SCYA Midwinter 2012

My dad, Brian, and I entered the 2012 SCYA Midwinter Regatta hosted by the Mission Bay Yacht Club.  We sailed my Dad's Soling and though we didn't win any awards, we still enjoyed a fun weekend on the water.  I tested out my new GoPro camera too! Photos, video and race results below.

Soling Fleet

Sailed: 6, Discards: 1, To count: 5, Entries: 5, Scoring system: Appendix A

Rank	Fleet	SailNum	Yacht Club	Skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total	Nett
1st	Soling	782	MBYC	John Walton	(1)	1	1	1	1	1	6	5
2nd	Soling	694	MBYC	Ryan Castro	(3)	2	2	3	2	2	14	11
3rd	Soling	743	MBYC	William Blozan	2	3	(5)	2	4	3	19	14
4th	Soling	721	SFVYC	Stephen Langton	(5)	5	3	4	3	4	24	19
5th	Soling	59	PLHS	Bruce Hayes	4	4	4	5	(6 DNC)	6 DNC	29	23

Wind Direction Finder: Nearing Completion

The wind direction indicator has seen a good deal of progress since my last post.  The vane and indicator cases have been finished and much of the programming completed.  The vane electronics and power supply are housed entirely within PVC pipe to prevent moisture from damaging the device and to allow easy mounting to the top of the mast.  The vane itself has been built from recycled parts: a pop-up sprinkler, panda express chopstick and beer can. I'm currently working on a way of securely mounting the PVC to the top of the mast where the vane will transmit from.  The vane is powered by two AA batteries which should supply the transmitter with 90+ hours of continuous operation; more than enough for a weekend of sailing.

The display electronics have all been placed in a waterproof pelican case.  They will be powered from an external 12v battery typically stowed in the hold of the boat.  This display device shows graphically and numerically the wind direction relative to the boat.  I have also incorporated a 5min and 1min countdown timer helpful in small boat sailing for timing the start of a race.  From the display, you can also turn off the vane transmitter to conserve battery power.  The vane will still require some power to listen for a "turn on" signal to resume broadcasting the vane direction.  Interfacing with the display electronics is done through a capacitive touch sensor mounted on the inside of the pelican case.  This keeps the electronics protected from water, even if the Kraken were to pull the boat under.

Wireless wind vane and display box with battery

Wind Direction Finder: Graphical LCD and Wireless Upgrades

Xbee radio with adafruit 3v logic adapter

The original plan for my wind direction finder was to begin with a wired system, then graduate to a wireless system, but after learning more about wireless transmitters and because of the clear advantages of going wireless, I decided to jump right into a wireless system and include a full graphical LCD as well.  This new setup will require two micro controllers, one for the sensor and transmitter and one for the receiver and display panel.  I'll be using 2.4GHz Xbee modems to transmit and receive sensor data and a KS0108 128x64 liquid crystal display.  Now that the system will be made wireless, the transmitter at the top of the mast will have it's own separate battery, making power conservation a more important factor to consider.  I've implemented new code between the micro controllers that allows the transmitter to be turned off and on remotely as needed.  While the transmitter will still consume a small amount of power "listening" for the signal to turn on again, it should save conserve battery power and allow the transmitter to remain "asleep" when the boat is being set up and taken down, or when wind direction information is not needed.  Once the display and additional micro controller have arrived in the mail, I'll begin construction and further iterations of the code.

Wind Direction Finder: Building and Coding

I've made steady progress on the small boat wind direction finder. Soon after the magnetic shaft encoder arrived in the mail, I mounted it to a 1/2 inch pvc end cap and attached a phone jack to the 5V, analog, and ground leads. This end cap/sensor configuration will be secured to the boat on the end of a foot long length of 1/2 inch pvc pipe. The pipe will raise the vane above the mast, away from the sails and lines as well as provide a solid, but removable way of attaching the sensor. (see photo below)

Before coding, I connected the sensor to the "analog input 0" pin on the Arduino (female phone jack ->; screw down electrical connector ->; breadboard ->; Arduino... a very round about way of doing things but it works) to feed sensor data to the micro controller. From here it was straight forward to write a code that would map the sensor readings to 360 degrees of wind direction. (see above photo)

Turbulent airflow around the wind vane, vibration in the boat, and the high sensitivity of the sensor will all cause an undesirable rapid change in the readout of wind direction. This can be solved by taking a number of readings within a short period of time and averaging them to provide the wind direction, free from unwanted "noise". Converting the code to produce an average reading proved somewhat problematic. Sensor readings close to "dead ahead" are either large (close to 360) or small (close to 0), but averaging these gives headings around 180, the completely opposite direction! With a bit of math and a few if statements I was able to hash out an averaging system that gives accurate readings in any direction. (for those interested in how this works just e-mail me, I'll explain and send you the code)

The remainder of the project is mostly mechanical in nature. A wind vane needs to be attached to the sensor, the pvc pipe needs to be affixed to the mast, wires run, and a dial created for easier readout. More to come later....

A Wind Direction Finder for Small Boats

My dad has been an avid small boat sailor his whole life and has shared his passion with me by taking me sailing many times.  Being a tinkerer, he continually improves his boat, changing cables, removing winches, adding lines, etc. to make sailing easier (and faster).  He recently sold his Coronado 15 and purchased a Holder 20, and as you might expect, many new alterations needed to be made from the get go.

A Holder 20 (not my dad's)

One such improvement was to address an issue all small boat sailors face: how to see the tiny wind vane atop the mast. Knowing the wind direction is crucial because it allows the sails to be set to best take advantage of the wind. The vane needs to be at the top of the mast, clear from interference from lines and sails, but this location is difficult to see being far away, in an awkward location, and more often than not - directly in the sun. (The wind vane in the above photo can be seen as a black speck above the mast)

There are existing systems that will transmit wind speed and direction data to a screen mounted in the cockpit of the boat. However, you've got to be prepared to fork out the cash. This entry level system from Tacktick (http://www.tacktick.com/products/145) costs £459.99... that's over $900 American! ...and cost prohibitive for many small boat sailors.

Enter the Arduino micro-controller solution. I proposed that a practical solution was feasible using an Arduino to detect wind direction and display it in the cockpit for a fraction of the cost of existing products. With my interested father as a corporate backer, I've set out to design and build said instrument.

The R&D for this project will be broken up into a couple stages. First, an appropriate sensor needs to be found that will output angular position over 360 degrees. The sensor shaft also needs to be able to continuously rotate so as not to provide faulty data after reaching an end stop (as would be the case with most potentiometers). After some online research, I found this device (http://www.usdigital.com/products/ma3/) from US Digital that should fit the bill. The sensor must then be mounted to the mast with an appropriate wind vane.

Second, the sensor must be connected to the Arduino (by a small cable through the mast) and a suitable program written to collect the incoming analog data and process it into a usable information. (Note: I imagine some form of averaging needs to be performed to reduce jitter and provide a more stable readout)

Lastly, a display needs to be made to make the wind direction information easily viewable. Ideally, I'll have an LCD screen showing wind direction relative to boat position, but as a simpler prototype I could create a ring of LEDs indicating wind direction.

Once a working system has been developed, further improvements could be made such as: wireless transmitting from wind vane to Arduino, powering the device via solar panel, adding a hot-wire anemometer, temperature gauge, or solid state magnetometer for additional nautical data.

I'd like be able to build the project for under $100 (nearly 1/10 the cost of the TackTick), but knowing how project costs quickly add up (see this blog entry), I think I'll double that and hope for the best. Either way, it should be a great solution! Stay tuned...