Brooks and Gatehouse for one. The B&G units have there own fluxgate and
unique interface with no facility for an external HDG source. For your
information, most Gyros do not have Sine/Cosine outputs. They can be had as
options, but are VERY expensive. This is true for SPERRY and ANSCHUTZ for
sure. Sine/Cosine is the standard interface for a fluxgate though. Gyros use
3phase Step (Commercial) and Servo/Resolver (Military). Commercial
autopilots have a select feature to use multiple inputs for HDG on a
selector switch like Gyro 1, Gyro 2, Sat Compass, etc, as well as the
ability to configure for each one. Thanks for the Raymarine tip though, as I
recall, Raymarine has 2 lines, commercial and yacht. Do the yacht models
have the NMEA HDG input as well?
Steve

"Kees Verruijt" wrote in message
...
Steve Lusardi wrote:
Bjarke,
No they don't. Most yacht units force you to use their fluxgate compass
as a heading input. Commercial units have a selector function and they
can accept step, sine/cosine, servo/resolver and others. The yacht unit I
have seen only use their own fluxgate. That's why I asked the question.
Steve

As mentioned earlier the Raymarine corepacks do NOT need their own
fluxgate and WILL accept heading from NMEA, including fast heading (10
msg/s) from a decent source. They also accept analog heading change from a
gyro, but at a fixed input voltage/degree/sec.

Just curious -- which "yacht units" have you seen that only use their own
fluxgate that are suited to be rigged with external pumps?

--
Kees