A heading sensor or digital compass can make your fishing and boating simpler and more effective. But if that device is mounted in a bad location, it can make even the most calm boater swear and spit.
The benefits with a heading sensor are many, but in this article we will focus on making it work like it should.
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| Lowrance Point-1 |
There are many alternatives when it comes to choosing what heading sensor to buy and use. The big five brands all have their options, and there are multiple others available as well. Most of these connect to your NMEA2000-network and use standard NMEA-sentences, meaning you can use it across different brands. Another common thing is the sensitivity towards magnetic interference (magnetic radiation, not harmful for us in any way). Issues in relation to this are amongst the most common questions raised to us in Team Colibri, and in various forums and Facebook-groups as well.
Before mounting a heading sensor (like Point-1, Precision 9 from Simrad/ Lowrance or Garmin Steady cast/ GPS 24xd) it is crucial that you test properly for magnetic interference before mounting the device. We strongly recommend that you mount the device temporarily, and then go for a spin out on the water with all other equipment mounted and working on your boat. A common source for magnetic interference in a boat is other electrical devices and wiring, and if those devices are not in use you might not notice the magnetic interference until you turn that device on and use it.
If you are unable to test properly on water, then you must at least test as well as you can on land. The easiest way to do that is with an app on your smartphone that measures magnetic interference or with a hand held compass. (More on that below.)
With the Point-1 in your NMEA2000-network, you can also use your unit from Lowrance or Simrad to check for magnetic interference. In the example below, we use screenshots from Lowrance HDS Live.
Start by pressing the Pages-button, then Settings (the cog in the top left corner). In the list that comes up, scroll down to Network and press it, then Device list:
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| Pages-Network-Device list |
In the Device list, find your Point-1:
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| Find your Point-1 in the list. |
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| Choose Configure. |
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| Local field % - our goal. |
"Local Field %" is crucial. This value should be as close to 0 as possible. Increasing value means increasing magnetic interference, and if it is more than 10% you will have problems calibrating your Point-1 and the boat icon in your chartplotter will not point straight forward. (The vessel heading will be wrong.) If you have a value of 10% or more, or experience issues with failing calibration or wrong heading, you must relocate the Poisnt-1 or whatever it is that is causing the magnetic interference.
As we mentioned earlier in this article, you need to do some homework before you mount your Point-1. This homework can be done with a compass, or an app on your smartphone.
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| A compass leads the way - to correct mounting. |
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| One correct and one way off. |
The app shows you the interference, but not the direction it is coming from. Apart from that, the principle is the same as when using the analogue compass.
While we are on the subject of mounting a heading sensor - keep in mind that you want it somewhere in the back 2/3 of your boat, you do not want it up front. Most anglers will want it as far back as possible, not because of the heading but because they also use it for position (GPS) and want it as close to their transducer as possible.
In this video you can see what happens if/ when your Point-1 is influenced by magnetic interference, English subtitles:
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