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Compass bug

ColorSage
Zen Master I
Hello again, 
my magnetic field sensor is quite unstable under several circumstances. I don't think this is a hardware issue so it can be reproduced. It works fine in home but it loses its accuracy ouside:
a) inside metal objects (i.e. cars and buses) - as you rotate the phone the N sign moves unpredictably. Try to notice direction of north, then rotate phone by 90 or 180 degrees. There will be significant difference in measured change and real movement.
b) near strong electromagnetic field - (i.e.  electric lines) - N can drift off of its original place
c) inside some vehicles lags in measurements can also be noticed. 
Basically you can go to the center of a city and look at any compass app. You should be able to reproduce it.
11 REPLIES 11

ColorSage
Zen Master I
Have you compared two phones side by side and walked around? Set both in compass mode in google maps, do the calibration and see if it really is worse than the other.
https://www.wikihow.com/Calibrate-the-Compass-on-Google-Maps-on-Android 
Well I did what you asked. Calibration level is okay but measurement is totally wrong. It seems even worse in comparison with Huawei Mate 10 Pro and Xiaomi Redmi Note 5. Zenfone6 has inferior reading refresh rate and inconsistent result.
Photos - two angles, on floor, no metal objects around. Huawei's and Xiaomi's readings are correct. https://albumizr.com/a/LHkX

Giorgio80
Star III
I checked also with Compass Galaxy app with Zenfone 6 and oneplus 5t.. Gps only mode.. When I open the app, with oneplus 5t there is no need to do the calibration, while with zenfone 6 it asks to do the calibration with 8 movement.
In Google Maps its the same, when I open the app with oneplus 5t compass is OK and with high accuracy, while with zenfone 6 the compass accuracy its definitely more unstable and often not precise (see picture attached, oneplus 5t shows the right direction) ks94dff2rk3k.jpg

ColorSage
Zen Master I
I didn't have hard calibration process or unstable strength, just wrong measurements regardless of calibration

Giorgio80
Star III
To make things more clear, even with Compass Galaxy app there is something weird about compass behaviour .. When I move around in circle its not stable from North East to North West direction... With Oneplus 5t compass  is always smooth and accurate

ColorSage
Zen Master I
Giorgio80 said:
To make things more clear, even with Compass Galaxy app there is something weird about compass behaviour .. When I move around in circle its not stable from North East to North West direction... With Oneplus 5t compass  is always smooth and accurate
That's exactly what my pictures show! It's not about 'accuracy' but simply wrong measurements. North is not supposed to float like that from one place to another