Self-calibrating Compass/Gyroscope/Accelerometer

“We have taken the time to rigorously test the product to ensure that it provides 'real life' data, instead of simply relying on the sensors' technical specifications.” says Chester Fitchett, CEO of Phidgets. We also use precise voltage supply filtering to guarantee low noise and correct sensor operation. added Chester.

The Compass is continuously calibrated for changes in sensitivity and offset. Errors introduced by magnetic fields and distortion of the earth's magnetic field may be compensated out by using our calibration program to calculate the correction factors to feed the device.

Each Gyroscope axis is calibrated for sensitivity to rotation and cross-axis mis-alignment.

Each accelerometer axis is calibrated for cross-axis mis-alignment, sensitivity to positive and negative acceleration, and offset.

Product Specifications

Compass
Resolution: 400µG Minimum
Offset (°) from North: 2° Typical

Gyroscope
Measurement Range: ±400 °/s
Resolution: 0.02 °/s
Drift/minute: 4° Typical
Typical error over rotation @ 1g: 2mg

Accelerometer
Acceleration Bandwidth @ 1ms sample rate: 100 Hz
Measurement Range (XYZ Axis): ±5g (40 m/s2)
Axis 0 Noise Level (X Axis): 300µG standard deviation (σ) at 128 samples/second
Axis 1 Noise Level (Y Axis): 300µG standard deviation (σ) at 128 samples/second
Axis 2 Noise Level (Z Axis): 500µG standard deviation (σ) at 128 samples/second

PhidgetSpatial 3/3/3 board
Data Rate: 4ms to 1000ms per sample; 16ms to 1000ms over the webservice
Min/Max USB Voltage: 4.75 - 5.25 VDC
USB Current Specification: 45mA max
USB Speed: Full Speed (12Mbit)

Software Environment

“Unlike a lot of our competitor’s products that require their users to write some firmware code in order to use their sensor, we are completely “Plug and Play” says Bernard Rousseau, Director of Marketing. “With Phidgets, you plug it in and start using it and when it comes to programming, the user, not us, decides which operating system and which computer language he wants to use”, added Rousseau.

Users can program Phidgets using a simple yet powerful and well documented Application Programming Interfade (API) that is supported under Windows (2000, XP, Vista), Windows CE, Mac OS X, and Linux. Users can write programs in Visual Basic, VB.NET, C#, C/C++, Flash/Flex, Java, Labview, Matlab, ActionScript 3.0, and Cocoa.