Building a Breezedude with a kit - Breezedude/breezedudeWindSensor GitHub Wiki

If you don't want to deal with building the hardware, you can buy a ready-made kit. Sellers of kits are listed here

The kit contains all components you need to set up your FANET wind station sender. You still require a compatible wind sensor and - depending on the FANET coverage of your stations location - host a FANET/OGN groundstation within rage.

⚠️ This page is no longer being updated. see install.breezedude.de for up to date instructions

📡 Check your network coverage

The range of the FANET signal depends on your surrounding. In general, a line of sight between sender and groundstation is required. It may work beyond line of sight, but then needs to be tested.

To get a feeling if you need to set up groundstation (GS) yourself, you can check your surrounding for an existing on gliderradar.com or ognrange. You can display the coverage of each OGN receiver, but beware that this is mostly generated by flying objects and not on the ground. To check your coverage on the ground take a FANET device (e.g. Skytraxx) with livetracking enabled on a not-flying-day (to avoid messages being forwarded to the GS by flying FANET devices aka. mesh-network) and check if your device shows up on the map. If this works with the small antenna of the FANET Vario, it will work with the larger breezedude antenna as well.

🌲 Finding a location

The pole and location of the wind sensor should fulfill the following requirements:

  • free flow from the main take-off/landing directions
  • as high as possible. Metrological station are set up 10m above the ground. This is unpractical for a paragliding site, but at a height of 2m the wind speed can only be 50-70% of the 10m values.
  • a somehow retractable pole: Some time a paraglider will be on top of your pole...
  • a separate pole is recommended. If possible mount it on a separate pole without a windsock on top. If the windsock can not reach the weather station, a shared pole is ok.
  • the default Breezedude clamp is for 48mm, so a 6m scaffolding tube made of galvanized steel would work perfectly.
  • not rotating: The direction of the sensor must be constant. The tube must be fixed against rotating.
  • lightning safe: If your location is predestined for lightning strikes, take care of proper grounding, add a lightning rod and do not mount the sensor on the very top.

For Basic usage see How to Use

🗒 Setup recommendations

  • It is best to insert the battery into the mounting bracket before installation to the antenna to avoid mechanical damage.
  • The circuit board should be firmly screwed to the antenna. It can be turned together with the white, ribbed ring and should be turned so that the circuit board does not touch the housing (in case condensation forms there)
  • After connecting to USB, the reset button must be pressed once (reset) to enumerate the device
  • The electronics box must be mounted on the pole with the antenna facing downwards. This prevents water from running through the cable gland into the housing.
  • The solar cell should face south if possible. If the pole is blocking the line of sight of the antenna to the ground station/OGN receiver, a deviation of +-60° is possible without any problems.
  • The housing is designed to be positioned vertically to avoid snow deposits on the solar cell. Snow deposits on the solar cell of the WS80/WS85 sensor are not critical as it is also supplied with power by the electronics box.
  • The aluminum tube of the WS80 sensor should be horizontal or slightly inclined so that water runs out of the tube, away from the sensor. With a WS85 this problem is eliminated by design.
  • It is advisable to check the function before installation on the pole. The LED of the WS80/WS85 sensor flashes every 4 seconds. When sending weather data, the blue LED on the circuit board lights up briefly. You can check the send signals using a ground station or a FANET compatible vario.
  • Do not forget to plug the solar cell (black connector)! You can monitor the battery level directly with the ground station, but it is not transmitted trough the OGN.

🛠 Tools required

For setting up the wind station your require

  • a USB-C cable for config
  • a TX10 torx screwdriver for the cover
  • a 13mm socket or wrench for the pipe clamp

⚙️ Getting the settings ready

All configuration is stored onboard the breezedude within the flash memory. It can be edited as a textfile accessible over USB.
It is recommended to use the Configurator for generating/editing the file.
When finished editing, download and copy&paste the settings.txt file onto the Breezedude flash drive.
For details see Configuration section

Mounting

  • Mount the sensor facing upwards
  • Rotate the sensor according to the offset value you set in the settings file.
  • Mount the transmitter with the antenna facing downwards
  • Rotate the solar cell facing south (approximately)

⁉️ Troubleshooting

I you have Problems with your setup, you have the following options to check the functionality:

  • When pressing the reset button, the blue LED should be on for a few hundred milliseconds. If nothing light up at all, check the battery connection and voltage with a voltagemeter or disconnect all connectors, remove the battery and power with USB (J1 needs to be closed)
  • If the red LED stays on after pressing RESET, there is an issue with the configuration file or a hardware problem. Check the file or try a default configuration. If it does not work with the default configuration, check debug prints on UART/I2C display for hardware faults or try web-serial debug in Configurator (see picture below). Click the Reset button to soft-restart while connected to USB.
  • When connecting a WS80/WS85 sensor, the sensor requires some time to boot. If the breezedude is not sending messages after 30 seconds, try pressing the RESET button.
  • If it stopped working, check the sensor and/or transmitter for water. If there is water inside, completely dry it. If your lucky it will work again. Make sure to find why it drowned and fix it.