Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Parts of a Digital Compass System


You are looking for a compass for your boat and are thinking about a digital compass.
You can get a digital compass that is a self-contained, one piece unit, or a compass that has a flux gate unit with remote displays.  A self-contained unit is simply mounted where you need it. The location should be a magnetically clean area. Most of these can be wired in to your navigation system giving an integrated system. 

The other type is a system that has the Flux gate sensor unit mounted in the boat in a magnetically clean area so it has as little interference as possible, from electrical wiring, motors, and such.  The flux gate sensor itself is gimbaled so the reading coils in it can stay as horizontal as possible and can give the most accurate reading. Cables run from the Flux gate unit to remote displays and to the navigation system interface. So with these systems you have the flux-gate sensor, cables, and displays. There are units that are wireless so there are no cables with these systems.

The biggest advantage to a digital compass over a magnetic compass is that they can be interfaced in to a navigation system. With a Magnetic compass you have to read the direction and manually enter it in to your Navigation system. 

The Digital Compass Systems are easy to install. For the most part you just mount the parts and plug in the cables.  Below is a picture of the KVH 103 digital compass system and it shows the basic components of a flux-gate compass system.

Sailcomp 103AC Digital Compass/Nav Repeater Features
KVH Industries, Inc.
50 Enterprise Center • Middletown, RI 02842 • U.S.A.
Phone: +1 401 847-3327 • Fax: +1 401 849-0045_
E-mail: info@kvh.com
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The round can like object is the sensor or flux-gate. Then there is the digital display on the left and a Junction box / control box on the right. Cables connect the three. The parts just plug together making it easy to install.

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