John Leeman shared a 3D Compass project created with Adafruit components: Neopixel Rings (16 and 24), Triple-axis Magnetometer (Compass) Board!
Here’s what he had to say about this project.
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!
From the project page:
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
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Featured Adafruit Product!
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)