Home Made wind direction indicator

I came across this page, on how to build your own wind direction indicator

https://sites.google.com/site/weathermake2000/

A much better idea here

http://archive.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_102593/article.html

Another one

http://fascinatingelectronics.com/weatherinst.html

or Using infrared interrupters

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9299




Has anyone made a reliable unit and used it themselves on a boat ?

 

Ive got one of these sensors. Dont know how it works, but it does work !

Might be worth studing

http://www.airmartechnology.com/2009/products/marine-product.asp?prodid=150

 

Looks good - but at $1000, it is a lot more sophisiticated than most boats need perhaps ?

 

Whole weather station for $80, what could possibly go wrong ???


http://www.crazysales.com.au/wireless-personal-home-weather-station.html

 

What is interesting is that there are no moving parts

 

A major bonus - some of the kits have magnetic bearings, but moving stuff is a recipe for wear and tear

 

My father in law had some of these home made devices and they worked for years, but they weren't especially accurate. Wind direction in 22.5 degree increments? This is fine if you're just picking up weather patterns, but a sailor will likely want a more precise indication of shifts. The same was true of his wind speed device. He was a pilot, so general information was all he plotted.

For less than $200 bucks you can get a Davis Instruments package that does a lot more which a much higher accuracy level. Finding a 12 VDC version, will be a challenge, but they're available.

 

I bought it because a seagull smashed off my traditional masthead transducer

 

$200 ??? That only gets you some cables and accessories

http://www.davisinstruments.com.au/#!products/ceon

 

Once you have a transducer you then need to repackage the data into something usefull like NMEA. Wind sensors typical supply autopilots.

 

yes - a real consideration. Swinging, bending gear gets knocked around a lot by birds, other boats masts etc

 

My favourite: Cigarette lighter (light wind), tell tales (always), torch lamp (night sailing)
Together with the magnetic compass I get along.
If we permanently stare on instruments we may as well stay in front of our computers

 

Like the Irish mans weather station, a bit of string nailed to the mast

when its horizontal, its windy
when its wet, its rainy,
when there's a shadow - its sunny

 

The Irish have much seafaring experience and so cannot be too wrong.

To make a constructive contribution:
This 'Irish' device indicates to me, that one does not need an instrument to show the obvious.
Some autopilots may use this information, though.
To some extent I do use the wind speed indicator for making reefing decisions. But then again: a pot in the pantry can do the same job...
It is a different matter here when racing; I have a feed back on boat performance when I can compare wind speed with boat speed.

 

Yes indeed, a lot can be done without instruments.

I must admit in my case, i am curious to see if i can create a visual indicator for a scale model boat, so that i can record the wind direction on a video camera.

a simple vane can be a bit vague on a two dimensional video screen.

maybe i can link a multicoloured disk to a vane, to provide a visual cue