[CanadianBB]

Hi Everyone. Is there a compass that is worth buying that actually works? The ones I have tried so far are very inconsistant and I am looking for one that i can use indoors or outside and can trust it to work.

I have NativeCompass 3D, What's Up and neither actually is consistant.

I downloaded Spark Compass and this seems to be the closest thing to finding a working compass.

Magellan Compass... surprise surprise... does not actually have a compas although it is a good map program which is long overdue for an update.

Brian

[PB_Warrior]

How is it that you've not stumbled upon Compass v. 1.2 by Mappau OG? It's excellent.

[pacoman03]

There is an android app called GPS Status, that needs to be sideloaded, but has a compass that works pretty well.

[BB_Bmore]

I use compass pro from skylabs and it works great for me.

[Innovatology]

BuzzStarField, the developer of What's Up, is quite active on this forum. I'm sure he'd be interested to know about any issues. Have you tried e-mailing him or sending him a PM here?

[taylor96]

How is it that you've not stumbled upon Compass v. 1.2 by Mappau OG? It's excellent.

Looked at the reviews on appworld and some are not that great. does it really work well or just some of the time.. tried a couple of the freebees and magellan and they didnt work very well or totally out of wack.. Magellan doesn't even have a compass but the rest of the info looks OK if I wanted it (do not)

Compass Pro review and instructions say you have to be moving for it to work..not use to me..
SO can you please expand a bit on your view and use of Compass V1.2 and maybe that is the one I will buy.. thanks...

[BuzzStarField]

BuzzStarField, the developer of What's Up, is quite active on this forum. I'm sure he'd be interested to know about any issues. Have you tried e-mailing him or sending him a PM here?

Thanks for this but What's up compass has not yet been updated with revised code as of yet. Having some difficulty implementing ANE and smoothing compass output. As another poster indicated Compass v. 1.2 by Mappau OG works great - and I'd sure like to know his technique for calming compass motion.

PS I am willing to trade information about how to correct compass for magnetic declination (which unfortunately not included as part of NDK API).

[Zildjian71]

Have u tried Flight AI-HI. BTW stability is going to be a function of chip drivers and amount of dampening employed by app developer.

[BuzzStarField]

I use compass pro from skylabs and it works great for me.

Compass pro does work with magnetometer but output is not stabilized. Compass v. 1.2 by Mappau OG works much better.

To OP, a completely stable display and gliding transitions are pure cosmetic jiggery-pokery to mathematically dampen/smooth magnetometer output. A jerky display is a bit annoying alright but the accuracy is not compromised.

[hpulley]

Mappau seems good, very good damping, very smooth.

[Boight]

Mappau seems good, very good damping, very smooth.

Yes Compass by Mappau is good and smooth but REALLY REALLY needs a way to compensate for declination, it's 14 degrees out around here.

[hpulley]

Hadn't thought to check deviation from true north.

[jononku]

I was wondering the same thing myself last month, and the responses here seem to agree with what I found. Some say one compass app works great, other disagree. My wife got tired of listening to me talking about compass apps on the playbook so she went to the dollarama and picked me one up for 2 bucks, works great!

[CanadianBB]

Thanks for everyones updates. I find all the compass's to only partially work. I had high hoes on the Nativecompass 3D but did not work for me. Always about 60 to 90 degrees off.

Sparks Compass seemed to work but when I opened it at the same time as Nativecompass, it just started copying it.

I will try the one by Mappau that a few folks have suggested. I know it is only a dollar here and there but tire of paying for non working apps.

B

[BuzzStarField]

Yes Compass by Mappau is good and smooth but REALLY REALLY needs a way to compensate for declination, it's 14 degrees out around here.

API support is very much bare bones. When each dev has to roll her own solution for declination and damping, it is little wonder that the apps have spotty performance. For us RIM devs, everything is more complicated then we would like. In contrast, iOS developers are blessed with full support out of the box. But then Apple has had a few years to get things right and RIM has a ton of "more important" fish to fry right now.

The good news is that the new BB10 Air SDK (beta) has sensor support in it. The bad news is that much of the work that I am doing right now is completely throw-away. It's very frustrating because the SDK (even with limited support) won't be available for real apps for a few more months.

I am having a great deal of difficulty integrating the magnetometer with my astronomy app and have the transitions as silky-smooth as my customers are demanding. Problem one is that I am having to write some c++ code and I am not very good at it. Problem two is that animating the entire sky is a bit more complicated than animating a simple compass dial. I'll keep working on it but I hope that i can be forgiven if it takes a little longer than some of you had hoped.

[CanadianBB]

I agree What's Up is an interesting, huge app that offers a lot. The compass is only one part of it.

Brian

[FF22]

Thanks for everyones updates. I find all the compass's to only partially work. I had high hoes on the Nativecompass 3D but did not work for me. Always about 60 to 90 degrees off.

Sparks Compass seemed to work but when I opened it at the same time as Nativecompass, it just started copying it.

I will try the one by Mappau that a few folks have suggested. I know it is only a dollar here and there but tire of paying for non working apps.

B

Well, if there's one sensor or method of getting to it, I can see that if one app is grabbing it, it may affect another app. So, open only the one that seems to work????

[tunes666]

How is it that you've not stumbled upon Compass v. 1.2 by Mappau OG? It's excellent.

Wish I could say the same, mine wont collaborate.. just flicks on and off...

[hpulley]

Mappau is good here, on purpose or by accident it seems to take the ten degree west declination into account. Calibrated quickly, very smooth.

[Boight]

Buzz, there's nothing wrong with your What's up. Saw the update yesterday, not sure what it included, but then again I have no issues with your program.
For declination, I'd be happy if I could type in the declination (and have it saved) for the area I'm in, no need for fancy shmancy algorithms here.

[BuzzStarField]

Buzz, there's nothing wrong with your What's up. Saw the update yesterday, not sure what it included, but then again I have no issues with your program.
For declination, I'd be happy if I could type in the declination (and have it saved) for the area I'm in, no need for fancy shmancy algorithms here.

Yesterday's update was a maintenance release that corrected a bug in the app's astronomical clock. The in-app help files include detailed release notes for each update.

The app already calculates declination automatically based on your current location - it is painless for the user because the app already knows your location.

If you are interested in finding out how this is accomplished visit the NOAA website. I ported a software implementation of the "World Magnetic Model".

World Magnetic Model - Software Download

[robsteve]

I use compass pro from skylabs and it works great for me.

One complaint I have about this app, actually two, there is no lubber line and no digital output of the heading. How hard can these be to put into an app?

[hpulley]

...I am having a great deal of difficulty integrating the magnetometer with my astronomy app and have the transitions as silky-smooth as my customers are demanding. Problem one is that I am having to write some c++ code and I am not very good at it. Problem two is that animating the entire sky is a bit more complicated than animating a simple compass dial. I'll keep working on it but I hope that i can be forgiven if it takes a little longer than some of you had hoped.

Buzz, you need to beg for or buy mappau's damping algorithm!

[BuzzStarField]

Buzz, you need to beg for or buy mappau's damping algorithm!

I'm too proud to beg but I did send the following email earlier today:


Hello,

I am the author of the PlayBook astronomy app known as "What's up". I am trying to implement an ActionScript Native Extension to provide magnetometer readings to my app. I am not an experienced C++ programer and I am having a lot of trouble damping the event output to provide a smoother animation to my sky chart. I heard about your app on Crackberry.com and downloadeded it and I am very impressed. I am hoping that you will share some of your know-how or point me in the direction of a working native PlayBook example.

I also thought you might like to know how to implement correction for magnetic declination. There is freely downloadable software written in c++ on the NOAA wibe site: I ported a software implementation of the "World Magnetic Model" to AS3 and it works very nicely.

World Magnetic Model - Software Download

Thanks for considering my request and good luck with sales of all of your apps!

Cheers,
Maurice

[mappau-dev]

hi,
i'm one of mappau's developers and thought it would be better to answer your mail/question here in the forum.
there is no "secret" behind our compass. it is a question of calibration and frames per seconds. It is written in pure c and open gl and runs with 60 fps. therefore we can guarantee a smooth rotation.
for those who have problems with our app please get into contact with us...