This might not have much impact. For one product to supplant another it must usually be an order of magnitude cheaper or an order of magnitude better. Saving 50% is probably not enough to overcome the inertia facing a new product. CIAO - Martin. On Sat, 8 Feb 1997 08:57:15 -0800, bob carlin wrote: >Gary Sutcliffe wrote: >> >> > >> > I also remember reading in an R/C >> > Modelling magazine (in 1974?) about someone who built a diffrential >> > electrostatic field sensor with electrodes mounted on each wingtip. The >> > sensors picked up the gradient of the earth's electrostatic field. If >> > memory serves, the device was switched in when the plane went into an >> > uncontrolled spin, and would correct it to level flight. >> >> Yes, that was an interesting article. The electrodes were small >> radioactive sources similar to those used in smoke detectors. The were >> connected to a differential instrumentation amplifier and gave a voltage >> relative to the angle. >> >> I experimented with the idea for another application. It was pretty >> sensitive for detecting tilt, but we could not use it for our application. >> >From time to time you would get false readings in the wind. It seemed there >> were small pockets of ionized air that would blow by causing the false signal. >> >> - Gary >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Gary Sutcliffe, W9XT Unified Microsystems >> ppvvpp@mixcom.com PO Box 133 Slinger, WI 53086 >> http://www.qth.com/w9xt 414-644-9036 > > >I was told about a company that developed a platform that would replace >gyroscopes in image stabilizers for cameras. The platform, as it was >described to me, has three accelerometers. I don't know if it's good >for only one axis (probably so--a camera doesn't need as much control as >an aircraft). According to the guy who told me about this, it was half >the price of the gyroscopic image stabilizer. Martin R. Green elimar@NOSPAMbigfoot.com To reply, remove the NOSPAM from the return address. Stamp out SPAM everywhere!!!