What are your experiences with compass and compass-dependent app on the Fairphone 6 with e/OS/? For me, the direction shown is always obviously wrong, often roughly off by 90°:
Compass: direction is wrong, and the sensor status always shows low precision no matter how long and often I turn the phone to calibrate
OsmAnd: When rotating the map according to compass direction, OT is also obviously wrong: When walking along a street and holding the phone straight in portrait mode, the map is oriented in orthogonal direction.
Do these apps also have the same issue for you? Any other apps working correctly and this is depending on the API used by the app?
Do you have something attached to the phone case or always near the phone which could interfere with the compass?
Thinking of some kind of metallic sticker or chain or something.
(I can tilt the compass of my Fairphone 3 by standing next to a metallic radiator in my home, but that’s not something to have next to the phone all the time .)
I had this Compass app years ago (but currently not). As far as I remember it had a switch in the options to use always the built-in magnetic sensor or to use the location service (based on GPS and other data). Try this switch to get a better result. Maybe you calibrate the magnetic sensor but then it isn’t used because your switch is on GPS, don’t know. Currently I use the SatStat app for compass purposes which is thought to be full GPS, but when the location service isn’t active at all the compass works still fine with the magnetic sensor alone.
OsmAnd needs a proper GPS signal to at least four satellites free of disturbances and reflections and it can take minutes until it is established. Can be that a change of your physical position could lead to much better results (more satellites). Don’t stand under a tall house facade or rockface or at the bottom of a gorge, the best is always you have 360° free sight. Use SatStat or GPSTest to analyze your actual GPS connections in this moment.
I made a little research previously for an app to face Mecca.
Seems most devices have a sensor for Magnetometer. Magnetometer output combined (I understand) with GPS can give the useful result to “point North” used on most map apps. There is an alternative sensor but manufactures do not seem consistent in naming it “Compass sensor” so difficult for a layman to distinguish the difference in sensors. I suggest that fp6 has a Magnetometer sensor but not Compass as I do not see it mentioned anywhere. One could make a technical enquiry with Fairphone support (or AI ??)
On my Moto the Compass app is specific in mentioning the required strings_not_found which fits with my device having Magnetometer but no Compass.
Compass app looks nice here
Works better if Maps is first opened. Speculation, perhaps Maps is stronger in pulling GPS into action than Compass app (??)
seems to require quite a bit of movement to come good.
Suddenly, the compass is working fine, I don’t know what changed. For the first time (I swear), the Compass app is also showing full accuracy as sensor status.
Yes, I have a shiny sticker attached to the back of the phone that might contain something metallic. But as @aibd explained, the sensor in the phone likely does not measure a fixed magnetic position, but changes of the magnetic field along 3 axes. A fixed metallic object then always influences the field in the same way.
I’d have removed the whole back of the phone as a test, but now that it’s working correctly I better leave it as is
I’ve had this problem before on my previous Pixel on stock Android, and now on my Fairphone. I sometimes switch between multiple maps apps, and the common denominator has been CoMaps - if I switch between a different maps app and CoMaps, one of the maps apps will then have a compass pointing in the wrong (usually directly opposite) direction.
.)