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Simple Inertial Roadster

 GPS for the poor-ish
 
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Liked the spirit of gargin's 'GPS for the poor' ,if not the practicalities. How about an inertial system that takes data from the speed + distance your wheels rotate and the direction the wheels point in? I know airborne Inertial systems lose accuracy over time, but you wouldnt get things like varible air speed and air presure to throw you off. continental drift could be a problem, but hey, no ones perfect ;) Dont know if it would be any cheaper than a low end GPS though. The moving map would have to be on an LCD, but smallish ones seen to be used on cheap digital camera etc.
—tacit, Dec 02 2005

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       Most automotive GPS systems also use accelerometers to calculate the instantaneous position delta between the slower GPS fixes. This is how the realtime moving maps are driven.
—bristolz, Dec 02 2005
   

       Ah. Did'nt know that Bristolz. Bang goes my (first) idea. I guess that also answers the question on how much cheaper it would be...not a lot.
—tacit, Dec 02 2005
   

       The Chinese made a purely mechanical compass ages ago. It was a small cart with two wheels and a pointer on top. As the wheels turned ad different rates, the pointer would keep pointing the same way by means of gears inside.
—discontinuuity, Dec 03 2005
   


 

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