Hi All. I hope I am posting in the appropriate category. If not please let me know.
I am hoping to enlist some help with a very worthwhile project that will be of great benefit to disabled sailors. It is based on the following project in Instructibles:
My difficulty is as follows:
My wife is partially paralysed and goes to sailing for the disabled. The dinghys they use have a simple plastic weather vane wind indicator at the top of the mast. She also has a triple spinal fusion in her neck so having to constantly look up at the wind indicator causes severe neck pain after a while (and is physically impossible for many other disabled sailors). The Instructibles project would be perfect as it would allow mounting a small display at eye level. However, the display she needs would have to be wind direction relative to the direction of the boat rather than compass direction. I am wondering if it would be possible to modify this unit to use an lcd or similar display with an arrow pointing in the direction that the wind is coming from. Do you think this is doable and if so how difficult would it be for a complete novice to construct? (I have some limited experience in constructing basic circuits). There are such devices available for large racing and ocean-going yachts but they are very complex and cost many thousands of dollars. A simple, economical device would benefit a large number of disabled sailors with various physical limitations.
If you would like to see what these sailors get up to, please enjoy the following video:
(It takes a little while to get to the interesting bit but it's worth it!)
Hoping you can help.
Many Thanks
Bob
An encoder mounted on the mast will show wind difection relative to boat.
On major difficulty would be to build something that manages the humidity. If it will work in salt water it will be even harder.
What about a stick pointing out, free from the sail, having a suitable flag showing the wind direction? All at a height that suits the sailor?
Yes, calibtation is needed. Usually a kind of swich, Hall sensor, read swich / magnet. Make the orientation of the switch give You the reference direction You want.
AFAICT that project is showing wind direction relative to a fixed point, so you shouldn't need to change anything there. The only issue seems to be that they are showing wind direction by text and you'd prefer a directional arrow. Makes sense since it's much easier to see.
I'd propose this simple change. If you only need to visualize wind direction relative to vessel centerline, use two different colored high brightness LEDs instead of that LCD display. They will be much easier to see and to interpret. It would be a simple code change to turn on LED 1 when wind direction is 0-180 and the other if it's 181-359 degrees relative to the bow.
Ensuring reliability in a saltwater environment is left as an exercise for the student
Hi. Thanks for the reply. Wind vanes mounted lower down have been used but they are unreliable as the sails constantly block the view. Also the wind deflects around the sails making the wind vane inaccurate. Hence the reason that the wind vanes are mounted at the top of the mast and why I am thinking a wireless display is the only option. Keep throwing ideas into the melting pot, it all helps.
Many thanks:
Bob
Hi. Thanks for your reply. In order to trim the sails for optimum speed and balance the sailors need something that would give an indication within perhaps 10 degrees. That is why I thought the Instructibles project solves 90% of the problem, the only remaining problem is the display. Perhaps a ring of LED's might do the trick?
Cheers
Bob
Hi Paul. Thanks for your reply. The mirror idea also has the problem of being frequently blocked by the sails. I really appreciate the prompt replies to the challenge. Please keep them coming.
Thanks Bob
Thanks everyone for the wonderful response, I did not expect this level of enthusiasm so quickly.
Essentially the Instructibles project solves 90% of the problem:
Simple to construct
Accurate
Weather proof
Wireless
Easy to fit and remove during rigging and de-rigging
The remaining issue comes with the type of display. The idea of using LEDs proposed by cedarlakeinstruments seems a possibility. It would need a ring of LEDs to provide reasonable accuracy but I'm sure that it could be done.
The other issue is the programming of the Arduino to drive the display, this is an area totally outside my knowledge and/or experience. The existing programming is designed to drive an alpha-numeric display, how easily could this be rewritten to drive an LCD or ring of LEDs?
I hope I'm not sounding obstructive by coming up with issues, I am absolutely grateful for the responses and enthusiasm that I am seeing. I am absolutely certain that the collective knowledge and experience of the members of this group will come up with the perfect answer. Your help with this project will help a lot of disabled people.
Many Thanks.
Bob
My lack of boatng experience is obvious....
Aring of LEDs sounds good.
You said 10 degree resolution. What total angle will be used?
Sailing is possible in all 360 degrees of wind I guess.
Alternatively, there are many examples of compass displays using an OLED with a graphical compass rose and pointing arrow. It could easily show wind direction relative to the mast instead.
How about having the weather vane move a magnet around a sealed enclosure with either magnetic reed switches or hall effect sensors to detect the position? That would allow you to almost totally seal the circuitry, except for the power leads.
An LED ring can be purchased off the shelf: basically a strip of individually controllable RGB LEDs in a ring format. However, I don't think I've ever seen a ring of 36, so that would have to be made by hand. They are not difficult to control and fairly inexpensive. The reason I suggested LEDs instead of something like a TFT display is that I thought it would be easier to see in bright light.
That said, if a TFT display is bright enough for your needs, it's probably easier from a manufacturability standpoint if you're making more than one of these units. A lot easier to assemble a single TFT screen than it is 36 LEDs.
Adafruit has some LED ring segments that can be used to make a 60-LED ring (the segments are 1/4 circle each). That would allow 6 degree resolution to be displayed.
Hi Railroader. Sorry for not getting back sooner, I have been very involved with my children's new house.
Sailing is possible in all directions except for a few degrees either side of a direct headwind. The idea of 10 degree resolution is the ideal minimum desired accuracy of the display however anything close to that would be OK. I saw an item in a local shop that is a ring of LEDs designed for Arduino which looks like it would do the trick: https://www.jaycar.com.au/arduino-compatible-ws2812b-rgb-led-circular-strip/p/XC4385?pos=8&queryId=aceebe978948d8faec32bdd851a2453d&sort=relevance&searchText=arduino%20ring%20of%20led.
My difficulty would be rewriting the code to suit the LEDs instead of the display shown in the Instructibles article. How difficult would it be to connect these LEDs to the arduino and how difficult would it be to rewrite the code to use this display? This is where my lack of knowledge really shows.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Bob
My difficulty would be rewriting the code to suit the LEDs instead of the display shown in the Instructibles article. How difficult would it be to connect these LEDs to the arduino and how difficult would it be to rewrite the code to use this display? This is where my lack of knowledge really shows.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Bob
