Standard 30 MF Gyro Compass

Standard 30 MF
based on hemispherical resonator gyro technology

The Hemispherical Resonator Gyroscope is a high performance angular rate or rotation sensor. The Anschütz Standard 30 MF Gyro Compass is a maintenance free gyro compasses based on this hemispherical resonator gyro (HRGs) technology.

The use of HRG technology together with the simple design makes it extremely reliable with no wear and tear and no need for maintenance.

Key Benefits

High accuracy & reliability

Standard 30 MF uses superior hemispherical resonator gyro technology, known from air and space applications, proven in more than 500 compass systems.

  • Ultra-robust design, high accuracy over lifetime without drift
  • Settling time of only one hour, settles at rough sea states
  • Provides heading output even if speed and latitude input fails – a significant advantage over other compass systems

Advanced functions

Standard 30 MF provides a multitude of features and is easy to integrate into the most varied system environments.

  • Heading sensor and MRU in one (roll and pitch output), thus reduction in investment and maintenance cost
  • Webserver functionality for configuration, software update and diagnosis – no need of proprietary tools
  • Approved as gyro compass, gyro compass for high speed craft and rate-of-turn indicator

Worry free operation

State-of-the-art design and maintenance-free operation make Standard 30 MF perfect for demanding newbuilding and retrofit projects.

  • Superior and durable HRG technology (MTBF >100,000 h)
  • High cost-effectiveness over lifetime, free of maintenance
  • Less complex than other strap-down compasses (such as FOGs), resulting in long lifetime and high long-term stability

HRG technology and its advantage over FOGs

Strap-down technologies (i.e. known from FOGs) became more popular in the recent past, because they are maintenance-free. Standard 30 MF is a maintenance-free gyro compass based on Hemispherical Resonator Gyros (HRGs). HRGs are widely known from space and air applications, and have also proven in more than 500 compass system installations. HRGs are less complex than FOGs and use a different principle, leading to a long lifetime and high long-term stability.

Here is how the technology works

This can be illustrated quite simple using the example of a wine glass, which is stimulated by a finger tip. In the HRG this is done via electrodes.
Electrodes excite the resonator with a certain frequency which results in a stationary vibration pattern. Compared to the example, a finger strike sets the glass into vibration and makes a sound which can even be heard a few seconds later. The vibration pattern can be identified by four points at the ring of the glass that are moving the most – the so-called antinodes. The HRG measures this movement through pick-off electrodes.
If the glass is rotated around its axis – observe the reference point – the vibration pattern also rotates, but not as much as the glass does. In other words: The standing wave of the rotation pattern lags behind and the inertness of this pattern is based on the Coriolis force effect. The same shift of the rotation pattern is caused by a movement of the vessel. Note that the vibration frequency is much higher than the frequencies of the vibration spectrum of vessels and thus not affected adversely by the vessel. The movement is again measured by pick-off electrodes. This is a very simple and accurate way to sense and measure rotation as the degree of the lag is proportional to the angular rate of the movement of the ship.

Main Features

Highest operational safety under harshest environmental conditions.

  • High accuracy of 0.25 degrees, ultra-robust design
  • Integration of up to four sensors, including third-party compasses (up to three gyro compasses, or two gyros and a GNSS THD, and a magnetic compass)
  • CAN bus based real time network with up to 400m cable length
  • Heading monitor, with manual or automatic switch over of gyro compasses
  • Automatic correction of magnetic heading by deviation and variation (with GNSS receiver)
  • Quick settling mode

Over the past decade, gyro compass technology and onboard infrastructure were continuously developed. A new gyro compass system helps to reduce regular maintenance and prevents unplanned downtimes. Refitting contributes to more efficient ship operation.

Learn more about refitting your old system:
Gyro compass refit

Standard 30 MF interfaces

A modular product range enables different system configurations - from a single compass up to a multi compass system consisting of magnetic compass, Standard 22, Standard 30 MF and redundancy in distribution.

The integration into the heading management system is realized through redundant CAN interfaces. The CAN bus reduces the wiring effort between the components to a minimum, over a distance of up to 400 meters with real-time communication.

Modular system architecture

Standard 30 MF standalone

The stand-alone system comes with 4 serial output interfaces and an analog +/-10V interface for rate-of-turn. Therefore, the Standard 30 MF can also be used as a rate-of-turn indicator (required for vessels above 50.000 GT). Speed and latitude are taken in as serial data. Automatic speed / latitude error correction are standard features. In addition, the Ethernet interfaces can be used for data communication, e.g. with an integrated navigation system.

Standard 30 MF heading management system

The heading management system allows to connect up to 3 gyro compasses and integrates a magnetic compass or GNSS compass. 12 serial outputs are available in addition to the outputs of the Standard 30 MF for the connection of heading receivers, such as for repeaters, autopilots, radars amongst others.Sensor selection is done with the operator unit. The monitoring threshold for a heading difference between different compasses can be defined by the user and is continuously monitored.

Standard 30 MF heading management system with redundancy in distribution

This system provides a redundancy of the distribution system – in addition to the redundancy of compasses, so no single failure causes a loss of heading information to the connected heading receivers. This system (with two gyros) is compliant to the demanding class notations DNV NAUT-OSV/OC/AW, LR IBS and ABS NIBS.


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