Wind Speed Protection Set Up

by | Aug 29, 2013 | Anemometer-Group

Anemometer

Anemometer

The Tracker IPm wind speed setup will accept pulse or 4-20mA  inputs from any commercially available anemometer. You can set it up in m/s or mph as long as you keep the engineering units the same for all the variables ie: meters/sec or mph.

Wind Speed Thresholds

There are 2 wind speed thresholds for each axis found in tab F IN in the test I/O window in Sixnet Toolkit.

  • The lower threshold variable is WIND_HIGH in m/s or mph.
  • The higher threshold variable is WIND_HIHI in m/s or mph.
Positions

Protection Positions

You must decide what position in degrees you want the motors to go when each of the thresholds are reached.

  • The lower threshold position variable is WIND_H_ALT for the Altitude motor or WIND_H_AZ for the Azimuth motor found in tab F IN.
  • The higher threshold position variable is WIND_HH_ALT for the Altitude motor or WIND_HH_AZ for the Azimuth motor found in tab F IN.
  • If the values for WIND_H_AZ and WIND_HH_AZ are zero then the azimuth drive will not got into protection mode. Altitude on the other hand will go to zero degrees elevation.
Strategy

Dead band

Once the WIND_HIGH speed has been met for the required time, the variable WIND_ALMDB (found in tab F IN) provides a dead band value in m/s or mph that keeps the Tracker in protection mode even though the wind speed has dropped below the WIND_HIGH threshold.

For example say your WIND_HIGH threshold is set at 30 mph and your WIND_ALMDB is set for 5 mph. The unit will go into HIGH protection mode when the wind reaches 30 mph (for the allotted seconds) and will remain in alarm until the wind speed drops below (30-5) 25 mph.

Protection Strategy

On a blustery day and the wind reaches the preset threshold momentarily, it would not make sense for the tracking motor to go in and out of protection mode. The Tracker IPm uses configurable dead bands and  timers to put the tracker into protection mode and leave it until the inclement weather passes.

Alarm Delay Timer

This timer requires the program wait for the respective threshold to be met for the specified time before protection mode is enacted.

  • WIND_ALMDELAY is configured in milliseconds ie 1000 = 1 seconds found in tab L IN.

Dwell Timers

There are 2 dwell timer setting in seconds which determine how long the tracker will stay in protection mode after the wind has returned to an acceptable level.

  • WIND_H_DWELL for High threshold in seconds found in tab L IN.
  • WIND_HH_DWELL for High-High threshold in seconds found in tab L IN.

Analog Input

You can utilize the analog input as a primary or secondary wind speed input. The Tracker IPm will take the higher of the two inputs and execute the protection algorithm.

Secondly you can use the analog input with a handheld test meter to test your configuration in case there is no wind

Pulse Input

Refer to the wiring diagram for the proper wire locations on the Tracker IPm.

If your anemometer utilizes a reed switch, then this is a two wire set up. Simply connect one wire to terminal 17 (+) and the other to terminal 34.

For a Hall input this requires a three wire set up with the 3rd wire connected to terminal 18 (-). A pull up resistor may be required so check the manufacturer’s installation instructions for a 24VDC system.