Air Pressure Sensor Kit

Description

This is an air pressure kit primarily to measure the pressure field acting on a car. Intended to be cheap and accessible way of understanding the aerodynamic of a vehicle. Based around the Arduino nano it has 4 analog pressure transducers for measuring the gauge pressure and a BMP280 Barometric sensor to give a absolute measurement reference. The idea it can be used by anyone interested in aerodynamics applied to the real world. It isn't intended to be a professional kit, but something useful enough for an enthusiast.

Details

Videos about vehicle aerodynamics I usually make are with CFD. This simulation method is great for iterating through complex designs without physically making the devices tested. The problem is that the simulation is only as good as the model and then it still isn't in the real world with all the fine details. If a view of one my videos wanted to apply the findings to the real world there isn't a cheap accessible method to understand if it has work in a similar way. This pressure kit was intended to fill this need to measure the pressure field in the real world.

This first video covers the design of the kit and choice of electronic components.

Files

averaged_reads_copy_20250808234419.ino

Arduino code that the kit uses to record data from sensors and stores the average to EEPROM. Currently is records ten sets of averages triggered by a switch, but can be expanded to 100.

- 5.41 kB - 08/09/2025 at 14:05

Download

pressureSensorUI_1.pde

uses the Processing4 software to create a UI to retrieve data from EEPROM and write it to a file that a spreadsheet can open.

pde - 3.34 kB - 08/09/2025 at 14:03

Download

Components

4 × Air Pressure Transducer -5 - 5kpa 5 volt analog output

1 × BMP280 Barometric pressure sensor measures the absolute pressure for the gauge sensors to reference

1 × Arduino nano usb-c

1 × 9 volt battery connector

1 × Custom pcb

Build Instructions

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1

powering up

This device is able to run via a usb-c plugged into a computer(power source) or by 9v battery. The process is the same, other than a computer can send command for saving data to a computer file for later analysis.

When the device is turned on, automatically with a usb cable, with a battery installed via the power switch the green light become apparent.
2

gathering data

Using a battery, after powering up the device it would be a good idea to set a baseline measurement by triggering it using the other switch. This first measurement will be labelled "trigger 0" in the data. After this the switch can be slide to the off position for the the next read.

Subsequent data measurements are trigger by sliding the switch which will save data to sequential "trigger 1, 2, 3,....." labels.

Each time the microcontroller is switched off and powered up again the trigger count resets and over writes the data from each triggered data set.
3

fetching the data

After gathering the data it is stored in the microcontroller memory and needs to be extracted for analysis in a spreadsheet. The device can be switched off and it needs to be plugged into a computer via a usb-c cable for the data to be extracted. This doesn't need to be done immediately as the data will be there until it is over written with the next data gathering set.

The Arduino ide software can be used for this via its serial interface by copying and pasting it, Or Processing4 software can be used through running the .pde UI file. This creates a csv file where the UI file is saved.

When the device is plugged into the computer the serial port needs to be the same as that in the .pde code and change accordingly, a warning will remind you if it needs to be done.

With the UI code interfacing the device there are three clickable buttons on the left. The second one will fetch the data from the microcontrollers memory and writes it to the dialog box. After this is done the third button will write this data to an unique file.