by

|   Nov  7, 2008 at  3:29pm

Um....please re-shoot the product photos. White on white makes it impossible to see the product detail!

by

|   Nov 17, 2008 at  3:04pm

Yep, you're right. We'll get this product in line for a black background.

by

|   Nov 19, 2008 at 10:36am

Is it possible to find out who makes this?

by

|   Dec  8, 2008 at  5:22pm

The wind vane pot values are very confusing. Please explain further and/or clarify in the datasheet.

by

|   Jan  3, 2009 at  8:37am

The wind vane outputs are discrete, not continuous, with eight 45-degree sectors more or less centered on the compass rose. Different resistors are switched in-line for each sector. One caveat: the boundaries are not crisp and you may see an open or an overlap (with two resistors in parallel) for a few degrees around each sector edge.

Values in K-ohms:
N 33
NE 8.2
E 1
SE 2.2
S 3.9
SW 16
W 120
NW 68

by

|   Jan 18, 2009 at  9:14am

Can you please explain the other wind vane values listed on the datasheet. For example:

"Dir Res 10k 6.8k 4.7k

N 33k 196 211 223"

Please explain the significance of 196, 211, and 223. Thanks

by

|   Jan 19, 2009 at  1:46am

Nice, but give me more detail about this product (pins detail and who make this).Thank you for your help,I hope

by

|   Jan 21, 2009 at  8:24am

Those are the A/D readings assuming that the vane sensor is on the lower (grounded) side of a voltage divider with one of the resistors at the head of the columns on the top (Vcc) side, and that the A/D resolution is 8 bits.

E.g., for a north wind (33K ohms) and a 10K dropping resistor, 255 * 33K/(10K + 33K) = 196 counts. There's certainly no requirement to use any of those resistor values but they're quite reasonable.

It's *not* the clearest data sheet I've ever seen. Not the worst, either. ;-)

by

|   Apr 12, 2009 at  6:39pm

I have a doubt regarding Anemometer, can you tell me if it need external power? (the anemometer acts as a switch and the volt present in the pin 2 will be present in the pin 3 when the anemometer will turn around) or just I need amplify the out signal

Can you explain me how working the anemometer?

I hope your answer

thank you

by

|   Apr 13, 2009 at  9:41pm

Can i have the dimensions?

28.5" x 8" is so vague.

what is the cup size of the anemometer? what is the total radius? etc..

This are just a required parameters for my project. if it would fit, then i will purchase right away.

The good thing about this simple set is that it uses a standard way of measure weather. I am just wondering on its dimensions.:)

by

|   Apr 13, 2009 at  9:46pm

juan329: I have a doubt regarding Anemometer, can you tell me if it need external power? (the anemometer acts as a switch and the volt present in the pin 2 will be present in the pin 3 when the anemometer will turn around) or just I need amplify the out signal

Can you explain me how working the anemometer?

I hope your answer

thank you

I guess it is just a reed switch which closes when magnet is near during rotation. it is just a simple close-open switch. So, external power is not required.

by

|   Apr 14, 2009 at 12:44am

marcelino thank you for answer my question

by

|   Apr 14, 2009 at  4:46am

juan329: marcelino thank you for answer my question

Just wanna help... very much welcome.
Actually I have already created a DIY version, however it so hard for me to calibrate. This is why i am now considering this product. Not to mention its good look and the assembly aesthetics.

have you already purchased one? perhaps you can give me at rough dimensions of the other parts. i really don't get what 28.5x8" means... :D

by

|   Apr 26, 2009 at  8:22pm

Here's a link to an Arduino program I wrote that reads the wind speed and direction, and sends it back to the PC via the UART in readable text. The device works great, but the provided documentation isn't much (to put it kindly), so even if you want to develop your own code, this might clear a few things up (or make it worse!).

I also have a C# program that reads the COM port, and logs it all to a disk file (with time stamps) for later statistical processing (or whatever). Let me know if you're interested, and I'll post that.

Good luck,
Steve

http://home.comcast.net/~saustin98/misc/WeatherStationADC.txt

by

|   Jun 30, 2010 at 11:32am

I'm putting together a website to attempt to document and help others build full weather stations... I'd like to add your code and invite you to be part of the project...
Thanks,
Scott

by

|   Jun 22, 2009 at  8:25am

saustin:

I also have a C# program that reads the COM port, and logs it all to a disk file (with time stamps) for later statistical processing (or whatever). Let me know if you're interested, and I'll post that.

Good luck,
Steve

http://home.comcast.net/~saustin98/misc/WeatherStationADC.txt

Thanks for the code... it should help anyone (or not!!! heheh) to get started.

I am interested on you program. Can we have it?

by

|   Jun 29, 2009 at 10:02pm

Sure. I put the executable in the same directory. You'll need the .NET runtime unstalled to run it. It assumes you're in COM port 13 (that's just where I've been testing), so you'll get an error at startup (unless you happen to use 13 as well). Just keep going, and set the port to whatever you are using.

If you want to tweak the code, I included the whole C# project too. It was done under C# Express, so to compile it under regular Visual Studio, you'd just have to start your own project, and copy in the files. If that's a pain, I could also produce one for that version too. I think I still have it around.

Enjoy.
Steve

by

|   Aug 12, 2009 at 11:42am

Hi guys,

The weird data sheet is my fault. I wrote it and provided it to SparkFun with the expectation that they'd clean it up a bit before distributing it. What you're seeing is part of a collection of notes I made to myself in Notepad for the design of a weather station around these sensors. I think the table formatting got clobbered by conversion to Word. raweb is exactly right that the table shows ADC readings for a voltage divider with different resistor values. I forgot that was in there when I sent it off, which is why it isn't explained in the document.

If there are any technical questions I can answer, let me know.

Scott

by

|   Aug 25, 2009 at  4:38pm

What is the best way to connect the wind vain and anemometer to the Arduino? it seems like it might be easier to connect them separately instead of plugging the anemometer into the wind vain. I am unsure which wires coming from the wind vain correspond to the anemometer and which to the wind vain. any advice? Thanks!

by

|   Sep 21, 2009 at  2:01pm

Can anyone confirm which colored wires go to the anemometer and which go to the vane? I want to connect to arduino as well. Not sure which colors go to ground versus pins.

by

|   Oct 31, 2009 at  5:10pm

I've completed and submitted a more useful datasheet. Hopefully they'll have it on here soon.

by

|   Jan  9, 2010 at  2:28pm

I bought the "Weather meter".
The datasheet say for the anemoter:
The cup-type anemometer measures wind speed by closing a contact as a magnet moves past a switch.
A wind speed of 1.492 MPH (2.4 km/h) causes the switch to close once per second.

But I do not understand, I tested the anemometer and I have 2 contacts per revolution.

Can you confirm the number of contacts per revolution ?

by

|   Jan 11, 2010 at 11:58am

Hi

What do you think can the maximum cable length be from ardruino(powered by with external 5V power supply) to weather meters, if i use cat 5 cable connect to ardruino's attachInterrupt/analogue pins, will it still work ok at 65 feet?

by

|   Feb  1, 2010 at 12:03pm

got it to work fine with Steve's code:

http://home.comcast.net/~saustin98/misc/WeatherStationADC.txt
received debounce on an external interrupt for rain, had to add this code to get it to work...i think/hope

//=======================================================
// Interrupt handler for rainmeter. Called each time the reed
// switch triggers (one tip of bucket).
//=======================================================
void countRainmeter()
{
static unsigned long last_millis = 0;
unsigned long m = millis();
if (m - last_millis < 200){
// ignore interrupt: probably a bounce problem
}else{
numBuckettip++;
//Serial.print(numBuckettip);
}
last_millis = m;
}

by

|   Feb 22, 2010 at 10:28am

Anybody know the external diameter of the pole that comes with this?

by

|   Apr 27, 2010 at  1:34pm

Domos: A wind speed of 1.492 MPH (2.4 km/h) causes the switch to close once per second. But I do not understand, I tested the anemometer and I have 2 contacts per revolution. Can you confirm the number of contacts per revolution ?

I have the same question as Domos. The values given in the datasheet appear to give wind speeds that are double. I checked my readings against a 10-yr old Kestrel 3000 hand held meter, and the wind speeds were 1/2. I have adjusted my values to 0.746 mph / count, where the counting is done on the Falling value, or "attachInterrupt(INTERRUPT_ANEMOMETER, countAnemometer, FALLING)";

Has anyone else found this to be true???

To attempt to answer some dimensional questions with the model I received: 1) Tube diameter = 0.795" or 20.4mm. 2) Distances from center of tube to centers of Anemometer and Wind Dir: ~5". 3) Distances from center of tube to max distance out for a) Anemometer: ~8.5", b) Wind Dir: ~9", and c) Rain Gauge: ~9.1".

Steve, thank you for posting your code!! Very helpful.

by

|   Apr 27, 2010 at  1:39pm

In addition, I have modified Steve's code for the Wind Direction. I used the 10k resistor as suggested from the datasheet. You'll see I am outputting a float rather than a string for my needs.

// Find vane direction.
void calcWindDir() {
#define NUMDIRS 16
float adc[NUMDIRS + 1] = {0.0, 0.365, 0.43, 0.535, 0.76, 1.045, 1.295, 1.69,
2.115, 2.59, 3.005, 3.255, 3.635, 3.94, 4.33, 4.7, 5.0};
//float expectedVoltages[NUMDIRS] = {0.32, 0.41, 0.45, 0.62, 0.9, 1.19, 1.4, 1.98
// 2.25, 2.93, 3.08, 3.43, 3.84, 4.04, 4.62, 4.78}

//char *strVals[NUMDIRS] = {"ESE","ENE", "E","SSE", "SE","SSW", "S", "NNE",
// "NE","WSW","SW","NNW","N","WNW", "W", "NW"};
float directions[NUMDIRS] = {112.5, 67.5, 90, 157.5, 135, 202.5, 180, 22.5,
45, 247.5, 225, 337.5, 0, 292.5, 270, 315};
//byte dirOffset=0;

unsigned int val;
float voltage;
byte x;

val = analogRead(PIN_WIND_DIR);
voltage = (float)val / 1024.0 * 5.0;

for (x=0; x= adc[x]) && (voltage < adc[(x+1)]))
break;
}
//x = (x + dirOffset) % NUMDIRS;
windDir = directions[x];
}

by

|   May  9, 2010 at  3:47pm

Re: Wind Speed per closed contact count ...

I think I've answered my own question from back on April 27th regarding the Wind Speed per closed contact count. Today I pulled up some info on cup style Anemometers. According to the original inventor of the cup Anemometer, the cup velocity should be ~1/3 that of the wind. That gives an approximate value of 1.6 mph for this Anemometer to close a contact once per second (with two closed contacts per revolution).

I will be using the datasheet's value of 1.492 mph per 1 closed contact per second.

To N1VG -- would you please confirm this?

by

|   Jun 22, 2010 at  1:27pm

Any sign of these coming back into stock anytime soon?

by

|   Jun 24, 2010 at  3:01pm

Looks like we are working to get our hands on some more. But at this time there is no specific arrival date set. Very sorry.

by

|   Jul 28, 2010 at  6:43am

I made a weather station that reports current weather info to an LCD plus sends info to my local network where it's stored on a mySQL database and used to generate weather data charts that can then be displayed on websites.

I'm trying to sort out all the information that used to make it work and I'm posting things as I go.

Check it out and perhaps help me out to clean/ optimize the code (there's a lot of things still to do).

I also used the STH15 temperature and humidity sensor on top of these weather sensors. All works pretty well!

here: http://supertechman.blogspot.com/search/label/personal%20weather%20station

Cheers,
Rui