I have been thinking about doing a little project using some PICs and could
use some ideas.  I will probably be using 84's and I am getting the PICSTART
PLUS on the 6th at the seminar.

About the project.  Having a cottage up on lake Huron, and owning a boat, a
good wind speed indicator and temperature readout is a welcome addition.  I
saw one in a recent issue of Sensor magazine and thought it would be fun to
build one.

The unit has no moving parts, but uses ultrasonics to detect wind speed and
direction.  The unit has four prongs with ultrasonic sensors on top of them.
There is a north-south path and a east-west path.  I then send out a pulse
from the north sensor, and time how long it takes to get to the south
sensor.  I repeat the process south-north, east-west, west-east.  This will
give me four times for the sound to travel the same distance.  I now will
have two vectors which can be added, a north-south vector, and a east-west
vector.  Then with a little trig., I can get the magnitude of the wind and
the direction.  I will then send out a variable frequency signal which is
the magnitude of the wind (0 pulses/sec is 0 mph to 100 pulses/sec is 100
mph, for example).  I was thinking about using a 8 bit number to tell
direction, but does anybody have a better idea?  Both of these will be
displayed on LCD's inside the cottage.

I also will monitor temperature with a transistor and will also display this
out on a LCD inside the cottage.  But the temperature will also activate
small heaters which will warm the ultrasonic tips to prevent icing in the
winter.  I have no idea where to start with some low power heating elements
to do this.

All the main electronics, PICs, etc., will be inside the cottage so
temperature there isn't a problem.

If anybody has any ideas, suggestions, or corrections to my design idea,
please respond.  Thanks in advance!


   Donald Frederick Wright Jr.

   School info: Lawrence Technological University
   E-mail: DW79208@LTU.EDU

   Work Info: AVL North America
   E-mail: DNWRIGHT@AVLNA.COM