canadianpoet2012

I am going to try and build an electronic compass for my car! I thought it would make an interesting and challenging project. However, I have no idea how to start with it's brains!!!

I thought of using a ring of say 8 to 16 LEDs for the directional O/P and maybe a small LCD showing the bearing.

Could anyone give me any help on where to start?! Is there an IC that would do the thinking? How do I determine true north electronically, and then translate that to a bearing?

Any info would be much appreitated! The questions might get a bit more specific later on! Thanks.

Johnson777717

I've been searching, and I haven't found anything remotely similar to what you're looking for. The project is very interesting indeed. Maybe you can get a cheap digital compass somewhere and reverse engineer the process?

Sorry bud

canadianpoet2012

Johnson777717,

Thanks for trying and having a look for me. Your effort is appreciated.



I have been having a look around the net and on component web sites. I have discovered a SMD IC called a KMZ51. It is produced by Phillips and it is called a Magnetic Field Sensor. I have only managed to find one data sheet for it, and it wasn't very informative!
Does anyone know anything about this device? could it be what I am looking for? Failing that, how feasable is the idea of having a ring of opto sensors and some sort of weighted spndle, like a normal compass. Or a series of coils, measuring the flux through them or something!?

Any more help from anyone, would be very much appreciated

Thanks.

Sebi

AN00022 from Philips contain a design of electronic compass.
If not found on web,don't hesitate, PM me.

TillEulenspiegel

IIRC There are a few chip manufacturers that have a ASIC for direction ( the kind you commonly see in cars and such ) .
I think Maxim/Dallas semi and Signetics have them. Also there was an article in Circuit Cellar that described the embedded design for these chips.