The wind vane I have also uses reid switches in combination with resistors to calculate wind direction, but the code in the tutorial im following only produces 2 results, when 16 should be coming through. This is the code:
from gpiozero import MCP3008
import time
adc = MCP3008(channel=0)
count = 0
values = []
while True:
wind = round(adc.value*3.3,1)
if not wind in values:
values.append(wind)
count+=1
print(count)
I should be getting results:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
But I am only getting result:
1
2
I have tried changing the value of the resistor used on channel 0 of the MCP3008 and it does give closer results, but never upto the full 16 voltage combinations I should have.
Dont have a multimeter, may have to buy one then. As for:
Have you tried printing the raw ADC values to make sure that’s working fine?
How would I go about this? Running the code with nothing connected to the MCP3008 Analog in? If so ive done this and got the required 1 - 16 output from the code.
To print the raw ADC you can try a script like the following, which will print both the raw ADC value and the scaled value between 0 and 3.3 volts, every 200 milliseconds.
from gpiozero import MCP3008
import time
adc = MCP3008(channel=0)
while True:
raw_adc = adc.value
scaled_adc = raw_adc * 3.3
rounded_adc = round(scaled_adc, 1)
print("Raw ADC", raw_adc) # Should be a number between 0 and 1, likely with a bit of noise
print("Scaled ADC", scaled_adc) # Should be a number between 0 and 3.3, likely with a bit of noise
print("Rounded ADC", rounded_adc) # Should be a number between 0 and 3.3, rounded to help reduce the noise
time.sleep_ms(200)
If you run the script while slowly turning the vane 360 degrees you should be able to observe the change in raw readings - at each of the 16 steps of the vane you should see a distinct step/change in the ADC readings.
If you’re not getting 16 distinct readings - e.g. it’s maxing out at 3.3 after one or two positions - it will be helpful to see some pictures of how you have it all wired up, and also a report of the raw readings at each vane position.
