UTMini Anemometer

A Low-Power Anemometer for Lightweight NASA Missions

When: April 2021 Where: VN Instruments

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As one of my first projects at VN, the UTMini Anemometer felt like my brainchild. But it was a brainchild with a LOT of bugs and errors. This project taught me a valuable lesson in electrical debugging and coding with redundancies and checks.

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The Project

Develop a smaller, low-power anemometer module that can operate transducers on three axes using multiplexors to switch analog signals. 

Hardware

Designed “UTMini” circuit boards (in green) with analog and digital circuitry to generate and interpret ultrasonic signals. Studied effects of multiplexors (analog switches) on noise floor and signal quality.

Software and Data Analysis

Coded RTOS on TI microprocessor to interface with ICs and generate/read analog signals. Programmed a variety of signal processing algorithms to clean and analyze the small ‘echo’ signals. Used Pandas to interpret and sort through signal data and data sources.