SmartElex Micro Magnetometer MMC5983MA

Magnetometers can sense where the strongest magnetic force is coming from, generally used to detect magnetic north, but can also be used for measuring magnetic fields. This sensor tends to be paired with a 6-DoF (degree of freedom) accelerometer/gyroscope to create a 9-DoF inertial measurement unit that can detect its orientation in real space thanks to Earth’s stable magnetic field. It’s a great match for the LSM6DSOX from ST!

We based this breakout on the MMC5603, a great general-purpose magnetometer with a very wide range and both I2C and SPI interfaces. This compact sensor uses I2C to communicate and it’s very easy to use. Simply download our library connect the SCL pin to your I2C clock pin, and the SDA pin to your I2C data pin, and upload our test program to read out magnetic field data. If you’d like, you can also use SPI to receive data (we just happen to prefer I2C here)

This sensor can sense ranges from 30 Gauss (3000uT or 3mT) with no range-setting required and full 20-bit output up to 1000 Hz rate reading. The range makes it good for reading Earth’s magnetic field (which maxes at about 0.6 Gauss) or some basic magnets. It isn’t good for very strong rare earth magnets, for that check out the TLV293.