DIY laser anemometer. DIY anemometer: the simplest diagram

I made a wind speed meter for a future weather station. I'm not sure, however, that it will work normally, because... I have no experience in the field of anemometer construction. But I had a lot of fun with the optocoupler from a ball mouse and checked its capabilities in terms of measuring the speed (frequency) of rotation

I took a Soviet stepper motor from the Motherland's feed

I disassembled it, shook out everything unnecessary from it: removed the stator, pressed out the sprockets and the magnet on the rotor. That's how much unnecessary things came out

What remains is the rotor shaft, housing and bearings. I washed the bearings with gasoline to remove grease, which tends to freeze in the cold. I collected the remains together, this will be the basis of the mechanical part. Next I cut out a piece printed circuit board computer mouse with optocoupler. Code wheel shaft through heat shrink tube connected to the motor shaft. The optocoupler was mounted on a bracket

I connected the stud to the other end of the output shaft and secured it with a tube from the outside.

The tube fits tightly onto the shaft, but for reliability I additionally poured epoxy inside

I move on to sea trials. Soldered the circuit

I wrote a small program - a tachometer, which, using a formula, calculates the number of revolutions in accordance with the number of pulses received at the input of the microcontroller per unit of time. Each measurement lasts 1 second. The measurement results are recorded in a data array. The average (RPM) and maximum rotational speed (RPMMAX) are then calculated. You can download the sketch for the Arduino

The motor is connected to the shaft DC, and turned it at different speeds.

It was possible to measure the rotation speed up to approximately 1800 rpm, which corresponds to 30 rpm. With a further increase in rotation speed, the readings decrease sharply. It is not clear what influences this - either the algorithm itself does not have time to count, or the phototransistor is not fast enough. Or maybe both. In any case, the circuit is quite functional as an anemometer.

To protect the product from atmospheric influences, you need to place it all in a sealed case. For this purpose, I picked up a housing from a faulty engine

Shaked his guts out

With the thought “what would the impeller be made from?” took a walk to the children's goods store. I wandered around a bit and finally found the right rattle! I bought it and brought it home

I took out 2 large balls. Their diameter is 50 mm

Well, as you probably already guessed, I sawed each plastic ball into two equal halves. The halves are colored, it was very good to cut - the cutting line is clearly visible. Miracles of turning balls into impellers:

I made the stands that hold the impellers from spokes from an umbrella. They are light and durable. I secured the stands to the cups using M3 screws, and put the other end on the shaft stud. The length of the racks was chosen arbitrarily, about 70 mm. I don't know if this is a lot or a little. It’s also unclear - how many cups are needed? I found designs with 3 pieces on the Internet, so I did the same with 3 for now. Complete product

It turned out to be quite an impressive contraption. It is unlikely to feel a weak wind, but it should somehow react to tornadoes and hurricanes. Tests will show. Does anyone have any ideas on how to modify the mechanical part to improve performance?

It is not possible to determine the exact wind speed by eye. But there is an urgent need for this, especially since today it is successfully used as alternative source electrical energy. Therefore, to obtain accurate data on wind speed, a special device, an anemometer, was developed and constructed. Depending on the materials used and the functions performed, there are several models of anemometers that wide application in everyday life, in laboratories and industrial enterprises.

The most common anemometer models are:

Manual model with an impeller, or the so-called paddle anemometer. Its operating principle is reminiscent of the operation of a fan, which gave the device another name - a ventilation anemometer. When the air mass hits a wide surface area of the blades, it changes the intensity of their rotation and makes it easy to calculate the wind speed. A counting mechanism is launched from the impeller using a gear wheel device, which records the number of revolutions of the blades per unit of time. All that remains is to calculate the speed, which will be equal to the product of the circumference of the blade path and the number of revolutions. The main advantage of this model is the ability to determine not only the speed, but also the direction of the wind. The scope of application of a blade anemometer is measuring the parameters of air flows in ventilation systems and pipelines.

Cup anemometer. The first model constructed by man to measure wind speed. The blades of the device resemble small cups, placed sequentially at the ends metal structure and directed in one direction. The operating principle of a cup anemometer is similar to that of a blade model. The counter, “hardwired” into a plastic case, accurately determines the number of full revolutions of the blades per unit of time. You can easily make such an anemometer with your own hands.

Thermal anemometer– performs two functions at once: determines the speed and temperature of air masses. The principle of operation is based on the laws of acoustics: the device detects sound, determines its speed and calculates the wind speed, while simultaneously noting its temperature. The electronic “filling” guarantees the accuracy of measurements and prompt correction of data as the intensity of movement of air masses changes. The hot-wire anemometer is widely used in laboratory research and control measurements of microclimatic conditions at the workplace in large industrial workshops.

The operating principle of anemometers of all listed models is almost the same. The device, mounted on a high pole, is raised as high as possible and installed in a direction that allows the movement of air masses to be accurately captured. Mechanical anemometers are controlled using a verification device included in the delivery set. On induction models, readings expressed in meters per second are displayed on the built-in dial.

To make a homemade anemometer at home, you will need an old model of a VCR. Its head rotation unit will become the basis of a future design. To do this, excess parts are removed from the assembly to leave only a frame with an axle, a bearing block and a washer for mounting the engine. All of the above is quite enough for measurements and calculations. For further work you will need household power tools and a little patience:

Holes with a diameter of 4 mm are drilled in the rotating part, on which the blade cups will be installed. There are already three holes on one of them - these are the places where the internal components are attached to the disassembled tape recorder. You should navigate by them when choosing places for the remaining nine holes.
M4 type bolts 10mm long are inserted into the holes. Rubber washers cut from old bicycle camera.
Now you need to take 4 plastic water mugs of the same size and drill a 4mm hole in the bottom. The handles of the cups are cut off at the root.
The cups are attached to the axle, turning them in one direction and fixing them with bolts and rubber washers. Fully assembled structure should rotate easily under the influence of even a light wind.

Now you can assemble the structure completely. To do this:

A magnet, another element of the old bicycle, is installed and attached to the rotating part of the assembly. Then the rotation unit is balanced to prevent simultaneous rotation of the pole along with the moving blades.
A mini-computer removed from the bicycle can be used as a counting sensor. It is glued to the stationary part of the assembly, covering the magnet with a sheet of cardboard. It is definitely worth checking the sensor with a tester for speed of response.
All that remains is to connect the cable and secure a piece to the stationary part of the device metal corner for subsequent installation of the structure.

To fine-tune a homemade anemometer you will need standard model devices manufactured in a factory. During simultaneous measurements, the readings of both instruments must completely coincide. In case you get it finished model device is not possible, a homemade anemometer can be checked while the car is moving in conditions of complete absence of wind. The number of rotations of the blades should correspond to the speedometer readings. All that remains is to calculate the radius of the wheel in mm and make the appropriate recalculation based on the geometric dimensions of the anemometer.

After checking the accuracy of the measurement, you can begin installing the structure on the roof of the house. To do this, you will need a sufficiently high, strong pole so that the measured flow of air masses is not limited by nearby trees and buildings. And to complete the work, all that remains is to connect the electronic part of the device. Now the anemometer is completely ready to perform its main function - to record the exact wind speed outside the window.

DIY wind speed meter

The task arose to assemble an anemometer for one project so that data could be taken on a computer via a USB interface. This article will focus more on the anemometer itself than on the system for processing data from it:

1. Components

So, to manufacture the product, the following components were needed:
Mitsumi ball mouse - 1 pc.
Ping-pong ball - 2 pcs.
A piece of plexiglass of suitable size
Copper wire with a cross section of 2.5 mm2 - 3 cm
Rod from ballpoint pen- 1 pc.
Chupa Chups candy stick - 1 pc.
Cable clip - 1 pc.
Hollow brass barrel 1 pc.

2. Impeller manufacturing

3 pieces were soldered to the brass barrel copper wire 1 cm long each at an angle of 120 degrees. In the hole of the barrel I soldered a stand from a Chinese player with a thread at the end.

I cut the candy tube into 3 pieces about 2 cm long.

I cut 2 balls in half and using small screws from the same player and polystyrene glue ( glue gun) attached the halves of the ball to the lollipop tubes.

I placed the tubes with the ball halves on soldered pieces of wire and secured everything on top with glue.

3. Manufacturing of the main part

The supporting element of the anemometer is a metal rod from a ballpoint pen. I inserted a mouse disk (encoder) into the lower part of the rod (where the plug was inserted). In the design of the mouse itself bottom part The encoder rested against the mouse body to form a point bearing; there was lubricant there, so the encoder rotated easily. But it had to be fixed top part rod, for this I selected a suitable piece of plastic with a hole exactly the diameter of the rod (such a piece was cut from the CD-ROMa carriage ejection system). It remained to solve the problem of ensuring that the rod with the encoder did not fall out of the point bearing, so I soldered a few drops of solder on the rod directly in front of the holding element. Thus, the rod rotated freely in the holding structure, but did not fall out of the bearing.

The reason why a circuit with an encoder was chosen is as follows: all the articles about homemade anemometers on the Internet described their manufacture based on a DC motor from a player, CD-ROM, or some other product. The problem with such devices is, firstly, their calibration and low accuracy at low wind speeds, and secondly, the nonlinear characteristic of wind speed in relation to the output voltage, i.e. There are certain problems in transferring information to a computer; you need to calculate the law of changes in voltage or current depending on wind speed. When using an encoder, there is no such problem, since the dependence is linear. The accuracy is the highest, since the encoder gives about 50 pulses per revolution of the anemometer axis, but the converter circuit is somewhat more complicated, which contains a microcontroller that counts the number of pulses per second on one of the ports and outputs this value to the USB port.

4. Testing and calibration

A laboratory anemometer was used for calibration

So you decided to make a wind generator with your own hands. EnergyFuture.RU has written more than once about various designs homemade wind generators and generators for permanent magnets on them, including the famous designs of Hugh Pigot (full archive). It is very important to understand and practically determine the available wind force in your area before starting. This is what this article is actually about. Observe, measure and record in a journal for statistics. like at school!

Wind speed- one of the main characteristics of air flow, because it determines its energy. It is measured in meters per second ( m/sec) and is denoted Latin letter V. The higher the wind speed, the greater the energy contained in the flow.

Various instruments are used to measure wind speed: weather vanes, anemometers and others. The simplest device to measure wind speed - a Wild weather vane (actually an outdated thing, it has one advantage - it’s easy to build with your own hands).

TO rod-1 rigidly attached keel-2, which, when the wind direction changes, sets plate-3 perpendicular to the direction of flow. The plate has the ability to swing relative axis-4. Accordingly, the stronger the wind, the greater the deflection of the plate. Determine wind strength using pointer-5.

For measurement accuracy, the plate should have a size of 150 X 300 mm and a weight of 200 grams for areas with light winds, and 800 grams for areas with winds of more than 6 m/sec.

The indicator divisions have conventional meanings, so to determine the wind speed you should use table.

For those who are not interested in relative accuracy, there is another way to determine wind speed - by external signs.

Table for determining wind speed using a Wild weather vane.

pointer value	wind speed m/sec
pointer value	plate 200g	plate 800g
1	0	0
1-2	1	2
2	2	4
2-3	3	6
3	4	8
3-4	5	10
4	6	12
4-5	7	14
5	8	16
5-6	9	18
6	10	20
6-7	12	24
7	14	28
7-8	17	34
8	20	40

Table for determining wind speed by external signs

wind pattern	wind speed m/sec	signs
very light	0-1	air movement is imperceptible
very light	1-3	air movement is barely noticeable, leaves rustle
easy	4-5	the branches sway slightly, the smoke floats in the air, maintaining the outline of the clouds
moderate	6-7	branches bend, the wind “licks” the smoke from the chimney and mixes it into a homogeneous mass, dust rises
fresh	8-9	the treetops rustle and sway
very fresh	10-11	thin tree trunks bend, the wind howls in the pipes
strong	12-14	leaves are torn off, waves are formed on standing water with overturning crests
cutting	15-16	thin branches break, movement against the wind is difficult
storm	17-19	thick branches break, tearing off roof coverings
strong storm	20-23	thin ropes break

Anemometer - wind speed meter

Finally it came to the anemometer. Having already made three wind generators, I still don’t know exactly what wind and how much my windmills produce. Now there is only one wind generator in operation, my most successful one, although it was assembled entirely “on the knee”. I can roughly imagine the strength of the wind and can distinguish a wind of 5 m/s from 10 m/s, but I still want to know the wind speed more accurately in order to determine the power of the wind generator.

For several days, from time to time, I thought about something to make an anemometer out of, but nothing sensible had yet emerged from the rubbish available at home. I found two small motors from a DVD player, but they are too tiny and it’s hard to come up with blades for a thin shaft.

A car fan caught my eye, the kind they usually install in trucks. So I tortured him. I disassembled and took out the motor. The blades of the propeller were broken and only the base remained – the central part that fits onto the shaft. Then I thought about what kind of blades to attach to it, I also tried the bottoms plastic bottles and tin cans, but I didn’t like all this.

Then I found a piece PVC pipes with a diameter of 5 cm and a length of 50 cm. I made 4 blades from it, I simply cut the pipe lengthwise into two halves, and the halves, each into two parts, to make 4 blades. In the base, which remained from the original propeller, I drilled 4 holes for attaching the blades, and also made 4 holes in the blades. I screwed the whole thing together and got a four-bladed propeller - a savonius (the first “serious” vertical).

Well, then I found the wires of the required length, spliced together 5 meters of antenna cable and 8 meters of regular cable. I immediately connected the wires in order to measure the parameters taking into account the length of the wire, since the data may differ if measurements are taken on a meter wire, or on 13 m.

Then I found a piece of metal tube about 80-90 cm long, bent it into a Z shape and attached a motor. The anemometer will be attached to the mast with this tube. There is nothing complicated here, you can use any available material.

Well, then, once I had completely assembled the anemometer, I installed it on my motorcycle to calibrate it. In the photo below you can see how it was done, everything is primitive and simple. On the mirror of the primates there was a multimeter with electrical tape, in general, I somehow secured everything to free my hands to control the motorcycle.

This autumn day is very successful due to the almost complete absence of wind, which, by the way, served quick assembly anemometer, don’t let such a day go to waste. I didn’t want to go on the asphalt, since with an incomprehensible contraption on the front of the motorcycle I would attract attention, so I decided to ride through the fields along the forest plantations.

Rode here and there and in different directions and recorded multimeter readings on the phone at different speeds. The anemometer started at a speed of 7 km/h, and I gradually skated back and forth at different speeds, starting from 10 km/h and a maximum of 40 km/h, it was possible to do more, but the dirt roads are very uneven and you won’t accelerate very much.

After the rides, the following data emerged. The multimeter showed at 10km/s =0.06V, at 20km/h=0.12V, at 30=0.20V, at 40km/h=0.30V.

Then, using a calculator, I calculated the readings for intermediate wind speed values.

Volts - wind speed m/s.

I calculated data above 11 m/s by drawing on a piece of paper a graph of voltage growth depending on wind speed, which smoothly continued to 15 m/s. That same day, or rather in the evening, I installed an anemometer on the mast of the wind generator. I lowered the windmill and attached the anemometer below. I temporarily pulled the pipe onto a wire and wrapped it with additional electrical tape, it seemed to be strong. Well, then I put the whole thing back into place and now next to the wind generator on the mast there is now an anemometer, which starts at 3 m/s and regularly shows the wind speed.

Below in the photo is an already raised wind generator with an attached anemometer. I didn’t take photographs in more detail, since there’s nothing complicated there and there’s nothing to repeat. An anemometer can be assembled from anything, from almost any motor. Of course, it’s more convenient to calibrate by car. It’s more comfortable, more convenient, and the speedometer is more accurate. But I decided on a motorcycle, and it also seemed to work out well, I hope if the speedometer is lying, it’s not by much.

That's all for now, this is the first version of this anemometer, and I think not the last. In the meantime, I’ll wait for the wind and find out what my wind generator produces. Well, I’ll supplement this article with this data. Or maybe something will have to be redone.

Addition

The anemometer screw, which is not loaded with anything, reacts sharply to every gust and change in wind speed. But the loaded propeller of this wind generator still lags in reactions, and because of this, the data in the readings is not synchronous. Today the wind is 3-7 m/s, the anemometer actually caught a couple of gusts up to 10 m/s, but they lasted less than a second and the wind generator simply did not have time to react to them.

After some time of observation, some average current values from the wind generator were drawn at a certain wind. The propeller starts at 3.5-4 m/s, charging 0.5A at 4m/s, 1A at 5m/s, 2.5A at 6m/s, 4A at 7m/s, 5A at 8m/s. These data are averaged, since the ammeter is an analog ammeter, and I can make an error of up to 0.5A in the current readings from the wind generator.

DIY anemometer
Finally I made an anemometer and calibrated it while riding a motorcycle. I took a car fan as a basis and assembled an anemometer from scrap materials.

DIY wind speed meter

1. Components

So, to manufacture the product, the following components were needed:
Mitsumi ball mouse - 1 pc.
Ping-pong ball - 2 pcs.
A piece of plexiglass of suitable size
Copper wire with a cross section of 2.5 mm2 - 3 cm
Ballpoint pen refill - 1 pc.
Chupa Chups candy stick - 1 pc.
Cable clip - 1 pc.
Hollow brass barrel 1 pc.

2. Impeller manufacturing

3 pieces of copper wire, each 1 cm long, were soldered to the brass barrel at an angle of 120 degrees. In the hole of the barrel I soldered a stand from a Chinese player with a thread at the end.

I cut the candy tube into 3 pieces about 2 cm long.

I cut 2 balls in half and, using small screws from the same player and polystyrene glue (with a glue gun), attached the ball halves to the lollipop tubes.

I placed the tubes with the ball halves on soldered pieces of wire and secured everything on top with glue.

3. Manufacturing of the main part

The supporting element of the anemometer is a metal rod from a ballpoint pen. I inserted a mouse disk (encoder) into the lower part of the rod (where the plug was inserted). In the design of the mouse itself, the lower part of the encoder rested against the mouse body to form a point bearing; there was lubricant there, so the encoder rotated easily. But it was necessary to fix the upper part of the rod; for this I selected a suitable piece of plastic with a hole exactly the diameter of the rod (such a piece was cut from the CD-ROMa carriage ejection system). It remained to solve the problem of ensuring that the rod with the encoder did not fall out of the point bearing, so I soldered a few drops of solder on the rod directly in front of the holding element. Thus, the rod rotated freely in the holding structure, but did not fall out of the bearing.

4. Testing and calibration

A laboratory anemometer was used for calibration

Wind speed meter
Anemometer master class with photos do it yourself master class

Measuring wind speed with homemade instruments for homemade wind generators.

Originally published at Professionally about energy. Please leave any comments there.

So you decided to make a wind generator with your own hands. EnergyFuture.RU has written more than once about various designs of homemade wind generators and permanent magnet generators on them, including the famous designs of Hugh Pigot (full archive here). It is very important to understand and practically determine the available wind force in your area before starting. This is what this article is actually about. Observe, measure and record in a journal for statistics. like at school!

Wind speed- one of the main characteristics of air flow, because it determines its energy. It is measured in meters per second ( m/sec) and is denoted by the Latin letter V. The higher the wind speed, the greater the energy contained in the flow.

Various instruments are used to measure wind speed: weather vanes, anemometers and others. The simplest device for measuring wind speed is the Wild weather vane (actually an outdated thing, with one advantage - it’s easy to build with your own hands).

For measurement accuracy, the plate should have a size of 150 X 300 mm and a weight of 200 grams for areas with light winds, and 800 grams for areas with winds of more than 6 m/sec.

The indicator divisions have conventional meanings, so to determine the wind speed you should use table.

For those who are not interested in relative accuracy, there is another way to determine wind speed - by external signs.

Measuring wind speed with homemade instruments for homemade wind generators
Originally published at Professionally about energy. Please leave any comments there. So you decided to make a wind generator with your own hands. EnergyFuture.RU has written more than once about various designs of homemade wind generators and permanent magnet generators on them, including...

How to make an anemometer with your own hands

The rotation unit of the Gotlvlk block now becomes the heart of the anemometer. After removing unnecessary parts (rotating transformer, magnetic head and motor parts), all that remained was metal frame a rotating head with an axis, a stationary part with a bearing block and a motor mounting washer. The unit is quite massive, so the future anemometer will be designed more for measuring wind speeds from medium to strong. In principle, these measurements are necessary.

1. Let's modify the rotation head. Using a metal drill, drill into the side surface

rotating part 3 holes with a diameter of 4 mm for attaching cups. When drilling, we focus on three holes in the head for fastening the internal components.

2. Insert screws into the holes M4 10mm long, for better contact with the cups from the bicycle inner tube, we cut out rubber washers with scissors to prevent rotation of the anemometer cups.

Screw with rubber washer

3. As cups Plastic mugs were used, specially purchased in a store for 7 rubles. Each mug is modified:

A hole with a diameter of 4 mm was drilled on the side surface in the area of the former handle.

Anemometer mugs

Anemometer mug

Hole in cup

4. Screw the cups to the rotation unit using a washer and nut. Screw it on carefully without damaging the glass. Make sure that the protruding parts of the rubber washer do not touch the fixed unit when assembling. We assemble the structure and check the ease of rotation.

The rotation unit is assembled. Now you need to think about installing the rotation sensor and securing the unit. It is optimal to use a reed switch as a sensor, triggered by a magnet attached to a rotating unit. The frequency of the rotational pulses can be converted into an estimate of wind speed using analog or digital circuits. But you can take a simpler route - use a cycling computer.

Let's install a cycling computer sensor in the anemometer

1. Glue a magnet

on the rotating part of the assembly. During fastening, you can at the same time carry out work on balancing the rotation unit. The magnet is used from the bicycle computer kit; it is only taken out of the plastic container with which it is attached to the spokes of the bicycle. Balancing is necessary to eliminate beats when the anemometer rotates and, as a result, the pole swings and the appearance of extraneous sounds in the fastening points.

2. Drill in the fixed part

node, a hole with a diameter of 7 mm and glue the reed switch sensor of the cycling computer in a plastic case. When gluing the sensor, I assembled the assembly, placed a piece of cardboard 1mm thick on the magnet, inserted the sensor, lubricated with glue, into in the right place into the hole until it touches the cardboard and additionally coated with glue. This method of installing the sensor allows you to maintain a minimum gap between the magnet and the sensor and ensure its reliable operation.

3. Check the operation of the node for the absence of touches and for the reliability of the sensor response (we check it with a tester).

Mounting point

Connecting the cable

Setting up a homemade anemometer

To adjust the anemometer readings, ideally use a real anemometer. I have held this miracle in my hands only five times in my life. Therefore I applied standard way, attached the anemometer to a wooden handle. And when driving a car in calm weather, I set up the bike computer to match the readings with the speedometer. In my cycling computer, the setting consisted of selecting the value of the wheel radius in millimeters. Let's remember the value of the found radius (it’s better to write it down), otherwise when changing the battery the computer will forget the settings. The goal was not to obtain super-accurate readings. Everything is set.

Anemometer installation

It is better to install the anemometer on a long pole away from buildings or on the roof of a house. During installation, we think through all the steps, prepare the tools and fastening material. It is useful to install the pole without an anemometer, make mounting holes and holes for cable penetration. We fix the anemometer on the pole and carefully mount the structure. We pass the cable inside the building and connect the cycling computer.

Homemade anemometer with your own hands
Instructions for making a homemade anemometer are shown.