Really, Wires: Which side negative?

Pure guess: the one with the markings is +. This is how "most" wall adapters wires are marked. Not sure. Can you post the compass make and model number? One way to be sure is to open it up and look for capacitors that has + or - marking on them and trace the wires. Typically the largest capacitor should be directly connected to these wires, and it would tell you the polarity.

Sounded good, but no easy way to open it. Decided to hunt on the web for notes. Radio Shack sold a compass just like this one, and although I didn't have the item number, and although checking Manuals

-- Auto -- Auto Accessories gave no compasses, only things they sell now, "Search"ing on compass gave 103 hits, and the one I wanted was about number 7.

Turns out "the wire that has the white stripe" is the ground. The grey or white rectangles are pretty long, and the spaces between them are much shorter

I also found instructions on how to calibrate it, which I thought I generaly recalled, but much better to have the original.

I thought this would be an easy question, only involving the wire itself. Silly me.

Thanks a lot.

Meirman

-- If emailing, please let me know whether or not you are posting the same letter. Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

If it says Wayfinder VT220, then you can download the manual from here:

Look at the last link "Get Manual". Here is the direct link to the PDF: