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In addition to working on our wind tunnel, we’ve been developing new wind sensor designs. Rev P is not a new version of our rev C wind sensors that we have made for several years. It might have been better with a new name, and may eventually get one, but for now it’s “Rev P”. “P” stands for PTC or Positive Temperature Coefficient thermistors. The difference between NTC and PTC is as follows: NTC thermistors have smaller resistance as they get hotter, whereas PTC thermistors exhibit a larger resistance when they get hotter.
Why new thermistors? The PTC thermistors track each other more closely, and the ambient temp thermistor in the new design actually is part of the Wheatstone bridge, instead of just sensing ambient temperature, as in the Rev C sensor. The part is also available in a higher precision (1%) than the 3% thermistors in the Wind C sensors. The rev P thermistors are supposed to be more stable than the parts in the Rev C, with excellent values for maintaining their values after a year of being heated.
As you can see, the potentiometer has gone away, and the only wind speed output is the voltage output of the wind speed sensor. We have also added a real temp sensor, that is not dependent on the supply voltage. Everything would be great in wind sensor land IF I could buy PTC thermistors in the values I want. The chip I’m using only seems to be available in 100 ohms, which ends up being around 120 ohms by the time it gets up to working temperature. Consequently, to get enough power to heat the chip up, it requires a higher voltage than the Wind C sensor, which is slightly inconvenient. Right now the sensor requires 8 volts, which probably means a readily available 9 volt supply. We will bring out the next version very quickly that will have a boost regulator so that the sensor will run well from five volts.
Current draw is around 40 mA but this goes up at higher wind speeds, which one would expect, since it requires more power to keep the sensor hot at higher wind speeds.
Another feature of the sensor that we have been experimenting with is the non-standard mounting of the chip, with no pcb behind it. This goes a long way toward making the sensor omnidirectional. The chips are only coated on one side so there is still some built-in asymmetry in the sensor’s directional response that probably can’t be compensated out, without using two sensors. We’ll also get that characterized next week.
We’re still gathering data in the wind tunnel on this beauty and should have curves (at least from 25 to 40 degrees) and an Arduino sketch early next week. They’re already in production and in stock.
The new wind sensors are in the shop here: https://moderndevice.com/product/wind-sensor-rev-p/
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