Good story, but it’s unlikely it was the (magnetic part of the) Hall effect sensor at fault here — the field due to a magnetic dipole (like a lifting magnet) dr

Good story, but it’s unlikely it was the (magnetic part of the) Hall effect sensor at fault here — the field due to a magnetic dipole (like a lifting magnet) drops off as an inverse cube of distance. Unless the machines were IN the scrapyard, the field would be negligible. More likely boring old electrical grounding issues. Oh how I hate them.