IoT Based Anemometer

Measurement of wind speed using a anemometer (DC motor with blades) with the help of NodeMCU and interfacing it with the cloud (ThingSpeak).

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Things used in this project

Hardware components

NodeMCU ESP8266 Breakout Board

Dc motor 5v

Female/Female Jumper Wires

Male/Female Jumper Wires

USB-A to Micro-USB Cable

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

ThingSpeak API

Story

This is the working Demonstration video of the Project

Many wind speed measurement projects report poor performance as low as 60% of the predicted performance. The reason for this is poor resource assessment and the use of new untested technologies and systems in remote locations. Predictions about the potential of an area for wind speed measurement projects (through simulated models) may vary from the actual potential of the area. Hence, introducing accurate site assessment techniques will lead to accurate predictions of energy production from a particular area. We solve this problem by using an INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT) technology to periodically analyse the data from anemometers installed in that area. In this project we are developing a prototype of this system. The anemometer blades rotate with the wind speed and direction. The voltage generated during the anemometer blades rotation will be converted into the wind speed. The data will be continuously updated in the cloud.

You can watch the up-to-date progress of this project at: https://project4iot.blogspot.com/

Code

NodeMCU - Arduino IDE Code

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
String apiKey = "Your apikey";     //  Enter your Write API key from ThingSpeak

const char *ssid =  "Your ssid";     // replace with your wifi ssid and wpa2 key
const char *pass =  "your password";
const char* server = "api.thingspeak.com";
int ledPin = 9;
WiFiClient client;
void setup() {
 Serial.begin(9600);
 
       Serial.println("Connecting to ");
       Serial.println(ssid);
 WiFi.begin(ssid, pass);
 while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) 
     {
            delay(500);
            Serial.print(".");
     }
      Serial.println("");
      Serial.println("WiFi connected");
      }

void loop() {
 float sensorvalue = analogRead(A0);
 float k= (sensorvalue*(51.0/1023.0)*50);
  if (client.connect(server,80))   //   "184.106.153.149" or api.thingspeak.com
                      {  
                            
                             String postStr = apiKey;
                             postStr +="&field1=";
                             postStr += String(sensorvalue);
                             postStr +="&field2=";
                             postStr += String(k);
                             postStr += "\r\n\r\n";
 
                             client.print("POST /update HTTP/1.1\n");
                             client.print("Host: api.thingspeak.com\n");
                             client.print("Connection: close\n");
                             client.print("X-THINGSPEAKAPIKEY: "+apiKey+"\n");
                             client.print("Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\n");
                             client.print("Content-Length: ");
                             client.print(postStr.length());
                             client.print("\n\n");
                             client.print(postStr);
 
                             Serial.print("voltage: ");
                             Serial.print(sensorvalue);
                             Serial.print(" wind speed ");
                             Serial.print(k);
                             Serial.println("%. Send to Thingspeak.");
                        }
          client.stop();
 
          Serial.println("Waiting...");
  
  // thingspeak needs minimum 15 sec delay between updates, i've set it to 30 seconds
  delay(10000);
}