To improve the north-finding speed of the traditional mechanical gyroscope

a coarse north-finding method through electronic compass is presented. Based on the principle of electronic compass

the angle values between the north and heading of the system are real-time acquired through the digital port and serial port of the electronic compass using DSP processor

and the heading of the system is driven to the coarse north direction through the acquired angle values. The automatization of gyroscope coarse north-finding instead of the track reversion point way is achieved successfully. Experiments show that the time of coarse north-finding is reduced from 10 min to 1.5 min

and the precision within 30' can reach the requirement of precise north-finding.