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Wind directions

Discussion specific to Fine Offset and similar rebadged weather stations
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steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26702
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
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Wind directions

Post by steve »

On every Cumulus wind direction graph I've looked at from a Fine Offset station, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was plotting random numbers. Even when there's a decent breeze blowing.

Does anyone think this is a bug in Cumulus, or is the wind vane really that erratic?
Steve
Bob
Posts: 67
Joined: Thu 04 Sep 2008 12:03 pm
Weather Station: Watson W-8681
Location: Whixall, Shropshire.
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Re: Wind directions

Post by Bob »

Hi Steve,

Well i tmoves about a bit but I think we can see where the wind was coming from...see attached

Bob
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Bob

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steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26702
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
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Re: Wind directions

Post by steve »

That's better than many I've seen, but your individual plots are still a bit scattered. The average line looks reasonable, though.

Probably enough to convince me it's not a bug in Cumulus :)
Steve
Tony
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon 23 Jun 2008 7:27 am
Weather Station: Watson W-8681 (Fine Offset)
Operating System: Windows10
Location: Mobberley, Cheshire, England
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Re: Wind directions

Post by Tony »

Hi Steve,

My chart looks the same as Bob's. Sometimes the wind vane rotates as fast as the anemometer cups, the cross-sectional area of the "pointer" must be approaching that of the fin!

If I ever have to take mine down I'd like to try and modify it a little or even just try some thick grease on the ball-bearing the wind vane sits on to damp things down a bit (I seem to remember a ball bearing when I put it together.)

Tony.
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harrym1byt
Posts: 280
Joined: Fri 15 Aug 2008 5:22 pm
Weather Station: WH 1081 (EasyWeather type)
Operating System: Win10
Location: Garforth, W. Yorks, UK
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Re: Wind directions

Post by harrym1byt »

My graph is very random and in part I was blaming it on the vane just seeming to rotate wildly in light winds. It does seem to settle its direction better as the wind speed increases. I'm looking at all sorts of solutions to improve it...

1. Thick grease on the bearing.

2. Make the tail surface area larger

3. Glueing a magnet on the post and 16x bits of paperclips on the rotor (at the compass points) to make it stay put until the wind is strong enough to move it.

4. Again a magnet on the rotor, but several turns of tranformer wire with shorted ends on the pole - to act like a genorator with its output shorted.
arthurhh
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu 18 Sep 2008 8:40 pm
Weather Station: Davis VP pro 2
Operating System: Win7
Location: Tokoroa South Waikato New Zealand
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Re: Wind directions

Post by arthurhh »

No problem with Cumulus, the wind vane is of poor design, I hope to get my quality control graphs going between my two stations and then experiment with the vane.
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