WInd Vanes, Eddy current Dampers, Node Red and ESP32....

A mixed bag here... I have built up a home-brew 'weather station' - Humidity sensor, static Pressure, temperature, wind speed and direction sensors. All sensors apart from the Wind Vane work well - The airspeed sensor consists of 3 hemisphere cups spinning, with a slotted opto sensor and some software. Calibration was done against a commercial anemometer and seems OK.

However, the wind vane suffers from too much agility. It uses a 5K ohm POT at the position sensor - the pot can rotate fully, and has a 1degree dead band and the crossover point - the pot is form a spares kit for an F1-CZ bombing computer....courtesy Dasault..

I remade the windvan, using an RC brushless motor outrunner with magnets and fitted a stationery aluminium core as an eddy current damper - works a treat.. see the video at the end on the post

The POT...

The Wind speed sensor slotted disc and opto detector.

I used a very neat processor for the project - an ESP32-S3, very Arduino like, running at near 200MHz though, with built in WiFi. All done under the stock Arduino IDE. This allowed the sensors to be fitted on the pole outside, together with a waterproof box housing the ESP32, a 3A/H 12V gell cell and a small solar panel and charger - the data is collected via WiFi network and displayed and a small Tablet PC.

The PC side of the software is all implemented using the excellent free Node Red programming environment - all using tag widgets and 'wires' to connect functions. These function are 'node' that implement all sort of functions - delay, maths, hysteresis, boolean, etc, anything and everything needed to graphically 'write' software -

You can create graphic display pages, buttons, switches, text, etc - anything needed to create even very complex PLC type controls, home automation, alarm systems, and machine control - not CNC, but PLC type control. Amazing Stuff!

The video link - Eddy Current Wind Vane damper

Edit - added the ESP32 photo

Edited By Joseph Noci 1 on 01/07/2023 23:22:55

Superb, Joe

[ as per usual ]

MichaelG.

Is the motor just for damping not used for direction like a synchro?

Must look into this Node Red some more. I think I have heard of it before.

Very nicely done. My own wifi temperature monitor keeps killing the charging circuit, probably too many volts from the solar panel.

Thank you Michael...

Bazyle - No synchro involved - I modify RC Brushless motors to do almost anything, but synchro's are out of the bounds... Its just for damping. Put the new assembly up this morning and the damping is indistinguishable from magic.

Some pics of the pole-

The 'beehive' below the electronics box houses the temp/humidity and pressure sensor. The beehive is convention in keeping the temp sensor environment as close to real as can be, ie, reducing the effects of direct sun heating, direct wind cooling, etc.

The pole is stainless steel, 50mm OD, the arms are 50mm PVC household piping, as are the T's and elbows - makes for a great Meccano set when building this stuff.

WRT Node Red - it is quite an amazing software tool. Can run on Android I believe, but does run on Windows and Linux, inc on RPi linux - even the RPi-2 seems to work ok.

The DIsplay pages one can create are vast and varied, although a little 'robotic' in style - If you are schooled in Javascript and JSON, you can make the pages a beautiful as you wish with CSS styling (!)...

Here are the pages I created for my home installation - Monitoring and managing the entire solar PV system, batteries, Heatpump for underfloor heating, underfloor heating itself, controlling household lights for vacation automation ( using ESP32 WIFI device driving a solid state relay, fitted in the light switch box!) and the little weather station.....

The Weather and Status pages.

weather station Graphs

Heating and Lighting controls ( with robotic buttons!)

Heatpump monitoring

PV system

Underfloor heating floor temps

Node Red is quite a lot of fun..

Edited By Joseph Noci 1 on 03/07/2023 15:35:33

Impressive!

'Node Red' reminds me a bit of the 'Labview' we used at work, which lets you turn a PC into a complete electronic test and measurement system, and results data-processor (with a few appendages such as amplifiers as necessary). That is a similarly a virtual wiring-diagram system, joining blocks with "wires" although these display orthogonally.

Does Node Red have what Labview has, a flow-display feature (cursors travelling along the wires) to allow verifying your "wiring" and show where any fault occurs?

I like the neat cabinet and "beehive". The conventional weather-instruments box, with white-painted, louvred sides, is called a 'Stevenson Screen'; but I imagine the label can be applied to your arrangement as it is doing the same thing in a different shape.