In alt.home.repair on Tue, 02 Aug 2005 10:24:00 -0400 "CL (dnoyeB)
Gilbert" posted:

meirman wrote:
I have an expensive auto compass -- but I've lost the instructions --
with a wire in which both halves are black, but one side is marked
with grey or white rectangles. Which one is the ground?

Thanks

Meirman
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Try both. Low voltage DC, you wont damage anything. The one that makes
the compass point the right way I assume is the correct one. Also
consider that its for a light or something and it does not matter.

It's both for the light and the guts.

I was doing wiring now, and hoping to solder the wire in place while
the compass itself waits for me to make a bracket to hold it in
place**.

But you're right, I can hook it up while it dangles from the dash and
see what it does.




** The new dashboard is practically vertical. I have to make a
complicated bracket, at least 4 bends. Not even sure how wide I want
the bracket to be, so I'm stalling.

I went back to radio shack where they used to sell this, to remind
myself how to set north and south, but they didn't have compasses or
this model anymore. I think I remember how to set north and south
though.

I bought a lot of car compasses over the years and this is the first
to work. 30 years ago I wrote to AirGuide and asked them if I bought
a more expensive compass, would it work, and they wrote back that they
were all the same and sent me more double sided tape to try new
locations.

Since then I once had a 3/4inch plastic sphere, that came atttached to
a convex rear view mirror clip on, that worked. It only cost a
dollar. Eventually the water drained out. Another that looked the
same, but had a suction cup didn't work. Maybe the prior car had an
unusually balanced or absent magnetic field where the compass was.

Meirman
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