Support
| Firmware (for Anemometer & Data Logger) | User Guides & Tools |
|---|---|
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Our sensors require the use our data logger.
Anemometer (Wind Gauge)
Anemometer is the scientific name for a wind speed sensor or wind gauge.
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What is required to use the Anemometer / Weather Stations?
- Our kits include everything you will need to get started, as our anemometers & weather stations require the use of our data logger.
- A computer running Windows is required to set up the correct time on the data logger so that your data has the proper time stamp, and to visualize live data.
- An internet connection is required to to stream the data to the your virtual weather station on the WEB. How quickly can I start collecting sensor data?
- It literary takes seconds to start collecting data, after installing Atmo, our data logging software. Just plug the anemometer into a USB port on any computer running Atmo and within seconds, your graphs will fill in with live atmospheric data, starting with wind speed & temperature, and including humidity and pressure for the more advanced units. What is advantage of your Anemometer compared to cheaper units?
- Accuracy. Our un-calibrated anemometers feature an accuracy better that 1% in the most critical wind speed range for wind turbines from 4-28m/s (9-63mph, 14-101kph). Below 4m/s (9mph, 14kph) accuracy is better than 0.1m/s.
- Robust construction featuring a Carbon Fiber support tube and highly impact resistant cups and rotor assembly.
- Lifetime, self lubricating & self cleaning hybrid ball bearings. Why is accuracy so important in anemometry (wind speed measurement)?
- Available energy in wind increases with the square of wind speed and wind power increases to the cubed of wind speed. That is why a class 5 hurricane can create so much more damage than a class 4, and a 5% error in measurement can lead to underestimating or overestimating the wind power by as much as 16%. What does "VT" "VDT" "VDTHP" stand for? What is the difference between the wind data logger kits?
- The letters stand for the different sensors: V=Velocity (Wind Speed), D=Direction of Wind, T=Temperature, H=Humidity, P=Pressure. The difference between the kits is the type of sensor that the kit comes with:
- VT measures Wind Speed along with Temperature
- VDT measures Wind Speed & Direction along with Temperature
- VDTHP measures Wind Speed & Direction along with Temperature, Humidity and Barometric Pressure. What is a good way to mount the anemometer?
- The best way is to use a figure 8 loop on cable ties or hose clamps so as not to crush the carbon fiber support shaft which is designed to be very stif in bending, but not as stiff in compression. See picture:
Wind Direction Vane
Wind Direction Vane turns into the direction of the wind and tells us from which direction wind is blowing.
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Wind vane is not pointing to not same directions as my ordinary magnetic compass, do we have to calibrate the wind vane before use?
- Instructions on how to setup the wind vane to point correctly and a link to the wind direction calibration value calculator can be found at the top of this support page. When I installed the wind vane on top of the anemometer, it didn't seat exactly level, so the weight of the vane causes it to settle on one direction. Is there a way to pull it back off without a problem or damage, so I can try to reseat it?
- The wind vane does not have to seat 100% level...as long as it does not hit the anemometer rotor while rotating. It is important that the anemometer itself sits level as the wind vane bearing is seated on the anemometer shaft, and this dictates whether the wind vane will have a tendency to go to one side.
- Since our wind vane bearing is just about friction-less, it is sometimes impossible to mount the anemometer in such a way as to have wind vane not move to one position when the wind stops blowing.
- However, this is not so much a problem because when the wind is not blowing, the wind direction is irrelevant. As soon as even a tiny breeze hits the wind vane, it will orient itself properly since its low wind speed threshold is lower than that of the anemometer.
- It is possible to remove the wind vane by pulling on the T-junction and the cone in opposite directions, though it is not recommended, as it puts unnecessary stress on the components.
Wind Data Logger
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What is required to use the Wind Data Logger?
- Our kits include everything you will need to get started.
- A computer running Windows is required to set up the correct time on the data logger so that your data has the proper time stamp, and to visualize live data.
- An internet connection is required to stream the data to the your virtual weather station on the WEB.
- For sensor quality, quality of measurement, reliability and ease of use, our data logger requires the user of only Barani Design sensors.
- To interface with other manufacturers' or home made sensors, our data logger support page provides all the information you will need to set up communication with our data logger. There were visible DAT files on the SD card before I even started logging.
- There may have been data files on the logger from testing before the unit was sent out. Every time I connect the data logger to Atmo I've synchronized it but it keeps returning to a date in 2010.
- This means that the data logger was disconnected from power after its time was synchronized. If you only plan to intermittently check the data with your computer (instead of having it constantly connected), it is best to have the data logger connected to your battery or power supply while synchronizing time so that it is not powered off (thus) reset after the computer is disconnected. Is it crucial that the sensor be plugged in before the power?
- No, the sensor can be plugged it at any time. If it is not showing up, just go into the "Setup" menu and then click "Sensor Setup". If the sensor is not found, click "Add", which will assign any unassigned sensor a sensor id (either A, B, C, or D sequentially) Clock inside of the data logger is running significantly faster or slower than the clock on my computer.
- Clock inside the data logger is much more accurate than on your computer. The best way to fix this is to have your computer synchronize with official internet time. At that point, you may see only a few seconds difference each week between the devices. The clocks in electronics and wrist watches are based off vibration frequency of a crystal, which is temperature dependent. This causes all digital clocks to have errors of 10, 20, or 30 seconds a day, when they are running hot, like computers tend to.
- In our data logger we have a high quality crystal and a temperature sensor so that we can compensate for clock speed changes due to temperature and keep the time as accurate as possible. Here are instructions on how to synchronize your computer time with internet time:
Atmo data logging & analysis software
Atmo is our wind data logging and weather conditions displaying and monitoring software.
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What is the advantage of Atmo data logging & analysis software?
- Clarity of data presentation.
- Ease of use.
- Plug and play compatibility with our wind sensor and data logger hardware.
- Automatic Weibull function curve fitting to your wind speed distribution for any time interval!
- Ability to store and compare historical data down to 1 second resolution for any time interval.
- Export to Excel friendly data format.
- In the near future it will be made open source so that users & user community can customize modify or add features as they please. I was recording the last couple days and when I tried to import the data and export it, the program said there was no data.
- Look at the name of the Data files...the should are named by the date IDYYMMDD.DAT ID= Sensor ID (A,B,C or D), YY= 2dig year, MM= 2dig month, DD= 2dig day.
- If your logger was reset, probably your files will have the following names A100315.DAT, A100316.DAT, A100317.DAT ...also, for each day of data collected, each data file should be about 600+KB in size.
- Exported CSV file should have the following format:
2011-05-21 09:00:00,23.4,98565,4.4,0.62,191
[year-month-day hh:mm:ss,temperature(°C),humidity(%/100),pressure(Pa),wind(m/s),direction(degrees)]
My exported .CSV data is too big to fit into Excel...how can I reduce, shrink it or down sample the data to make plots?
- Try our Simple Downsampler for down sampling and reducing file size of any .CSV data files for easier manipulation in Excel. (Free download)
- Reduce the data size of your CSV files by picking out a data point at a user defined interval...as an example, it can pick out every 3rd data point into a new CSV file that is 1/3 the size of the original. How do I display historical data?
- As long as the data is imported in an Atmo database, simply clicking on the database name and setting the proper historical plot section date range (at the top right of the Resource Analysis section frame) should display historical data.
- To set the correct time/date range for Historical or Resource Analysis section data, find the date range located at the top of the "Wind Resource Analysis" section.
- By unchecking the "Latest" checkmark, you can set the starting date of the data to display. Atmo program freezes up while loading/importing data from the anemometer & wind data logger.
- It sometime takes a while to import data, even 10-20min if you have a lot of days worth of data. To speed it up, remove the SD card and stick it into your laptop for faster read access or copy the data to a folder on you PC and then import from the folder. I was also wondering if you need to select the individual DAT files during the import or if the Atmo program automatically takes them all?
- Atmo, automatically imports all files and finds the correct place in the database to place the data. If you check the "Overwrite" checkbox in the "Import Data" dialog, you can also overwrite data. If you imported in incorrectly before.
- You can also select after which date you would like data to be imported into the database, though it is not necessary since Atmo does this automatically. Why does my exported data have extra columns or is not correctly formatted?
- Check to see that your decimal separator in Windows is a period "." and not a comma.
- .CSV format files use a Comma "," to separate columns and a period "." as a decimal point in USA. Examples:
- Exported CSV wind data file straight from Atmo
- Exported CSV file should have the following format:
2011-05-21 09:00:00,23.4,98565,4.4,0.62,191
[year-month-day hh:mm:ss,temperature(°C),humidity(%),pressure(Pa),wind(m/s),direction(degrees)]
- Data is seen in Atmo before exporting
- CSV after import into Excel
- .CSV format files use a Semicolon ";" to separate columns and a comma "," as a decimal point in USA.
- To get around this, please set your windows settings to use a period for decimal point separator and a space as the digit grouping symbol. Bellow are instructions on how to make the changes:
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Instructions Windows XP:SettingsClick Control PanelClick Date, Time, Language, and Regional OptionsClick Change the format of numbers, dates, and timesEither:1. Change the Regional Options to "English (United States)"2. Click CustomizeA. Change Decimal symbol = "."B. Change Digit grouping symbol = " " (space or just make sure it is NOT a comma ",")-----Instructions Windows 7:Click Control PanelClick Clock, Language, and RegionUnder Region and Language Click "Change the date, time or number format"
Under Formats Tab, Click "Additional Settings" at the bottom
Either:1. Change the Regional Options to "English (United States)"2. Click CustomizeA. Change Decimal symbol = "."B. Change Digit grouping symbol = " " (space or just make sure it is NOT a comma ",")
Wind Logging Accessories
Batteries, chargers, power supplies, memory cards, splitter, coupler, connector sealing gel and more.
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For how long can the wind data logger run on batteries alone?
- Wind data logger with one Anemometer can run for 30 days on our 30day battery.
- All it takes is a 4x4in (10x10cm) solar panel charger to keep the unit running indefinitely. Can your batteries be recycled?
- Our batteries are one of the most recyclable products on the planet. Lead-acid batteries have a higher recycling rate than glass, aluminum, and newspaper.
- In fact, virtually 100% of every battery component can be recycled to make a brand new battery.
- Lead–acid battery recycling is one of the most successful recycling programs in the world. In the United States 97% of all battery lead is recycled. How many days / months can it log data on a 2GB card?
- A 2GB card can hold over 2500 days worth of 1/sec data which can include wind speed, direction, temperature, humidity & pressure...depending on the sensor you choose.
- Every day each Atmo Anemometer sensor collects about 680KB of one second (1/sec) sensor data.
