logging with an anemometer? What and the How?

[jclaudii]

I am basically looking for ideas on how to record the signal from an Easter egg Anemometer into a computer for logging purposes.  I know it can be done cheaply, but I just ran out of google juice!  Anyway, I'm thinking it would be easy to either use the frequency output or just gut the motor and use a reed switch and some magnets and have a decent reading.  

My big problem lies in finding a place on the net that tells me exactly what parts, where to get these parts (radio shack, maxium, etc) and how they are laid out exactly.  I am open to any ideas as I am trying to convince myself I am a candidate for windpower as I live on a decent hill at the foot  hills of the Ozarks in AR, but I would love more data.  I have the opportunity to get a 70' lattice tower for ham radio's, and I think it would be a good instrument to put at the top and get some data for the next 6 months or so.  

thanks for you input!

[gizmo]

There's a couple of articles on my site that might help. First up is the PicLog, sort of a open source windmill logger based on the Picaxe chips. It logs wind speed, RPM, volts, amps, watts and watt hours. Needs a PC connected to log the data.

http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/PicLog.asp

And here is another logger that stores the data internally for retrieval later.

http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/articles/GillsDataLogger.asp

Hope they give you some idea's

Glenn

[gotwind2]

Theres a great commercial one available.

I have no affiliation.

A wise £100 ($160) spent, I logged data for a month using one.

http://www.bettergeneration.com/power-predictor/power-predictor.html

Only for it to tell me my average windspeed was 4 m.p.h. - I knew it was poor in my garden, but that confirmed it, good for solar, in June anyway.

I don't believe you could DIY something as good for the price.

Ben.

[jclaudii]

This is exactly what I'm looking for, but I am going to need some guidance on building this thing.  I played with pic programming a bit in college, but it was mainly an exercise to get us familiar with different ways to code things.  

I do wonder if a different chip would work, I found a temperature logger and I would like to be able to use the same chip to record temp and wind (either by hall effect sensor or reed switch).  Here is an example of the temperature board:

http://www.anotherurl.com/therm/logger.htm

The pic chip in these guys is PIC16F84-04/P and or PIC16F84A-20/P  I would love to have a kit where I can add things to this.  

[jclaudii]

http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/PicLog.asp

This is the exact one I think I want to try and make.  I wish I had the option to have a logging unit and a pc online unit all in one.  If there is a modification I can make to this circuit that can do "both" I would like to know.  

In the mean time I searched all over the website and could not find a parts list per say but I may be able to get most of what I need from the piclog circuit diagram.  

Are the picaxe 08m chips programmable in the circuit or do I have to have a programmer?

http://cgi.ebay.com/PICAXE-20X2-USB-Protoboard_W0QQitemZ200393083973QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDom
ain_0?hash=item2ea85bcc45

Is this a kit that is worth anything in the picaxe world?

Please let me know any help or sites that I can use to figure more out!

Thanks!

[gizmo]

Are the picaxe 08m chips programmable in the circuit or do I have to have a programmer?

Yes they are programmable in circuit, you dont need to change anything. Build the circuit, use the RevEd PicAxe software to programme it, and then fire up the PicLog software to use it.

http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/articles/PicAxe.asp

Glenn

[Roger Stafford]

Hi I don't have any answers to you post but thought that you might be interested to know that I just installed a 17 ft wind gen, 48v, I built from the other power design in Leslie AR. It has been up for about a month and it has provided about 2/3 of the power for my daughters house. They use about 500KWH per month.

[jclaudii]

That is Awesome! Do they have any way of monitoring the output like I am looking for?  If not, since were in the same state and I get this working, perhaps I can make them one .  I hope we can get wind power at our location cause yesterday 10/18/09, we had a constant 10-12 mph wind up where we lived...pretty day, but the wind kept it chilly.  

I have now taken the majority of this conversation to the electro-tech-online boards.  

[Roger Stafford]

No they don't we were looking at Dan lenox's,but I couldn't stay any longer and my son-in-law knows computers but not mechanics of things. The gen has only been up for a month.Will be interested to talk to you later.

       Roger

[jclaudii]

Hey all...I have yet to do this, but this is on my "new year to do list" and I need a bit more info.  

some of the options out there to do data logging with microprocessors are:

picaxe

pic chip itself

audrino

Does anyone know which is the best in this instance to learn so I can take the knowledge further after I build the anemometer?