This paper reports on a microcontroller based wind
direction measurement system that displays wind direction in real
time. A W200P wind direction sensor manufactured by Vector
Instruments Ltd was used to measure the wind direction. The
microcode assembler (MCASM) assembly language was used to
write the program that was then blown into the peripheral interface
controller (PIC) 16F872. The PIC 16F872 processed the wind
direction signal from the sensor and displayed the real time azimuth
angle, from 0 to 358o on the seven segment displays, while single
LEDs were used as cardinal and primary inter-cardinal direction
indicators. This system successfully displayed wind direction in real
time and managed to respond to very fast changes in wind direction
at a resolution of approximately 2o.