My wind gauge is dead :(

[JamesF]

It's been running ok for a while since I did my best to restore it to working order, but I think my wind gauge has finally decided it's the end.  It's a 1-wire AAG model which is quite old now -- I've possibly had it for fifteen years.  Occasionally it will work, and then all the 1-wire devices on the controller board become unreadable and I get lots of errors.

So now I need to find an alternative.  It would have been nice to stick with 1-wire sensors as I have a group of them inside the Stevenson Screen with a 1-wire hub and RPi, but I'm struggling to find any new ones.  There are some RS485-based units on Amazon that I could plug into a USB<->RS485 converter perhaps, but they're not cheap.  On the plus side they appear to be made of aluminium, so may be a bit more robust than my plastic AAG one.  Otherwise for the time being I'm going to have to keep looking...

James

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Ahh poor thing....  have you considered the cheap option, a windsock 😆

[JamesF]

I spent some time browsing last night, searching for other options, and came upon a forum with postings from about ten years ago by someone claiming to live in Devon and going by the name of "Gina".  I wonder who that could be?

The options do seem a bit limited though.  There are spares for some of the common wind vanes and anemometers that just produce pulses indicate rotations of an anemometer or voltage to give the wind direction to which I could add my own interface for the RPi, but given the current situation they look to be awkward to get hold of and in fact as I have hardware that does all of that already perhaps I'd just be better off re-using what I have minus the 1-wire circuitry.

Or as a completely different option, I could perhaps build a solid state anemometer and wind vane.  I'm not sure it would be more expensive than buying the parts for the traditional instruments and may well be more reliable.

James

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Being kinder, I found this on the bay, its just the 'probe' https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Oregon-Scientific-WGR800-Anemometer-Wind-Sensor-for-WMR-Weather-Stations-NEW/293533391845

[JamesF]

I'd missed that, so thank you for the link.  I'll have to investigate how it might be connected to a computer (and how it might be powered from an external supply; I can't be doing with batteries).

James

[mdstuart]

There is a connection which can take a feed from a solar panel so you probably can power it externally.

It sends data but only about 5m or so.

I am on my second one. The first lasted a few years.

Mark

 

[JamesF]

Oh, does it use some sort of radio signal then?

James

[mdstuart]

I presume so. It works with an Oregan scientific base station but I bet you could get a pc to interpret the signal.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

What I linked to is just for the remote 'sensors'.

If it only works as wireless device, I'd be surprised, as even for testing I would expect some sort of port, & I've sure it would be trivial to either phantom power it, or even have a separate power lead, with a local buck regulator.