The WindReader is Born!!
May 26, 08:44 PM
Just like raising Frankenstein from the lab bench, the (somewhat unnamed) WindReader has been born on the test bench.
This project started as me not wanting to buy one of the very few (I know of 2.) Wind Readers out there. My options were ~$1500usd for an old system that interfaced with a calculator or a full blown theodolite which I estimate would cost upwards of $5k
So far my WindReader has cost a 10th of what the cheapest one would have cost me, so I am happy.
The problem I saw with the current systems was the output. One outputted onto a calculator, forcing you to remember or to write the figures down, and the second was better in providing you with a printed copy, but only one hard copy.
I decided to play on that fact that there will be a laptop present in the (balloon) retrieve vehicle. All the actual WindReader hardware consists of, is a few sensors, some clever code, and a USB link to the laptop, which provides the unit with power, in exchange for bearing and pitch (incline) readings every so many seconds.
This means that all the actual “Wind” calculations, are done on the PC. The advantage of having them on the PC, is that they can be sent on the fly to the navigator in the balloon, as they are flying a task, over the very secret RF link I have designed, (more on that later).
So here are a few pics, obviously its in no state to measure wind’s at the moment, but it does a good job of reading me a bearing a pitch (while compensating the bearing for pitch and roll error). The whole system will be mounted into a box and will then be attached to a “sighting gun”.
More to come!
