Choose a wind sensor

[Sparhawk76]

I have made my own 3d printed wind .   The cost a fraction of davis, and never wear out because it uses hall sensor not a potentiometer, but need a different calibration than davis, otherwise the wires are the same

Any word on when you're ready to sell this new wind sensor?   Also, If I have your weather sensor module, how hard is it to switch it over to run the new type of sensor? 

I just passed a milestone in my build last night and had pypilot move my inside helm for the first time, so one of the upcoming projects is to get a working wind sensor. As a long shot test, I had tried to wire in my old masthead anemometer, but alas it didn't seem to work putting out vastly inaccurate wind and direction info.

[SCarns]

I had a LCJ Capteurs ultrasonic sensor on my last boat. I loved that thing. No moving parts for the birds to break off. It’s from France. https://lcjcapteurs.com/en/girouette-ane...ent/cv7-2/

It is expensive. But it does come in many different options for connectivity. My current boat has a typical Raymarine whirlybird, and it’s only a matter of time before that thing dies.

Sean is a very smart guy, so I’m also interested in his sensor.

[PaddyB]

I had a LCJ Capteurs ultrasonic sensor on my last boat. I loved that thing. No moving parts for the birds to break off. It’s from France. https://lcjcapteurs.com/en/girouette-ane...ent/cv7-2/

It is expensive. But it does come in many different options for connectivity. My current boat has a typical Raymarine whirlybird, and it’s only a matter of time before that thing dies.

Sean is a very smart guy, so I’m also interested in his sensor.

I splashed out on a CV-7 recently and yes, love it! Uploading data to windy ? and gtafana does such a good job with the data. No more fibbing about beating into 60KTS ;

[MigGat]

Well so, some months after, I made my mind and purchased the Davis one, with @seandepagnier's controller.

...Just to realize that the base that comes with the wind sensor is actually made to be attach to a pole (vertically). I was planning to install on the mast top, where I still have some space between the light and VHF antenna, but that is not possible. I *think* I don't have space neither fore or aft of the mast (I'll climb it tomorrow to double check), so that leads me to question if the wind sensor can be installed port or starboard of the mast. However, I understand there's a ~5º dead angle on the front the sensor, so that would mean i won't have accurate readings when beam reaching? 

Any thoughts on the topic? I'm afraid my best Idea so far is to buy a quite strong L-shaped piece of metal that I can screw to the top of the mast and the wind sensor support. 

[Slovak]

Another vote for the LCJ CV-7 - I got the wired, NMEA 0183 version. Connected to OP via PICAN-M hat or USB to RS422/485 both work flawlessly. SK, Grafana all fully recognize the data.

[seandepagnier]

Well so, some months after, I made my mind and purchased the Davis one, with @seandepagnier's controller.

...Just to realize that the base that comes with the wind sensor is actually made to be attach to a pole (vertically). I was planning to install on the mast top, where I still have some space between the light and VHF antenna, but that is not possible. I *think* I don't have space neither fore or aft of the mast (I'll climb it tomorrow to double check), so that leads me to question if the wind sensor can be installed port or starboard of the mast. However, I understand there's a ~5º dead angle on the front the sensor, so that would mean i won't have accurate readings when beam reaching? 

Any thoughts on the topic? I'm afraid my best Idea so far is to buy a quite strong L-shaped piece of metal that I can screw to the top of the mast and the wind sensor support. 

You can disassemble the davis sensor and rotate the potentiometer inside to adjust the deadband.


As for the CV7 sensor..  it looks interesting but the wind angle has a lot of noise compared to vane type.  At least there is no inertial.   The other question is where did you buy it?

[Sderbyshire]

Autonnic make good quality/reasonably priced sensors

https://www.autonnic.com/shop?Collection=Sensors

Steve

[SCarns]

Just got my new LCJ Capteurs CV-7 for this boat to replace the old Raymarine, which got destroyed by cormorants. I hate those things.

So it was time for replacement. I'd been holding out for a repair/replace, but Raymarine is way backlogged and I would see a new anemometer until May. So I splurged and got a new CV-7 for this boat with the N2K windy plug from SVB24.com in Germany. Got it in 2 days! WTH? I can't get stuff shipped from LA in two days and it's only an hour from here!

A little gusty today, so not going up in the chair until later. Can't wait to have it reading our wind data!

[hotdog333]

So I read the first page of this fourm while picking out my Davis win sensor. I now recognize the whole I may have dug myself into. Has anyone found a simple-ish way to incorporate this instrument into the MacArthur hat? I'm at a loss and looking at arduino's and trying to find software. Any direction would be a huge help:-) first time poster long time reader. Also, please put on your kid gloves with me. I work labor and mostly just pick up heavy things.

[MigGat]

Hello hotdog333,

It's been a while since I started the thread, and I even have another boat now, which came with a raymarine windvane. I myself knew NOTHING about electronics when I first started with OpenPlotter (altough i ahve a technical background, being a software developer), so I'll try to do my best i wish i had been given at that stage.

1) There 's a steep learning curve ahead. Be sure if you really want to go all the way down the DIY path, or if you just want to make use of the briliant open hardware existing, in combination with commercial sensors. In my case, the learning to solder step was hard (lol), but in your case might be that, or might be the software, or might be understanding the various data protocols, or who knows. So be sure you wanna commit to that.

2) How important is wind data to you? Will you trust yourself being able to code the wind speed correctly? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to scare you, and it's actually quite easy to do. Just be sure you want to learn all this.

3) People here with a lot of knowledge actually save A LOT of money by going the DIY path, and they have even better, more reliable hardware than commercial. But as a newbie, i didn't save that much, because i had to buy a lot of stuff just to learn, and also tool I didn't know they existed.

All that being said, if you wanna commit to this, congrats!! Is incredible satisfying knowing every wire and every byte on your boat. Gives you the confidence that you can fix anything, because you built it. If something breaks, you might just need a 30 cent replacement bit. 

How would I do it today? Easy:

Davis sensor -> ESP32 -> N2K -> MacArhur HAT

So let's break that down:

- The Davis sensor is not tricky. You have their specs (resistance range for the angle, ticks to m/s for the speed).
- ESP32. You'll be tempted to buy one of the cheapest ones, or a DevKit one. You could do that to code and test AT HOME. You might even learn a bit of KiCAD and design you own tiny PCB (I did, it worked, but damn, that was a headache). Instead, i would suggest you to buy a prebuilt board, like SailorHat, or a HALMET, which alread has a builtin 
ADS1115 analog to digital converter. But again, you are now on the 40€ range, not the 8€ range. And to that add the case, n2k wiring, connectors, and so on.
Also regarding the ESP32, I would advise you to go the SensESP path, wether you use WiFi or N2K to connect to SignalK, it will make your life such easier, that is not something to overlook.
- N2K. Well, that depends on your boat current network. In mine's, i had this mess where there was Seatalk1, NMEA0183, SeatalkNG (which is actually N2K), and bare N2K wiring. All of that connected to MacArthur HAT and SignalK handling all of it. It works, but is messy. I decided to move everything to N2K, and connected a few devices that couldn't support it through NMEA0183.
- MacArthur HAT. Not a lot to explain here, is your best option to interconnect all of this stuff.


I hope this has helper you somehow! Let me know if you need further explanation. I also suggest you join the SignalK's discord server, there's a ton of information there (although more related to the software aspect of it).