Hi,
I’m interested in finding a cloud sensor for monitoring observing conditions for a robotic telescope.
Have you seen this thread http://discourse.weather-watch.com/t/7223?
Stuart
This just screams for Eric from Hobby-Boards to add to his array of sensors, mount in a PVC pipe and get Brian to integrate with WD 
LOL
That is more than most of us have in our waether station equiptment
Coyote
If demand were high enough then it might be possible for me to add a cloud sensor to the mix. I have been doing a bit of research today and I don’t think it would be too hard to come up with a circuit. Don’t know what the price would be yet but I can tell you it wouldn’t be anywhere near $500
Eric
Eric,
I would certainly be interested 
Don’t count me out for a solar sensor yet, juet haven’t gotten to that point yet, hopefully I will in the next month or so…
-Bob
Depending on the price, I could be interested in a 1-wire cloud sensor. I must dig out my 1-wire adaptor and see if it still works. I bought it with a Tini devkit about 4-5 years ago, but haven’t used it or the Tini kit for about 3 years.
Whoa 8O $ 750.00, I’m in the wrong business #-o
Eric,
I think you’d have a tonne of demand from the amateur astronomy community for this. These days lots of us are running computer controlled telescopes unattanded to do overnight imaging of deep sky objects. The state of the software is such that we can just choose a target, hit go, and come back in the morning to collect the data. The one big bug bear is weather. There is no reliable way to monitor for adverse (or favourable) weather changes at the moment. That cyanogen Boltwood cloud sensor has created a lot of interest, but only a very few are prepared to budget $750 for that functionality. To make it with the astronomers a 1 wire cloud sensor would need to be reliable (at the level of cloudy, partly cloudly clear), and have some sort of COM interface (can WD32 do that?) so that the telescope control software can poll for it. Ideally, an external line that closes when it gets cloudy functions as a fail-safe dome shutter.
I know of a couple of guys at http://www.unihedron.com/ who have prototyped a cloud sensor, but not got it into a product form. Maybe they’d be interested in having you “1-wire” their idea??
Best of luck
Keep us posted,
Best of luck
Andrew
Andrew,
I don’t know if WD has any kind of COM interface, maybe Brain can chime in here. For an external line to control the dome, one of my 4 Channel Relay units would work but there would need to be some additional software to know when to turn it on. I looked at the Boltwood and it seems like a nice design. I wouldn’t incorporate the wetness sensor into my design because I already offer a Leaf Wetness Sensor.
Eric
WD can already control a 1 wire 12 volt switch…so maybe thats one avenue…
COM could be possible…but i have not develved into that before…
OT now, but regarding COM, there is a free software already availble that provides a COM interface (they call it a weather server) for a competing weather software. The software is here http://ccdastro.net/wwi.html I’m guessing the author would probably be able to support WD32 if there was demand.
Actually COM is quite simple stuff (especially if you are coding with .NET). With it, weather functionality becomes availble to any other software or scripts running under windows.
Well I finally got around to throwing together a test sensor… my craft skills are not the best and the room is covered in polystyrene bits lol… but it should work as a test…
I have used a peltier in a tube with a plate up and heatsink looking down, very well insulated from above, at the moment I am feeding the output directly to the labjack floating off its reference output which gives a base reading of around -23 degrees C (WD reads it as a 334 temp sensor…) the variation will be small i expect so I’ll log it on the graphs for a while and see what it does before I look at adding amplification etc…
If anyone wants a look its plotting as a light grey line labeled test on my main screen graph at http://www.portunus.net.nz/weather/Prime.htm
I guess it will take a while for the temps to stabilise… hmm but already some passing cloud has spiked it up momentarily so its looking promising…
I will post some photos of the fun shortly
wow ricky
it looks to be working!
at least during the day
as its tracking nicely with the solar sensor at the moment! (i.e inverse relationship)
during the night hours, it tended down, and your wind picked up, which would have coincided with the altocumulus that moved over during the night…so I would say that it worked!
with the labjack settings, you could set some thresholds there with that extra temp sensor reading oC, and then get wd to open or close a relay switch via the labjack, based on passing clouds at night!
Hello,
(Sorry for my English it is about a translator)
I have Labjack U12, can you inform me or connect on connections on Labjack the Peltier plate.
Thank you
Serge
Well, I guess I’ll have to start investing in a 1-wire system as well now. LOL
Funny you should say that…
With this sort of development, 1 second update on wind/gust, potential for loads of sensors, etc. I’m starting to see the appeal. :lol:
I just need to devise a way of getting a wire out to where the sensors are. No way could it reasonably be underground (rock in places, saturated bog in others) - but I’m starting to wonder if a lightweight post & rail fence (coincidentally suitable to carry a conduit) in just the right line might not be a nice feature to suggest to the head gardener…
Dave,
I bought a book on E-bay called “Weather Toys” by Tim Bitson. It has step by step instructions on how to build your own 1-wire weather station. EXCELLENT reading.
Bill
I have the Peltier plate connected to the CAL output terminal and an analog input terminal.
The input is selected as an extra temperature sensor in Weather Display
Ok Ricky,
Merci
SERGE