Hi,
Today I got around to installing the anemometer I received earlier this week. The anemometer I ordered was this;
http://www.inspeed.com/anemometers/Vortex_Wind_Sensor.asp
To mount the sensor, I welded a bracket from some square tubing, and just screwed it on to the wooden part of the tower. Before I took the tower down, I also made a new tower rest from a lenght of 2x4. That was a lesson learned earlier this summer, the old tower rest (oil drum) was too short, so that the rotor only had room to come to rest at one position. Of course the last time I didn't remember that, so one blade struck ground, and splintered off about 30cm from the tip. I was able to mend the blade by gluing the tip back on, since it was not completely broken off, and it splintered at a quite shallow angle. So far it's been holding on, but I already have new blanks available to carve when I get the time and motivation to re-do them.
While the tower was down, I also gave it a new coating. The formula I've been using is 1 part of heat treated linseed oil mixed with 3 parts of pine tar, and heated until it becames thin enough to apply. It seems to be holding quite nicely in the enviroment.
The display unit for the anemometer is made from 7-segment displays. Inside is a picaxe-microcontroller, that does the windspeed calculation based on the pulses given by the anemometer. It also handles the display driving. Anyone interested more about the detailed circuitry or program can pm me, and I can e-mail them. I'm also planning to log the windspeed, along with power output from the turbine. Then, after I get the mppt controller installed, I can compare the new performance of the turbine.
