High speed wind sensor

[Krsound]

is there away to add a high wind sensor to shut off a scene if a wind speed is exceeded. I want to add pyro to my Christmas show but if there is high wind gust I want the show to bypass the scene for safety.

[mcallegari]

A bit too generic request.
Please share the necessary information to understand of which device you're talking about.
A specification PDF of the wind sensor would be great.
Please note that if it's not a USB device (e.g. if it's I2C, GPIO, RS232), we would need to implement a dedicated plugin to handle it and at the moment there is no manpower to do such job.
Moreover, if we don't have the sensor, we cannot test the code we write.

[janosvitok]

There are few things that you need to do:

1. Get the wind sensor info to QLC+. For this, you need to use one of the input plugins, or write your own. The list of plugins is here: http://qlcplus.org/docs/ in the column plugins.
Either your sensor has output for which there already exists input plugin, or you need to find a converter application or write (or have somebody write) new plugin for it.

2. Control your pyro from QLC+ -- Most probably using DMX, but you can again use any available output plugin.

3. Connect the sensor input with the scene. Most probably there are several ways how to achieve it (like using submaster or script instead of scene). To find the best way, more details
from the previous poinst are needed - especially how do you control the pyro (HTP/LTP channel, it's a one off signal to start it or it has to be on continually, etc.)

Last but not least, I'm not sure if I'd trust QLC+ (or mostly any other software for that matter) for controlling unnattended pyro when there might be damages if the pyro is started in a wrong moment.
I'm not telling that it won't work, just be aware that a channel might get stuck in the ON position, data from wind sensor might get lost on the way, etc.
We do our best to make it as stable as possible, but we do it in our freetime, and there are simply not enough resources to test it in every possible situation. It's up to you to consider the potential risks.
See also http://qlcplus.org/disclaimer.html

Summary: Please post as much specifics as possible and (hopefully) we will come with a more specific instructions E.g.: Operating system for QLC+, type of wind sensor, its interface + ideally manual, type of pyro + interface + manual,
DMX output device (if the pyro is DMX-based) model, or any other useful info. If you're just looking for a wind sensor, give at least some examples - we may tell you which one is easiest to connect.

[karrika]

There is actually a standard that you could use in your plugin. This may benefit others with similar needs.

The NMEA and IEC 61162-1 declare a message format that is usually supported by many vendors. You can read them through a serial port (9600 or 38400 bauds) or over the Ethernet using IEC61162-450 multicast stream at 239.192.0.4 port 60004.

Code: Select all

<message>
        <name>Mwd</name>
        <description>Wind direction and speed</description>
        <nmea>$WIMWD,x.x,T,x.x,M,x.x,N,x.x,M*hh</nmea>
        <fields>
                <field>
                        <name>directionTrue</name>
                        <description>Wind direction, 0 to 359 degrees true</description>
                        <angle/>
                </field>
                <field>
                        <name>directionTrueUnits</name>
                        <description>true identifier 'T'</description>
                </field>
                <field>
                        <name>directionMagnetic</name>
                        <description>Wind direction, 0 to 359 degrees magnetic</description>
                        <angle/>
                </field>
                <field>
                        <name>directionMagneticUnits</name>
                        <description>magnetic identifier 'M'</description>
                </field>
                <field>
                        <name>speedKnots</name>
                        <description>Wind speed, knots</description>
                </field>
                <field>
                        <name>speedKnotsUnit</name>
                        <description>knots</description>
                </field>
                <field>
                        <name>speedMs</name>
                        <description>Wind speed, m/s</description>
                </field>
                <field>
                        <name>speedMsUnit</name>
                        <description>m/s</description>
                </field>
        </fields>
</message>