Uncompleted Homemade Anemometer

This is one of my summer projects that never fully reached completion. I intended to build a weather station myself, starting with an anemometer (to measure wind speed) and a thermometer. I obtained a temperature chip, which I intended to mount to a heat sink for an accrate reading. It utilizes serial communication. That portion of the station was never even started. However, I did build a decent setup for the anemometer.

The anemometer is composed of an old bike wheel with no tire, four stainless steel bowls from the dollar store (two for a dollar), and some pieces of aluminum bar. Combined with bolts and screws, I mounted the contraption to my fence outside. Unfortunately, it is mostly shielded from the wind there, and I have no other place to mount it.

In its current state, it cannot measure wind speed. The uncompleted portion is the bike computer, which normally measures the speed of your bike by using a magnet and a reed switch. I have such a device, but never implemented it due to time constraints (as the summer is nearing to a close). I intended to mount the magnet and sensor underneath the bike wheel, and send the pulses to a parallel port and C program on my computer. The computer could then use the radius at which the magnet was mounted to calculate wind speed.

It was a good concept in my opinion, but it was never completed. Perhaps I will have the time to finish it some day, and see if my idea works.