one earlier suggestion was to use the existing brightness sensor on top of the unit to detect a bird landing. In principle that could work just great, at least during day time, but it was apparently a bit hard to do that in real time and determine the difference between clouds and birds. Who knows they might find a solution in the future.
Iām thinking about sticking olives and little cubes of cheese on my bird spikesā¦
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Marshmallows have been suggested for hot toasty days,
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Iām also looking at the MLX90614 to measure cloud cover by using the temperature difference between ambient and what the sensor measures. Stick that on the top and youād know if its clouds or a bird, as I presume the bird would be a lot warmer 
Of course detecting the bird is all well and good, but ideally we want them to stop landing completely. At least if we can detect a bird, it makes automating the small speaker to play the cat/hawk/shotgun sound effect at the right time a lot easier 
I really should stop browsing the net for project ideas, I never get around to finishing anything as it is!
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apparently if you are using an infrared thermometer pointing upwards for detecting a bird, you could also use it for determining cloud coverage, and possibly even tell something about cloud height. Weather
https://www.farnham-as.co.uk/2013/04/building-a-cloud-sensor/
Ceilometer | Arduino Project Hub
I know, thats what I said:
it would have been a nice innovation if it were added to a standard tempest weather station. Perhaps in the next version.
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Whats the proper way of turning the unit off while installing these? Hub unplugged then turn unit off and after installation, unit on then hub back on?
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I just turn the Tempest off. Donāt bother with the HUB.
Cool. I was thinking of making something like that. Sadly the $10 accessory costs over $18 to ship. I choked.
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yeah same here. 9$ US for part 18$ US to ship final Canadian price for a 12$ CAN item around 35$. Unfortunately I will not be buying I will most likely use my 3d printer and make something myself. Just have to think of what to use for the pins.
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Wire from a clothes hanger.
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Will these work? Your choice if you take the flags off before mounting themā¦ 
How about 3mm welding rods from Canadian Tire?
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/lincoln-electric-welding-rod-0588091p.html
Go buy 1 foot of 4/0 aluminum stranded wire and strip insulation then separate strands should be at least a dozen separate wires easy to work with but should be strong enough to deter most birds or you can buy copper
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Electric wiring seems to be a good idea. I have extra around I could take enough to make some spikes.
i bought some commercially available anti bird spikes. Springy and thin (thin is important in order to keep the influence on brightness and UV sensor within bounds)
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Whatās the width on those spikes ? I have some electric wiring and the copper inside inside is 1.58mm but just though of something copper is going to rustā¦ I really need aluminum spikes if I want to avoid it rusting.
I saw those on amazon but they are 3mm thick.
Edit : copper does not rust but actually it does corrode so not good.
my spikes are 1.3 mm https://www.hornbach.nl/shop/Duivenschrik-uitbreidingsset/6491611/artikel.html
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Copper doesnāt corrode but will tarish eventually giving it a nice green patina! Aluminum can corrode and pit.
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