Android: Alternative to onSensorChanged? no ACCELEROMETER data when phone is lying on its back on a table( when no movement)

Question

So I'm using this code to get the Accelerometer data. When I am in the DDMS mode to check what my print statement is printing, I noticed that nothing is printed when the phone does not move. ie. its on the table. I think the reason is that onSensorChanged is not called when the phone does not move, and then its called when the phone starts moving again. If i want to capture data regardless of whether the phone is moving or not, should I use some other function? Any Alternatives? or Any solution? Any helps appreciated.

Thanks!

public void onSensorChanged(SensorEvent event) {  

    StringBuffer buff = new StringBuffer();
    buff.append(String.valueOf(event.timestamp));
    buff.append(comma);
    buff.append(String.valueOf(event.values[0]));
    buff.append(comma);
    buff.append(String.valueOf(event.values[1]));
    buff.append(comma);
    buff.append(String.valueOf(event.values[2]));

    mCurrentFile.println(buff.toString());
    mCurrentFile.write(buff.toString()+ '\n');

    System.out.println( "**" + buff.toString());

}

Answer 1

You can have one thread listening to the sensor changes (i.e., onSensorChanged() that will write the data into global variables) and another thread running a timer (look at postDelayed, http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Handler.html) that will read it at set times. If there are no changes, then it will read the same data again. Easy, clean, and nice to the battery.

Answer 2

If this method is only called when "the sensor changes", try saving the values you read when it's executed. If the method is not called that doesn't mean that the values are the same?