Magnetometers: An Attractive Prospect

By: Zack Bapty

This week, I have been working on reviewing circuits for the web tools. One of my four sub-circuits, the magnetometer, was one that had not yet been modeled. The magnetometer is a tool used to measure the strength and direction of a magnetic field. I had a task to do, so I took charge and began.

I looked on the components browser and found a component that was only roughly similar to the magnetometer included on the breakout board. After a little bit of the always fun trial and error, I realized that my resistance was futile and I would have to model the magnetometer myself. Oh my, how re-volting! You can imagine how ec-static I was about modeling my own electronic circuit, so I energetically tackled the problem. Luckily, I had the Eagle files from SparkFun, so I could just import the magnetometer's Eagle files from the schematic. After finding the proper capacitors and connecting everything up, the place and route testbench worked, even with the 10mm x 10mm constraint. After some re-routing in Eagle, everything seemed to be in order so far, so you can imagine how amped up I was. I found it shockingly easy to get everything set-up and working. Now the component just needs an icon. Though it may not be externally beautiful, it's what's on the inside that matters most.