The
wind tunnel calibration data for the anemometer goes up to
60, but Ron has customers who have used the anemometer on a
storm chasing vehicle going 70mph into a 50mph
headwind. So, the thing is tough. I've
personally measured gusts over 60mph and I'm sure I'll see
higher as the spring unfolds.
Other
Options for Buying the Sensors
There's a sister site to Fascinating Electronics,
WindDataLogger/APRS World, which also provides the same
sensor setup preassembled, so if you aren't interested so
much in the mechanics and want to accelerate that part of
the project, you can buy an assembled version of this
from
WindDataLogger.com.
The assembled version of each sensor is about $20
more than the kit version. So, for both sensors
you'd pay about $40 more than buying it in a
kit.
The folks at WindDataLogger/APRSWorld estimate the
wind vane kit takes an hour and the anemometer less than an
hour. This is if you buy their kit. If you buy
the Bag-O-parts version like I did from Fascinating
Electronics, there's more to do in that kit. For
example, the ball-bearing in the anemometer is not
pre-installed, but in the WindDataLogger/APRSWorld kit, it
is. Saves time and setup to epoxy the ball-bearing.
Another example is the kit from Fascinating
Electronics didn't include any wiring or RJ45 jacks at the
sensor end, but the kits from APRS World do. This is
a big time savings since you won't have to spend any effort
deciding on wiring solutions and connections.
This is a shot of the partially assembled anemometer kit
from APRSWorld which solves the wiring/connector problems
if you'd rather not do that yourself.
If you build the sensor kit from Fascinating Electronics as
I did, you should plan several evenings to get it put
together and plan to rig your own wiring. Unless
you're interested in the mechanics, it's well worth
spending the extra $40 for the fully assembled version of
the sensors from APRSWorld.
To summarize, there are different levels of difficulty you
can choose to get into the sensors. You can buy the
scratch kit from Fascinating Electronics, buy the partially
assembled kit from APRSWorld, or the fully assembled
modules from APRSWorld.
Also, if you don't want to build your own OSCirrus
electronics but like the idea of this type of project, you
can also buy off-the-shelf wind data loggers from the same
site. OSCirrus is definitely geared toward a
Do-It-Yourself software developer who would like to learn
more about hardware.