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Seventy2002
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PostFri Nov 19, 2021 7:07 pm 
zimmertr
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filbert
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PostSun Nov 21, 2021 9:51 pm 
Most of the compass apps seem to ignore magnetic declination. This is fairly obvious in the Pacific NW. There is a 'Compass Pro' that, while not free, has declination adjustment. I still prefer my physical compass (Suunto M-5), but I like having a backup.

With every passing hour our solar system comes forty-three thousand miles closer to globular cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules, and still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no such thing as progress.

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InFlight
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PostMon Nov 22, 2021 10:19 am 
Riverside Laker wrote:
zimmertr wrote:
If I had to guess moving a phone in a figure 8 pattern allows the Hall Effect Sensor to grab a ton of data points for various positions in a magnetic field by changing positions on the X, Y, and Z axes.
In Peakfinder, it's not clear if the figure 8 is on a horizontal or vertical plane (or neither). I interpret the app as moving on a vertical plane, which doesn't make sense for magnetic direction. We recently were in Utah, where the magnetic declination was quite different, and the calibration seemed to work relatively well. But now I can't remember if I waved around vert or horz!
The iPhone and others have a three axis hall effect sensor, each that measures the magnetic field strength in one axis. In peakfinder the app needs to swap the compass axis's used for the vertical orientation. It then uses the GPS position to adjust the for the local declination, and finally needs download the local terrain model. A smart phone with Gaia, Peak-finder, tide charts, weather data, tide chart, and star finder app is a tremendous outdoor assistant. As discussed else where they are becoming pretty good camera as well. Yes you can have a battery bank to keep it charged. However, all that electronic convenience is no excuse for not having a declination adjusted compass and map, and developing the skill to use them effectively.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...” ― Henry David Thoreau

Joey
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Cyclopath
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PostMon Nov 22, 2021 11:32 am 
The hardware talk is interesting to me. I have pedals on my bike that measure torque vector and angular velocity. Any time I do anything to them, I need to spin them for a moment so they can figure out what angle they're installed at and now I have a better understanding of what's going on.

zimmertr
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InFlight
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PostMon Nov 22, 2021 9:42 pm 
Theres are a lot of single chip magnetic sensors and accelerometers combined. This is one example https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/lsm303d.pdf#page1 To measure pedal torque they have some small bridge strain gages that could measure applied force. Of course getting all the support electronics and (Bluetooth?) transmitter to a wireless bike computer is not cheap; particularly in a weather sealed case & small production run.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...” ― Henry David Thoreau

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Malachai Constant
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PostMon Nov 22, 2021 11:05 pm 
I prefer a laser ring gyroscope and three accelerometers.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn

InFlight
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ejain
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ejain
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PostSat Nov 27, 2021 12:51 pm 
InFlight wrote:
peakfinder [...] then uses the GPS position to adjust the for the local declination
Interesting, because on Android, PeakFinder always seems to be off by about 15°. The developer of that app appears to live in Switzerland, which has negligible magnetic declination... It's also possible that iOS handles the correction automatically, whereas on Android a developer needs to request it explicitly.

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Navy salad
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PostThu Feb 03, 2022 1:39 pm 
I like the free Android compass app with the imaginative name "Compass" (sometime listed as "Just a compass"). Rated 4.7 stars after about 86,000 reviews. Reasonably accurate, as long as your phone's been recently calibrated. Includes magnetic declination.

Joey
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Malachai Constant
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PostThu Feb 03, 2022 1:56 pm 
I have this also, it works. But usually use Ghia.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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mike
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PostThu Feb 03, 2022 6:16 pm 
Tracks you and sells your data. Hard to opt out. Mediocre compass. down.gif

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