Although wind vanes are easy to find and relatively inexpensive, I once again decided to make my own rather than just purchase one. I thought this would be a relatively easy step, but it actually proved to be somewhat tricky.
My primary concern was that the potentiometer requires a non-negligible amount of torque to spin; therefore, my wind vane would need to be larger to allow even small breezes to turn the shaft. I decided to use a scrap sheet of stainless steel to cut out a standard wing shape, but I found that the end result was very unbalanced and wouldn't rotate smoothly. To compensate for this, I cut a chunk of 1" steel rod and soldered it to the front edge of the vane. This moved the center of mass forward far enough that it wouldn't be biased even if the platform isn't completely level.
I attached the vane to a piece of 1/8" rod and glued it inside of a small plastic tube that fit around the potentiometer shaft perfectly. I housed the entire assembly inside of an old Tupperware container and added a bearing to the top to allow smoother motion.
The vane works and reacts to relatively low (~5 MPH) breezes, but it isn't very visibly appealing (see it in the pictures of the finished station in a later post). I will likely replace it with a vane from Davis (~$15) in the future.
One of these will make the station look a little more professional
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