New Accelerometer Supplier Could Be Causing Incorrect iPhone 5s Level and Compass Measurements

[djtech42]

Apple develops and introduces level in iOS 7. Level turns out to be wrong on the 5S. How did Apple not catch this? I thought the hardware and software teams were supposed to be collaborating? (I almost typed calibrating hehe)

 

[opinio]

I don't like the angle of this story.

 

[Rygaard]

need to find out if mine is affected - hope they fix it soon.

Not like they can easy fix a hardware problem

and mine is 5 degrees off, either that or the whole building is tilting 5 degrees.

 

[JLL]

Scary, they call it measurement bias. If I had a 3 degree measurement bias on my trip to the north pole, I would have ended up dead somewhere on the Kamchatka peninsula!

No you wouldn't.

 

[everything-i]

What should happen here is a calibration option should be added in OS settings which would allow a user to calibrate the phone themselves. This is the only way to set up something like this properly as recalibration is needed from time to time.

 

[Ries]

What should happen here is a calibration option should be added in OS settings which would allow a user to calibrate the phone themselves. This is the only way to set up something like this properly as recalibration is needed from time to time.

All the other iphones do it automatic, having a manual calibration option would be a huge failure.

 

[gnasher729]

Here's an idea for the new SVP of Retail.

Set up a table at all Apple Stores worldwide. Have the surface of the table calibrated to be dead flat in all directions.

Send out an email suggesting that interested users can come in and calibrate their iPhones against a known flat surface.

And while you're there, you can pick up a new iPad and a Macbook Air.

ft

You don't need a calibrated table. You don't need a flat table at all.

You'd need a calibration where the user puts his phone on the table for five seconds, then turns it by 180 degrees and puts it down for another five seconds. The first measurement gives device bias plus table tilt. The second measurement gives device bias minus table tilt. The average is the device bias.

Compass is harder.

 

[JLL]

All the other iphones do it automatic.

They do?

Or is the +/- 1° just not as noticable?

 

[mazz0]

I suspect to stay mum on this flaw. Tim burned an apology last year with Maps so I don't think another admission of oops is forthcoming.

However, what I do think will happen is an update that addresses a "Very small" portion of iPhone 5s users who see this behavior. Say less than .01%?

Of course, they never actually fixed Maps, despite apologising.

 

[mw360]

for those who didn't know
Image

This is the seventh version of the iPhone. Which version to you advocate waiting for?

 

[croooow]

Is there any new information here that isn't on the 70+ page thread in the iPhone forum?

I don't know, but if not... as someone who doesn't want to have to read through 70+ pages of comments in a forum to get this information, I'm glad to have a summary presented here.

I would like to add that many people do not really go past the front page stories very much. I was glad to see this story.

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This is the seventh version of the iPhone. Which version to you advocate waiting for?

My grandmother said to always wait for the 10th anniversary of a product before trying it out.

2017's iPhone 7s is the one to get!

 

[6836838]

Deleted

 

[6836838]

iOS and Android just aren't on a level playing-field anymore.

 

[dol4n]

This is exactly why iOS should merge with android and become iDroid. No more buggs, and every phone on the market could run the OS.

It was Steve's vision all along... Tim should know that.

 

[Thunderhawks]

This is exactly why it shouldn't just be compensated by the same amount in every device with an update, but rather a simple "calibrate" button should be added that prompts you to use a real level and calibrate the device. Since, as they said, the bias changes over time, you probably want to recalibrate it from time to time, so it's a useful feature to add.

Every scale, measurement device, etc… even the most professional ones all have the ability to be calibrated. No one's expecting the iPhone to be accurate for this type of thing, which is one more reason to add a calibration feature.

Will you stop making sense here?

We'd rather bash developers or Apple or SAMSUNG than listing to reason!

 

[everything-i]

All the other iphones do it automatic, having a manual calibration option would be a huge failure.

The other phones don't do this, they just have a sensor with a smaller variance so it is less noticeable, my iPhone 4 was about 1 degree out. You should be able to calibrate this on all their phones so calibration can be done when needed as the variance will change over time so it can't be a factory preset or catch all offset.

 

[kdarling]

This theory doesn't explain everything people are seeing.

For one thing, I thought the problem was not just with the accelerometer, but also with the gyro and compass.

To me, that originally pointed to a mistake in the M7 code on the iPhone 5S, as the M7 handled all those sensors.

However, now there are some reports of similar calibration errors on the 5C, which does not have an M7. The only thing common there is the CoreMotion API.

Another possibility is that someone was in a rush at the factory, and several production lines failed to run a calibration routine as part of QA for a while. However, I think the 5S and 5C are made in different factories, so that theory doesn't fly well either.

I'd love to know what's going on for real

 

[everything-i]

They are certainly more than aware of the problem, and are no doubt working on a permanent and sound solution.

Doable, but not that simple really, given that future components will be 100% accurate (hopefully), and those already built into existing iPhones, may not all have exactly the same deviation.

Your confusing accuracy with calibration. These sensors are accurate but need to be calibrated for their output to be interpreted correctly. No sensors are all exactly the same which is why calibration is required even for high end specialist sensors. A simple calibration procedure could be built into the phone settings app as a complete solution to this issue. That would even work for older phones which also have this issue though less noticeable.

 

[H3m]

However, now there are some reports of similar calibration errors on the 5C, which does not have an M7. The only thing common there is the CoreMotion API.

Which sensor is the iphone 5c using? I heard it is a Bosch sensor too, but I can't find a teardown where you can see it.

 

[kdarling]

Which sensor is the iphone 5c using? I heard it is a Bosch sensor too, but I can't find a teardown where you can see it.

I can't find such a teardown either.

It still wouldn't explain why people are reporting not just the accelerometer being off, but also the gyro and perhaps the compass.

That's what's weird here.

 

[samcraig]

I can't find such a teardown either.

It still wouldn't explain why people are reporting not just the accelerometer being off, but also the gyro and perhaps the compass.

That's what's weird here.

Well clearly it's because the Earth is spinning wrong