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My Compass Is In Error By 60-90 Degrees. Can I Use The Gyro Instead? (Answer: No, But You Can Calibrate Your Compass)

Geoff Lau 2015

December 27, 2018 19:10

Answered

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The doco says that on devices without a compass, the internal gyro can be used.

 

My iphone 7 compass in hopeless - it can be in error by 60-90 degrees, which makes using Sky Safari to find objects a waste of time. As you say in a response to a 2017 request for a compass/gyro offset feature, ios is feeding you bad data and there is nothing you can do about that.

 

A fix for me would to be able to use the internal gyro and not the compass. That would allow me to calibrate the app by pointing at a known object and thereafter find other objects.

 

Can I disable the compass in some manner that will cause Sky Safari to use the gyro instead?

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3 comments

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  Bill Tschumy January 03, 2019 20:34

  Sorry, that is not possible.  It is only on the old iPod touches where there wasn't a compass that the gyro could be used.

  I occasionally see the compass being off by quite a bit but it can generally be fixed by calibrating it.  Try turning the compass on and the turning the device over around all 3 axes.

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  Dean January 04, 2019 01:58

  Just for the record; it was possible to use just the gyro on the iPad 2 with earlier versions of SkySafari, where there were separate buttons to activate the compass and gyro. I always found that using the gyro resulted in smoother panning.

  I kind of miss that feature. Does a separate gyro no longer exist in modern iOS devices, making that function impossible?

   

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  Bill Tschumy January 04, 2019 14:45

  No, the gyro still exist.  In fact the current code implements "compass fusion" where readings from the gyro are used to smooth out the compass readings.

  Sorry, but a separate Gyro button is not going to come back.