Hello! I used your products (and others) to make a “3D Compass”. As a geoscientist, I’m constantly talking to students about vectors is space and it can be hard to visualize. This is a tool to show the orientation of the magnetic vector in pseudo 3D, teach basic electronics/construction, math skills, and provide a data collection platform. Data is available on the serial output, so students can collect time series and learn about averaging to beat-down noise and actually see the Earth’s diurnal variation. I’m trying to encourage the subset of “geo-hackers” to use technology to learn about and observe our complex Earth!
You can learn a lot from your new compass/magnetometer! In addition to learning about the electronics and hardware, you can learn about magnetic fields and the Earth’s geodynamo. Below are a few links to get you started and some ideas. Please contribute any experiments or activities that you develop!
Learn how magnetometer calibration works (Freescale App Note)
Measure the diurnal variation in Earth’s magnetic field
See how good of a metal detector you built
Detect the movement of metal objects like a desk drawer
Triple-axis Magnetometer (Compass) Board – HMC5883L: He told you “Go West, young maker!” – but you don’t know which way is West! Ah, if only you had this triple-axis magnetometer compass module. A magnetometer can sense where the strongest magnetic force is coming from, generally used to detect magnetic north. We based this breakout on a popular and well loved magnetometer, the HMC5883L. This compact sensor uses I2C to communicate and its very easy to use. Since it’s a 3.3V max chip, we added circuitry to make it 5V-safe logic and power, for easy use with either 3 or 5V microcontrollers. Simply connect VCC to +3-5V and ground to ground. Then read data from the I2C clock and data pins. (read more)
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
