Compass TCM3

From WikIRI

TCM3 Compass

The TCM3 is a PNI Corporation device that combines MagnetoInductive sensors and measurement circuit technology with 3 axis accelerometer all calibrated to operate from 40 to 85º C.

This sensor processes information from the 3 magnetometers and accelerometers, and provides the following readings:

 kHeading: Compass heading output {0.0º to 359.9º}.
kPAngle, kRAngle: Pitch & Roll angle outputs. Pitch {90.0º to 90.0º} and Roll {180.0º to 180.0º}.
kTemperature: Value in º Celsius and has an accuracy of +/3 ºC {40º to 85 ºC}.
kPCalibrated, kRCalibrated & kIZCalibrated: Factory calibrated Earth's acceleration vector (G) component output {1.0 to 1.0} (mG).
kXAligned, kYAligned, kZAligned: User calibration Earth's magnetic field (M) vector component output.

and the following flags:

 kDistortion: Read only flag that indicates that at least one magnetometer axis is beyond ± 80μT.
kCalStatus: Read only flag that indicates User Calibration status. (Default FALSE= Not calibrated).

The device has two modes of working for data acquisition:

 ➢ Poll: The module has to be requested for data and will report it at the interval time set by the configuration parameter SensorAcqTime. If the time is set to 0 the unit will be ready as soon as the previous request has been fulfilled.

 ➢ Push: The unit has to be set to “Interval Mode” to start sending data at the time preset by the parameter IntervalRespTime, provided always by new 
data from sensors SensorAcqTime. If both of the time parameters are set to 0, the module will send data as soon as the previous data stream has been sent.
==

Location

Consider the effect of any sources of magnetic field in the local environment that when added to earth's field may saturate the unit sensors (max. dynamic range ± 80 μT), for example, large masses of ferrous metals such as transformers and vehicle chassis large electric currents, permanent magnets such as electric motors, and so on. It is not possible to calibrate for changing magnetic anomalies.