Quote:
Originally Posted by floyd_2
I was wondering if anyone here knows if digital compasses are as easily influenced as the analogue ones.
Dean
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Hi Dean,
At their heart, electronic compasses rely on precisely the same physics,
namely a magnetic field influencing a set of sensors. So they can be disturbed by
stray magnetic fields in precisely the same way as their purely mechanical
counterparts.
For navigational purposes, magnetic compasses are relatively crude
devices and even when you compensate for magnetic declination
and in the absence of other extraneous ferromagnetic fields, you would
be doing well if you obtained a consistent reading that was any more accurate
than about half a degree.
So on their own, compasses, either mechanical or electronic are of little
use except for the crudest of polar alignment and with a little experience
many users can eyeball where the SCP will be by reference to a few
bright stars to equivalent levels of accuracy.