c
 

 

 

In addition to sea charts and a few helpful items, there is one really indispensable
instrument without which even the simplest navigation would be impossible. The compass, think
of Bartholomeus Diaz, Vasco de Gama, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan. They
would not have found the route to the East Indies, discovered America, or sailed around the
world without the aid of this important instrument of navigation. Every craft, be it fishing boat,
FAC, OPV or air craft carrier, needs a compass.

 

A  is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the Earth's

magnetic poles. It consists of a magnetized pointer (usually marked on the North end) free to
align itself with Earth's magnetic field. The compass greatly improved the safety and efficiency
of travel, especially ocean travel. A compass can be used to calculate heading, used with a
sextant to calculate latitude, and with a marine chronometer to calculate longitude. It thus
provides a much improved navigational capability that has only been recently supplanted by
modern devices such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). A compass is any magnetically
sensitive device capable of indicating the direction of the magnetic north of a planet's
magnetosphere. The face of the compass generally highlights the cardinal points of north, south,
east and west. Often, compasses are built as a standalone sealed instrument with a magnetized
bar or needle turning freely upon a pivot, or moving in a fluid, thus able to point in a northerly
and southerly direction.

   
 The compass was invented in ancient China around 247 B.C., and was used for
navigation by the 11th century. The dry compass was invented in medieval Europe around 1300.
This was supplanted in the early 20th century by the liquid-filled magnetic compass

Other, more accurate, devices have been invented for determining north that do not
depend on the Earth's magnetic field for operation (known in such cases as true north, as opposed
to magnetic north). A gyrocompass or astrocompass can be used to find true north, while being
unaffected by stray magnetic fields, nearby electrical power circuits or nearby masses of ferrous
metals. A recent development is the electronic compass, or fibre optic gyrocompass, which
detects the magnetic directions without potentially fallible moving parts. This device frequently
appears as an optional subsystem built into GPS receivers. However, magnetic compasses remain
popular, especially in remote areas, as they are cheap, durable, and require no electrical power
supply.

c
 

It is a COMPASS that can find TRUE NORTH by using an Electrically powered, fast
spinning GYROSCOPE wheel and frictional or other forces in order to exploit basic Physical
laws and the rotation of Earth. GYROCOMPASSES are widely used in ships. Marine
GYROCOMPASS has two main advantages over Magnetic compass.

- Find TRUE NORTH.

- Unaffected by external magnetic fields.

It continually provides, display of ship¶s course by repeaters fitted at important navigational

positions. ie Bridge, ops room, Tiller flat.

The out puts from the Gyrocompass used to drive,

- Radars
- Sonar systems
- weapon systems
- Direction finding equipments
- Plotting tables
- Ships computer



c
 

c
  is a mechanical device containing a spinning mass which is universally

mounted.

c


 


Basic properties of a c
 


-
c
 

-
 













c
 

The axis of rotation (spin axis) of the gyro wheel tends to remain in a fixed direction in space
if no force is applied to it.





 

The axis of rotation has a tendency to turn at a right angle to the direction of an applied
force.

 

Precession is the resulting movement of the spin axis, if a force is applied to the wheel.

- Attempt to  a Gyro it will 

- Attempt to 
a Gyro it will 

Direction of precession is dependent upon,

a. Direction of
 of 


b. Directionof 




Rate of precession is dependent upon,

a. Angular Momentum (Only practical variable ± SPEED )

b. Amount of Force Applied

Effect of earth¶s rotation on free c
 

Free c
 , points towards a fixed direction in space. When gyroscope is

placed on earth, basically the earth induces two errors by the virtue of its shape and rotation,
namely

 and  



If an observer placed this perfect gyro with its axis horizontal at the North Pole he would
rotate with the earth in space while the c
  axis maintained a fixed direction in
space.

Hence, the axis would appear to drift away from its initial direction on the earth surface.
This is known as

.

More over only after the earth had completed a whole revolution on its axis would the
gyro seem to have returned to its starting position. Thus the gyro axis would appear to turn one
revolution about the vertical in one day, which gives a rate of drift 15 degrees per hour.


Angle of elevation or depression of the spin axis above or below the horizontal. At
POLE, Obviously it is ZERO.

Spin axis ± East/West direction, Maximum TILT

Spin axis ± North/South direction, Zero TILT

We need to counter these effects, so as to Point towards true North.

 
 
c
 c
 

Free Gyroscope can be converted into a Gyrocompass. To make Gyroscope into a

Gyrocompass, Gyroscope has to be made to fulfill two main requirements,

a. Seek the MERIDIAN

b. Settle on the MERIDIAN


 
 




When a Gyro is fitted in mobile platform like ship, it will be subjected to additional
movements like,

a. Motion of the ship over the curved surface of earth.

b. Rolling and Pitching.

 !""#"

- Speed

- Latitude

- Course
It can be given by formula,

""#$%&'((

Where,

V - Speed of the ship in knots

Q - Course of ship

L - Latitude

 c




There are two types,

a. First Rolling Error.

b. Second Rolling Error.

 ) c
 * +

,(-,,.

a. Power supply system

b. Temperature control system
c. Follow-up system
d. Distribution system





c
 

The gyrosphere, in operation floating freely in the supporting liquid within the outer
sphere, constitutes the north±indicating system. Two gyros installed in the gas±tight gyrosphere
and driven by AC produce, in conjunction with the combined effects of the earth¶s rotation and
gravitation, a directive force which causes the gyrosphere to settle on the geographic north±south
line. Two mechanically coupled gyros with gyro vector axes at right angles to each other are
used in order to avoid errors caused by the ship¶s roll and pitch motions.

When the gyro compass system is switched on, the gyro rotors begin to run up. The
gyrosphere now oscillates about the north±south direction under the effects of gravity and the
earth¶s rotation.

A damping system incorporated in the gyrosphere damps these oscillations until the
gyrosphere comes to rest (approx. 3 hours) and the resultant vector axis of the gyro system
indicates the north±south direction