Hello all you hover dudes,

I want to introduce myself and ask a question. I have loved reading this thread on this forum. I am yet another guy who about a year ago set out to make my very own DF'ish type of flyer but it's still sitting nice and still on the old workbench. Hopefully I can get it airborne sometime soon though, and then I too will be in the club of those who can post their picture of a homemade, flying machine. I can't wait. All of you who have broken the flight barrier, good job. Man I am sure impressed! My DF solution consists (presently) of the micro-p flavor, I am using a philips 8051. I liked it because the PWM outputs were so easy, and I had it and could program it. I was attempting to use a tilt-sensor, (ADXL-202) but knew all along in the back of my mind that there had to be a catch. I mean I could get those samples for free from AD, so that was a kiss of death right upfront. After reading posts on this forum, I finally realized more detail about it...

Anyway, my question is about piezo gyros, and I apologize if this has already been addressed. (I haven't seen it though) I am wondering if there has been any evidence or other feelings about which ones to use? I know that is kind of hard, because it might also depend on which kind you can even get. I saw that ADI had located a source of TOKIN gyros for $25, and I have now found a source of TOKIN for about $27, and I have found a source for Murata at $30 each. (These are for small quantities). Does one perform better than the other? I mean if you can actually choose, why not. At that price, I hate to buy the ucky ones. Also, has anyone looked into the Analog Devices gyros? I thought someone said you could get samples, but today more and more electronic mfgs are charging you for "engineering samples". The AD stuff looked cool to me except for trying to mount that dang BGA... sheesh. A Murata rep did tell me that if you want to buy the 1500 pieces, then your price is more in the $10-15 range. He also said Murata is quite picky who they will sell them to, because they don't want to sell them to somebody who is using their parts in a fashion that Murata doesn't approve of. If someone here had a buddy who worked at a camera/camcorder manufacturer I bet they could go raid a parts bin and still make money selling to all of us poor saps who only want a handful.

Your comments would be appreciated...

Thanks all!