Download Phone Compass
Rachel Neylon
I know it's a rant but just take a look at the competition. Nothing above the entry level is missing the compass, Motorola is the only big OEM taking it off. Even entry level Samsungs from the A20 and beyond now have it (and they used to be the worst in this regard, some Galaxy J phones didn't even have a proximity sensor). I don't think there's an excuse for Moto here.
I would have thought that a GPS based compass would have shown True North, but I have one on my tablet and it is influenced by anything metallic and magnetic local to it. Oddly the clasp on the tablet case is magnetic and really throws it all.
Phone compasses work the same way as real compasses. There are compass apps that use your GPS location to automatically determine your magnetic declination and correct it for you. There are also GPS apps that will have a true north pointer.
The simple solution to this is to either just add or subtract the difference, or get a magnetic compass that lets you adjust in the offset. Now this will only be good for one area, but if you travel, you can easily re-calibrate the declination.
Of the electronic devices I have tried they are very inaccurate. I bought a magnetic stand alone digital compass from a reputable firm. I followed the calibration instructions, took it out with no metal on me, or in any direction for 500 ft. It did not read North when I was facing north, I turned east, south, and west, and back north. I got varying degrees of error. I would hate to rely on this thing out in the back country.
One can purchase digital compasses accurate to a degree or so but they are not cheap. The last time I looked, just the sensing unit was several hundred dollars. And they still required calibrations that involved "swinging the compass" (complete revolutions) multiple times.
For what they're designed to smartphone compasses do a good job.For navigating the night sky accurately, not so much.
Jon
The magnetic north pole is well south of the actual north pole well into Canada. The only line of declination that would be straight in the states is 0. As such, everything else curves as you go north, so you need to know your declination and set it on a manual compass.
Is there any other reason why then compass on my series 5 watch is wrong? I wear a strap with no magnets and there are no other magnets about that I know of, but the compass on my compared to my the compass on my phone is wrong... I have even used a real compass to compare and the phone is correct by my watch is wrong. Anything I can do to fix or sync them together?
For me gyro was not working while playing apex legend. ASUS service center said replace main board then i keep giving to others people to repair at after 3 different repair person last guy soloed it. It was just upper side board but repairs guy took 120 + just to replace upper side board now gyro working on new state, codm, aim trainer but not on my main game Wtf but now e Ecompasss now not working
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That seems MADNESS . I would guess most people use the compass most of the time. I certainly do. I rarely use the map, except maybe in very built up cities, but I rarely cache in such a place. A map isn't as good where there are no roads and paths.
Which app are you talking about? A friend (sitting right next to me, who uses his phone a lot) still has a compass and it has recently been updated. It's an Android based phone and uses the geocaching app for Android.
Yeah, they seem to have linked access to the "compass" screen to the device having a magnetic sensor "compass". They aren't the same thing though, and Groundspeak's app was apparently working fine displaying the "compass" screen to those who did not have a magnetic sensor "compass".
Some Android phones don't have a compass sensor (like the Moto G4) so any compass related apps won't rotate. Google is migrating their internal sensor software to more advanced versions to be more accurate with less battery usage. As apps update to use this newer internal Android software that's dependent on a compass sensor they may no longer function as before. It's really not the app's fault as they are dependent on Google/Android so must adapt as Android changes. The blame really goes to the hardware manufacturers who chose not to include important sensors to save money.
The problem with losing this screen, for me, is that it also displays my current lat/long and the cache's lat/long, side by side. These values are not dependent on having a compass sensor, but for some reason the app now denies me the ability to see them because my phone lacks unrelated hardware.
I've just been directed to this topic thread by one of our New Zealand retired reviewers. I too feel a bit paralysed in both my searching and my hiding. I hadn't updated the app in a while, so only lost my compass about 6 weeks ago. If I'd known I wouldn't have updated. I used that view quite often. Looks like I'll have to buy a new phone.
Just bought a tablet. For geocaching this summer . Then loaded geocaching program but they changed to needing magnetic sensors , compass not working. Being retired can not afford the EXPENSIVE tablets with magnetic sensors.none of my other devices have the magnetic sensors either. They are going to eliminate a lot of people from the hobby, unless someone know's another third party program or work around to use GPS sats to use compass. Longtime member. Help appreciated always used compass especially to zero in.
I have never used the compass on my GPS's, I always look at the map. I guess the arrow will point to the cache when you're moving so you could always use the compass that way. There are other apps you could use if the GS app doesn't do what you want.
They are going to eliminate a lot of people from the hobby, unless someone know's... a work around to use GPS sats to use compass. Longtime member. Help appreciated always used compass especially to zero in.
Look at Locus Maps, which can use GPS for compass direction if the magnetic sensor is not available. It has Geocaching features to load caches and Pocket Queries. There are also GPS Sat compass Apps, but I wouldn't recommend one that requires loading cache coordinates from other Apps.
The GPS compass is of course not affected by the magnetic interference of a car or whatever, and doesn't need to be calibrated. That's cool. The uncool thing is that you must be moving in a consistent direction and at enough speed for the device to calculate the compass needle. But if you were fine with that previously, an App that has a "GPS compass" feature is the way to go.
I have an Etrex20x and almost always use the compass. I also have a Motorola G4 with official app and on the rare occasion I've used it I have it on the map because I never thought to set it to compass. So today, after reading through the previous posts, I fired it up and found there is a compass button on the map screen I had never noticed before. So, I pressed the compass button and I saw this message "This device does not have a compass Use the map to navigate to geocaches". Now I feel like I'm missing out on something that I had previously never missed. Dadgum it.?
My phone does have a magnetometer; however, I wonder if many of the COs where I cache have their GPSrs set to True North when determining placement coordinates. (I do, because (unless otherwise instructed), required projections (around here) seem to be based on True North.) Perhaps this is why I have rarely found my phone compass to be of much use, except in getting to the general area?
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