Accelerometer Issues?

pcguru83 · Jul 6, 2007

Has anyone else experienced brief problems with the accelerometer functioning properly (i.e. switching from portrait<-->landscape)? A day or so after I first got the iPhone, I had an instance where I'd have to really put some force behind the movement from portrait to landscape in order for it to register. Other than that one time, it's worked fine ever since--until today.

As I was leaving work, I was trying to use the Cover Flow browser. I flipped the phone sideways, and I couldn't get Cover Flow to pop up. So I backed out of iPod mode, and went to some pics and tried to rotate the phone. The pics weren't rotating either. As a last ditch effort, I went to Safari, but it wouldn't rotate either.

I figured maybe a reset might work, so I turned the phone off, then back on, and tried it all again. Still not working. However, I did notice that if I would rotate the phone, then tap the back of the phone, it would finally register. By this time, I was almost to my car, so I quit playing around with, but left the music playing.

Now that I'm home and playing with it once again, it's as if nothing ever happened. It's working beautifully again.

Anyone have anything similar to this happen to them? Any other accelerometer "wonkiness" to speak of?

mrtune · Jul 6, 2007

Makes sure the iPhone is vertical not flat. It won't switch to landscape if say, it's laying on a table. The accelerometer works based on gravity, so when it's lying or held flat, it won't work.

pcguru83 · Jul 6, 2007

mrtune said:
Makes sure the iPhone is vertical not flat. It won't switch to landscape if say, it's laying on a table. The accelerometer works based on gravity, so when it's lying or held flat, it won't work.

Thats exactly what it was. Thanks!

athanacius · Jul 10, 2007

**** Man

Mine isnt working even though its in the normal condition. Was working fine till a few hours ago. I am really pissed.

What happens if this is faulty??? Any ideas...

Okay.. so the solution is this - tap it hard a few times on the back side. Shake it, twist it.. started working.

This phone is turning out to be pretty ordinary. I am facing a lot of troubles with it including, ridiculously low volume, maps exit, safari exits, ... apparently MAC OS X is not all that it was made out to be... Really disappointed.

AppleIntelRock · Jul 11, 2007

sometimes... i've got to give my iphone a shake before it senses it.

gr8tfly · Jul 11, 2007

athanacius said:
Mine isnt working even though its in the normal condition. Was working fine till a few hours ago. I am really pissed.

What happens if this is faulty??? Any ideas...

Okay.. so the solution is this - tap it hard a few times on the back side. Shake it, twist it.. started working.

appleintelrock said:
sometimes... i've got to give my iphone a shake before it senses it.

Mine's been 100% stable and predictable (also, my wife's and a friend's). It has to be greater than about 30 degrees to the horizontal, however, otherwise it will "stick" in the last position it sensed.

Sounds like you might need a trip to the Genius Bar.

AppleIntelRock · Jul 11, 2007

gr8tfly said:
Mine's been 100% stable and predictable (also, my wife's and a friend's). It has to be greater than about 30 degrees to the horizontal, however, otherwise it will "stick" in the last position it sensed.

Sounds like you might need a trip to the Genius Bar.

problem is... i have a phobia of anyone that calls themselves a genius.

actually, it doesn't bother me to give it a shake... at least not enough to drive 20 minutes to the Apple Store™

athanacius · Jul 11, 2007

appleintelrock said:
problem is... i have a phobia of anyone that calls themselves a genius.

Considering that they knew less than iPhone owners. "we havent been able to test it completely yet". "You've had more time to check it out than us".

They had no clue to applications exiting on their own will. I think if you switch on iPod, then Safari and then the map and then make a call, you will see very very peculiar behaviour...

dagomike · Jul 11, 2007

Yeah, mind is flawless as long as it's not too horizontal. Sometimes it takes a second to react, but it works.

Black Belt · Jul 11, 2007

mrtune said:
Makes sure the iPhone is vertical not flat. It won't switch to landscape if say, it's laying on a table. The accelerometer works based on gravity, so when it's lying or held flat, it won't work.

Actually an accelerometer is supposed to detect acceleration/motion so I was surprised and annoyed it didn't work horizontally. As is, it only detects orientation and is really a gravimeter.

PBG4 Dude · Jul 11, 2007

athanacius said:
Mine isnt working even though its in the normal condition. Was working fine till a few hours ago. I am really pissed.

What happens if this is faulty??? Any ideas...

Okay.. so the solution is this - tap it hard a few times on the back side. Shake it, twist it.. started working.

This phone is turning out to be pretty ordinary. I am facing a lot of troubles with it including, ridiculously low volume, maps exit, safari exits, ... apparently MAC OS X is not all that it was made out to be... Really disappointed.

If OS X wasn't all it's been cracked up to be, your iPhone would crash when the app did. It's OS X that keeps the phone running when an app crashes. The apps run on OS X, but are not a part of OS X.

avalys · Jul 11, 2007

Black Belt said:
Actually an accelerometer is supposed to detect acceleration/motion so I was surprised and annoyed it didn't work horizontally. As is, it only detects orientation and is really a gravimeter.

This does not make sense. Gravity is indistinguishable from acceleration.

The iPhone likely senses gravity/acceleration in one axis only. You would need a two-axis accelerometer to implement the behavior you want.

himansk · Jul 11, 2007

avalys said:
The iPhone likely senses gravity/acceleration in one axis only. You would need a two-axis accelerometer to implement the behavior you want.

Well actually thats 2 axis, one for the landscape mode and one for the portrait mode which are perpendicular to each other. The third axis would come into play when the iphone is lying flat on its back, which is not detected, so in effect the accelerometer detects in 2 axis and leaves out the third.

joshuajestelle · Jul 11, 2007

pcguru83 said:
I figured maybe a reset might work, so I turned the phone off, then back on, and tried it all again.

It sounds like your problem was simply holding the phone to flat, but to clarify on this point:

Turning your phone off, and back on again, does not constitute a complete reset. To really reset your phone, hold down the top and the front buttons together for 10s or so. That will really reset it. I believe doing this will have a more substantial effect than simply powering it off, and back on again.

Cheers,
Josh

Black Belt · Jul 13, 2007

avalys said:
This does not make sense. Gravity is indistinguishable from acceleration.

Then explain why it won't switch modes horizontally no matter how hard you spin the sucker.

gr8tfly · Jul 13, 2007

Black Belt said:
Then explain why it won't switch modes horizontally no matter how hard you spin the sucker.

Because the sensors are essentially in the same plane of motion (well, 90 degrees apart, I imagine).

edit: They still sense the same amount of acceleration due to gravity in the plane perpendicular to the iPhone (flat on the table, in this example).

This app can give you an idea of how they work, if you have a SMS equipped PowerBook or MacBook Pro: SeisMac

jconway · Jul 20, 2008

So has anyone figured out an fix for this other than taking the phone back to the store? I'm having the same problems as the thread starter.

horasmail · Jul 23, 2008

Chronic Tilt

I installed a couple of accelerometer-using games to my itouch and I noticed that, when I lay it down on a horizontal surfice it takes it like it´s tilted a certain angle to the right. Even though it is not noticeable when I use normal apps like music or photos, I wonder if it can be fixed some way, and if some one is having the same issue...

scmguru · Aug 6, 2008

I've performed a full reset (top/front button) and I've got a bad delay in the screen tilting from horizontal to vertical (and vice versa) of about 5-6 seconds.

I'm running firmware 2.01 with an iphone 3g 16gb

Matdavies · Sep 24, 2012

Since updating my iphone4 to ios6 the accelerometer is not working properly. The phone has to be tilted 45-50° passed vertical to make it switch. Tried hard reset and no joy.

Suggestions?

lookn4wifi · Sep 26, 2012

I've been having issues with Safari not switching to landscape view. Once I force quit Safari it works fine.

Accelerometer Issues?

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