My hardware hacking (and I mean that more in a crude lumberjack way then in a cool electronic way :-).

Top left is the RadioShack prototype circuit board with the electronics to convert the signals from the parallel port into the current required for the steppers.

Bottom left is the partly assembled Altimeter. It was very close to complete, however when I went to test it, the little wire I glued to the black gear to trigger the optical sensor ran into the primary gear on the stepper - Doh!. It has been completely disassembled, and I'm currently working on version 2.

Bottom right is the completed compass. This was easy!

Looking down through the compass. The big black gear is original equipment. The gyro was removed by the technician who gave me the instrument. The blury translucent gear on the stepper is from a cassette player. There is a 22 gauge black insulated wire glued to the inside of the large gear (centre of photo) that passes through the optical sensor on the left. Works great, complete rotation is about 680 steps, and can be done in less then 5 seconds.

I just had to mount a it! Here's a shot of the panel with the compass mounted (no supporting electronics, so it's a dud at the moment). The attitude instrument above is just the case, the dispay and guts are spewed out over my workbench at the moment.

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