Centurion Gun Stabilizing Gyro Bench Test Video
 

Below is a short video of a bench test of the traverse gyro on our Centurion tank.

I didn't explain the inductor very well. It's what generates a voltage to the control system to keep the gun pointing in the same direction as the tank drives around.
It's a transformer with the primary winding supplied with an 80 volt, 1900 Hz, AC signal.
The iron core of the transformer, which "links" the primary winding to the secondary winding, rotates as the gyro precesses (not precedes!).
At the gyro neutral position, i.e. the turret is not rotating due to tank motion, the iron core does not link the primary and secondary windings so no secondary voltage is generated.
When the gun is rotated away from its original setting by tank motion, the gyro twists in its mounts and rotates the iron core. A secondary voltage is now generated, of the order of a few volts AC. This goes to the traverse amplifier (which uses vacuum tubes for rectification to DC and amplification).
The amplified signal goes to the traverse metadyne which is an amazing piece of DC generating equipment. It's driven by a large DC motor.
It uses the amplified signal, which is in the 10-100 milliamp range, in part of its field windings to produce 0 to 100 amps at 24 volts DC in proportion to the amplified signal. This amounts to an amplification of up to 1000!
This varying current is supplied to the traverse motor to rotate the turret to compensate for tank movement.
Malcolm


https://youtu.be/gU2QsIDH7RI