Nice piece for a teardown - military laser gyro

[daqq]

Found this on ebay, I'd love to see the guts of one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EX-MOD-BAE-SYSTEMS-PLESSEY-LASER-GYROSCOPE-ASSEMBLY-285179-0131-Serial-822-/321262772516?pt=UK_CPV_Aviation_SM&hash=item4accc0e124

Note: I have no relation to the seller.

[SeanB]

Interesting, but you will need to study up on how ring gyroscopes work as well to understand it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_laser_gyroscope

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/navy/docs/fun/rlg.htm

http://www.asee.org/documents/sections/middle-atlantic/fall-2009/01-Evaluation-Of-Ring-Laser-And-Fiber-Optic-Gyroscope-Technology.pdf

http://wr.lib.tsinghua.edu.cn/sites/default/files/1095053630075.pdf

And then go down the rabbit hole......

[coppice]

If you take one of these apart there really isn't much more to see than what you can see in those pictures on E-Bay. This triangular design seems to be pretty much the norm, although most of the literature tends to show a square configuration. It doesn't change the principle. Read the references Sean B cited, and look at those pictures on e-bay, and that's about all there is to it.