Reliable wind sensors?

[GILow]

Hi all,

I’m starting from scratch with the boat instruments. I’m looking for a reliable wind sensor, does not matter which brand and does not matter what sort of data it produces. I just want it to work for a reasonable amount of time.

So far I’m seeing lots of problems with B&G, but not sure if those problems have been solved.

The old Raymarine senders from the ST60s seem good, but will require some extra electronics to convert the signal to something readable.

Not too fussed about super accuracy, but something god for one or two degrees would be nice.

Suggestions?

Matt

[Tin Tin]

Our Navman (bought by Simrad I think) lasted at least 12 years, the 3 Raymarines lasted about 4 years each - their problem was moisture getting past the O ring in the sensor and possibly lack of maintenance on my part to do an annual check on them.

[Mal Reynolds]

No affiliation, but I did just have an old B&G vertical wand rebuilt by these guys:

https://www.aandtinstruments.com/pro...nd-horizontal/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEboDISFrYY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbYAnWUhQdw

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ITZ5EeX0K_k

[Nekton73]

I have no first hand experience, but ultrasonic wind sensors have interested me for a while. I like the idea of having no moving parts and fairly bird resistant. The common sailing ones seem to be Maretron and Airmar, although there are many others. This Cruisers thread covers a lot of info: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ind-94565.html

[bergius]

We have the ultrasonic wind sensor from LCJ Capteurs. Pretty great to not have any moving parts. Outputs standard NMEA0183 (which we convert to N2K inside the boat).

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by bergius

We have the ultrasonic wind sensor from LCJ Capteurs. Pretty great to not have any moving parts. Outputs standard NMEA0183 (which we convert to N2K inside the boat).

LCJ gets my vote. Persevered for years with Raymarine, bearings, circuit boards, breakages from birds.


LCJ produces NMEA by default but comes with an array of converters including RM that works out of the box. After sales support is also excellent. Been up there 9 years so far.

[GILow]

Those ultrasonic models do look interesting. I’ll see how easy they are to find down here in Oz.

[seagypsy8]

We also have the LCJ Captuers with the barometer sensor NMEA2K plug. We got it a few years ago. We can recommend it. We are in Aus but cant clearly remember where we got it. May have contacted the company in France to purchase. I think they gave us a distrubuter's contact details???

[s/v Jedi]

LCJ Capteurs hard to get in the US and even in Holland. There’s a Spanish option: Calypso and they have a US distribution.

https://calypsoinstruments.com/shop/...#attr=38,71,65

[lateral]

Airmar PB200. In eight years and has been flawless.
Superceeded by WS20x. Not racing standard Im told.
True wind checks out most of the time on B&G zeus 2 and Tritons.
Heel does not seem to effect it.

[Sailer_Med]

It seems in my case the connections are the most problematic part of the mast top wind. Connection at mast top, bottom of mast, and into the network/wind instrument.

Do the ultrasonic instrument address these issues in a constructive way? The connection blocks that came with my Raymarine look rinky dink at best.

[Ryan]

The wind sensors that are often put on offshore buoys are usually from RM Young. The sensor has an analog output, so you will need one of their interface boxes as well if you want serial data. I've used the compass with serial interface box in the past. They also make ultrasonic sensors, but I've been using Airmar which are not as accurate, but close enough for my (non-sailing) needs. The Airmars get a B grade for reliability.

[barcoMeCasa]

Another vote for LCJ Captuers. Mine is been constantly turned on for must be nearly 3 years now.
Available at https://www.svb24.com/en/lcj-capteur...t-version.html in a few days in Europe, they prob ship worldwide as well. Records 24/7 to a Raspberry Pi. Love it!

Edit - site says they will ship worldwide.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by barcoMeCasa

Another vote for LCJ Captuers. Mine is been constantly turned on for must be nearly 3 years now.
Available at https://www.svb24.com/en/lcj-capteur...t-version.html in a few days in Europe, they prob ship worldwide as well. Records 24/7 to a Raspberry Pi. Love it!

Edit - site says they will ship worldwide.

Well yes, they have three in stock now but were out of stock before, so better grab them if you want one

[barcoMeCasa]

Originally Posted by Sailer_Med

It seems in my case the connections are the most problematic part of the mast top wind. Connection at mast top, bottom of mast, and into the network/wind instrument.

Do the ultrasonic instrument address these issues in a constructive way? The connection blocks that came with my Raymarine look rinky dink at best.

The LCJ Captuers I bought had no connections, just 3 core wire for power & nmea0183 so no connections outside. They went 0183 for simpler wiring with adaptor available to convert to N2K