Building a Breezedude with a kit - thezenox/breezedude 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.

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. 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. Meterological 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 seperate pole is recommended. If possible mount it on a seperate 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.

Basics

Battery

A breezedude requires a 16340 (sometimes called CR123A) rechargeable 3.7V Li-Ion battery. This may be included in your kit, depending on your country. The breezedeude has no reverse polarity protection. Double check the polarity marked on the battery holder and your battery before installing. If you want to uses another form factor of battery, there is a 2p JST-PH socket (white) for connecting an external battery. Do only use a internal or external battery at a time.

Button

The button on the PCB, to the right of the USB socket, has two functions:

  • Reset (short single press)
  • Bootloader Mode (short double press)

LED

The blue LED is a status indicator. The red LED is indicating an error. This could be a configuration issue or a hardware problem. Check Debug section

Connectors

The plugs are color-coded and must be plugged in accordingly. The pinout is labeled on the PCB

  • Solar cell 2-pin black
  • External battery 2-pin white (remains free when using the battery holder)
  • UART (WS80/WS85 ultrasonic sensor) 4-pin black
  • Analog sensor (Davis 6410) red
  • I2C (for display) blue

The solder jumper (J1) connects the power of the USB port to the solar cell input (with a diode). When the jumper is closed (default) the battery can be charged by USB (65mA charge current). There currently is no battery charge / level indicator. The software is not designed to send weather data while USB is enumerated.

The 3V3 pin of the UART connector (black) can be switch off if battery is low.

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.
  • It is advisable to check the function before installation on the pole. The LED of the WS80 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 GxAirCom 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 GxAirCom, but it is not transmitted to 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 and a 13mm socket or wrench for the pipe clamp.

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 hundered 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
  • 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.

Debug

There is a basic-debug of the Breezedude using the USB connection and the WebSerial terminal of the configurator. With this you can check for basic functionality and forward the WS80/WS85 UART messages to check the sensor output. As the USB connection changes the software behavior, in this mode it does not transmit FANET data.

For full-debugging connect a TTL (3.3V) UART to Serial adapter to the TX pin of the black connector. Remember to have a ground connected as reference. You can use an adapter cable or solder directly to the back of the PCB. Use a serial Terminal of your choice, like putty or hterm to view the data. This debug mode works while normal operation if DEBUG=1 is enabled in the settings file. Make sure to disconnect USB for normal operation

For on-site testing a SSD1306 OLED display can be connected to the I2C connector (blue). The display needs to be connected on boot/reset and DEBUG=1 enabled.

More to come...