Hmm... I am not sure if this calibration approach would work for
magnetometer. This works for accelerometer since Earth's gravitational
acceleration is constant (1g) as long as you don't
accelerate/decelerate.
 
Although, earth's total magnetic field is constant at a given location
on the earth, your magnetometer can be easily affected other ferrous
materials in the neighborhood and it is very difficult to factor them
out from just Earth's magnetic field. 
The correct approach to calibrating magnetometer involves placing it
inside a mu-metal shield to measure the bias voltage (output at zero
input field) and then placing it inside a Helmoltz's coil in different
orientations while given a known input (eg. 0.5 gauss) to calculate
scale factor (output for incremental change to the input).
 
Regards,
Giri


________________________________

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
sougata sen
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 5:47 AM
To: Urs Hunkeler
Cc: Tan Simin Jeremy; [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Tinyos-help] 2-axis Magnetometer MTS310CA


hi jeremy
adding to Urs' comments to caliberate, u should get a +1/-1 mGauss when
the +ve/-ve X/Y axis is facing towards the earth or vice versa. if that
is different, u have to caliberate the values to get this reading. 



On 9/19/07, Urs Hunkeler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: 

        Hi Jeremy,
        
        I see you have been posting this message several times and
apparently
        have not received a reply. So here is my unqualified reply.
Maybe this
        gets somebody so annoyed that they just want to correct me :-) 
        
        1. I think the sensors need to be calibrated. For instance this
could be
        done by turning the mote slowly around while simultaneously
sampling the
        magentic field. That way you'll get a maximum and a minimum
value 
        corresponding to perfect (mis)alignment to the earth's magnetic
field.
        How you do this exactly I don't know (but would like to learn as
well).
        
        2. Based on the calibration you need to adjust the on-chip
amplifier. 
        There is are some functions in the Mag interface that seem to
allow
        exactly this: gainAdjustX and gainAdjustY.
        
        3. It should. But I seem to vaguely remember that the magnetic
sensors
        on the MTS310 sensor board only measure differences in the
magnetic 
        field, so you could not measure a static field.
        
        I hope this helps a bit. Please let me know if you find out more
about
        it. Maybe you could contribute these findings then also to the
TinyOS
        wiki?
http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~mdw/tinyosdocs/index.php/Main_Page
        
        Cheers,
        Urs
        
        
        Tan Simin Jeremy schrieb:
        > Hello ppl,
        >
        > I'm currently working on the Honeywell HMC1002 Magnetometer
which is located on 
        > the MTS310CA sensor board. However I'm facing a few problems
and hope that you
        > will be able to assist me.
        >
        > 1. Why is it that my readings for the x and y-axis are
different when I use
        > different sensor boards (MTS310CA) on the mote?
        >
        > 2. My readings for the x-axis is changing but the readings for
the y-axis does
        > not change in the room. WHy is this so? The y-axis only
changes when I bring a 
        > magnet near the magnetometer.
        >
        > 3. Will the magnetometer still give us a reading if we do not
bring a magnet
        > near it? I'm sure there is still the earth's magnetic field
present in the room. 
        >
        > Thank you for your help. Have a blessed week ahead!
        >
        > Cheers,
        > Jeremy
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-- 
Sougata Sen
Bangalore 
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