Automated Weather Monitoring System : Measuring Wind Speed and Direction

Wind Vane

We will be using the well-known Robinson cup Anemometer to measure the wind speed. Main consideration to select this design is
1. It has been used frequently in similar applications.
2. Cost effective
3. Simple output can be taken from the rotating wheel.

We will be using rollers that are used in a track ball mouse. The light detector will be used to measure the speed by the number of spokes it passes in a particular time. We will be using gear wheels as necessary interface the anemometer wheel to the mouse rollers. We will be using a interrupt technique to count the steps (spokes).

Wind Direction

We will be using an arrow head connected to a wheel to measure the wind direction. Suitable weight is added to the other end to have proper inertia to direct the arrow to the correct direction. It will only be accurate to 8 of the main directions when we are specifying the direction of the wind.

We will be using a“8 bit grey-code” to absolutely measure the direction using 3 light sensors. We will be using a polling technique to measure the wind direction where needed.
[Circuit diagrams relevant to this part can be found in the appendix]