"Mr. Bryan Wilkinson jr." wrote:

From: Brian Rauchfuss - PCD

I quote New Scientist: tiny chip-sized micro-electromechanical systems include gyroscopes, tilt sensors and accellerometers which can be bought off the shelf and plugged in , made in a similar way to silicon chips so they're cheap. Now why do I have to have a bloody great suction pump and a tonnage of whirling dervishes in my dashboard just to get the same information?  I could now surely put my flight simulator software to good use and have an image on my palm-top in the cockpit just like the one on my play-screen, which , with input from the Garmin, is topographically correct and visually corresponds to the attitude, speed, etc of the aircraft. All for a few bob. What's wrong with the world - the technology exists and is cheap and we haven't got it. Woe!.....h

Unfortunately, the cheap chip-gyros are not very accurate, and the accurate
chip gyros are very expensive.  You can get some very nice, cheap rate
gyros which are good for the turn-and-bank indicator (as seen in the NavAid
autopilot) ... but they drift far too fast to be useful for the attitude
indicator.  You can get some very accurate laser-ring-gyros which will work
for the attitude (as seen in the Sierra Flight Systems display), but they are
very expensive.

Maybe soon the chip gyros will become more accurate ... I sure hope so!

Brian

Finn and I were discussing this very thing at SnF

Paul Lamar

Here's a couple of URLs I've looked at (quoted from the avionics list). Still haven't found who produces the actual chip (don't think it's BEI).

    From:  "Gregory Young" 

Has anyone seen or have experience with the solid-state gyro package being
offered by PC Flight Systems? It's a $1295 hardware/software gyro package to
run on a Pocket PC. Their web site is:
http://www.pcflightsystems.com/
They have a link to an article about the BEI Gyrochip that it's apparently
based on http://www.sensorsmag.com/articles/0899/26/main.shtml

The gyro (software is WinCE specific) looks like a candidate for my glass
panel unless there are some inherent flaws or limitations for use as a VFR
safety net or maybe light IFR (not hard IFR). Comments?

There hasn't been much discussion on this list for a while - any new
developments on other solid-state gyros or glass panels?

Regards,
Greg Young
RV-6 N6GY Houston (DWH) wiring & systems

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