Another, What is it?

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Not quite as mysterious as the ‘Disk Calculator’ that (as far as I know) we never got to the bottom of, but this item of precision engineering has been puzzling me recently and thought someone here might be able to throw some light on it.

Behind this very incomplete front panel is some exquisite engineering including a ‘Ball Resolver’, an Infinitely variable gearbox and zero backlash 100DP gearing.

My understanding is that this is part of an aircraft navigation system (c1960 and 1980?)

Ian P

 

 

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Part of a mechanical analogue computer used for solving navigation differential equations?  These were quite common before real time digital computation got small and quick enough to take over.

[Clive SteerParticipant @clivesteer55943]

It could be an area navigation device which uses inputs from the direction and airspeed indicators to calculate Lat and Lon position. However the two subsidiary dials don’t have the sort of scales such a device might have. It could be used for some other form of calculation such as water volume based on pressure and orifice size.

CS

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

I have always assumed this is part of a navigation system with the two ball resolver outputs driving the resettable odometer type counters (push to turn knobs missing). What puzzles me is why the two rotating pointers have scales to 64 and 200 neither of which seem compatible with map lat and long references.

This video explains the workings of a ball resolver, I suggest skip to 9 mins in where the mechanical details (and teardown) are shown, then go back to the start when the diagrams and maths will make more sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKPPBgBhxNs

Ian P

P.S. Ball resolver in my unit is 1 inch (2″ in video)
P.P.S. There is a 2″ resolver on ebay now  386255039871 (nothing to do with me)

 

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