum and wants to sell a matched set consisting of this case with a hole cut in the back for the hump on the extended battery the other guy is selling to poke through... (strokes credit card and sighs)
It's hard to tell from the pics... does the case snap onto the lower half, or does the phone just rest inside?
How firmly does it secure the phone when the case is closed? Does the power button still cause the two halves to separate a little, or are both held firmly in place from both sides?
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Click to collapse
There are videos on you tube. The bottom looks like a very snug press fit. Top must be looser to allow for the hinge to work.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
...
I had a similar case for my old HTC Titan. I LOVED it. Being a pretty serious phone abuser, that case kept my phone together!
-Rob
I used to have a similar case for my Treo and they are extremely well made. I irregularly dropped my phone from about 5 feet in the air onto hard linoleum and it never suffered any indignities. These come in both black and silver so if you want a different color you would want the silver so you could send it out to be powder coated.
I just ordered one.
Mine came last night.
The good: locks the slider firmly closed. No wobble or "play" at all when pressing the power button. Phone easy to remove (for GameGripper purposes).
The bad: Feels terrifyingly slippery compared to the Seidio ActiveX. Obstructs "slide down" gesture for notifications.
The seemingly fatal (a big one): my "back" fake hardkey keeps randomly going berserk... but ONLY that specific one. The foam in the top half seems to be confusing the capacitive sensor.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Update: I've had the 'search' fake hardkey freak out a few times on me, too.
Another problem: it's definitely affecting reception. 4G and GPS barely work with the case in place.
Sigh. So close. So agonizingly close. It's awesome to not have the phone shear and jiggle apart every time I hit the power button, and the fact that it allows the phone to be easily removed for the Game Gripper without really compromising the slide-out keyboard's usability is very cool.
I'm really convinced that this case went straight from plastic prototype to mass production before anyone actually tried to use it in an area with 4G service, high humidity (presumably what's screwing up the foam and touchscreen), and who didn't just assume that the GPS was dysfunctional because Samsung sucks.
Sigh. Too expensive to throw away, and really nice in ways that ultimately don't matter because the touchscreen-button problem makes it totally unusable
The plot thickens: more touchscreen observations:
* Oddly, there's NO FOAM around the lower part of the screen where the phantom-pressed fake hardkeys are.
* Last night, it went completely berserk with phantom button presses on cue when I rubbed the latch a certain way.
This suggests that the problem's root cause might extend to the electrical conductivity of the case itself. It's strange, because I wasn't able to find reports of the same problem for users of Monaco cases for other phones (like the Droid). Lots of complaints about signal attenuation, but no reports of touchscreen problems.
I'm seriously tempted to buy some liquid electrical tape and coat the inside of the lid to see whether it helps. The problem DOES seem to go away when the lid is no longer in contact with the screen. However, if it's happening because the sensor is acting kind of like a Hall Effect sensor and the case is acting like a Faraday cage, nothing short of making the case (or at least the top lid) out of plastic is likely to fix the problem. Still, it's worth a try since I really like the case itself, and my alternative is to basically chuck it.
Update: as an experiment, I wrapped black electrical tape around the bottom lip of the top part. It helped a lot. I think I might have also found a contributing cause: cat fur. I think wisps of cat fur might be bridging the metal case & screen and carrying static electricity to the sensor. Oddly, though, some of its *worst* back-arrow spasams have occurred with the phone laying on the desk, untouched, 3 feet away.
I'm still trying to think of a good way to plastic-coat the case without making it look bad & get a nice, even black rubbery coating on it.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
How thin is it compared to the other plastic cases?
Very interested in getting the Monaco Aluminum Case, which is very similar to this one. My last concern, how thin is it compared to Seidio Innocase Surface?
Hello,
I got a case for my Nexus S with magnet (the only I found in my city) and I'd like to ask if there is going to be any malfunction with the screen or any of the sensors of the phone because of the magnet that the case has.
I downloaded the "Phone tester" app that tests the phone's sensors and I saw that the values of compass and magnetic field were tottaly different when I put the case close to the phone. Of course this is logical because of the magnet but I'd like to ask if there is a chance of damaging anything in the phone after long term use.
Thanks
bad_freddy said:
Hello,
I got a case for my Nexus S with magnet (the only I found in my city) and I'd like to ask if there is going to be any malfunction with the screen or any of the sensors of the phone because of the magnet that the case has.
I downloaded the "Phone tester" app that tests the phone's sensors and I saw that the values of compass and magnetic field were tottaly different when I put the case close to the phone. Of course this is logical because of the magnet but I'd like to ask if there is a chance of damaging anything in the phone after long term use.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
long term damage, probably not. throwing some of the sensors off, most likely. i had a case with a magnetic snap for my g1 back in october 2008, and i noticed that thew compass was always off a bit. figured out it was the magnetic snap. i havent used a magnetic case on any android phone since, havent used any case since actually. to get the compass back to accuracy, a few firm smacks on the back helped.
Hi,
I just got a new case for my Xoom today, and have noticed (way too late ) that it has a magnetic closure. Are these things OK to use with a Xoom? I've heard they mess with GPS usage...well, even though I don't normally use Location or Navigation, it'd be nice to have the option.
Also, when I used the camera with the case on, it made a noise I've never heard the tablet make before - a kind of harsh, low double beep. Should I be as freaked out as I am right now? The magnet *is* right next to the front camera. Could be a coincidence, but I'm very nervous about it, as when anything goes remotely near my xoom
Thanks for any replies I may get here
You should be be good with the magnetic clasp of the cover.. as for the beeping sound, i think its just the focus notification sound..
Yeah, that's possible. If it is, then my problem with this cover may not be the clasp so much as the cutout not being big enough for the camera and skewing the focus. Welp...
Thanks anyway pinoiryder
Hi all, I'm a forklift operator and I have a problem when I'm on my lift. I set my phone down on the tray, which is directly above the battery by about 10 inches, and the screen will randomly turn on by itself. If I'm off the lift, I don't have this problem. I'm no electrical engineer by any means, but is it possible that 2 ton, 1875 amp-hour battery is giving off enough of a magnetic field to trip a sensor somewhere in the phone? There's plenty of wires and metal, but it's really the only thing I can think of. My old EVO 3D did this too sometimes, but I chalked it up to being a bad ground somewhere along the line.
Anybody else share this issue on their lifts or similar machinery?
The nexus 5 does have the smart cover sensor so that is likely the behavior you are describing but I wouldn't have expected a fork lift to be giving off that strong of a magnetic field to interfere with it
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
as alex said i dont think its the forklift....
this is most likely linked to your proximity censor...
The smart cover sensor is magnetic. It shouldn't have anything to do with the proximity sensor.
It's just weird why it's triggering your phone.
Your forklift could use some form of magnetic resistance for lowering which would might explain the triggering
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
I've seen all sorts of proximity to random items trigger the hall effect sensor using magnetism. It's fairly common.
Magnetic hydraulic servos on some forklift, very strong localized magnetic fields in places.
WR
Sent from my Nexus 5
Appreciate the replies. I tested the magnetometer with STools and it does seem like there's a magnetic field towards the front of the lift. At least, the lines moved a lot more. So when you say magnetic resistance, makes sense. One more question, does anybody have any ideas of how to potentially block it? I plug into a speaker while I'm working so that's why my phone sits there. The brass gets real uppity about earbuds.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
You'd need a Faraday cage or the like, then you'd essentially have no cell at all.
Grab a BT speaker perhaps, some crank out near 100 watts an can be heard easily in a small cab wirelessly.
Or a longer patch cord.
WR
Sent from my Nexus 5
The other thread seems be more about non-flip cases.
Has anybody succeeded in finding a flip case that uses the hall sensor. I am talking about cases that typically have a small round magnet somewhere that activate the hall sensor. This turns on and turns off the display automatically (on flip open/close).
I bought one off amazon: https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B074M9RHZV/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The case is OK. But, it does not trigger the hall sensor.
I tried taking a small magnet near the phone, around the bezel. No reaction from the phone. How is the hall sensor on this phone supposed to work ? Asus phones dont need any special activation for this. Samsung needed their special cover that has a chip (galaxy S5). Is something else needed to turn on the hall sensor ?
I emailed HMD global support and got the following link: https://www.nokia.com/en_in/phones/nokia-slim-flip-cover?selectedDevice=
A flip case is listed here for Nokia 5. Has anyone tried it/has any experience with this ?
Thanks.
Answering my own question. I could not find out an accessory that supports the hall sensor. But, did manage to find out where the hall sensor is!
The hall sensor is somewhere near the middle of the screen. On your lock screen, it is around the place that displaces the day of the week (Monday, etc). Strange place to have a hall sensor. But it works! Just try taking a magnet near this spot.
I guess, now I have to find a flat sticky magnet to stick on my flip cover
So, did you found some nice magnet? I have original Nokia slim flip case which doesnt have the magnet, i tried what you said and it works with normal magnet, but it it is too thick. It doesnt work with fridger stickers.
I also have slim neomdyum magnet, but i am affraid to try it.
AIPHEE said:
So, did you found some nice magnet? I have original Nokia slim flip case which doesnt have the magnet, i tried what you said and it works with normal magnet, but it it is too thick. It doesnt work with fridger stickers.
I also have slim neomdyum magnet, but i am affraid to try it.
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Click to collapse
I think the neomdymium magnet should be OK. I know that my previous asus's filp cover had a small (1/2 to 3/4 cm dia) neomdymium magnet. I would be more worried about the magnet hitting the screen when you close (not the power of the magnet itself). I also checked that a simple stick-on magnetic strip does _not_ work.
I made it work nicely! found a great thin magnet in notebook HDD, which o broke in half (about .2cm long and wide now) and then inserted it with ducktape in top of card pocket. Working flawlessly!
Edit: Just compass seems messed when magnet is near.
Ah, I was expecting it to be near the edge somewhere. I'll give this a go as I have a cheap flip case on mine. Does the magnet need to be quite strong? I have some sticky sheet magnets, so I'll maybe try one of them and see what happens.
Magnetic Tape - rather those which can be used to hang metallic tools on a wall than audiotape!! - works also perfectly: no worries about scratching the screen. Can easily be cut to proper size and maybe inserted seamlessly into any flip cover. Search for "magnetic tape roll"