buying new gyro

[scorpions980]

my team wants to buy a new gyroscope because the one that we have is twitchy. does anyone know if the gyros that we buy from the digikey website is the whole part with the circuit board and all the attached parts or if its just the little box without the circuit board. thank you in advance.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Depends on what gyro you buy from Digikey. Before you buy a new one, what do you mean by "twitchy"?

[scorpions980]

there are times when it just stops and doesnt change even though the robot is spinning non stop or when it keeps going when the robot is not moving. though most of the time it works like normal sometimes it just spazzes out like that.
and most likely the ADXRS612BBGZ-RLCT-ND (part number).

[CrazyCarl461]

They have a lot of good gyros (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c=85) at sparkfun.com both with and without breakout boards on them. Not only do they have good descriptions of exactly what you are getting, they also have lots of documentation and a good support community. Great site for many things robotic/sensor related! I got a gyro there once for a project and it definitely wasn't twitchy.

[Phoenix Spud]

One year my old team (2342) broke one of the sensors in our KoP. We worked with another team in our area to get theirs. I think we ended up giving them a sensor they broke, and they gave us the one we broke. Both teams ended up with the sensors that they needed!

[Greg McKaskle]

Without the robot moving or gyro moving, wiggle the wires along their length. It sounds like you may have a loose connection. Another test is to put the robot on blocks and run the motors. Is noise because of wire routing causing bad readings?

You may still decide to purchase a new gyro, but at least then, you'll know if it is just a cable or cable routing.

Greg McKaskle

[scorpions980]

no all that is just fine, i believe that someone may have accidentally dropped it and damaged something. but besides this even if this works we dont want it spinning out of control during a match so we want to get a extra.
the extra is definately needed. i would highly appreciated if someone could point me in the right direction as a specific model that is comparable to the part (since it was donated by some company and getting anymore is impossible) AND is FRC approved.
preferably with the circuit board attached.

[PortugazD.Ace]

Why don't you just order a new gyro set from FIRST.

[Alan Anderson]

Why don't you just order a new gyro set from FIRST.

Mostly because FIRST does not sell them.

The sensor boards are only available in the Kit of Parts. The supplier does not sell them either. If yours is missing or broken, the three options are:

obtain a replacement from another team that isn't using theirs
use a different sensor that is commercially available
design the robot controls not to need that particular sensor

[EricVanWyk]

Mostly because FIRST does not sell them.

The sensor boards are only available in the Kit of Parts. The supplier does not sell them either. If yours is missing or broken, the three options are:

obtain a replacement from another team that isn't using theirs
use a different sensor that is commercially available
design the robot controls not to need that particular sensor


4. Make your own from the design packages that will be on the usfirst.org website as soon as I smack the webadmin hard enough.

In all actuality, #4 is a terrible option - it is way harder than going to SparkFun. But, it is the best I've managed with the current situation. Mostly I just provide them as educational tools.


Edit: *SMACK* http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=16337 :)

Edit Edit: Thanks Joe Ross! Now this years toys count too.

[Joe Ross]

5. Use last year's gyro, since the design package was released per <R34>.