I’m working on a project with a stepper that rotates an object. Currently I’m just counting steps and figuring out the azimuth from there. I’d like to add a compass instead so lost steps aren’t an issue and homing every time I power up won’t be a requirement.
So I’m looking for suggestions on which compass to get. There are so many and really I don’t need 200dof, just something to tell me where I’m pointing.
Thanks!
Hi patm,
You will have to do some testings as the compass are essentially Magnetometer and the Stepper is a big magnet.
We have many different options but what will you use to get the value of the sensor ?
The stepper is in a fixed position and the compass on the rotating part which has a 2.2m diameter (8ft roughly) so it won’t be close to the stepper all that often and the closest approach would be about 20cm.
The sensor will likely be hooked up to a microcontroller like an ATMega32 or I may go all out and use an RPi. Haven’t quite decided.
Or actually, I just realized I can place the compass at the top center of rotation and it’d never be closer than about 3 feet from the stepper.
Then you are probably good with most of the compass out there.
We would suggest a complete IMU sensor like the MPU9250 which includes 3 different sensors (Magnetometer / Gyroscope / Accelerometer).
