What the heck is wrong with my Suunto Compasses?

[SangP]

Hi all,

Is this normal?

I've got 2 SK6s and a SK7 and they are all tilting to one side. This can't be ok... right?

Please help as what I can do bout this?

SangP

My bad, I intended to put "my compasses" in the heading but left out the my in my haste.

 

[The Kraken]

The first thing I would do would to be to move them away from one another.

Take a piece of notebook paper, lay one compass upon it and align the blue lines north and south.

Without moving the paper, remove the first compass and then compare the other compass indications with the alignment of the lines on the paper, making sure not to disturb the alignment of the paper in the process.

the K

 

[wunat]

It looks to me that they are all tilting to the same side. I know this may sound stupid but are you certain that the whatever it is they are sitting is in perfect horizontal position?

 

[Charlie99]

The magnetic field lines are not horizontal in most places in the world. They are more or less horizontal around the magnetic equator, and approach vertical as you approach the magnetic poles.

IIRC, Suunto compensates for this and has different versions of compasses for the different areas of the world (actually for different approximate sign and magnitude of "dip").

Perhaps you have ones that are optimized for a different area. For example, a compass optimized for UK and Scandanavia would have compensation for a significant amount of dip. With the much less dip in Singapore, you would see the compasses tilted a bit.

It doesn't really affect the azimuth/direction accuracy. You just need to tilt the compass a bit.

p.s. As Kraken suggests do move them away from each other before coming to any conclusions since they will interfere with each other.

 

[SangP]

It looks to me that they are all tilting to the same side. I know this may sound stupid but are you certain that the whatever it is they are sitting is in perfect horizontal position?

:lol:

Yes of course, I don't live in the Tower of Pisa.

The Kraken,

They all point in the same direction but are tilted off to one side. Is there anything I can do?

SangP

 

[Charlie99]

See the stuff at bottom left of the Suunto SK7 webpage.

http://www.suunto.com/suunto/main/p...older_id=9852723697223379&bmUID=1155729120022

 

[Lutta]

I just read this last night in a Suunto Product Manual about tilting. The compasses are calibrated for certain regions. The regions are divided north and south. There are five or six of them. So, if you bought a compass in the U.S.A. and went back to Singapore it wouldn't match the region it was specifically calibrated for. It doesn't matter if you go west or east. If you go north or south on the planet then it will make a difference. If you go only one region away, it doesn't make a lot of difference. More distance from your specific region, more tilting. I'm not sure if it causes compass error or it justs tilts. Look on this Suunto website at the bottom of the page.

http://www.suunto.com/suunto/main/p...3697223379&bmUID=1155729151350&bmLocale=en_US

Good luck.
-Lutta

 

[Scubar]

I just read this last night in a Suunto Product Manual about tilting. The compasses are calibrated for certain regions. The regions are divided north and south. There are five or six of them. So, if you bought a compass in the U.S.A. and went back to Singapore it wouldn't match the region it was specifically calibrated for. It doesn't matter if you go west or east. If you go north or south on the planet then it will make a difference. If you go only one region away, it doesn't make a lot of difference. More distance from your specific region, more tilting. I'm not sure if it causes compass error or it justs tilts. Look on this Suunto website at the bottom of the page.

http://www.suunto.com/suunto/main/p...3697223379&bmUID=1155729151350&bmLocale=en_US

Good luck.
-Lutta

Good Info.. Thanks

 

[SangP]

Just great...

Now what the heck am I to do with made for region 1 compass when I'm in 5 ish? Singapore isn't even in the their region.

Both my SK 6 stick and my sk 7 is making me dizzy just looking at it.

I've seen lots of suunto compasses here tilted so I guess they are all not for this region?

Can someone please help me here. No one told me that when I got from the states?

SangP

 

[desiredbard]

Move the table up at one side?
That should do the trick