High Level Design

Detection Unit:
This unit gathers the wind and temperature data and then emits the gathered information via RF link to the remote display unit every half second. The intended use for this part of the system is to be mounted on a golf cart. An Atmel Mega163 microcontroller regulates the data collection and organizes the data transmission via RS232 serial communication over an RF link. The RF link is made with a Radiometix transceiver. The wind direction is determined by a fin which rotates in the wind. The wind speed is determined by an anemometer which rotates on a separate shaft from the wind direction device. The temperature is sensed by an LM34 sensor.

Remote Display Unit:
This unit is intended to be small and compact so that it can be easier carried in a pocket, clipped on a belt, etc. This unit is controlled by an Atmel 8515 microcontroller and receives data over a Radiometrix transceiver. The data is displayed on an LCD screen which can be toggled between wind speed and temperature by depressing a button connected to the microcontroller. Currently we have a 2x16 LCD display in this prototype, but we restrained the character display to the top line so that the unit could be made smaller by utilizing a single line display in a future version. If the unit receives no data from the detection unit for 30 seconds it displays the message "No data" . . . we don't want our golf customers to be misinformed!