[SOLVED] How to measure speed of wind and its direction using micro-controller??

Hello!! Everyone..

i want to measure the speed and direction of wind using Micro-Controller.

Can any one tell me how to do so..
I don't a bulky setup which consist of blades and which will rotate based on the speed of wind.

If there are sensors, they will be of great help to me.

I have read some where that there are some sensors connected face to face and they measure the speed of the wind flowing between them and thus gives the output voltage.

But not able to find much information on those.

Please help me

Give me some suggestions..
Thanks in Advance

Your question is like "I want to bake a cake using a microcontroller". The cake recipe and your cooking skills are more important.
The microcontroller bit is not rocket science.

It's going to be difficult. You'd have to design your own sensor probably (unless you want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars)
and devise your own implementation of the algorithm required.
I seem to remember a method which relied on temperature differences but the microcontroller bit is hardly the complicated bit.
Unless you're familiar with extremely sensitive thermal sensor design and ADC interfacing to read such tiny measurements, you will need
to concentrate on that, and worry about the microcontroller bit later.
There is this circuit **broken link removed**that might measure using a thermal method,
but somehow I highly doubt this particular one is accurate for $17.

regarding direction of wind i recal reading an elecktor articule about a hall efect based ic that reads angular position and used in like potentiometers or knobs. its an austrian company, .....wait....let me check the bin magazine aside the toilet ....... i remember!!!!!!

**broken link removed**


the speed is a bit more tricky, my advice is to have an anmeter to calibrate the gizmo of ur choice. maybe an wind generator like the ones used in boats, u get speed reading and also power to ur aplication. godspeed..

Thanks for your help guys..

Actually i didn't understand much, have no idea.

I am just new to wind measurement and have to complete this project very soon..

Please suggest me some simple methods to implement wind speed and direction measurement.

Suggest me some tutorials related to this.

Please help me.
I have to complete this project soon.
Thanks in Advance

There is a type of wind speed indicator that contains a tiny styrofoam sphere in a vertical tube. Wind enters at the bottom and flows up the tube, carrying the sphere upward in proportion to the speed.

We read windspeed where the sphere hovers beside a vertical ruler graduated in miles per hour. To do it electronically will be a challenge. Maybe by using several photodetectors, sensing which one is shaded by the sphere?

I am just new to wind measurement and have to complete this project very soon.

Click to expand...

That sounds somehow absurd. I can't imagine that the project has been given to you without serious support.

Please suggest me some simple methods to implement wind speed and direction measurement.

Click to expand...

The simple method is still the mechanical one you mentioned in your inital post. Making the transducers yourself may be tricky, however.

I have read some where that there are some sensors connected face to face and they measure the speed of the wind flowing between them and thus gives the output voltage.

Click to expand...

You are apparently talking about ultrasonic wind speed measurement. That's possible in principle, but involves complex analog electronics. I doubt that the method is at reach of your project.

FvM said:

That sounds somehow absurd. I can't imagine that the project has been given to you without serious support.

The simple method is still the mechanical one you mentioned in your inital post. Making the transducers yourself may be tricky, however.

You are apparently talking about ultrasonic wind speed measurement. That's possible in principle, but involves complex analog electronics. I doubt that the method is at reach of your project.

Click to expand...

I don't know what to say, its looking like a complete new R and D to me, with no help no support from my side...

I don't know how to do it..

At starting i thought there are some wind sensors available in market and i just have to read and analyze the output provided by them.

But i think i am wrong and i have to make my own setup :-(

Which is not possible i think and will consume time.
As i am alone in this project..

Anyways thanks to all you tried to help me..

If you are looking for a compact solution, you might be able to utilize a Pitot tube fashioned into a wind vane.

The Pitot tube is commonly used on aircraft and rockets, the strange tubes seen on the sides of aircraft.



Pitot tube

Pitot-Static tubes

The Pitot tube determines wind velocity by changes in dynamic pressure, appropriate pressure sensors would do the job, the associated math is not too complex and can be handled by most microcontrollers.

Attaching the Pitot tube/wind vane to a rotary encoder could provided the required directional properties.


BigDog

At starting i thought there are some wind sensors available in market and i just have to read and analyze the output provided by them.

Click to expand...

Wind sensors are available, they are used on sail boots or home weather stations, usually comorised of a cup anemometer and a wind vane with suitable sensors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemometer

Wind seems to have mechanical rotary and ultrasonic mechanical principle simple production convenient but life estimation is not long long time estimates will be jammed ultrasonic does not exist rust card dead but debugging installation to compare a trouble we have in the production principle is to measure phase difference but because of mechanical installation is very trouble I still have not found a good method and ultrasonic sensor installation isolation is a more troublesome thing through mechanical transmission affect the measurement precision and sensitivity

I'm a newbie here, know little of uC's but if I had to invent something simple to do as you say without using rotating blades (maybe it's not so bad to use these as you think?). Here is what I would do. I would make my own sensor. First guess would be to get a small antenna and center a ping pong ball on top of it. Then, I would mount it sandwiched on a piezo sensor at the antenna base, perhaps, between two discs, one to true the antenna to zenith and the other to form a backing to squash the sensor (lifting one side and pushing down the opposite. Then I would calibrate the sensor vs. windspeed. You will need to know the windspeeds to make a look up table or fitted relation (linear, polynomial, whatever), but you can do that if you think enough and it shouldn't stop you. To get direction that seems very easy to me. Just mount a graphite ring around the antenna somewhere close to the base probably so as not to affect the flexion pressure transmitted to the piezo disk much. The idea is to make a slight contact between conductor on antenna and graphite ring. To calculate the precise direction, the graphite ring is just a potentiometer. You need to measure resistance in two places, eg. a 12 o'clock and 3 oclock position, and from the two resistances you have an continuous readount of direction. You might try a home brewed graphite putty.blended to even consistency.

Not so easy as buying, but more fun is guaranteed. And the actual sensor is much less space consuming than blades and could look cool.
Good luck

To measure wind speed and direction, you have to measure the speed in 2 directions then make the vectorial sum to calculate wind speed and make the division betwwen two in order to calculate the direction (angle tangent).

For wind speed measuring in one direction, you could use a ultrasound generator to produce an impulse and measure the travel time to a receiver. If the wind blows in the same direction, the time is reducing, otherwise is increasing. With 2 generator/receiver you can measure the speed on two axes (x, y).

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Another possibility to measure the wind speed is to use a pressure sensor and to construct a vent in order to have a correlation between wind speed and pressure.

Used Wind Sonic from Gill Instrument to measure Wind Speed

FvM said:

You are apparently talking about ultrasonic wind speed measurement. That's possible in principle, but involves complex analog electronics. I doubt that the method is at reach of your project.

Click to expand...

Actually after hitting google with the Gill setup it's easy..

**broken link removed**

Simple enough idea, and using differential both directions zeros out a lot of other variables.


https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__8508__Turnigy_Mini_Anemometer_Wind_Meter_.html
https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__17800__Hobbyking_Digital_Anemometer.html

The other 'easy' speed sensors. Basically one of these on a vane put on an encoder for direction and to keep the speed sensor to the wind should be fairly simple, and work fairly well.

High gusty winds from open area and near the coast has kept me from bothering with a weather station and the usual spinning sensors, but I may play around with the Gill type, looks simple enough. Search Arduino ultrasonic on Ebay for <$2 sensors, might take a little hacking and work for weatherproofing, but should be usable..