Gyrocompass and inclinometer
 

I have an obsolete KVH Tracphone antenna AU900A that has an integral
gyrocompass and inclinometer. The servos and gearing would make a great
land-based positioning device. I would also like to experiment with the
internal gyrocompass and inclinometer. KVH tech support will only tell me
that the interface for the units is "proprietary".

Does anyone have any experience with the KVH gyrocompass (020692 33 - 8
wire) and inclinometer (02 0693 21 - 6 wire) used in earlier tracphone
antennas? I have tried interfacing the serial RS422 port on the antenna PCU
controller board -- no joy. The antenna always parks North and responds to
changes in position, so I believe the gyrocompass and inclinometer are
functioning.

Anyone have any knowledge about these units that they would be willing to
share?

Hank S.
Ft. Lauderdale
hanks424 (at) yahoo.com

I too have had no luck getting info from KVH. I have one of their
DIGITAL GYROCOMPASS units, gyro stabilized fluxgate. KVH product
support in general is bad. I understand that they might not want to
support hobbyist users who hack their products, but its worse than
that. A group of commercial fishermen videotaped the sledgehammer
destruction of a KVH GYRO TRAC mag compass unit and sent it to the CEO.
All had had failures of their GYRO TRACs just barely out of warranty.
Thats OK, but KVH's quotes to repair were about 80% of the new price.
One thing good, is that they were EXCELLENT heading references before
they failed.