Sunday, February 3, 2013

Calibrate accelerometer (G-Sensor) on Android 4.0.4

Received my second Neobox phone from a different Hong Kong vendor this time . Both were good deals with good specs when I bought them and both had the newest operating system at the time. However,  both had sensor issues that I found after  testing all their features. Could it be due to the long shipping distance and various mail sytems they traveled through?

My first phone,  a Neobox Tuna with Android 4.0.3, had an auto rotation problem caused by the accelerometer also. However,  after rapping hard on the back cover with my knuckle it began working and has ever since.  On my second phone I was not as lucky.

Just as the first, it's a Neobox Tuna also but with a duel core processor and Android 4.0.4. The auto rotation function was the first thing I checked and it worked erratic. I installed a  number of programs from Google Play to check the sensor and even tried a few that with a calibration option but nothing worked. It was very disappointing - these phones even have root access so fixing them is usually pretty easy.

Nothing! Couldn't find a fix but there were alot of people having the same problem. I then found a blog page describing a similar problem with an Android 2.2 device, he used a built in boot process called "FastBoot" but I kept looking anyway. I compared the sensor readings with my previous phone and it seemed to work fine but it needed calibrated.

I had to decide whether to keep it or send it back. It was a nice phone and the new version of Android had fixed alot of small issues. So I decided on a factory reset. The reset went through a nice setup process that I had never seen before that reminded me of a Windows process (rebuilt many a system), but it did not fix the problem. So I finally decided to try the "FastBoot".

Here is a description of the exact process I used to adjust the sensor:

1. Power down phone.
2. Hold volume down button down while turning power on.
3. Wait for black screen with light blue text with yellow text as highlight with blue background.
4. Screen title: Factory Mode with selections,  Full Test,  Item Test,  Test Report,  Clear eMMC, Version and Reboot.
5. Select Item Test using the volume up and down button then push the Home button.
6. There is a very long list of items: selected the G-Sensor Calibration > home button.
7. There are four items: Clear Calibration,  Do Calibration(20),  Do Calibration(40), and Exit.
8. Select Clear Calibration > Home button.
9. Lay on flat surface and do not touch while calibrating.
10. Select Do Calibration(20) > Home button.
11. Select Exit > Home button
12. No selection on this screen used Back Button.
13. Select Reboot > Home button.
14. This reboots back into regular interface and complete.
This calibrated the accelerometer and fixed the problem with the auto rotation. I was very happy because I did not have to return it and the auto rotation is such a great feature.

9 comments:

  1. Trying a lot of app of google play and nothing works.... finally BZJoe solved my two months ago problem in five minuts....you're the f*ck*ng Master BZ...Many Thanks!!

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  2. Replies
    1. It is a built in function of the Android operating system. However, the graphic shows an app called "Advanced Tools" by SCDEVS available on Google Play.

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  3. I enter the menu you mention to "fastboot" but all options are in the Chinese language I can not read which is "item test"
    help please

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  4. I enter the menu you mention to "fastboot" but all options are in the Chinese language I can not read which is "item test"
    help please

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    Replies
    1. I understand. I purchased this phone that I described from an Asian vendor also. It was multi-lingual and mine was set to English but I'm not sure if that effects the BIOS. I would try to translate the selections - it would take time since you can't capture them but if you could find a Chinese alphabet reference it may be easier.

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  5. Thanx BZjoe for great help..
    and Here I have made some contribution from my side
    English to chinese..
    1. goto Factory Mode 工厂模式
    2. then select the third item 项目测试 (if not matching then select the third item whose last symbol matches).

    3. now a long list come select the option matching with 重力传感器的校准
    (if not full matching try to find the option whose last symbol matches).

    4. clear calibration 清除校准
    5. Do Calibration(20) 做校准(20) (its just after clear calibration)
    6. Exit 出口
    7. Back button( press Voume up button).
    8. Reboot 重新启动 (its last option in the list).

    For any problem comment here itself. :)

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