Digital car Compass hack

[Heyme]

Does anyone have any inforamtion on how a digital compass in the car works.
I'm working on a project that I need to know direction. I was thinking of
checking out a junkyard for a rearview mirror or overhead console that has
a digital compass in it. How does the car interface to one of these?

 

[Ken Moffett]

Does anyone have any inforamtion on how a digital compass in the car
works. I'm working on a project that I need to know direction. I was
thinking of checking out a junkyard for a rearview mirror or overhead
console that has a digital compass in it. How does the car interface
to one of these?

Google:fluxgate compass
or
http://www.dinsmoresensors.com/
or
http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/200211/Compass.htm
or
http://www.superdroidrobots.com/product_info/compass.htm

 

[Rich Webb]

Does anyone have any inforamtion on how a digital compass in the car works.
I'm working on a project that I need to know direction. I was thinking of
checking out a junkyard for a rearview mirror or overhead console that has
a digital compass in it. How does the car interface to one of these?

Probably an inexpensive fluxgate magnetometer. There's a good article
about small project magnetic sensing at
http://www.circuitcellar.com/library/print/0404/Miller165/index.htm.
Google for fluxgate compass for specific info.

 

[Ken Smith]

Does anyone have any inforamtion on how a digital compass in the car works.
I'm working on a project that I need to know direction. I was thinking of
checking out a junkyard for a rearview mirror or overhead console that has
a digital compass in it. How does the car interface to one of these?

www.pnicorp.com are the folks that make them. They sell (sold) a PCB for
about $200 that gave you the 3 axis of the magnetic field and tilt.

The product contains software for correction for nearby magnetic objects.

A while back Radio Shack had a 2 axis flux gate for about $20.

Digikey carries GMR sensors that could be used to make a fairly basic
compass.