A Small Tool With a Real Job

The first tool is now on NDLSK — a calculator for magnetic compass deviation.

It is a small thing, but not a random web toy. The calculator takes compass deviation readings and helps build a deviation curve, calculate A/B/C/D/E coefficients, check residuals, and prepare a clearer table from the data. Put simply: you enter the readings, and it helps turn them into a result that can actually be used when working with compass deviation.

This topic is close to me because magnetic compass deviation is one of the areas my father’s company works with. It is not the only thing they do, but it is a real part of their work. So the tool came from something practical and familiar, not from a need to fill a page with random calculators.

I like that. The first tool here is not big, loud, or impressive in some obvious way. It is specific. It has a job. It belongs to a small corner of maritime work where old instruments and careful calculations still matter.

A magnetic compass may look simple, but the boat around it can affect it: metal, wiring, electronics, speakers, batteries, tools, and other equipment. Because of that, the compass error is not always the same on every heading. It can be small on one course and different on another, so one correction is not enough. A deviation curve gives a better picture of what is happening around the full compass.

I also wrote a guide for the calculator, because the topic is interesting even if you do not work with it every day. The guide explains what deviation is, how it differs from variation, why the curve matters, and what the calculator can and cannot do.

So now NDLSK has its first tool and a guide next to it. Nothing grand. Just a useful thing, connected to real work, and a topic I enjoyed getting closer to.

That feels like a good start.

— Serhii N.