Gyroscopes are not easy to make. A simple tilt sensor is a drop of mercury in a curved dish. If the dish tips the mercury slides over to the edge of the dish and touches some electrical contacts. Since mercury conducts, it acts as a switch which is closed when the mercury touches the contacts. Be careful with mercury! It can do nervous system damage if you are exposed to it too much. You can get it from old thermometers and thermistats. Oh, you could also use a steel ball-bearing instead of the mercury. The bearing would roll to the edge of the dish and touch the contacts. Another one is a metal weight tied to a flexible wire (pendulum) suspended in a metal ring. When the whole thing is tipped, the pendulum tilts over and touches the ring, creating a circuit. This is probably even easier than the mercury/ball-bearing tilt switch.
Gyroscope
Posted - Aug 28 2003 : 2:25:22 PM
