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Apps » IpBike » Samsung Galaxy S5 Active barometer

Started by drewb Jul 07 2014, 18:19

drewb Posts: 22	Jul 07 2014, 18:19 Got this "latest" phone the day they came out. Samsung is really going to push this one. Ant+ support, weather and shock resistance, good battery life and built in sensors make this ideal for my biking with IpBike. However the genius's at Samsung didn't get the barometer quite right. Several of the Galaxy series phones have a built in barometer. It is mounted on the motherboard and probably works quite well. The "S5 active" has added a silicon rubber gasket to the battery cover for dust and moisture protection. Genius! I guess no one thought that they were isolating the barometer chip. After several rides with bizarre ascent/decent figures I downloaded a sensitive altimeter app (the built in one is useless). Pressing on the back cover caused the altitude to go berserk, 20m/s change rates, etc. Just shaking the phone causes wild fluctuations. Taking off the battery cover completely solves the problem, opening the usb port cover reduces it substantially. I am riding with the phone in a weatherproof (vented of course) case so I can leave the back cover off, just a royal pain. Just a warning for future owners of this otherwise great phone. Is this problem present in any of the other so called "weatherproof" phones such as the Sony Expedia? Last edit: drewb Jul 07 2014, 18:20
dvraemdo Posts: 7	Aug 23 2014, 11:12 Indeed, I have the same experience with my Xperia Active (already 2 years old). As long as I don't touch the phone, the barometer readings are ok, but a gentle push on the backcover makes it fluctuate. So when I go running (with IpBike app on), I always open the USBgport 'plug'. Seems to be a common problem with this kind of 'waterproof' phones?
Ifor Moderator Posts: 939	Aug 23 2014, 15:53 I was going to say I have never seen this with my active but I loaded up Z-Device test which has a very quick updating display and I am shocked what I can do to it especially squashing front to back. In usage with IpBike I have never seen anything bad though. I have 3 usage modes essentially. On the bike mounted in my home-made holder where it's mainly held by consistent pressure from the sides which seems to be ok. cycling or running but in my jersey pocket which is what I use when doing competitive events on the MTB or running where I don't want the distraction and often have no space on the bars if I have my map board there. The third option is running where I just have the phone in my hand but holding it gently I don't see anything. One thing that may affect this is the sampling rate of the pressure sensor ideally I use something like 20Hz and then average at 4 Hz to get an attitude so I have taken a number of samples together which would help with anything vibration related. The problem is that some phones only allow sampling at about the 4Hz rate so they may show up worse.
drewb Posts: 22	Sep 28 2014, 16:12 Thank you for adding the sampling rate control and other fixes! A well supported product. This issue originally surfaced when I compared plots between my GPS watch (Highgear XT7) which has a ported barometer and the Active S5 which has a fully sealed barometer. The squeezing of the phone back was only offered to demonstrate the issue. It is quite real and shows up on altitude comparisons between the two. So there really is a usage issue if you have the means to test it. That being said, opening the charging cover seems to eliminate the problem. With the charging cover open the altitude plots are the same.