Compass calibration fails silently

David Young

I was attempting to navigate to a POI in some trackless countryside yesterday, and the direction of travel arrow was all over the place.

The problem turned out to be an uncalibrated compass, but, here’s the worrying thing, the watch hadn’t prompted me to recalibrate.

Visibility was good, so I could see that the direction of travel arrow was pointing in an obviously wrong direction. In bad visibility I wouldn’t have known.

As soon as I recalibrated the compass the direction of travel arrow worked properly again.

Suunto advised a soft reset, so I’ve done that and I’ll see if the problem reoccurs.

The warning signs are that nothing seems to settle. The POI direction of travel arrow skitters about and won’t point consistently in one direction. The north pointer, on any of the screens where it’s available, likewise is all over the place.

Good test: get the watch horizontal and let the north arrow settle then turn yourself to face in another direction. If the north arrow returns to its original direction it’s calibrated, if it just wanders around it isn’t.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@david-young it won’t ask to calibrate if bearing is used via gps speed. If standing still it should ask for calibration.

David Young

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos Yes, i think that is what should have happened, but it didn’t.

I was moving slowly on a steep slope. I even sat down on a boulder to get a bearing with my map and Silva compass. The watch continued to display both the POI direction arrow and the north pointer even though the compass was not calibrated.

My preferred behaviour in the event that calibration is lost would be:

The north pointer is not shown on any screen.
If your speed is too low for direction of travel to be determined by GPS then the watch should hide the arrow and/or display a warning.

Anyway I’m aware of the potential problem now, hopefully I won’t get caught again!

pgjhmb

Hey David,
What was your final discovery with this? I have a D6i and need to calibrate the compass basically before every dive.

How did you do a soft reset?
Did it help the calibration?

Thanks