A
flux-gate compass is a
solid state electronic navigational compass.
These compasses use two small coils to detect phase shifts induced by the earth's magnetic field.
Advantages of this system include:
- Lack of moving parts (hence immunity from vibration)
- Immunity from stray magnetic interference (e.g. large metal objects nearby)
- Potential for miniaturisation, so can be built into other devices (watches for example)
Disadvantages of this system include:
- They require electrical power to operate
- There is a tendency to assume eletronic devices are more accurate - this is not actually the case with flux-gate compasses (outside highly expensive calibrated multi-phase variants)