Valley101

When having the GPS compass in the "heading up" position, it will read due North when going North, Due South when going South. However, when heading in an Easterly direction it will read a Westerly direction. Likewise, when heading in a Westerly direction it will read an Easterly direction . Has anyone noticed or had this problem? I actually noticed this about three months ago, but since I live 60 miles from nearest Lexus dealership, I have been putting it off until my next scheduled service. Any input will be appreciated. My previous 2010 Lexus did not do this nor does my new 4RUNNER.

jmcraney

I see that you asked this identical question about a month ago: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...s-compass.html

Was the answer not helpful?

And, as a technical point, it is possible to have a GPS Compass but these cars have a magnetic compass.

Valley101

Yes, I understand what the previous people stated, but when the car is set in the "heading up" mode the display is supposed to display the direction the car is heading ( not having to deduce). It is not doing this and that is why I was asking. My other Lexus and my 4Runner show the direction the car is heading when in the heading up mode. I was raised on the water and had numerous boats throughout the years and I know how to read a compass and how to navigate before they came out with GPS. Also, notice that I said when I was going in an Easterly direction the compass gave a Westerly direction ( not 180 out), but I can be going SE and the compass will read SW. It is not a matter of my knowledge...it is a matter of the compass not functioning as stated in the manual.

jmcraney

Sorry, I didn't understand. I thought there was a 180deg error (East and West reversed - which I wouldn't understand). I think you are telling us that there is a 90deg CCW bias.

I think that that is just a calibration issue. Since you are an experienced navigator I am sure that you understand magnetic variation and that it is possible for the compass to influenced by large ferrous object and strong magnetic fields.

Here is how you do the calibration:

Momentarily depress the MENU key (lower key in the right hard key cluster).

Press the SETUP soft key on the touch screen

Use the double arrow soft keys (near the left screen margin) on the touch screen to get the the screen that has CALIBRATION on it.

Press the ADJUST soft key on the touch screen.

Use the arrows (soft keys on the touch screen) to adjust the target to the car's current position and press ENTER.

Use the arrows (soft keys on the touch screen) to adjust the car's heading to a known heading and press ENTER.

The manual doesn't cover this very well. It may be that you will now know more about this than your dealer. Give them a test when you take your car in and let us know how they do.

Valley101

Took the vehicle in for service yesterday, and one; found out it is not a magnetic compass, it is tied in to the GPS antenna and reads off the satelitte. The tehnician for the electroinics and I took it out in the parking lot and tired different directions and then took a ride and he called up the compass reading page and he would use the arrows on the compass display to move it around and could not get it to work. We checked a new 2012 LS on the floor and it did the same thing as mine, and the salesman that I have dealt with on three vehicles has a 2011 and his read wrong also. Stated regional rep would be in the dealership in the next 10 days or so and he would talk to him about this issue. Said he had run across this before and as far as he knew there was nothing on file about this from other people. I told him I would just wasit to find out what the rep found out. I seriously douby many people pay much attention to their compass. They just input their destination, head out and it takes you there with no problem. It just bugged me and now more so as it seems to be a bug in the electronics. I post up later if they found a solution. Noticed that to get into the menu he was accessing he had to turn the headlight switch on and offf three times while pressing the access bar on the screen, before it would bring up the menu that he needed to access.

jmcraney

Thank you for sharing the information about your dealership experience.

They are misinformed about the car's compass. It is a magnetic compass. GPS receivers that employ a single antenna are not able to determine heading information - they can only determine position. It is possible to have a GPS compass but that requires two antennas. The magnetic compass in these cars is not a legacy item, it is there for a reason and that reason is to facilitate Dead Reckoning navigation when the GPS satellites are eclipsed. DR navigation is the process of calculating your current position by knowing your direction of travel and distance of travel from your last known position. The car's calibration process allows you to calibrate the car to a known location, calibrate the car's magnetic compass to a known direction and distance traveled for each rotation of the tires (distance traveled changes when the tire size is changed and that is easily re-calibrated). The better the calibration the longer the car's navigation will remain accurate after loss of the GPS signal. The navigation system transitions between GPS and DR so seamlessly that you probably never notice it.

One way to understand that the compass is magnetically driven is to put your car's display in the Compass display mode and drive into a high-rise parking garage. You will notice that before you drive into the garage that "GPS" is displayed beside the compass on the touch screen. When you enter the garage and the GPS signal is lost because it is eclipsed by the garage structure you will see the "GPS" that was displayed beside the compass disappear. As you drive around and around in the garage, keeping in mind which direction you are heading, you will see that the compass continues to function normally.

While we hear from owner's touting the advantages of handheld devices you should also consider that there are advantages for systems that are integrated into the car.

I noticed in your comment above that most of the cars at the dealership had problems - it's probably more of a case of the cars are okay and the operator had the problem.

As for your compass error: I think you can easily fix that yourself with the calibration process.

kbfisher

I have a 2012 RX 350 and have noticed the same issue for the past few weeks. North and South are fine, but a known heading of NW displays as NE, SE displays as SW, etc. It is truly off by 90 degrees. Note that my car did sit for nearly 4 months after an accident that prevented me from being able to drive. I am absolutely certain that this issue did not exist prior to my accident. However, there were several 'updates' that downloaded once I began driving again. Is it possible that a software update could be the root cause?

I did recalibrate the car's compass to no avail. Although it appeared to work for a moment, I toggled to 'due North', then back to 'actual direction' at which point it was obvious that the issue remains. I truly appreciate any feedback or other updates related to this problem. Thanks!

jmcraney

I think you need to post some pictures before we can help with this.

lexus600hl

i checked my 2010 rx 350 and my 2008 LS 600. When the cars are pointing to east, the compass shows east correctly at the top of the screen..

Valley101

So how does that help those of us who are having the problems stated previously? My 2010 worked fine. In my 2010 the direction did not show at the top, the arrow simply pointed to the direction in which I was traveling. It is the 2012 that is messed up. In fact on mine when you get to the calibration screen it will not allow you to adjust/calibrate anything. Lexus tech stated he did not what the problem was but would check with area rep. Still have not heard anything, so next week I will attempt to get ahold of the service advisor/tech to find out what they found out.

kbfisher

Valley101 - looks like you and I are either the only ones having this problem or the only ones that have noticed this problem. I contacted my service dept as well, and it seems the presumption is that it must be user error - they have not heard of this issue before. Calibration did not work. I asked the rep via email if a software update could be the cause but have not heard anything back. I think I'll have to take my car to the dealership so they can see 'in person' what is happening. Very frrustrating that no one believes me...nice to know I'm not alone! Please let me know if you discover a solution. Thanks!

jmcraney

I am still trying to imagine what is going on with you guys but with out any pictures that is pretty hard.

In the Heading Up display mode, the little compass symbol in the upper left corner of the screen is pointing to where North is on the displayed map. It is not pointing to your heading. If you believed that it was pointing to your heading then that would give the illusion that it was showing Westerly when heading Easterly.

jmcraney

Here is an example of what I am trying to explain.

This is a Heading Up display mode view of the car heading nearly East, actually the heading seems to be about 80 degrees. The compass symbol, in the upper left corner, shows that the map is oriented such that North is toward the left side of the map and East is toward the top of the map, South to the right and West toward the bottom. If you believed that the compass symbol was indicating the car's heading then it might seem that you were headed West.

Hope this helps.

lexus600hl

Please clarify what you meant. I am sorry, I didn't understand.. I would believe that the compass symbol triangle's POINT indicates the direction - it has been the same, I think, since my first 1998 LS 400.

jmcraney

The compass symbol that I am referring to is the one in the upper left corner of the display - the one that is halftone and has a red end that points North. It is just like a Boy Scout compass with the red end of the needle pointing North and the top being the heading of the car, East in this example. I can't speak to the past - no recollection. The "triangle's POINT" is fixed in this display mode, Heading Up, and always points to the top of the map display.