Luke The important aspects of this is not the calibration of the compass, but control of the aspects that could give rise to errors. A compass is inherently accurate as the needle will always point to magnetic N-S, and the issue is thus the resolution of the scale,which needs to be down to fractions of a degree for this test. The compass should, of course, be gimbal mounted to remove any errors arising from tilt, and the test must be performed in an area where there is nothing that could disturb the field such as ferrous objects in the vicinity, steel-walled buildings or partitions, on a reinforced concrete floor (disturbance from re-bar), near electric cables, etc. Align the EUT and the compass on an E-W axis separated by the test distance. I am not familiar with this particular test, but expect that it is similar to the test for transport of magnetised material, which includes tests at 7' and 15'. Rotate the EUT through 360 degrees and measure the peak-to-peak deflection of the compass.
Neil Barker Manager Central Quality e2v 106 Waterhouse Lane, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 2QU, England Tel: +44 (0)1245 453616 Mobile: +44 (0)7801 723735 Fax: +44 (0)1245 453571 www.e2v.com <http://www.e2v.com/> P Consider the environment: do you really need to print this e mail? -----Original Message----- From: Luke Turnbull [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 02 October 2008 17:30 To: [email protected] Subject: DO-160 Section 15 - Calibration of Compass Hi all, Maybe a little off-topic. Section 15 is a compass-safe-distance test. One measures the deflection of a compass (in degrees) caused by an EUT. I have been asked about how the compass should be calibrated to demonstrate that the number it gives (deflection in degrees) is traceable. Does anybody have any experience with this test and the calibration of the compass? Thanks, Luke Turnbull ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________ Sent by E2V TECHNOLOGIES PLC or a member of the E2V group of companies. A company registered in England and Wales. Company number; 04439718. Registered address; 106 Waterhouse Lane, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 2QU, UK. - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
