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User Calibration
All compasses can perform well in a controlled environment, where the ambient magnetic field consists
solely of the earth’s field. In most practical applications, however, an electronic compass module will be
mounted in a host system such as a vehicle that can contain large sources of local magnetic fields:
ferrous metal chassis, transformer cores, electrical currents, and permanent magnets in electric motors.
By performing the user calibration procedure, you allow the TCM2.5/2.6 to identify the major sources of
these local magnetic anomalies and subsequently cancel out their effects when measuring the earth’s
magnetic field for computing compass headings. When you perform the user calibration procedure, the
TCM2.5/2.6 takes a series of magnetic field measurements. It analyzes these total field measurements in
order to identify the components that are created by the earth’s field, which is the desired signal, from
those components that are generated by the local environment, which we wish to subtract out.
The end goal of the procedure for the TCM2.5/2.6 is to have an accurate measurement of the static three-
dimensional magnetic field vector generated by its host system at its mounting location. This vector is
subsequently subtracted out of run-time field measurement to yield the resultant earth’s field vector.
One major benefit from the TCM2.5/2.6’s triaxial magnetometer/triaxial inclinometer system configuration
is its ability to compensate for distortion effects in all orientations throughout its usable tilt range. As we
have mentioned, a compass must measure the local field vector generated by the host system at its
current position within the system
in order to accurately calibrate. Because the TCM2.5/2.6’s
magnetometer is strapped-down, or fixed with respect to its host system, this local field vector does not
change as the host system’s attitude changes, allowing the TCM2.5/2.6 to accurately compensate in all
pitch and roll orientations. Gimbaled fluxgates, for instance, are unable to provide accurate calibration in
non-level orientations because its magnetometers, being gimbaled, change position with respect to the
host system as attitude changes. This presents a different local distortion field than that measured during
calibration.