David Carrington

Web geek that likes phones
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How to calibrate/fix the compass in Android/G1

Published by David Carrington on November 10, 2008 07:55 pm under Mobile

Every time I go to demonstrate the fantastic Street View mode in Google Maps on my new G1 handset, I find that it never knows which way it should be facing. This was also true when using the Wikitude application (which is also very cool). So – how to fix this? I’ve found a method on the internet which works every time for me.

All you have to spin the phone pretty quickly in your hands, obviously keeping a firm grip on your expensive handset, but flipping it fairly agrressively in all sorts of directions. For example, rolling it over and over in your hands is how I usually do it. And that’s all you need to do to calibrate the T-Mobile G1/Android handset’s compass feature, and the fix only takes a few seconds!

Now I can show people the Eiffel Tower and scenes around New York whenever I like. I hope this works for everyone else too.

3 Comments so far

  1. Terrence on December 19th, 2008

    Thank you so much for the info. I thought I would have to take my phone in or replace it. You my friend, are the man.

  2. bambam on December 21st, 2008

    You are the man!! I have been thinking my phone was broken and even reset it and lost most of my stuff to get this to work. It works like a champ now, thanks.

  3. tgskills on January 12th, 2009

    I’m on my G1 now and I tried doing that, but I still got nothin. Trying to show off to my dad, but so far not going to well. Lol.

    -Thomas

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    I'm David Carrington, a 25 year old web developer / geeky guy from Maidenhead in the UK
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