Digital gyros can have selectable logic voltages or operate at the supply voltage.
The supply voltage for gyros is usually 5V or less. Operating currents are in the mA and sometimes µA range. MEMS gyros are generally low power devices. Analog gyros can be less expensive and sometimes more accurate, depending on how you are reading the analog signal. An ADC on a microcontroller can be used to read the signal. Gyros with an analog interface represent rotational velocity by a varying voltage, usually between ground and the supply voltage. SPI, on the other hand, can have a much higher sample rate. One limitation of a digital interface is max sample rate. Using these interfaces allow for an easy connection to a host microcontroller. Gyros with a digital interface usually use either the SPI or I2C communication protocols. Gyros can have either a digital or analog communication interface. As always, refer to the sensor datasheet for all of the information on specifications and example connections. The primary hardware connections to use a gyro are power and a communication interface. How does the MEMS gyro detect angular velocity? Also, note that the acceleration or linear velocity of the aircraft does not affect the measurement of the gyro. By detecting these small changes gyros help stabilize the flight of the aircraft. Instead they rotate a few degrees on each axis. Gyros are often used on objects that are not spinning very fast at all. Some gyros come in single and dual axis varieties, but the triple axis gyro in a single chip is becoming smaller, less expensive, and more popular. Is it clockwise around the axis, or is it counter-clockwise?Ī triple axis MEMS gyroscope, similar to the one pictured above ( ITG-3200), can measure rotation around three axes: x, y, and z. The spinning direction of the wheel is also important. It would have an angular velocity of 360 degrees per second. Imagine if the wheel spins once per second. The other two axes would not measure any rotation. If you attach the sensor to the wheel shown above, you can measure the angular velocity of the z axis of the gyro.