Compass issue - ASUS ZenFone 6 (2019) Questions & Answers

Hello!
I have just faced with an issue with the compass. Most of the time (>70% of cases) when I open the Google maps (or any other maps app) it shows the wrong direction. E.x. I am walking north and the app shows that I am faced south as if I was walking my back forward. After calibrating the compass everything becomes back to normal until next app launch or phone reboot.
I use a plastic case (which came with the phone) and it should not interfere with the compass/magnetometer. The firmware is: WW_17.1810.1910.73 (Android 10). The phone is not rooted and the bootloader is not unlocked.
This issue annoys me because I often use maps for the pedestrian navigation. Besides that this is the second Zenfone 6 I own. The first one was replaced/refurbished due to the camera defect (there is a thread in this forum about the camera failure).
This time though I believe it is a software bug because after calibration the compass works well until a restart. Sometimes I have to calibrate compass in another app (e.x. Yandex.Maps), but anyway I really hope this is a software issue.
I am attaching a screenshot to show the issue. The red arrow shows my real direction and the Google maps sector shows that I am faced ~90 degrees clockwise. This is not even the worst case I got.
Has anybody faced with the same problem? Does anybody know is it possible to fix it?

From my experience, it's very unstable. Even after calibration it shows irrelevant angle changes and I've spoken to Asus on multiple occasions about this. They pushed an .191 update which made it a little bit better but I don't know if that's a weak hardware limitation or too much interns on their team.

I really hope it is a software bug...
And it is quite annoying, because when I want to get somewhere by foot and don't know the direction, I must be sure the phone doesn't confuse left and right.
How did you contact the Asus? Shall I maybe send them a message too? The more people talk about the issue - the higher its priority becomes. I am ready to share the logs/debug info and even to test the fix.

I also have problems, I use maps for work and the compass says I'm pointing a direction and instead I'm pointing to a different one and I have to calibrate it every time I turn on gps and maps

I'm seeing the same random directions and I'm currently running LineageOS. So if this is a firmware issue, it is likely in the kernel.
For accurate directions when moving, try Locus Map. It has a setting that determin direction based on your movement (using GPS). It beats google for everything except realtime traffic.

I have also posted a thread on the forum where I believe developers are present: https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discuss...le-maps-and-other-maps-apps-android-10#latest
Shall you maybe post info there too to raise the awareness and confirm that this is a common (not individual) issue?

CbIP said:
I have also posted a thread on the forum where I believe developers are present: https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discuss...le-maps-and-other-maps-apps-android-10#latest
Shall you maybe post info there too to raise the awareness and confirm that this is a common (not individual) issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should link to this thread from your post on ZenTalk forum that there are other users confirming this problem.
I believe this problem is on all ZF6s, but not every user will notice it, let alone report it.

Related

I9003 Compass Jumping Around!

Well the compass does point at the right direction but when I fired up street view and turned on compass mode, (which is pretty sweet btw) no matter how still I hold the phone or even place it flat on a table for that matter, the image keeps quivering. The image just does not stay in one place! Went into test mode and under sensors I checked it out it was the same quivering. Also under settings>display> theres an option for Horizontal calibration, funny thing is even when placed on a absolutely flat surface (I tried at different places), the small ball in the center does not stay still! Why is this so? This issue makes using sky map,street view,layar etc quite unusable because of all the jitter! Any fix for this?
Jumping around happens when you are near a magnetic field such as speaker,computer etc. move away in open area, jumping should reduce.
In the compass settings> noise filter set to strong, sensor rate slowest & buffer display ticket with green check mark.
This should solve your problem, if not then report back.
sgsI9003 said:
Jumping around happens when you are near a magnetic field such as speaker,computer etc. move away in open area, jumping should reduce.
In the compass settings> noise filter set to strong, sensor rate slowest & buffer display ticket with green check mark.
This should solve your problem, if not then report back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which compass settings are you referring to? Where do I find these settings?
Compass is a app which you can download from the market in that you will have those settings, once set you wont face that jumping issue. Mine stay still.
By saying street view are you referring to layar which shows a compass too?
Ok I'll try that out, but will changing those settings in the app apply to the whole system?
The street view I was referring to is from google maps with compass mode on.
I had the same problem as your since i installed compass & set it the right way that problem was never noticed, earlier it use to jump, so my best guess is that those settings are somehow being read by other apps too.
In my case google maps with compass mode remains quite still.
Do report back with the results.
Well I tried your fix and it worked kinda, the twitching has reduced but its still there which is very annoying. In service test under sensors it still keeps jumping around. I've also tried using it in a place free from magnetic signals but still the same. Is it this way for all galaxy s users our could mine be faulty?
Mine stays perfectly still (FW ddkb1) whats your FW?
Compass on google map works only when gps is enabled & locked, if gps is not able to lock then it might have the problem which you are describing.
Are you able to lock on to the gps (icon stops flashing)?
Well I'm on the same firmware as you (kb1). (kies keeps crashing if I try to update to kb2, but that's another issue)
The twitching issue I'm talking about should not be related to gps, on the map itself it does not twitch at all, but when I go to say new york on the map and go to street view, and enable compass mode, even if I hold the phone vedas still the image on the screen still vibrates.
I tried to replicate at my end but i don't have any issues, maps don't vibrate, however they rotate as per compass pointing (locked) to north.
What do you mean by street view, there is no such option in maps at my end, when i go to new york I see a road map only, is there something which i am missing?
Seems some setting we have is different between you & me though we both are on kb1 but cant figure out what.
sgsI9003 said:
I tried to replicate at my end but i don't have any issues, maps don't vibrate, however they rotate as per compass pointing (locked) to north.
What do you mean by street view, there is no such option in maps at my end, when i go to new york I see a road map only, is there something which i am missing?
Seems some setting we have is different between you & me though we both are on kb1 but cant figure out what.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so i'm guessing you have never tried street view before, ok so just enter 'new york' into the search box and it will take you there, once there you will see a big red arrow pointing downwards to the map with New York written above. Click on the name and select the right most option (a man standing) that will take you to street view, once in there press the menu key and turn on compass mode. Try holding the phone still or even place it flat on a table and see if the image twitches. (Its a pretty cool thing anyways, you'll enjoy it! )
The probelm that I am facing is similar to this
Jumping Compass
Oh I have seen street view on desktop numerous time didn't know its a feature on our phones too. Now I tested street view as per your instruction & it does change its angle 5° approx & flicker but in compass mode it just show me the bottom of the 360° image & no more moves.
The issue could be in street view as its in beta testing.
The jumping compass video is what I was having the problem but after I changed the settings it got stabilized.
We can ask bala who has updated his fw to kb3 to test this if the problem is same or not.
sgsI9003 said:
Oh I have seen street view on desktop numerous time didn't know its a feature on our phones too. Now I tested street view as per your instruction & it does change its angle 5° approx & flicker but in compass mode it just show me the bottom of the 360° image & no more moves.
The issue could be in street view as its in beta testing.
The jumping compass video is what I was having the problem but after I changed the settings it got stabilized.
We can ask bala who has updated his fw to kb3 to test this if the problem is same or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you updated your google maps? Its at version 5.3.0 now. It could not be street view's fault because it used to work perfectly fine on my xperia x10 earlier. Come to think of it the x10 had far better gps and compass components (but seriously lacked in other areas).
Changing the settings in compass app worked only in that app itself, its not a general fix for it though.I would like to know if all i9000/i9003 have this problem...
magnetometergate?
I just bought this same phone and I'm experiencing the same jitter. This is a real show stopper since it renders useless apps like those mentioned here, panorama stitching, Google sky map and others. I'm really annoyed and thinking about returning the phone.
The Iphone 3Gs does not suffer this issue, the compass moves smooth and softly.
This seems to be a hardware problem, maybe Samsung can improve the software filter or update the sensor firmware.
Since I am using xxkb3 now I tested again but this compass jumping problem still is the same.
I remember that xxkb3 offers few calibration & tweaking of setting for compass but what these settings do is not known to us hence I have not changed anything, I still feel that this can be addressed by tweaking the settings & not really a hardware issue.
The compass in i9003 is more sensitive to magnetic field disturbance hence the problem.

Google Maps recent problem?

Greetings,
Recently, I'd say about a week or so now, I've noticed an odd glitch in Google Maps that was never present before. It is not consolidated to any phone/rom/kernel/setting as I have tested it on 3 totally different phones now all running variant roms and setups, one not even rooted. So I can easily cross that out as a possibility.
The problem here is that when I used to zoom in close enough that you could see the borders for land plots, there would be a dark black line for the borders. Now it's an extremely faint white thats near impossible to see over the pinkish-white background.
Anyone else have this problem besides me and my family?
Bumping. I'd appreciate ANYONE on Android opening up Maps and zooming in to test this for me please. It takes <60 seconds and will be great to know if others are experiencing this.
I just updated to the recent version of Maps and now this seems to be happening to me, if I understand your description correctly. There are thousands of white boxes superimposed over everything, and they don't correctly line up with property borders if that's what they are supposed to be doing. It ruins the view.
I uninstalled the update and things went back to normal. This happened on my phone and my Galaxy tablet. Not sure what's going on. Never happened before.

Compass issues after upgrading to Lollipop

Hey guys,
New smartphone user here. I've had Nexus 5 for a few months now.
Lollipop is really well made and the new visuals are great. Everything seems to be working well so far, except for my compass. It does not work either in my Compass app or in Google Maps. I've seen a few threads where people lost some of their sensors, so I downloaded Sensor Box to see what it would find.
The magnetic sensor works properly, but there isn't a "compass" sensor in it. Are they different or is the compass position determined using the magnetic sensor? The GPS Essentials compass does work, but it feels very slow and it's all over the place.
Additionally, when I start my Compass app, it does not activate Location like GPS Essentials would, although, it fetches my current address properly on top of the compass itself. (see attachment)
Could it be just that the compass works in a different way in Lollipop and apps have to be updated for it? I'm completely lost. Any help would be appreciated, guys.
Cheers,
I am experiencing the same issue.
I'm also having this issue, only app I did get it to work with was Compass 360. But I really only would need it for Google Maps, so this is still very annoying.
Did anyone come up with a solution, or at least an explanation yet?
Or does anyone know where to file a bug report about such an issue?
Are you sure the APIs just didn't change with Lollipop? If one app works and not another, it may not be a Lollipop bug.
Kompass is dead on for me, no issues whatsoever. Try moving the phone in a horizontal figure 8 to calibrate the kompass and watch for electrical/magnetic interferences.

Accelerometer X-axis stuck (not always). Any calibration/reset tips?

Hello people,
I have been experiencing a weird issue lately with my OPO. It seems that for no apparent reason, my accelerometer's X-axis gets stuck in 0.000m/s² value, resulting in the inability to rotate the screen to landscape mode. And, again for no apparent reason, it starts working correctly... until the time it breaks again!
It's really crazy. Last night for example it was broken, I was browsing xda from chrome just to find a possible solution, and suddenly it started working, device just turned from portrait to landscape! When I woke up it was not working again. Sometime around the afternoon it started working again -without me doing anything-, not even handling the phone, it was flat on my desk! After 8 hours of working, it got stuck again right as I was writing this post...
Even when it's stuck however, If I try to shake the device very hard (to the point that it almost flies off my hands) I get a very small reading, around ~0,050m/s² to ~0.200m/s².
(readings were taken with Sensors app)
A reboot does not fix this. I have tried lots of configurations, it's not app/xposed related since it also happens after a full wipe and after flashing the 44S fastboot image. It's not kernel related (I think...) since it happens both with Stock and Franco. So it's either hardware, or related to the ROM.
I believe (and really hope) it's not hardware related since it started a while after flashing 44S, before that the accelerometer worked flawlessly. Also, I may be ignorant here, but if it was hardware it would break down once and for all, it wouldn't work intermittently, right? Either way, the device of course was never dropped or hit so as to damage the sensor in any way.
I've also read one report of the exact same problem on the OPO forum, but could not contact the poster, and several other reports of the accelerometer breaking down (and later being fixed) but in CM nightlies.
I have already tried to calibrate/reset through several apps but without any success. Is there anything else I can try to, erm, "un-stick" it? Maybe there's a configuration file I need to delete or something or a specific way to reset/calibrate it in CM. Or even tapping the device in a specific place? (lol I'm reaching here, but I can't think of anything else).
I have already reported the issue to Jira, if someone is experiencing the same please provide your input here.

Gps not working properly

In my device Gps in google maps is not working properly.
First time it wont show the exact location after closing and reopening it sets the location correct. But if i move, it can't track it and go into grey dot.
But the google navigation works perfectly.
Anyone else facing this issue?
neeraj.17 said:
In my device Gps in google maps is not working properly.
First time it wont show the exact location after closing and reopening it sets the location correct. But if i move, it can't track it and go into grey dot.
But the google navigation works perfectly.
Anyone else facing this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am facing the same issue but on LineageOS 16.0. I tried to use GPS Locker to find satellites but none were found. I was also using the magisk optimized GPS file replacement. If anyone knows anything, please help. Not having GPS sucks.
My GPS on stock android is also not to good. Sometimes it shows badly my location and often it does not detect directions well. Arrow is pointed in wrong direction and when I move it is moving to the sides not forward. Also when I launch Harry potter game my character is also walking sideways. I tried to calibrate compass but is does not help to much.
My issue is gone now... I did nothing different just regularly updated my phone...also haven't tried any of there games so can't confirm if this is present there

Categories

Resources