Well, responding to my own thread. The home brewed gyro works like a charm. After powering up the Autolearn function became available and I went through sea calibration process as needed for 1G version. Upon calibration zigzaging was done I went to catch some swells on open
water to see what happens. I did surprisingly well,
steering looks more like invisible helmsman caching up as
boat rolls over the waves. Response Level menu added some extra sensitivity options, it used to be 1 to 4 now it increased all the way to level 9. Anything after level 4 is pretty much useless unless you have a rocket
boat doing 60 knots in a gale force conditions.
The things I didn’t like. It seems like
autopilot became more responsive. At cruising speed it does excellent job BUT if the
wind drops you slow down to 1 to 2 knots and yawl stability decreases it starts doing unnecessary small adjustments trying keep you on precise course. All that equals to eating
battery banks. Also with a sudden gust the boat gets overpowered and start turning in to the
wind autopilot would correct that almost instantly creating hill that a little beyond my comfort level.
This is how final setup looks like on the pictures. Wires from the module connected to RATE GYRO taps the following way: +12V=RED TAP, Ground=GRAY TAP, Rate=YELLOW TAP. Note that gyro module has to be positioned upside down in order to provide correct output. I made a small bracket out of 90 degrees plastic angle. It attached with 3M double sticking tape to the circuit board on one side and the gyro module on the other. In order to
work correctly the whole computer has to be installed vertically within 10 degrees limit.
There a little 3pin socket on the circuit board specially designed for factory upgrade gyro. I never bothered with it but I suspect it might supply +5.5V skipping the need for soldering voltage
regulator.
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