Is there any way to build a homemade solar sensor?

Yes, I think that allowing the user to set both factors would be good. I haven’t looked at mine real closely but the base factor might be a little lower. Would have to check the data right after it rises in the morning and before it drops in the evening to see what it should be. It could also vary slightly from Bloomsky to Bloomsky and this would allow users to adjust for that.

Sorry to be direct guys, but I think you are putting lipstick on a pig.

Could be. We’ll see if Brain can make the needed changes. Always fun to to try make something out of that pig… if it fails could always it for a luau? :slight_smile:

new .zip update ready :slight_smile:

Updated. Will see how it is working over the next day or two and let you know. Thanks for all the hard work, it’s been interesting :slight_smile:

How is your UV looking? Mine jumps from 0 to 1 even at night.

re the UV
what I can do is make sure that is zero if its after sunset/before sunrise
UV was like 9 from my bloomsky at 2pm…but only 6.5 from my VP (which I think is reading too low anyway…I need to adjust that up…9 would be more realistic for here )

The UV here seemed about right. My “forecast” UV has been about 5.5 and the Bloomsky UV has been topping out at 6 so it appears to be pretty close to me. I would have to watch it more to (and have some clear days) to see how good it does. Making it 0 after sunset and before sunrise would be good.

I just realised that when subtracting 3100
you are going to end up with a negative numer #-o
use another new .zip update to fix that
(and that also set the uv to zero at night time)

Got it installed last night and it appears to be working the way it’s suppose to. Needs some adjustments that I’ll play with over the next few days. I’ll report back once I’ve had a chance to see if I can get things close.

kewl
can you post a screen shot of the WD main screen?

This is of the first day. The solar readings are too high so at the end of the day I adjusted the base to 3300 and the multiplier to .95. That is the reason you see the big drop off at the end of the day. I’m trying to eliminate the big jump at the beginning of day and then adjust the multiplier to get the max correct. I suspect that getting rid of the big jump at the beginning and end of the will delay the start/end of above zero readings for maybe a half hour but I can deal with that. There really isn’t that much sun at that time anyways :slight_smile:

Note that it was mostly cloudy in the morning becoming mostly clear a bit later.

What does your screen look like?


looked similar here…
not ideal ,but will be a guide to cloud cover etc?

Will have to see what a few more days of adjustment can do. But it does better at showing cloud cover than what I figured it would do.

Here is today’s screenshot (12 hr. graphs). Settings 3200 and .94 Was mostly clear today with high thin cirrus clouds. Had a few heavier clouds move in late evening. Not quite a “bell curve” which we’ll never get but the w/m2 numbers, while still a little high, are closer mid-day.

The dropout of the solar at the end of the day makes sense when looking at the wind direction and speed. Direction changed and speed picked up as the solar sensor shows the cloud cover. Not sure what that “spike” is, might be a reflection of just a bit of bad data. Will have to see if that reoccurs.


its not bad :slight_smile:

I have added ability to create a movie from the bloomsky images with a single tick setting
in this update
http://www.weather-display.com/downloadfies/weatherdisplaytest.zip

see that setting in the bloomsky setup, in the new video setup tab :slight_smile:

Where is this at? I couldn’t find the setting. Also, can this be uploaded to YouTube?

I just realised I had not included the updated dll files needed
so download again:
http://www.weather-display.com/downloadfies/weatherdisplaytest.zip

You sould see the new setup screen
see attached screen shot…under control panel, bloomsky

I do have ability to upload the normal web cam video to youtube…I can add option to upload this video…


Updated and set. It’s night so will have to wait until tomorrow.

Thought I’d post a graph (from WU) for today that was partly cloudy since I’ve been playing with the settings. Not perfect but it does get the idea across of the cloud cover.


solar.png