Author Topic: Pole Mount Anemometer/wire or wireless? (Read 8309 times)

hayfarmer · « **on:** July 23, 2010, 08:44:28 PM »

Hi do not need the puter connected,just want to see how fast the wind is pushing.any input on type to get? don't know about lifespan of either one.thanks.

B529 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 23, 2010, 09:10:45 PM »

Wired, NRG Windwatcher. I've installed a few of these in very high wind sites. It comes with the #40 anemometer, the #40 has been around for a long time. Holds up well.

The watts per square meter feature data is a nice feature, allows you to look at the efficiency of your turbine.

prasadbodas2000 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 24, 2010, 01:58:42 AM »

not sure what will be the pricing/costing aspects but I built a real little windmill which just can be used as a permanently mounted wind measuring device.
please see at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Shib7PxNzI

defed · « **Reply #3 on:** July 24, 2010, 06:29:10 AM »

i bought a davis anemometer (forget the model, can look up if you are interested) for about $90 shipped. i then bought a digital bike speedometer for $10. the davis has an rj11 phone connector on it, so i got a phone wire coupler, a piece of 4 wire phone extension cord, and used this to splice onto the bike speedo. works really well, you just have to have a way to calibrate the bike speedo settings to match the anemometer.

i wanted a wireless setup, but just couldn't find something reasonably priced. you can use the same davis anemometer wirelessly, but you need a transmitter and receiver, which are about $200 each if i recall...so total price about $500.

klsmurf · « **Reply #4 on:** July 24, 2010, 07:32:49 AM »

I recently acquired a Honeywell weather station that had an anemometer included. Took it for a test drive to check calibration and it was spot on. The wireless unit has usb connectivity but the software won't work w/ win7. Not much customer support either. Found some other sw on line and now I can plot and graph averages, directions and gusts. The unit was a customer return, so it was a big chance, but for $30, worth the risk. Probably won't last long. You get what you pay for.

Rover · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2010, 12:33:12 PM »

Depending on how real time you want your anenometer readings, I'd forgo the wirelless. My experience is that they either average, or send out a specific moment in time with a frequency of over a minute. I view this as an attempt to conserver power from the batteries that power the wireless units.

However fine for temperature readings if you have a weather station (as I do, the included anenometer is only good for letting me know wind direction , with the relative low number of readings, not suitable for data logging)

hayfarmer · « **Reply #6 on:** July 25, 2010, 03:27:32 PM »

thanks for the input,decided to shop for wired real time and have had some bad wireless experience on weather stations in past lasting only a couple of months
may the force be with you

defed · « **Reply #7 on:** July 25, 2010, 06:31:38 PM »

i believe my davis will be 'real time' once i get some computer software that a guy here is working on. $90 for the anemometer and $50 for A/D interface to hook it to a pc.

hayfarmer · « **Reply #8 on:** February 26, 2011, 08:45:22 PM »

.

bought a acurite wireless weather station model 00615 from home depot $89.92 has 16 sec delay.remote anemometer sensor uses four 1.5 volt AA batteries I will rewire with 4

small 1.5 volt solar cells wired in series ,recycled from solar walk lights I plowed over this winter and power remote with.Idea STOLEN from this link:

http://fieldlines.com/board/index.php/topic,137550.0.htm

l just have to figure how to attach to tower.

hayfarmer

rossw · « **Reply #9 on:** February 26, 2011, 11:16:07 PM »

Quote from: defed on July 25, 2010, 06:31:38 PM

i believe my davis will be 'real time' once i get some computer software that a guy here is working on. $90 for the anemometer and $50 for A/D interface to hook it to a pc.

Why do you need an A/D converter? The Davis stations I've looked at have a small reedswitch in the anemometer body, and the cups spin a low-mass head with a magnet. They simply count time between operations, or operations per unit time, to get windspeed. No A/D conversion required. Those that have the PC interface require some massaging of data (it's a horrible form it comes in as), but it's just serial and decoding.

*puzzled*

defed · « **Reply #10 on:** February 27, 2011, 07:29:17 AM »

a member here has some software for turbines/anemometers and that's the setup he used. i don't know enough about the interfacing to answer your question, just that's what he uses so that's what i was going to use. he was going to make a 'lite' version of his program as freeware, but he got busy and i never heard back about it. i didn't want to be a pain and bug him to get it done.

jarrod9155 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 27, 2011, 07:49:51 AM »

The wireless model from home depot is nice but mounted on the tower it will probably fail . I went through 3 of them the vibration of the mill kills them . Mounted off the tower no problem worked great.

hayfarmer · « **Reply #12 on:** February 27, 2011, 06:32:59 PM »

thanks for the info jarred saved me a lesson from the school of hard knocks.think I will use this wireless one to study wind speeds at other elevations before I raise my mill

higher.just another toy,cant have enough of em.

I learned quite a bit about wind and turbulence just hanging streamers all around the site and observing my remote for the

inverter extended out side in real time, (and some people watch TV?)

hayfarmer

Volvo farmer · « **Reply #13 on:** February 27, 2011, 07:21:47 PM »

I got a wireless Davis weather station for Christmas. Data is transmitted every 2.5 seconds, which isn't too bad for a wireless anemometer. I was going to mount it on the turbine tower, but after reading Jarrod9155's warning, I decided not to. So today, I got busy and looked for a place to mount it. Highest thing around was the kid's swing set.

I had a couple of TV antenna masts around, maybe 20' worth, so up it went. It's about 15' lower than the turbine, but still at 25 feet or so, which isn't to bad when the wind is out of the west.

Wife told me she paid less than $300 for the thing which is not too bad, considering the sensor recharges its own battery with a solar panel and the inside unit will run a year or so on three "C" cells. It's a Davis Vantage View. Time will tell if it holds up, but for now, I know that we have had 12-15 MPH winds at 25 feet all day!

hayfarmer · « **Reply #14 on:** February 28, 2011, 06:26:16 PM »

the model I got has 16 second lag,but its better than looking out the window all the time.

I also followed Jarrod9155's warning, replacing 3 of the home depot's models due to vibration of the mill.attached it to 3/4 PVC conduit and 1 3/4 inch muffler clamps to my

TV antenna. almost at same height as mill. sure am thankfull for the advise before I mounted it.

Would make a nice sticky topic "wrong way to do things and the fix "

hayfarmer

jarrod9155 · « **Reply #15 on:** February 28, 2011, 07:29:12 PM »

That's funny we all think alike I ended up installing mine on the kids swing set also .

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