> Hi, > > A couple months ago I bought a 3-axial gyro from ebay. I've looked > everywhere for its datasheet and couldn't find any information. It is > (was) manufactured by Northrop Corporation (see info below). > > > NORTHROP CORPORATION > FSC 51834 > Mfr. P/N: 50162-317 > 3 AXIS DC/DC GYRO PKG. I started doing some tests this weekend using an oscope and a bench power supply. I was able to find the VCC and GND pins. As I mentioned before, all the other pins output a kind of irregular periodical waveform that varies in the following way when I increase voltage from 12VDC to 24VDC: amplitude increases from +4/-4V to +8/-8V; wave period decreases from 2.15ms to 1.2ms. When I measure each individual pin, there's no significant wave change when I rotate the device its 3 axis, but if I measure two channels together in X-Y mode (thanks Russel, I wouldn't try it by myself if not by your suggestion), I was able to find the pins that are sensitive to each axis. It is entertaining to turn the device on and off, it makes a noise similar to jet engines starting or stopping. At 24V it stays warm to the touch, but no smoke out of it. It's like this: There are 10 pins, being that only 9 are connected. 2 of them are for power, pins B-C are related to axis A (this is how axes are labeled in the device), D-E are related to axis B and F-G are related to axis C. I couldn't find out what pin K is for, its waveform is slightly different from the other pins. When I put a pair of pins on the oscope (X-Y mode) I see a diagonal of increasing slope (0 deg phase shift?). If I spin the gyro about the axis being measured, this diagonal line moves up or down on the other diagonal (perpendicular to itself) depending on the direction I'm turning the device. The displacement is proportional to the acceleration of the spin. I guess that's why they call it a rate gyro? If I turn very slowly, the line movement is almost imperceptible. On the other hand, if I display both signals on time domain on ALT(ernate) mode and turn the gyro, one waveform goes up and the other one goes down. I'm not so experienced measuring things with oscopes, so I may be doing something wrong (I have a 100MHz tek 465M). So my question follows: how do I translate that type of signal to useful digital values? (i.e. How many degrees turned on each axis)? Cheers Padu -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist