Just tried a collective pitch heli...

[DennyR]

Skookum can save you in inverted mode bailout FWIW. I hope I don't ever need it.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I'm curious to know how reliable they are. Keeping track of which way is up is difficult when doing manoevers like that. The accelerometer becomes useless, so you're all on gyro and the errors can add up quickly.

 

[DennyR]

I think there has been a general move to Silicon Sensing gyros which seem to stand up better than Invensense in this environment.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I think there has been a general move to Silicon Sensing gyros which seem to stand up better than Invensense in this environment.

Oh yeah? I hadn't heard that part. Interesting. Somebody had posted about this new IMU chip on the market claiming "tactical grade performance" or something like that, whatever that means, but the $1000 pricetag for just the chip was a bit off-putting.

 

[DennyR]

Oh yeah? I hadn't heard that part. Interesting. Somebody had posted about this new IMU chip on the market claiming "tactical grade performance" or something like that, whatever that means, but the $1000 pricetag for just the chip was a bit off-putting.

I think you are talking about a different product. It is called Pinpoint. Futaba have been using it for ages now and Skookum have also changed plus a few others.
The gyros in a Segway are the same but they use a clever array system to create triple redundancy. They are a lot less sensitive to vibration.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that these other guys were using a $1000 chip.

I had seen one Pro-grade IMU that used 5 gyros arranged in a pentagonal array for tons of redundancy.

 

[DennyR]

Maybe thats the way to go with APM

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I think that's outside the range of where they want to go, at least at this point.

Also keep in mind, multiple gyros does not help you maintain AHRS solution during rapid manoevers. At least not directly. It's the quality of the chips that matters, I think.