Manually Connecting Wind Vane (Buienradar BR-1000)

[daann]

Hi everybody,

I have recently bought a wireless weather station (the Buienradar BR-1000), but I want to read out the sensors manually so I can log the data. I found out that the rain sensor and the anemometer use reed switches which I can connect to the Arduino, but I'm having trouble identifying the sensors on the wind vane. They seem to be very unlike other wind vanes I found online.

The wind vane is connected to a tube with a slot. The tube is placed over a number of what look like receivers. On the outside of the tube are (I think) LEDs (see pictures below). The PCB has a total of eight wires attached to it.

The problem is that I cannot find out how it works and how the wires are connected. I tried testing the LEDs by applying some current to them directly, but that didn't seem to work. I also used a camera to check if they were IR leds, but I didn't see anything. The receivers also don't look like regular IR receivers or photoresistors because the receivers appear to be entirely flat. In addition to that the receivers have three pins instead of the regular two, so I'm not sure what they are and how they should be connected.

My question is, does anybody know (for certain) what these sensors are and how they should be connected?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[Paul_KD7HB]

Look at the silk screen on the circuit board. The 1D1, 1D2, refer to diodes. Hense the "D". Look at the ID for the center devices: 1Q1, 1Q2, etc. The "Q" is for transistor. Therefore, the 8 outside devices are LEDs. The 4 inside devices are light sensing transistors.

The shutter device allows one light sensor to see one or two LEDs, depending on the wind direction. The controlling knows which LED is on, so knows the shutter opening is facing that direction. If the same sensor detects light from two adjacent LEDs, then the shutter opening is between the two LEDs, so both can be seen at the same time.

Use an Ohm meter to trace each wire to each device and you can determine the circuit of the device.

Just because your particular camera can't see the light from one of the LEDs doesn't mean the light is not there.

Paul

[Riva]

Paul_KD7HB:
Just because your particular camera can't see the light from one of the LEDs doesn't mean the light is not there.

I think for my iPhone 4s the camera on the back does not see IR but the front facing camera does.