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[on:]

Has anyone found a reliable way to read wind speed and direction using an Arduino? I know Freetronics makes a wireless receiver shield but La Crosse has went to 915 mhz. The receiver is for 433 mhz. Wired or wireless is ok, it just needs to be fairly accurate... +/-5%.

[Reply #1 on:]

You can still buy the old Dallas Semiconductor 1-Wire weather station for $98. I have two of them and they work pretty well. If you don't like 1-wire, you can easily just use the anemometer and wind vane to roll your own. It does temperature too.

[Reply #2 on:]

I do like 1 wire. I have had a network for years connected to a pc thru a 1 wire hub along with a Bray 1 wire barometer and Hobby Boards rain gauge and several temp/humidity sensors . Where can you get them and do you write your own sketch?

Thanks,
Bill

[Reply #3 on:]

You get them here:
http://www.aag.com.mx/aagusa/index1.html

They come with some pc application software, I'm not sure what you get now since it's been several years since I got mine. I believe there is a sketch that someone has already done to interface to Arduino. Do a search, I'm not going to do all the work for you Maxim bought Dallas Semi so they have the app notes on the system since it was originally sold By Dallas Semi as a proof of concept. If I recall correctly, there was a Java program available.

[Reply #4 on:]

Ok, thanks for the help and advice! I will see what I can find.

Thanks,
Bill

[Reply #5 on:]

You're welcome! And have fun. If I'm not mistaken they come with an Atmega 8 controller now so you may be able to have all sorts of fun reprogramming it.

[Reply #6 on:]

You get them here:
http://www.aag.com.mx/aagusa/index1.html

...

They now are available with RS485 interface. I'll get one and try to put up a how-to for Arduino...

[Reply #7 on:]

The aag station is pretty easy to work with from arduino.  Ive got mine on my roof powered by a solar/lipo combination, wirelessly transmits via xbee.  It was an easy weekend project, on my list of topics to blog about when i can find some spare time.

[Reply #8 on:]

They now are available with RS485 interface. I'll get one and try to put up a how-to for Arduino...

Mine is on its way. I haven't played with RS485 lately. Should be a fun project. They're even cheaper than the 1-wire version. Bonus!

[Reply #9 on:]

AAG sell two versions. Both use the same mechanical parts. They differ in what comes down from the roof.

One version connects you to 1-Wire chips in the sensor head. The other gives you a serial data stream... the unit in the roof is a little computer in its own right, sending data (and accepting commands) over a serial channel.

For help with talking between Arduinos and serial devices, see....

http://sheepdogguides.com/arduino/art4SeIntro.htm

(It was actually inspired by my wish to one day control and monitor one of the AAG devices with an Arduino! I've been an AAG customer for MANY years, in my 1-Wire life)

[Reply #10 on:]

My first two 1-wire weather stations came directly from Dallas Semiconductor. I haven't purchased any from AAG until now. I'm anxious to see the improvements to the cases. Mine took quite a lot of RTV to make them waterproof. The new ones are a lot "smarter" than the originals too.

[Reply #11 on:]

The new ones still contain WAY too many LEDs as well <g>. Fortunately they can be disabled.  Surprisingly tough little units.  Mine survived the winter unscathed despite a wind storm with 75MPH gusts.

[Reply #12 on:]

The new ones still contain WAY too many LEDs as well <g>. Fortunately they can be disabled. 

Whew! That's an understatement! Those Mexicans are certainly festive!

Got my station today. Unfortunately I can't get the USB interface to enumerate under OS X. About to bootcamp into Windows.

[Reply #13 on:]

For anyone trying to talk to this from OS X, download the CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP Driver

http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/Software/Mac_OSX_VCP_Driver.zip


and use a terminal program like CoolTerm that can transmit hex strings.

[Reply #14 on:]

Finally, I have managed to communicate with the weather station. The first command I gave it was to turn off those @%$& flashing blue and red LEDs.

Pretty straightforward really. The toughest part is understanding the RS485 protocol spec which was apparently translated from Chinese by a Spanish speaking person. Now I need to breadboard up the RS485 interface to the Arduino. As soon as I get that working, I'll post the sketch to communicate with the weather station.