WeatherRack Weather Sensors
The WeatherRack Weather Sensors are available and in stock!
The SwitchDoc Labs WeatherRack Sensors provide a suite of weather sensors for use by Arduino and Raspberry Pi based small computers. It can also be used to connect with other computers and systems. It includes a Wind Vane, Anemometer and a tipping bucket Rain Gauge. Mounting hardware and a metal mast is also included. The included wires are terminated in RJ11 plugs. The Specification is below.
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Note: There is a new version of the WeatherPiArduino available that is 100% compatible with the WeatherRack: The Weather Board.
The WeatherRack is compatible with the SwitchDoc Labs WeatherPiArduino Weather Station Interface Board available on SwitchDoc.com. If you combine it with the SwitchDoc Labs WeatherPiArduino board (available on SwitchDoc.com) you can add a Barometer, Temperature Sensors, Real Time Clock, and optionally: Lightning Sensor / Humidity / ADC.
Software For WeatherRack
Arduino Drivers are on github.com/switchdoclabs/SDL_Weather_80422.
Raspberry Pi Drivers are here at github.com/switchdoclabs/SDL_Pi_Weather_80422.
WeatherPiArduino software can be found here.
The WeatherRack sensors contain no active electronics. The sensors use sealed magnetic reed switches and magnets to take readings. A voltage must be supplied to each sensor to take a reading.
Download Full Specification Here.
To Set North on Wind Vane
North is the screw hole on the base (without the tab).
On newer units, there is a tiny little S near the top of the round base of the wind vane and a small N on the other side.
I am pretty new and don’t know much about it. How can I connect all 3 RJ11 plugs into WeatherPiArduino Board which supports 2?
Download WeatherRack specification and the WeatherPiArduino specification. The anemometer plugs into the bottom of the wind vane. Then the rain bucket and the wind vane plug then into the WeatherPiArduino.
Thank you so much!! Thant helps
I am new and i dont know much about it. Can i connect WeatherRack to my arduino mega 2560 without WeatherPiArduino board. i also have to buy WeatherPiArduino board.
No, you don’t have to buy the WeatherPiArduino board. You can wire it yourself.
The WeatherPiArduino board provides the RJ11 connectors, pull-ups and a BMP180 for Barometric/Temperature sensing.
Hi, is there any technical information about the sensors like accuracy, max and min range, etc. ?
Check out the specification download on the product page.
SDL
Is it possible to output nmea 0183 data? (encoded with Wind information)
Absolutely. That is pretty simple code. Have you looked at the CWOP posting?
SDL
sorry no – where can I find that posting ?
(for use on Sailboat with iMux multiplexer and iPad / RPI B+ etc)
Checkout this CWOP posting: https://www.switchdoc.com/2015/08/new-instructable-join-the-iot-on-your-weather-station-cwop/
I’m new to raspberry pi, however i do have all the means to run a weather station right now. I would like some insight on how to start with python and other accessories.
Hi William,
Get a good book on Python or use one of the many tutorials on the web. Just start writing some code (like blinking an LED) and you will quickly pick it up. Watch your spelling on variables as Python is weakly typed and will define new variables just by using them.
SDL
What are the maximum wind speeds this can handle, both constant speed and maximum gust speed? We supposedly hit winds of 90 mph last night, which really isn’t that unusual. Would this be able to handle that? Or would it fly apart and disintegrate into a bunch of pieces blown all over my property?
Hi Kevin,
The anecdotal evidence we have suggests that it can handle 60+ mph winds (our prototype weather station handled that about a month ago, however, the solar panels did fly off!). Looking at the dimensions of the plastic on the anemometer suggests that it could handle quite a bit more. Remember that the energy in the wind goes up with the square of the velocity, so the energy in a 90mph wind is 220% higher than a 60mph wind.
In talking about this, we think that it is more likely that the pipe mounting might fail before the anemometer cups would break.
Where are you located such that 90mph winds aren’t uncommon?
SDL
I’m in the mountains on the eastern side of the continent divide in Colorado. We had a weather research station up near us that once had a gust hit 201 mph, https://blogs.denverpost.com/weather/2011/12/29/high-wind-a-frequent-guest-in-colorado/98/.
Kevin,
Now that is a wind gust. Our record around here is about 77 mph. Far less than what you experience!
Thanks,
SDL
My wind vane wasn’t working right. I measured actual voltages. When they didn’t match the spec sheet, I measured my back-up unit. The two units don’t match either. Yes, my Arduino is measuring 3.31v.
Dir Unit 1 Unit 2 Spec
000 1.84v 1.69v 2.53v
045 1.08v 0.98v 1.49v
090 0.21v 0.19v 0.30v
135 0.42v 0.39v 0.59v
180 0.68v 0.61v 0.92v
225 1.48v 1.35v 2.03v
270 2.24v 2.03v 3.05v
315 2.10v 1.90v 2.86v
After I rewrote my sketch to fit the observed voltages, I started getting correct headings. I had to write a separate sketch for each wind vane because of the differences. Resister tolerance problem in the voltage division circuit?
Hi John,
Interesting that your voltages are almost exactly off of the spec by a factor of 0.66. (which happens to be the ratio of 3.3V/5.0V).
Is this an Arduino Uno? The Arduino Due reads full scale at 3.3V. Arduino Uno reads full scale at 5.0V. Could this be it?
The fact that the values between the two wind vanes (10%) isn’t that surprising. It would be interesting to see the resistance through the wind vane.
I will tell you that the Arduino ADC is kind of flakey and requires some fussing to get things right. Who made your Arduino? Was it a knockoff or an official one? We have seen some funky behavior from some of the knockoffs.
Make sure you pause AT LEAST 100usec between readings.
Best regards,
SDL
Hi,
I’ve been measuring the wind for a few weeks now, and the wind speed never exceeds 7kph, even when I know for a fact that the actual wind speed was 40kph+.
Also, the max wind gust value is always lower than the current wind speed, which doesn’t make sense.
The only changes I’ve made to the source code is to remove the conversion to miles – if I use the original code, I get readings like this:
Rain Total= 0.00 in
Wind Speed= 4.26 MPH
MPH wind_gust= 2.56 MPH
Wind Direction= 225.00 Degrees
Wind Direction Voltage= 1.926 V
What have I done wrong here?
Geoff
I found what was causing the problem. If you are using the WeatherPiArduino board, the code sample they give you for the Raspberry Pi is wrong.
Code that works:
https://github.com/switchdoclabs/SDL_Pi_Weather_80422
Code that doesn’t:
https://github.com/switchdoclabs/RaspberryPi-WeatherPiArduino
There are significant differences between the two, and if you use the SDL_Pi_Weather_80422 link above, then the wind speeds and gusts will be more realistic.
Geoff,
We have a version control problem! We will fix that. We fixed a problem in the SDL_Pi_Weather_80422 libraries and it didn’t get into the RaspberryPi-WeatherPiArduino.
Thank you very much for pointing that out.
Best regards,
SDL
The two small screws (one smaller than the other) that come with the kit. Which one screws into the bottom of the rain gauge? And the other one, does that screw into the small hole above the bolt holes in the metal pole?
The screws are the same diameter. Put the shorter one in the rain bucket and the longer one above the bolt holes.
Best,
SDL