Hey everyone. I bought the external compass/mag and I think the magnetometer is bad. (using apm 2.5, firmware v3.1.5 traditional heli and I've cut the line on the apm 2.5 to enable external compass).
The Z axis on the magnetometer seems to be 'near death'.
When I rotate the magnetometer around (off the ground and away from magnetic interference) the x and y axis seem to properly respond. E.g. I can basically switch the x and y axis readings by rotating the device into an orientation where the axis are switched. However, I can't do that with the Z axis. The z axis reading seems to be a lot lower than the x and y axis readings. I can get the x and y axis readings into the hundreds, but the maximum Z axis reading I can get is less than 80 (I've also run my own code on the magnetometer which doesn't have the calibration capabilities that the APM code has and the max Z axis reading that I get is almost always less than 30!!).
Do you guys have any idea what could be wrong?
In the first attached screenshot I tried to orient the device to 'maximize' the Z axis - and yet Z is 0 (hell the entire magnitude of the magnetic vector is almost 0 - this should be impossible)!!! in the second screenshot, I'm holding the device 'level'.
In both screenshots I'm holding the device away from any magnetic interference. And again, no matter what the orientation, the Z axis always seems to be 'dead' (with a max value of less than +-80).
quick edit, the first screenshot was where I held the device parallel to the ground, the second screenshot was when I oriented it to try to maximize the z axis but ended up with a magnetic magnitude vector of almost 0.
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I also don't know if this helps, but here are the compass offsets from the mission planner.
quick edit, the first screenshot was where I held the device parallel to the ground, the second screenshot was when I oriented it to try to maximize the z axis but ended up with a magnetic magnitude vector of almost 0.