I'm trying to use the BMX160 in a very low power application that requires a 9-axis reading once every 4 hours. We would like the leave the sensor entirely disabled for the most part to acheive the lowest power consumption, but need to wake it every 4 hours to collect the sample. My question is how accurate that reading will be if we bring up the sensor, take a reading and turn it back off periodically like this?
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BMX160 is 9DoF sensor which has combination of accel, gyro and magnetometer.
For Accel and Gyro, there is no any problem to wake up every 4 hours and give you the accurate output.
For Magnetic sensor, you need to consider the magnetic environment changing. if the environement is quite stable in this 4 hours, then it is also OK to turn on every 4 hours to get accurate output.
But normally the magnetic environment is changing time to time, so you need to consider this effect in your applicaiton.
Okay that makes sense, thank you. Do you have any idea how long the mag would need to be left on to sufficiently calibrate to get a reasonable reading?
It depends on the calibration method.
The triditioanal magnetic calibration method needs a 8-figure movement and move slowly for several times. this means you need at least 10 seconds to get magnetic calibration done.