Help! Compass points West not North!!!???

engellion

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Hi everyone. Am reposting this here as not much progress under the Device thread.

I have an HTC Mozart running WP7.5.

No matter what compass app I've downloaded from Market Place (My Compass, Compass, Compass VO, HeadsUp Compass) the compass needle pioints West instead of North.

I did the figure 8 calibration thing a couple of times but still no difference.

A similar thing happens on my son's Samsung Omnia 7.

What is the problem here, the apps or the handset, WP7.5, or the fact that I'm in Australia :-|

Thanks.
 

Gmotagi

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You need a 2nd gen phone with a hardware compass in. 1st gen devices will use gps info to get you direction but that will only be accurate while you are moving.
 

johnmcd348

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I noticed this the other day with my HTC Arrive phone. My phone thinks East is North. I've tried the calibration figure 8 thing and it doesn't matter. There's no change with it. Even with the compass running while I am driving and moving, so you would assume it would be reading the GPS signal makes no difference.

I cannot say for certain but I don't think this was an issue prior to Mango. I "THINK" my compass was working properly with NoDo.
 

choo17

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I'm in Oz as well - new Omnia7 - updated to 7.5 etc.

I can't get the compass to calibrate correctly. 8 times out of 10 North will point South and other times it just picks a random North. I have been calibrating, turning phone off, re calibrating for days now with the compass calibrating correctly once or twice and then loosing correct north again. GRRR!

I wan't to use for driving navigation - but everytrhing is *** around. ie driving past water on my right shows up on the left in navigation!

I've done the figure 8 thing multiple times and it calibrates - just incorrectly. Installed and uninstalled to diag tool etc.

At a complete loss. what to do?

I notice other Omnia 7 users seem to get it after the diag tool unistall, but not for me atm.

Any tips?
 

Deathbyvegemite

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I have an American HTC Titan, but was in Australia last week, and the compass was almost always 90 degrees off... Was thinking it was just my phone, but sounds like it might be bigger than that...

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btbam91

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You need a 2nd gen phone with a hardware compass in. 1st gen devices will use gps info to get you direction but that will only be accurate while you are moving.
Did everyone miss this post? You need a 2nd Gen phone.


Sent from my Windows Phone using Board Express
 

choo17

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Pole shift?

Are we in a pole shift? :cool:

HTC Titan is 2nd Gen, right? and my 1st gen Omnia 7 does have compass - so I don't get the ' you need a second gen device' statement.

Can I turn the compass off then? so I just get GPS info for nav. In the meantime I'm going back to my old Android LG gt540 for navigation duties while driving - no calibration required and knows the direction i'm traveling in!

Pretty sad really...

So if others are experiencing it's not hardware failure? - so I can't return it as faulty!

Is it in the Mango release?

Is it / will it be fixable with a software update?

Is it the compass that throws the GPS off - ie rotation with direction I'm driving. at worst I'm traveling down the screen (not up) and at best I'm traveling accross the screen or off angle by many degrees.

The other issue i'm having that others might be able to advise is when in car the phone seems to drain more battery than the usb charger can supply(my android would charge would increase when in GPS)


Cheers
 

fifthGear

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Having a 1st Gen phone is NOT the problem.

Most of the 1st gen phones have digital compasses so I'm not sure what Gmotagi and btbam91 are talking about. Some of the big complaints about 7.5 were from Dell Venue Pro users because Dell didn't want to update the firmware so the digital compas would work with Mango.
 

chasvs

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Weird. I have Military Compass App which works fine. Just added Compasses which doesn't calibrate correctly! Any ideas other than the Compasses app is in error?

HTC Trophy on Mango, Verizon.
 

rhernani

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I have the same problem. Does anybody know how to fix it?
I have an Htc Titan with 8107 upgrade. I was trying to fix it with a hard reset without luck.
Regards,
Roberto
 

johnmcd348

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That's the strange part on my Arrive. The HTC compass program works fine on my Arrive but any other Compass program or program that uses things like this, There was a Star Gazer program I tried for a bit before realizing the compass wasn't working. All the other compass apps did the same thing. Most seemed to do the same thing and showing North as West instead.
 

sebastianbf

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I have a Samsung focus that shows the same problem. Compass points south instead of north. Of course I tried the 8 figure thing and many compass apps, still have the problem. Any solutions so far?
 

leightonbb

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I have a HTC Trophy. It consistently wrong by points 99 degrees. It thinks west is north. I'm located in New Zealand, and i think it might be something to do with my location.
My wife has a HTC Mozart and it hase exactly the same problem. 99 degrees out.
 

FishOfPrey

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Error in WP7 Compass API.

I've found that there are a couple of anomalies in the WP7 compass API, at least when used in New Zealand.

In particular:
  • The True North heading will be 104/256 degrees out, depending on which direction you are measuring.
  • The magnetic decliation (the angle between true and magnetic north) changes depending on the orientation of the phone.

See WP7 magnetometer data from 360 degree rotation
 

engellion

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Re: Error in WP7 Compass API.

Well, after a year of waiting, it looks like WP7.8 FW 12460 on my Lumia 800 has fixed the compass pointing South or West instead of North when in the Southern Hemisphere.

I just updated my Lumia 800 today, and the Compass apps all point north when I'm facing north.

This was a major OS issue for WP7.5 users in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, etc). It appears to be now fixed with the 7.8 update (at least for me here in Australia).

:)

EDIT 23 March, 2013, 9:46am -- SORY GUYS, I SPOKE TOO SOON. COMPASS IS STILL BROKEN UNDER WP7.8 See my post below.
 
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engellion

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Not resolved for me, even after last 7.8 update yesterday, march 20th, 2013. I'm in Brazil, Brasilia.

Sorry, I spoke too soon. I tried it out with one compass app that seemed to work. I faced North, the compass pointed North, I faced South the compass pointed South -- but that was last night. Closed the app, and restarted it, and now I am back to the same problem. Face north, compass points west, face south compass points North. I tried three other compass apps, they all do the same thing.

Windows Phone magnetometer is broken under WP7.x when you use it in the Southern Hemisphere.

This appears to be a major software glitch with Microsoft. This issue is prevalent on any brand and any model of Windows Phone running WP 7.x in the Southern Hemisphere.

I guess this is never going to be fixed with WP7 :-(

Sorry for the false hopes.
 
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tropolite

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Hi engellion

Download 'Compass Fixer' from the Store. This has rectified my compass issue in Australia (Southern Hemisphere). This has definitely helped with all my directional apps such as City Lens and Compass apps
 

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