Davis Instruments anemometer

[dcwalker]

When the MacArthur HAT was first described it was suggested that a Davis anemometer would plug directly into a "wind sensor" input - did that make it into production? If not, is it possible to connect the Davis anemometer some other way?

[Adrian]

I don't remember such a discussion.

From a quick search, a Davis anemometer outputs voltage pulses for the wind speed, and an analog voltage for the wind direction. You might be able to get the pulses through the NMEA 0183 input, but you'd need to write software to interpret them. For the wind direction, you'd need an ADC (analog to digital converter), which the MacArthur HAT nor the Raspberry Pi have built-in.

I think you're better off looking for a widget that interfaces these anemometers to NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000 or Seatalk1. Or build one yourself with an Arduino, that then interfaces with the Pi. This project looks like a good starting point:
https://github.com/wrybread/weewx-ArduinoWeatherStation

[dcwalker]

The input I'm referring to is listed as a feature in this thread announcing the MacArthur HAT. 

• 1 Wind sensor. Compatible with the Davis instruments anemometer. Speed and wind direction (connector not rendered in picture yet).
  

In this reply to user EarlWer, Sailoog described wind data as plug and play.


Maybe @Sailoog can help?

[Adrian]

Oh, that was an earlier, failed attempt at creating a generic interface HAT. That was before my time, and not the basis of the current incarnation of the MacArthur HAT.

For any capability of the MacArthur HAT as actually released, refer to the documentation.
https://macarthur-hat-documentation.read.../#features

@sailoog: maybe add a note to the top of that old thread to avoid any confusion?