In article ,
Wes wrote:

Joseph Gwinn wrote:

As for manufacture by a HSM, either approach is practical, but the Wyler
approach is far simpler mechanically. In either case, the electronics
part is dead simple by present-day standards, but was a big deal back in
the 1960s and 1970s.


Are you planning to try it? Btw, thanks for the list of patents.

I am thinking about making a level. Don't know if I'll really do it.
Probably depends on how practical an approach I can dream up.

The big issue to be figured out is how to handle temperature variations.

The original Wyler unit (described in 4,023,413) may be made of fused
quartz, which would be easy for a big company like Wyler to do, but a
problem for me. I know how, but it would be far too much work. The
patent mentions quartz as a suitable material. So, the question is if
quartz is really necessary. Symmetry may suffice.

The subsequent patent (5,022,264) mentions that the diaphram mass is
made of 0.003" brass foil, which is easy to get and to photoetch. One
can also use stainless steel, but it must be non-magnetic so the Earth's
magnetic field doesn't cause false tilt readings.


Joe Gwinn


PS. The German book came, and I was able to read it well enough to see
that it wasn't all that useful. Most or all circuit diagrams in the
book were clearly wrong (in the sense of being impossible), so I assume
that the authors had no idea how these things actually work. JMG