Compass woes figured out!!!

[SNorman]

So, I thought my compass was FUBAR'd. I finally detached it from my console and played around with it trying to make sense of its crazy behavior, only to find out it works perfectly now. A little bit of troubleshooting and here's what I found out:

Needly pointing to magnetic N just like it's supposed to:

Here's the clip that is attached to the console (right by the compass). Oh noes!!!1

Turns out that crappy ring was slightly magnetized or something. I got a new stainless steel replacement (which Bud @ Bubbles Below gave me for free even though I didn't purchase this from him) and everything is hunky dory now.

 

[mark01]

I had this same thing happen when using one of those coiled lanyards with the rare earth magnetic joints to secure my console to the bc. If you get any ferrous metal close to those magnets, it's going to be magnetized . When this happened, I thought my compass was totally whacked. I no longer use the ring or the lanyard, but a SS bolt snap.

Mark

 

[knotical]

Isn’t stainless steel ferrous?

 

[CardShark]

"Stainless Steel" is a generic term for the corrosion-resistant "family" of steels; if there is a sufficient amount of nickel added to the composition, that steel will lose its' magnetic properties. There is some debate as to whether it can be thought of as ferrous.

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

Should have seen our work dive team going around in circles when the tried attaching the compass to the scooter shroud...

 

[RICHinNC]

Yep, the Army steel pot used to have the same effect. Move your weapon to the side too. nevermind....

 

[BigTuna]

"Stainless Steel" is a generic term for the corrosion-resistant "family" of steels; if there is a sufficient amount of nickel added to the composition, that steel will lose its' magnetic properties. There is some debate as to whether it can be thought of as ferrous.

Please explain. Who's debating this? Steel is mostly iron, which is magnetic. Nickel is also magnetic. Stainless relies on chromium, anyway, not nickel.

Here are some common facts to refer to, from Wikipedia:

Ferromagnetism
Ferromagnetism is defined as the phenomenon by which materials, such as iron, in an external magnetic field become magnetized and remain magnetized for a period after the material is no longer in the field.

Nickel is one of the five ferromagnetic elements.

Steel and Iron
Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.02% and 1.7 or 2.04% by weight (C:1000–10,8.67Fe), depending on grade.

Stainless Steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel is defined as an iron-carbon[citation needed] alloy with a minimum of 10.5% chromium content.

 

[Charlie99]

Turns out that crappy ring was slightly magnetized or something. .

Thanks for posting the solution to this mystery!

 

[SNorman]

And just to add to this, Bud stressed that the ring should definitely be stainless steel and this problem won't occur. I thought to myself "this doesn't really make sense!!" but... I dunno!!

 

[SNorman]

Should have seen our work dive team going around in circles when the tried attaching the compass to the scooter shroud...