Hi All;
Brand new here - first time on the forum.
I built a auto-helm for my boat which works great. Took some time to ‘get it right’ but was fun and very useful.
It uses a GPS to identify compass heading. This works by identifying current location and then reading the location 1 second later - then calculates the heading.
This works ‘great’ when the water is flat however it’s not normally flat. When the boat sways left and right, it throws off the estimated compass heading.
I need a digital compass that reads the magnetic field of the earth for the heading. This way, when the boat sways, it will still see the more accurate true heading.
I programmed the above in QBasic and I want to stick with that. I saw on the site here a couple USB digital compass components that I thought would work well.
Here’s my question:
- If all I need is a magnetic compass read (once per second) then what’s the best product for me
- Can the product handle a little sway (from waves etc.) and keep a ‘reasonable’ accuracy (does not need to be perfect)
- Can I read the data from QBasic? (can be a .txt file, or via shell command or com port etc.)
Thanks in advance!!
Chris