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Outdoor unit : Wind Vane
[1] Wind vane detail
[2] Wind vane inside
The construction of the Wind-Vane (and anemometer) utilises an empty DIY sealant-type gun cartridge. These cartridges turn out to be ideal, and fairly simple to use, and I think it's quite a novel solution!
I've used a Ballpoint pen tube as the shaft of the wind-vane. Seating the ball in a Posidrive screw-head provides a low friction bearing. The reed-switches are mounted on a circular piece of Strip-board, carefully sawn to size with the centre drilled out so that it seats on a piece of plastic tubing.
The wires from the reeds enter the plastic tube through a small hole and the tube provides a watertight connection to the Outdoor Unit.
The magnets are mounted on a thin strip of plastic attached to the shaft. The position of the magnets is quite critical as two reeds need to be switched on when the Vane is pointing to an intermediate position.
I found the easiest way of making sure the magnets performed as required was to build a temporary circuit with a few LEDs and watching their behaviour when the Vane was rotated. It might be possible to use just one magnet, but I found that snapping the bar magnet in half and having two side-by-side magnets produced the desired result.
I've used a Ballpoint pen tube as the shaft of the wind-vane. Seating the ball in a Posidrive screw-head provides a low friction bearing. The reed-switches are mounted on a circular piece of Strip-board, carefully sawn to size with the centre drilled out so that it seats on a piece of plastic tubing.
The wires from the reeds enter the plastic tube through a small hole and the tube provides a watertight connection to the Outdoor Unit.
The magnets are mounted on a thin strip of plastic attached to the shaft. The position of the magnets is quite critical as two reeds need to be switched on when the Vane is pointing to an intermediate position.
I found the easiest way of making sure the magnets performed as required was to build a temporary circuit with a few LEDs and watching their behaviour when the Vane was rotated. It might be possible to use just one magnet, but I found that snapping the bar magnet in half and having two side-by-side magnets produced the desired result.
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