From: Tim Wescott on
I just did a quick survey of Digi-Key and Mouser -- it looks like
silicon gyros are still in the $5 - $10/ea range, unless of course you
want to spend more. Anyone know of less expensive alternatives? Ditto
accelerometers?

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
From: Jim Thompson on
On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:29:05 -0700, Tim Wescott <tim(a)seemywebsite.com>
wrote:

>I just did a quick survey of Digi-Key and Mouser -- it looks like
>silicon gyros are still in the $5 - $10/ea range, unless of course you
>want to spend more. Anyone know of less expensive alternatives? Ditto
>accelerometers?

In the late '80's I was working at Sperry on chips for Fiber Optic
Gyros (FOG's) that were supposed to be so cheap that they could be
used in cars. In fact, at one point in the development, we had a demo
presented to us by Toyota.

I've lost touch with that end of business... do FOG's still exist?

...Jim Thompson
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From: Tim Wescott on
On 07/04/2010 05:59 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
> On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:29:05 -0700, Tim Wescott<tim(a)seemywebsite.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I just did a quick survey of Digi-Key and Mouser -- it looks like
>> silicon gyros are still in the $5 - $10/ea range, unless of course you
>> want to spend more. Anyone know of less expensive alternatives? Ditto
>> accelerometers?
>
> In the late '80's I was working at Sperry on chips for Fiber Optic
> Gyros (FOG's) that were supposed to be so cheap that they could be
> used in cars. In fact, at one point in the development, we had a demo
> presented to us by Toyota.
>
> I've lost touch with that end of business... do FOG's still exist?

Yes they do, but the least expensive ones are probably $500 to $1000,
with prices going up from there until they intersect with prices for
ring laser gyros (out of my league -- I suspect $100000, but I could be
off by almost an order of magnitude).

I suppose you could build a FOG for a few bucks in quantity, but there's
a whole lot of tweaking and tuning that you wouldn't be able to do,
never mind the fact that winding the fiber onto a bobbin then
terminating it is going to have no end of yield issues. When you were
done, you'd probably have something that cost a whole lot more than a
similar performance silicon or quartz MEMS.

AFAIK, the gyro biz kind of goes like this:

order of M: | | | | |
silicon MEMS: ***************
quartz MEMS: ***************
mechanical: ****************************************
FOG: *********************************
Ring laser: ******************

You pays your money and you gets what you pays for.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
From: Muzaffer Kal on
On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:34:19 -0700, Tim Wescott <tim(a)seemywebsite.com>
wrote:

>On 07/04/2010 05:59 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
>> On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:29:05 -0700, Tim Wescott<tim(a)seemywebsite.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I just did a quick survey of Digi-Key and Mouser -- it looks like
>>> silicon gyros are still in the $5 - $10/ea range, unless of course you
>>> want to spend more. Anyone know of less expensive alternatives? Ditto
>>> accelerometers?
>>
>> In the late '80's I was working at Sperry on chips for Fiber Optic
>> Gyros (FOG's) that were supposed to be so cheap that they could be
>> used in cars. In fact, at one point in the development, we had a demo
>> presented to us by Toyota.
>>
>> I've lost touch with that end of business... do FOG's still exist?
>
>Yes they do, but the least expensive ones are probably $500 to $1000,
>with prices going up from there until they intersect with prices for
>ring laser gyros (out of my league -- I suspect $100000, but I could be
>off by almost an order of magnitude).
>
>I suppose you could build a FOG for a few bucks in quantity, but there's
>a whole lot of tweaking and tuning that you wouldn't be able to do,
>never mind the fact that winding the fiber onto a bobbin then
>terminating it is going to have no end of yield issues. When you were
>done, you'd probably have something that cost a whole lot more than a
>similar performance silicon or quartz MEMS.
>
>AFAIK, the gyro biz kind of goes like this:
>
>order of M: | | | | |
>silicon MEMS: ***************
>quartz MEMS: ***************
>mechanical: ****************************************
>FOG: *********************************
>Ring laser: ******************
>
>You pays your money and you gets what you pays for.

Actually ring laser ones are not that expensive. I think this one at 1
degree/s is only around $15K :
http://www.honeywell.com/sites/servlet/com.merx.npoint.servlets.DocumentServlet?docid=D7B652202-0601-F56B-1B7F-829F1A7109E4
--
Muzaffer Kal

DSPIA INC.
ASIC/FPGA Design Services

http://www.dspia.com
From: Spehro Pefhany on
On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:26:52 -0700, the renowned Muzaffer Kal
<kal(a)dspia.com> wrote:

>On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:34:19 -0700, Tim Wescott <tim(a)seemywebsite.com>
>wrote:
>
>>On 07/04/2010 05:59 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
>>> On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:29:05 -0700, Tim Wescott<tim(a)seemywebsite.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I just did a quick survey of Digi-Key and Mouser -- it looks like
>>>> silicon gyros are still in the $5 - $10/ea range, unless of course you
>>>> want to spend more. Anyone know of less expensive alternatives? Ditto
>>>> accelerometers?
>>>
>>> In the late '80's I was working at Sperry on chips for Fiber Optic
>>> Gyros (FOG's) that were supposed to be so cheap that they could be
>>> used in cars. In fact, at one point in the development, we had a demo
>>> presented to us by Toyota.
>>>
>>> I've lost touch with that end of business... do FOG's still exist?
>>
>>Yes they do, but the least expensive ones are probably $500 to $1000,
>>with prices going up from there until they intersect with prices for
>>ring laser gyros (out of my league -- I suspect $100000, but I could be
>>off by almost an order of magnitude).
>>
>>I suppose you could build a FOG for a few bucks in quantity, but there's
>>a whole lot of tweaking and tuning that you wouldn't be able to do,
>>never mind the fact that winding the fiber onto a bobbin then
>>terminating it is going to have no end of yield issues. When you were
>>done, you'd probably have something that cost a whole lot more than a
>>similar performance silicon or quartz MEMS.
>>
>>AFAIK, the gyro biz kind of goes like this:
>>
>>order of M: | | | | |
>>silicon MEMS: ***************
>>quartz MEMS: ***************
>>mechanical: ****************************************
>>FOG: *********************************
>>Ring laser: ******************
>>
>>You pays your money and you gets what you pays for.
>
>Actually ring laser ones are not that expensive. I think this one at 1
>degree/s is only around $15K :
>http://www.honeywell.com/sites/servlet/com.merx.npoint.servlets.DocumentServlet?docid=D7B652202-0601-F56B-1B7F-829F1A7109E4

That's an entire 6 DOF IMU- 3 accelerometers and 3 gyros.

"Export licensing restricts operation to a maximum of 18,288 meters
and 514 meters per second"




Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
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