New wind sensor - Pypilot + Davis

[Erickalon]

Thank you Sailoog, so I am installing a 32 bit version, waiting for this fix. I don't find the Status Bar in the Opencpn plugins, I suppose that it has not been rewrited for this version?

[patrickza]

Just installed my wind sensor with the pypilot display. The only catch now is that I couldn't put it on the front of the mast, it had to go on the side, which means the wind direction is out by 90 degrees. Any way to adjust this either in the anemometer itself, or by updating the pypilot display instead?

[stelian]

Just installed my wind sensor with the pypilot display. The only catch now is that I couldn't put it on the front of the mast, it had to go on the side, which means the wind direction is out by 90 degrees. Any way to adjust this either in the anemometer itself, or by updating the pypilot display instead?

The weathersensor arduino has a build in configurator. Just use a serial terminal (minicom, HyperTerminal, etc), connect to the weathersensor serial port (38400 bps, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit), and type "config", then follow the on-screen instructions to select the sensor type (davis or pypilot), wind offset, barometer offset, temperature offset. The configuration will be persistent (stored inside the weathersensors arduino flash).

Just be sure to disable any other process accessing the weathersensor port during the configuration step. If you have openplotter reading from the sensor maybe the easiest solution is to unplug the weathersensors from the Raspberry PI and plug it into a separate computer for the configuration step.

[seandepagnier]

The problem with using the offset with the davis sensor is it doesnt account for dead band.

The sensor cannot measure for about 7-13 degrees and this normally should be physically orientated toward the forward direction of the boat. An exception would be on a shunting proa where it would be orientated toward windward.

Adjusting the offset in software works for sensors which have a very small deadband like the ones I 3d printed that use hall sensors rather than potentiometers.

So it is better to orientate it forward, you can open the sensor and rotate the potentiometer inside.

[patrickza]

Thanks Sean, I did open the Davis, but I couldn't see any way to rotate anything. The davis is mounted up the mast now, and I'm not keen to climb it, would it be possible to reprogram the pypilot display? I like the fact that I can see what's going on without needing to boot up the laptop. I'm actually in a massive storm at the moment on my first night on the water, and keeping an eye on the wind speed on the display hoping it will drop soon!

[stelian]

You can try the configurator I mentioned above. However, as Sean said, you will have a small dead detection area....

[patrickza]

You can try the configurator I mentioned above. However, as Sean said, you will have a small dead detection area....

Thanks Stelian, it worked a treat! I'll do a physical adjustment when I eventually do get up the must, but this will get me going for now

[Mithril]

Hello,
I just put my mast back up and the weather sensor from the pypilot store and the Davis anemometer don't seem to be working correctly anymore.  The anemometer data has been working great for 3 years until now! So I know it isn't working now, but it has been wonderful.

Two problems:
1. The wind angle sensor always displays the wrong direction, seems to have a range of +/30 deg centered around 0.
2. The wind speed value has been 0, no matter the wind speed (much more than 0 at times!).  I can see the anemometer spinning at the top of the mast

One fixed problem:
A. The temperature and pressure sensors were sending the wrong data to display, but do work now after I hit the reset button on the Arduino.

I tried using the config command mentioned in this thread from the Arduino IDE when connected via serial to the weather sensor to make sure I'm in Davis vs openSource mode, but the config command didn't bring up any sort of menu on the weather sensor.

Questions:
I. Could there be a pinched wire leading to these bad values from putting up the mast again?
II. Is there a chance I need to get the weather sensor into Davis configuration?

Data upon device startup:
13:12:29.422 ->  /zILII*- U bmX280 setup
13:12:31.015 -> Calibrating  0  60 500 1000
13:12:31.015 -> $ARMWV,6.05,R,0.00,N,A*2d

data from steady state operation.
13:09:48.219 -> $ARMWV,27.25,R,0.00,N,A*1c
13:09:48.303 -> $ARMWV,27.30,R,0.00,N,A*18
13:09:48.418 -> $ARMWV,27.26,R,0.00,N,A*1f
13:09:48.510 -> $ARMWV,27.18,R,0.00,N,A*12
13:09:48.618 -> $ARMWV,27.18,R,0.00,N,A*12
13:09:48.696 -> $ARMWV,27.96,R,0.00,N,A*14



Config command    

No change after config command sent
   

[seandepagnier]

The config command was added more recently. You may have to reprogram the arduino for it to work.

Most likely the contacts on the rj12 plug that the weather sensors use are poor. Can you wiggle this connector?

[Erickalon]

Hi Sean, I have tested the last versions of Tinypilot on my boat this afternoon, working fine at berth. But by the way I have discovered that my Davis anemometer operating with your weather sensor was showing the same behavior than described by Mithril. The wind speed stay at 0.0 and the wind direction is totally inconsistent. The supply voltage at the terminal is around 5 v and there are some voltage on the data terminals, between 3.5 and 4.5 volt for direction and speed. I doesn't have change anything in the cabling since my last navigation and the anemometer was working fine. Have you an idea on what to investigate please? Maybe some help from Mithril is he has succeed to solve the problem?
Thanks a lot,
Eric