Measure the invisible magnetic fields that surround us, with this wide-range magnetometer. The MLX90393 is a wide range magnetic field sensor, that can measure 16-bits in ranges from ±5mT up to ±50mT in all 3 axes.
Compared to most magnetometers, this gives a huge range, which makes it excellent for detecting magnets and magnetic orientation, rather than the Earth’s magnetic field. (Magnets have a much stronger field that overwhelms most magnetometers that would normally be used for orientation with respect to the North Pole)
To make it easy to use, we’ve placed this tiny little sensor onto a breakout board, with a 3.3V power supply and level shifter. This makes it easy to use with any 3 or 5V microcontroller. Our Arduino and CircuitPython code will get you started in a jiffy, with I2C communication to the sensor. You will be readin’ out those Gauss’s in minutes! With the address select pins you can have up to 4 sensors on one I2C bus.
Comes as a fully assembled and tested breakout board with a small piece of header for use with a breadboard.
Specifications
The MLX90393 has the following key technical specifications:
16-bit output on all three (XYZ) magnetic field sensors
An unusually large dynamic range of 5-50 mT (1 mT or millitesla = 10 G or Gauss).
By comparison, the LSM303DLHC saturates at +/-8.1 G (0.81 mT) at maximum range setting.
Up to ~500 Hz sample rate (Based on OSR=0, DIG_FILT=2, HALLCONF=0xC for 1.84ms conversion time. See 15.1.5 HALLCONF [3:0] in the datasheet for details.)
User-adjustable I2C address to allow multiple sensors in your project (two I2C ADDR pins for four possible I2C addresses).
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, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, 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 with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
