Hi, this is my first post. I want to write about a project I have been involved with over the last 18-20 months. I do some kitesurfing in my spare time, or at least used to and my friends and I got frustrated by the location, resolution and frequency of real time wind speed updates so we could decide whether or not to make the long drive to the beach.
So we built an autonomous solar powered wind meter using a MSP430. Initially I looked at using an apps processor type solution with Linux, but the power requirements quickly put that one out and I also got involved with a MSP430 G series project, which then led me to the FR5739.
We started with the FR5739 Experimenters board and a Telit 3G modem. That has since evolved to the board shown below, called cAno, short for “data volcano”. This board uses the latest FR5969, carries GPRS and GPS with a Vin of 5-15V.
The pictures below show where we are at today, the meter on the right is in PettyCur bay in Fife. You can check out the data feed on our site http://www.thewindop.com
It started as a bit of fun an exercise in learning some Javascript and how to build PCB’s. Good news is its still fun, just want to tell people what we have done with our time and maybe find some folk who fancy helping out. To date these devices have now sent back more than 11 million data points, have 5 operational units with more deployments coming in the next month.
