DIY: Bicycle Computer Anemometer

Bicycle Speedometer Anemometer

OK - now this is just something so simple and ingenious I can't believe I hadn't though of this before.

You make an extremely INexpensive wind guage ($10-$50, depending on how fancy you get with the bike computer) by combining a cheap bicycle computer (speedometer) with either commercial anemometer cups or even those tacky Easter Egg containers used to hold candy. This would be a good science class project for nearly any age class.

It uses a digital bicycle speedometer to count pulses from a magnet and reed switch on the anemometer cup assembly, and the speedometer translates this automatically to mph or kph. It also keeps track of your maximum gust, average windspeed, and total wind miles -- so it works as a wind odometer too! Very useful for doing wind power site evaluations.

And for the really ambitious, they even show you how to build your own circuit (here) so that you can build this thing without the bicycle computer! (Or you can purchase the completed circuit for $3 [that's THREE] here.)