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Calibration on iPhone 5s Compass and Level Appears Incorrect
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You might consider falling back on handto-eye coordination to not steer your car off the street... And I don't think you can really call 8-10 degrees "unnaturally tilt".
maybe.. i don't know.. i don't even have a 5s to try anyway..
thing is, you (not you in particular) shouldn't even be using a level to check the accuracy of another level..
in the case of the phone, you should only be using the phone to see if it's reading true..
put it on its edge on a flat surface (use the edge of that surface to line up with).. shim the surface until it reads 0º.. turn the phone around and line it up on the edge of the surface again.. it should read 0º again.
(EDIT) i read back in the thread.. i see that you @burgdog have already said similar)
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Explains why I keep walking in circles.I knew it wasn't the scotch!
Given that there seem to be consistent 'clumps' of inaccuracy at certain values, this is either an assembly-related issue, or an issue with certain batches of the sensors. The test units may not have exhibited the issue if it is related to an unnoticed change in one small part of the assembly line, or a batch of chips that wasn't used in the test batches.
I find it interesting that some 5s devices register accurately, and others in clusters at 2, 4, 5, 8, and 10 off. The 2-degree difference would probably escape a cursory check of whatever surface is used during factory calibration, and the 4 or 5 *might*, but the 8 and 10 should be pretty danged obvious.
to me, this is no new problem...
my 3gs has had the same... but even worse... 9 degree
racing games where totally unplayable because it was extreme hard to drive straight. Then i got a new one, it was also not perfekt but only about 1 or 2 degree wrong.
On monday i get 2 iPhone 5s silver 64gb ... especially orderd the second one if the first one does have the typical wiggly on off button nearly every iphone i had before did have.
also the first ipad mini i got.
Don't accept that and don't want to wait weeks to get the replacement ^^
now i can take the one with the more accurate level too ^^
my 3gs has had the same... but even worse... 9 degree
racing games where totally unplayable because it was extreme hard to drive straight. Then i got a new one, it was also not perfekt but only about 1 or 2 degree wrong.
On monday i get 2 iPhone 5s silver 64gb ... especially orderd the second one if the first one does have the typical wiggly on off button nearly every iphone i had before did have.
also the first ipad mini i got.
Don't accept that and don't want to wait weeks to get the replacement ^^
now i can take the one with the more accurate level too ^^
So you think a few degrees is going to matter for a gaming or fitness app? Nice try though.
Everything I own is apple: iphones, ipods, macbook pro, apple tv
I convinced my relatives to convert to apple: iphones, macbook pros, etc.
I have been flying the apple flag for a number of years, but I'm sad to say that IN MY OPINION, apple has become rubbish.
This is just another example. Apple has become rubbish.
People shouldn't have to constantly deal with bugs, problems, battery issues and the like every time they upgrade. It's pathetic.
Before you flame me... remember - I said this is my opinion.
Most people that are reading this know it's true.
I'm on iOS 6.1.2 (jail-broken), and I'll probably stay there forever until the phone stops working. I'm tired of dealing with problems.
Sadly for us, the old saying "it just works" is no longer true.
I convinced my relatives to convert to apple: iphones, macbook pros, etc.
I have been flying the apple flag for a number of years, but I'm sad to say that IN MY OPINION, apple has become rubbish.
This is just another example. Apple has become rubbish.
People shouldn't have to constantly deal with bugs, problems, battery issues and the like every time they upgrade. It's pathetic.
Before you flame me... remember - I said this is my opinion.
Most people that are reading this know it's true.
I'm on iOS 6.1.2 (jail-broken), and I'll probably stay there forever until the phone stops working. I'm tired of dealing with problems.
Sadly for us, the old saying "it just works" is no longer true.
I'll try not to, but I won't rely on either the iPhone of the Stanley to keep me level in the saddle.
I brought my 5s to the apple store last week with this same exact problem, the genius was a bit of a jerk then claimed nothing was wrong because he took out his iphone 5 in a case and got the same reading as me. I think this is ios 7 because i jsut tried it with my coworkers iphone 4s and iphone 5 on a completely flat surface, caseless 4s read a 0 iphone 5 with a case read a -1
this just doesnt make sense to me.. wouldn't you just hold the phone so the car drives straight? you pay attention to whats happening on screen.. no what angle you're holding the phone at.
Understandable but this forum tends to forget that Apple is made up of humans just like the rest of us and no matter how genius a person's brain is they are still human at the end of the day. Perfect isn't possible with humans.
The issue is that it cannot be calibrated out. I've tried, it can't be done. You can zero it in one orientation but then the error is doubled in the opposite orientation.
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I agree, it appears on the surface to be a trivial fix. I expect, though, it will require adding some calibration process that will need to be coded and added to the software.Worst case scenario: iOS 7 update coming soon.
Yep. I had to stand there and listen while some genius lectured me about magnetic declination. I tried to drop hints that I knew all about that and it was unrelated to the problem, but he was on a roll, so I had to wait until he was done.
The problem was that when the phone was turned to 180 (after having lined it up with 0 degrees North), it showed more like 168 or so. It was way off. Returning it to zero might yield zero, or any value + or - several degrees. Same thing if you pointed it to 90 or 270.
say the thing was the most accurate level ever known to mankind.. then what?
I mean, if you show up on site and break out your torpedo level (like the one gizmodo is using) to plumb a wall, you're fired.. show up with your 5" long level (the phone) to do the same and you're going to get beat up first then fired.. it doesn't matter how accurate the thing is. the size/edges of the phone is simply way too small for it to even matter in the first place.
I'm pretty sure apple could make a perfectly fine (say 1/4" over 100') laser level if they wanted to.. i'd guess they could do better than that even.. but with the size of a phone, I think they're plenty smart enough to realize that accuracy isn't important in the way people in this thread are making it out to be. the level apps and whatnot are novelty items. if you think they're to be used in situations where true accuracy is important then you're missing a key factor in the equation-- that is, the length of the phone is going to foul up placement more than a low tolerance sensor will.
it's being made into a big problem for no practical reason. I'm not defending apple here-- only agreeing with their engineers in this case.. I'm more just trying to point out that watching people complain about the accuracy of a 5" long level is pretty damn funny.
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maybe hard to tell from the angle you shot the bubble from but from where i'm sitting, that looks right.. as in, the bubble isn't exactly in the middle and it's saying the shelf is slightly tilted (the right side is lower).. same thing the phone is saying.
i think this thread may be more about people not knowing how to use a level accurately
(though a 3' wide shelf at 2º tilt is 1.25" lower on one side.. the shelf probably isn't that far out of whack)
Yea the first picture I took the angle was bad, that made the bubble look off. If you see the 2nd pic I posted you will see the bubble is dead center but the phone says its 2 degrees off. That would make one side of my shelf 1 3/4 inch lower on one side!
It is not being used in places where accuracy needs to be in tenth of a degree range or better like construction. It being used for phone applications like a camera where it would be nice for the horizon lines to match the actual horizon. 1 degree of error here is too much, don't need more accuracy than that for this type of application.
Microsoft Wouldn't include a compass or a level metre in the os.
Microsoft don't.
If Microsoft did, it would only work sometimes, and when it did it would only show the level in one orientation, and it would only go from -2 to +2.
http://http://venturebeat.com/2013/...ed-up-and-so-are-the-games-that-rely-on-them/
How about now. Are we still complaining about nothing?
link about games
I suppose people need something to complain about.....good grief.
Have fun!
How about now. Are we still complaining about nothing?
link about games
yeah.. i guess that's a decent scenario to actually use a phone sized level in a real world scenario (gem boxes).
I would also use it on 3ft lighting fixtures that get toggle bolted to the wall