Calibrating your Android Phone's compass

[ravip]

Today most of us use Google maps to find our way around and to look for places.

How often do we calibrate our phones' compass? I faced a challenge trying to do this and here is the story.

From the Home screen, entering the code: *#0*# and clicking the tile "Sensor" and scrolling down to the  "Magnetic Sensor", you see a circle with a line and a number behind it, which has the following meaning:

Red line with a 0 = The compass sensor must be calibrated.

Blue line with a 3 = The magnetic sensor is calibrated.

I see the Blue line with a 3.

 

But on Google maps, it shows that the Compass accuracy is low. The recommended figure of 8 manoeuvre did not make any difference, 

Any recommendations for Compass calibration?

 

Device: SM-A500G

Android version: 6.0.1

[ballpoint]

This works for me:

 

[ravip]

1 hour ago, ballpoint said:

This works for me:

 

Thank you for the tip. After this did your Google Maps...

1. Blue Dot beam become narrower?

2. Google maps compass calibration say your Compass Accuracy: High?

 

[ballpoint]

42 minutes ago, ravip said:

Thank you for the tip. After this did your Google Maps...

1. Blue Dot beam become narrower?

2. Google maps compass calibration say your Compass Accuracy: High?

 

I don't know if it will ever get any narrower than that shown below, but mine is about that, or maybe a little wider.  Clicking on the dot and choosing the "Calibrate compass" option brings up the figure 8 diagram and the message "Compass accuracy: high"  I've checked it against a magnetic compass using an App called "My Magnetic Instrument", and also use it for a couple of astronomical apps, namely Redshift and Sky Map, with the stars and planets all in their correct positions - though, admittedly, a small error would be hard to spot in this case.

 

I did notice that the beam changes width with location - generally being narrowest when outside, probably due to magnetic interference when indoors or near buildings/cars when outdoors.  Some phone cases also have a magnetic clasp, which probably doesn't do it much good either. 

 

Do you have your location set to high accuracy?

 

[ravip]

Yes. Location set to high accuracy. But clicking on the Blue Dot says the compass accuracy is low. But for all Navigation purposes Google maps works fine.  I  just want to see why the app reports that the compass accuracy is low - want to fix it. Thank you for your responses. 

[mtls2005]

That may be the best you can achieve given the available hardware (sensors), Android rev. and GMaps version?

 

I think my phone has Accelerometer, Compass, Gyroscope sensors, running Android 9 (January 1, 2019 update), and GMaps 10.7.1

 

 

[tifino]

yeah! there's no 8 different ways to do it! ????