"Piezo" gyro?

[BladeCXMan]

While I'm showing my ignorance (as in, What is an FET?), Could anyone out there explain to me how a "piezo gyro", an in a Blade CX, does it's thing?
I guess I'm just simple-minded and old school in my understanding of a gyroscope, but how can anything without an actual spinning weighted rotor function as a stabilizing device?

[carlo_the_wonder_frog]

http://www.heliproz.com/jwgyros.html

excerpt
"A piezo crystal is a special crystal that will generate a tiny voltage change when the crystal stress and strain are build up in the crystal. You introduce stress to the piezo crystal by bending it slightly. When there is a yaw rate perturbation, the inertia of the motion will deflect the crystal very slightly and it is enough to generate a tiny voltage that can be amplified and used as a feedback signal. Piezo crystals are also used in cheap microphones. When you talk into a microphone, your sound wave vibrates the piezo crystal inside and that generates a tiny voltage. On the other hand, if voltages are applied to a piezo crystal, the crystal will deflect.
"

[HeliDan]

A FET is a field effect transistor. Much faster and is more efficient than a standard bipolar transistor. can be used as a switch or in the linear gain region. I can go into more detail if you're really interested, but is that really what you want to know?

You think that a piezo gyroscope is complicated. Well, contemplate an optical gyroscope. They are used on nuclear submarines! Very simple idea, but very complicated in real life!

[BladeCXMan]

Thanks a bunch Guys! Very helpful stuff. The gyro article in particular is really interesting stuff, and written in a atyle even a non-physicist can understand!
:noteworthy

[Slick]

Aye, I agree. I found this helpfull as well. I have used a piezoelectric crystal in the past for vortex flow meters but I always find more information helpfull.

Thanks,

-Craig