Abstract

This project attempted to design, and build a digital weather station. It was to include wind speed, wind direction, temperature and output them in an easily readable relatively user-friendly way. We also wanted to provide a serial output, which would allow future users to connect this project to a PC or another computing device. We accomplished all of the main tasks and nearly completed the serial output.

Our project accurately measures and displays the correct temperature and wind direction. Due to a lack of funds, we did not test the wind speed module with a linear anemometer, but instead we tested the prototype wind speed with a Schmitt trigger. This trigger provides two pulses (delayed from each other) to view the wind speed. Using this simulation we determined that the wind speed would be measured accurately for a linear anemometer input signal.

The display method chosen was a Sharp Dot Matrix LCD 2 * 16 character display, which works well to display the text and numbers required by the weather station.

Due to lack of time, the RS 232 serial connection VHDL coding was never completed, although it was close and we have the basic idea how we could do it in the future.

Overall the project works well, and both of us learned a considerably amount about VHDL, FPGA's, and working with a partner.