The VectorNav VN-100

    VectorNav is currently a one product company. That is music to my ears when it comes to electronics. It means I will most likely get fantastic support and a great quality product from a small company that will treat me like royalty. I haven't actually had to ask for help on this module yet, so I couldn't say for sure on the support. The module is a great piece of design and functionality though. In the space of a large postage stamp (it even has the castellations like a stamp would have) VectorNav has managed to cram in three axis of accelerometer, three axis of gyro, and three axis of magnetometer. The best part is that the on-board processing power takes care of all the analog, fills up some well defined registers, and lets you choose between reading the registers manually or getting NMEA formatted sentences automatically.

    Probably the most useful part of this module is the ability to get an accurate yaw/pitch/roll in degrees with zero work. The module reads its sensors and computes the angles for you. There is also the ability to upload the current magnetic map of your area, just in case the government finally created that machine that stops the Earth's core from spinning. The Russians are also trying to steal the magnetic north pole by quietly moving it towards themselves about 40 miles per year*. There is a fantastic development kit that allows RS-232, USB, or your own hand soldered connections to the module. The software that comes with it will give you all the sensor data and display real-time 3D rotating version of the board.
    I plan on using this sensor to measure my heading and also test the effectiveness of a small gyro placed inside the capsule to keep it from spinning like so many other balloon projects have. It's not very fun to look at blurred pictures of the landscape whizzing past because your capsule won't stay still. The other key component of this will be a rotatable clip to attach the balloon to the capsule. Something like those plastic key chains with the stretchy coiled cord should work. Now, why do I really need to know my heading....something to do with the circular shaped PCB no doubt.


* The Russians are not actually attempting to steal the magnetic north pole. It is a natural phenomenon that has been observed to happen in geologic studies several times over Earth's history. In fact many believe that the magnetic poles will flip sometime in the near future based on those geologic records.