I'm sure the collected wisdom of uk.diy can help with this. I'm making
some electronics for a rather unusual sculpture which reacts to
environmental conditions. One of its triggers is wind speed. I have
googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

It does not need to be calibrated or anything, just output a pulse train
which has frequency proportional to wind speed.

Maplin used to do one, but don't seem to any more. The only other ones I
can find are pukka meteorological ones which cost about 500 pounds. If
anyone knows a supplier for the maplin-type thing I would be most
grateful. I have in the past diy'd an anemometer but the bearings proved
to be problematic so I would rather buy a mechanism. I will however be
doing the electronics myself!
--
Tim Mitchell

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Tim Mitchell wrote:

I'm sure the collected wisdom of uk.diy can help with this. I'm making
some electronics for a rather unusual sculpture which reacts to
environmental conditions. One of its triggers is wind speed. I have
googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

It does not need to be calibrated or anything, just output a pulse
train which has frequency proportional to wind speed.

Maplin used to do one, but don't seem to any more. The only other
ones I can find are pukka meteorological ones which cost about 500
pounds. If anyone knows a supplier for the maplin-type thing I would
be most grateful. I have in the past diy'd an anemometer but the
bearings proved to be problematic so I would rather buy a mechanism.
I will however be doing the electronics myself!

Does it have to be mechanical, or could you use a hot wire anemometer -
which heats a wire by passing a current through it, and then measures the
cooling effect of the air passing over it in order to determine air speed.
If you need pulses, you could presumably use the anemometer's voltage output
to drive a voltage-controlled oscillator.

AIUI, hot wire anemometers form the basis of air mass flow meters used in
car and truck engines - so you might find a suitable one at a breaker's
yard. It might even have a pulse output!
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

"Tim Mitchell" wrote in message
...
I'm sure the collected wisdom of uk.diy can help with this. I'm making
some electronics for a rather unusual sculpture which reacts to
environmental conditions. One of its triggers is wind speed. I have
googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

It does not need to be calibrated or anything, just output a pulse train
which has frequency proportional to wind speed.

Maplin used to do one, but don't seem to any more. The only other ones I
can find are pukka meteorological ones which cost about 500 pounds. If
anyone knows a supplier for the maplin-type thing I would be most
grateful. I have in the past diy'd an anemometer but the bearings proved
to be problematic so I would rather buy a mechanism. I will however be
doing the electronics myself!
--
Tim Mitchell

Check out http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/ I suspect you could get a set of
anemometer cups for a few 10's of quid. You'd have to sort some kind of
opto or magnetic sensor, some hot glue/duct tape and you're sorted.

David

I seem to remember a DIY design in the dim & distant past based on split
ping pong balls and some SS hypodermic tube, various dia's silver soldered,
with PTFE bearings housed in a brass 1/2 inch tube. Electrical pulses using
one or more reed switches and a small magnet on the rotor. Try asking on NG
uk.sci.weather, some of the old stagers may remember the description and
refer you to the original publication.
Cheers

"Tim Mitchell" wrote in message
...
I'm sure the collected wisdom of uk.diy can help with this. I'm making
some electronics for a rather unusual sculpture which reacts to
environmental conditions. One of its triggers is wind speed. I have
googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

It does not need to be calibrated or anything, just output a pulse train
which has frequency proportional to wind speed.

Maplin used to do one, but don't seem to any more. The only other ones I
can find are pukka meteorological ones which cost about 500 pounds. If
anyone knows a supplier for the maplin-type thing I would be most
grateful. I have in the past diy'd an anemometer but the bearings proved
to be problematic so I would rather buy a mechanism. I will however be
doing the electronics myself!
--
Tim Mitchell

On Mon, 7 Jun 2004 16:59:17 +0100, Tim Mitchell wrote:

I have googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies
anemometer mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, ...

I think you can get spares for the WM918 (Oregan Scientific) or WX200
(Tandy) automatic weather station. ISTR that the wind vane and
anemometer assembly was =A340 to =A360. The wind vane output is from the=

wiper of 360 deg potentiometer and the wind speed from a reed switch
that closes once per revolution of the cups.

Try some of the weather station retailers.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Tim Mitchell wrote:

I'm sure the collected wisdom of uk.diy can help with this. I'm making
some electronics for a rather unusual sculpture which reacts to
environmental conditions. One of its triggers is wind speed. I have
googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

It does not need to be calibrated or anything, just output a pulse train
which has frequency proportional to wind speed.

Maplin used to do one, but don't seem to any more. The only other ones I
can find are pukka meteorological ones which cost about 500 pounds. If
anyone knows a supplier for the maplin-type thing I would be most
grateful. I have in the past diy'd an anemometer but the bearings proved
to be problematic so I would rather buy a mechanism. I will however be
doing the electronics myself!

You need to find some of the more specialized model shops. Or a yachting
shop. Both hobbies need to know wind speed.

I think http://fp.hillcott.plus.com/misc_wind_speed_meter.htm is
probably as cheap as it gets.

BUT you can take a small electric motor and mount 4 half Ping-Pong balls
on carbon fibre rods on top of it and count pulses if you want...if you
use an AC motor like e.g. what's in a CD-ROM drive, you will get a nice
3 phase AC wave form out of it.

I'll leave the electronics to you.

Set Square wrote:

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Tim Mitchell wrote:


I'm sure the collected wisdom of uk.diy can help with this. I'm making
some electronics for a rather unusual sculpture which reacts to
environmental conditions. One of its triggers is wind speed. I have
googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

It does not need to be calibrated or anything, just output a pulse
train which has frequency proportional to wind speed.

Maplin used to do one, but don't seem to any more. The only other
ones I can find are pukka meteorological ones which cost about 500
pounds. If anyone knows a supplier for the maplin-type thing I would
be most grateful. I have in the past diy'd an anemometer but the
bearings proved to be problematic so I would rather buy a mechanism.
I will however be doing the electronics myself!


Does it have to be mechanical, or could you use a hot wire anemometer -
which heats a wire by passing a current through it, and then measures the
cooling effect of the air passing over it in order to determine air speed.
If you need pulses, you could presumably use the anemometer's voltage output
to drive a voltage-controlled oscillator.

AIUI, hot wire anemometers form the basis of air mass flow meters used in
car and truck engines - so you might find a suitable one at a breaker's
yard. It might even have a pulse output!


ISTR that a hot wire anemometer was responsible for several F1 engine
failures in the rain. They DON'T like the wet at all.

On Mon, 7 Jun 2004 16:59:17 +0100, Tim Mitchell
wrote:

trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

Mine came from Dallas Semiconductor www.dalsemi.com

These are the people who make the "one wire" chips. As a trade-show
promo some years ago, they made a batch of simple weather stations,
based around their chipsets. There was so much demand that they kept
producing them afterwards.

Not sure if they still have them, but it's worth a look. "One wire" is
worth looking at anyway.

--
Smert' spamionam

In article , vortex2
writes

"Tim Mitchell" wrote in message
...
I'm sure the collected wisdom of uk.diy can help with this. I'm making
some electronics for a rather unusual sculpture which reacts to
environmental conditions. One of its triggers is wind speed. I have
googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

It does not need to be calibrated or anything, just output a pulse train
which has frequency proportional to wind speed.

Maplin used to do one, but don't seem to any more. The only other ones I
can find are pukka meteorological ones which cost about 500 pounds. If
anyone knows a supplier for the maplin-type thing I would be most
grateful. I have in the past diy'd an anemometer but the bearings proved
to be problematic so I would rather buy a mechanism. I will however be
doing the electronics myself!
--
Tim Mitchell

Check out http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/ I suspect you could get a set of
anemometer cups for a few 10's of quid. You'd have to sort some kind of
opto or magnetic sensor, some hot glue/duct tape and you're sorted.

David

Thanks to all, the Davis wind sensor from the above site looks just the
thing (reed switch output giving 1 pulse per rev). It has to be fixed to
a building roof so anything handheld is no good.
--
Tim Mitchell

Maybe rip apart an old PC mouse. There are two slotted discs, running between an
LED and a sensor. A bit of butchery and you have a pulse output.

Edwin
Bath.

"Tim Mitchell" wrote in message
...
I'm sure the collected wisdom of uk.diy can help with this. I'm making
some electronics for a rather unusual sculpture which reacts to
environmental conditions. One of its triggers is wind speed. I have
googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

It does not need to be calibrated or anything, just output a pulse train
which has frequency proportional to wind speed.

Maplin used to do one, but don't seem to any more. The only other ones I
can find are pukka meteorological ones which cost about 500 pounds. If
anyone knows a supplier for the maplin-type thing I would be most
grateful. I have in the past diy'd an anemometer but the bearings proved
to be problematic so I would rather buy a mechanism. I will however be
doing the electronics myself!
--
Tim Mitchell

How about:
Two or three half ping-pong balls
Fix half-balls onto shafts which are attached to a hub
that can rotate
Get an old PC mouse from junk box
Remove PCB
Connect one rotor somehow to above shaft
Use output from sensor for pulse train

Oh yes, then turn it upside down under a hat of some sort

Peter Scott

Peter Scott wrote:
"Tim Mitchell" wrote in message
...

I'm sure the collected wisdom of uk.diy can help with this. I'm making
some electronics for a rather unusual sculpture which reacts to
environmental conditions. One of its triggers is wind speed. I have
googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

It does not need to be calibrated or anything, just output a pulse train
which has frequency proportional to wind speed.

Maplin used to do one, but don't seem to any more. The only other ones I
can find are pukka meteorological ones which cost about 500 pounds. If
anyone knows a supplier for the maplin-type thing I would be most
grateful. I have in the past diy'd an anemometer but the bearings proved
to be problematic so I would rather buy a mechanism. I will however be
doing the electronics myself!
--
Tim Mitchell


How about:
Two or three half ping-pong balls
Fix half-balls onto shafts which are attached to a hub
that can rotate
Get an old PC mouse from junk box
Remove PCB
Connect one rotor somehow to above shaft
Use output from sensor for pulse train

Oh yes, then turn it upside down under a hat of some sort

Peter Scott


You could try some (or all) of the Dallas 1-wire weather station:

http://www.ibutton.com/weather/

HTH,

Chris.

--
cut along the dotted line to reply

"Tim Mitchell" wrote in message
...
I'm sure the collected wisdom of uk.diy can help with this. I'm making
some electronics for a rather unusual sculpture which reacts to
environmental conditions. One of its triggers is wind speed. I have
googled for ages trying to find someone who supplies anemometer
mechanisms, the 3 cup sort of thing, which will attach to a nearby
building.

It does not need to be calibrated or anything, just output a pulse train
which has frequency proportional to wind speed.

Maplin used to do one, but don't seem to any more. The only other ones I
can find are pukka meteorological ones which cost about 500 pounds. If
anyone knows a supplier for the maplin-type thing I would be most
grateful. I have in the past diy'd an anemometer but the bearings proved
to be problematic so I would rather buy a mechanism. I will however be
doing the electronics myself!
--
Tim Mitchell

How about:
Two or three half ping-pong balls
Fix half-balls onto shafts which are attached to a hub
that can rotate
Get an old PC mouse from junk box
Remove PCB
Connect one rotor somehow to above shaft
Use output from sensor for pulse train

Oh yes, then turn it upside down under a hat of some sort

Peter Scott