OESF Portables Forum

Model Specific Forums => Gemini PDA => Gemini PDA - Hardware => Topic started by: sobukus on March 11, 2018, 02:56:02 pm

Title: display orientation
Post by: sobukus on March 11, 2018, 02:56:02 pm
Are there people out there with working display rotation? Not that I really intend to run the device much in portrait mode, but I do wonder about the sensor setup.

I do know that the compass is disabled in the firmware because Planet Computers did not get the compensation for the lid magnets working (I still would like to see if one can re-enable it, though, as you should be able to compensate for any static magnetic field, however complex the field lines flow), but it looks to me that people do have display rotation possibly working. When looking into SatStat, I see no information for compass (as we know) and also no information for orientation.

But I do see a working accelerometer that nicely indicates the direction of gravity when I am not spinning around the device. Should there be orientation information extracted out of that and is anyone getting screen rotation with the stock Android OS? I did toggle that setting for fixed/rotating display in the drop-down settings back and forth, nothing.
Title: display orientation
Post by: LittleHouse75 on March 11, 2018, 07:34:55 pm
Quote from: sobukus
Are there people out there with working display rotation? Not that I really intend to run the device much in portrait mode, but I do wonder about the sensor setup.

I do know that the compass is disabled in the firmware because Planet Computers did not get the compensation for the lid magnets working (I still would like to see if one can re-enable it, though, as you should be able to compensate for any static magnetic field, however complex the field lines flow), but it looks to me that people do have display rotation possibly working. When looking into SatStat, I see no information for compass (as we know) and also no information for orientation.

But I do see a working accelerometer that nicely indicates the direction of gravity when I am not spinning around the device. Should there be orientation information extracted out of that and is anyone getting screen rotation with the stock Android OS? I did toggle that setting for fixed/rotating display in the drop-down settings back and forth, nothing.

I rotate my Gemini and use portrait display orientation multiple times daily.  The FaceBook app works better in portrait, as do a a few others.   Most  apps rotate on their own, and, for the few that don't, the Gemini includes a force rotate tool.
Title: display orientation
Post by: Milan on March 12, 2018, 01:04:38 pm
Quote from: sobukus
Are there people out there with working display rotation? Not that I really intend to run the device much in portrait mode, but I do wonder about the sensor setup.

I do know that the compass is disabled in the firmware because Planet Computers did not get the compensation for the lid magnets working (I still would like to see if one can re-enable it, though, as you should be able to compensate for any static magnetic field, however complex the field lines flow), but it looks to me that people do have display rotation possibly working. When looking into SatStat, I see no information for compass (as we know) and also no information for orientation.

But I do see a working accelerometer that nicely indicates the direction of gravity when I am not spinning around the device. Should there be orientation information extracted out of that and is anyone getting screen rotation with the stock Android OS? I did toggle that setting for fixed/rotating display in the drop-down settings back and forth, nothing.

Both 'Force Landscape' and 'Force Portrait' option must be set off in App Bar settings in order to make rotation working! :-)
Title: display orientation
Post by: bogomips on March 12, 2018, 05:11:13 pm
Quote from: Milan
Quote from: sobukus
Are there people out there with working display rotation? Not that I really intend to run the device much in portrait mode, but I do wonder about the sensor setup.

I do know that the compass is disabled in the firmware because Planet Computers did not get the compensation for the lid magnets working (I still would like to see if one can re-enable it, though, as you should be able to compensate for any static magnetic field, however complex the field lines flow), but it looks to me that people do have display rotation possibly working. When looking into SatStat, I see no information for compass (as we know) and also no information for orientation.

But I do see a working accelerometer that nicely indicates the direction of gravity when I am not spinning around the device. Should there be orientation information extracted out of that and is anyone getting screen rotation with the stock Android OS? I did toggle that setting for fixed/rotating display in the drop-down settings back and forth, nothing.

Both 'Force Landscape' and 'Force Portrait' option must to be set off in App Bar settings in order to make rotation working! :-)

Thanks for that Milan! Made my day.
Is anyway-up answering working for you? (when answering a call, with the screen closed, can you use either speaker for answering?)
Title: display orientation
Post by: sobukus on March 13, 2018, 12:42:52 pm
I did turn off the forced orientation settings. The screen never rotates by itself, only if I use the button to forcibly rotate. I can see that both gravity and rotation sensors work, so the orientation information should be there.

Quote from: bogomips
Thanks for that Milan! Made my day.
Is anyway-up answering working for you? (when answering a call, with the screen closed, can you use either speaker for answering?)

Interesting point. Is this feature tied to auto-rotation of the display? If not, it could still be an indication that there is a common issue with orientation detection in my device. I turned the device during a phone conversation and the active microphone/speaker setup did not swap. I yet need to test taking a call with the other roation to see if it is at least chosen correctly at answering time.

Also, I did notice about 1.5 h of talking eating 18% of battery. That does not seem right. Only about 6 hours talk time?
Title: display orientation
Post by: sobukus on March 16, 2018, 06:56:34 pm
A new quirk: I tried my second actual phone call with the device. After some minutes, it decided to switch the speaker to the other side … while keeping the microphone there, too! So I had to decide to hold the loud speaker to the ear or the active microphone to the mouth.

The workings of the device orientation are still a mystery to me. I hope things the ironed out over time. For sure, a beta test is a good idea for a device of this complexity.
Title: display orientation
Post by: Olf0 on December 07, 2018, 10:00:25 pm
Quote from: sobukus
I did turn off the forced orientation setttings.
... in the settings of PlanetComputers "App Bar" app.
Quote from: sobukus
The screen never rotates by itself, only if I use the button to forcibly rotate.
It does, if also Settings -> Accessibility -> Auto-rotate screen is switched on.
Title: display orientation
Post by: Dixit on December 08, 2018, 07:14:15 am
It didn't on my machine.

I downloaded Rotation Control Pro.
Someone at this forum hinted that it was temporarily available for free. Thanks !

It works great and as supposed to be. If apps don't want to rotate, it forces them to rotate anyway.
Note, however, that some apps are unusable in landscape anyway. R.C.P. doesn't fix that, of course.
Title: display orientation
Post by: TheBruce on January 23, 2020, 10:52:51 am
Quote from: Olf0
Quote from: sobukus
The screen never rotates by itself, only if I use the button to forcibly rotate.
It does, if also Settings -> Accessibility -> Auto-rotate screen is switched on.
Cannot find that setting in Accessibility. Can someone post a screenshot.
Title: Re: display orientation
Post by: ezzo24 on August 05, 2020, 07:55:51 am




Both 'Force Landscape' and 'Force Portrait' option must be set off in App Bar settings in order to make rotation working! :-)


I have not these options... where are they ?
Title: Re: display orientation
Post by: ezzo24 on August 06, 2020, 06:44:54 am
Found them ! But chromecast always rotated 90° !