Wind Sensors

[seandepagnier]

Hi,

the 4-quadrant sensor is an AS5050 from Austriamicrosystems. The resolution ist 10 bit.
If this is not good enough you can replace it by a AS5045 with 12 bit.

10 bit is sufficient for wind direction.

I am using an axis made of brass running in a sapphire. It is very sensitive. I was wondering
the windvane was continue moving without wind, it then behaves like a compass and shows
north!

I think it's a problem if you use a magnetic sensor because the magnet turns the vane into a compass.

The DIY Peet Bros sensor counts the revolution time to determine the wind speed and direction.
The metal sheet is used to seperate the sensors only. The resolution decreases with rising
windspeed.

Unless the uC can't measure timing at the higher wind speeds, the resolution should increase with wind speed not decrease.

This design using a magnetic shield is interesting, but at low wind speed the wind direction is not going to be good, because the cups must be spinning to measure wind direction. In light airs, and especially the top of a moving mast, the apparent wind moves a huge amount, and these puffs and accelerations of wind will affect the wind direction measurement especially at low wind speed. Maybe it can be improved using 4 or 8 reed switches instead of only two, but not sure if I like this idea.

It's probably a good design for a fixed weather station that doesn't need to measure small changes in turbulent wind direction, but for a sailboat following the wind in very light wind, this is important.

I need to do a comparison to be sure, and I am still curious about this concept as I have not used it.. I am only very skeptical.

The overall resolution limit is the ESP Microcontroller. I think it can be improved by counting
every second or third revolution depending on the wind speed.

Chris

How is the ESP microcontroller limited? At 8mhz or so, it can count down to 1/8th of a microsecond. This is way more resolution than needed even in 60 knots of wind.