old navy

GYRO COMPASS

Gyro Compass on Ships: Construction, Working, and Usage

a Gyro compass is a form of gyroscope, used widely on ships employing an electrically powered, fast-spinning gyroscope wheel and frictional forces among other factors utilizing the basic physical laws, influences of gravity and the Earth’s rotation to find the true north.

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Construction

Gyro compass has become one indispensable instrument in almost all merchant ships or naval vessels for its ability to detect the direction of true north and not the magnetic north. It is comprised of the following units:

• Master Compass: Discovers and maintains the true north reading with the help of gyroscope.

• Repeater Compasses: Receive and indicate the true direction transmitted electrically from the Master Compass.

• Course Recorder: Makes a continuous record of the manoeuvring on a moving strip of paper.

• Control Panel: Governs the electrical operation of the system and ascertains the running condition by means of a suitable meter.

• Voltage Regulator: Maintains constant supply of the ship to the motor-generator.

• Alarm Unit: Indicates failure of the ship’s supply.

• Amplifier Panel: Controls the follow-up system.

• Motor Generator: Converts the ship’s DC supply to AC and energizes the Compass equipment.

yro compasses are linked to the repeater compasses via one transmission system. The fast-spinning rotor attached weighs from 1.25 pounds to 55 pounds. It is driven thousands of revolutions per minute by another electric motor. However, the most essential part in a Gyro compass system is the spinning wheel, which is known as the Gyroscope.

Working

External magnetic fields which deflect normal compasses cannot affect Gyro compasses. When a ship alters its course the independently driven framework called ‘Phantom’ moves with it, but the rotor system continues to point northward. This lack of alignment enables it to send signal to the driving motor, which moves the phantom step in with the rotor system again in a path where the phantom may have crossed only a fraction of a degree or several degrees of the compass circle. As soon as they are aligned, electrical impulses are sent by the phantom to the repeater compasses for each degree it traverses.

Read more: http://www.marineinsight.com/sports-luxury/equipment/gyro-compass-on-ships-construction-working-and-usage/#ixzz1uxKB1hUG