Hi all

I have been working on a smartphone wind meter for over two years. You might by change have seen my initial post here on this forum http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2370597. The idea is to create a internet connected wind meter so kitesurfers (and other sport people) would be able to share wind data.

See more about our idea and how the device works on http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vaavud/a-wireless-wind-meter-containing-no-electronics.


If you think it is an idea worth following please help us by sharing the new to other wind interested people and/or pledge minimum 1 pound on kickstarter to show your support.

Best wind to all
Andreas

Congratulation

I also saw another development for iPhone which has the hight also:
"3D mapping of tricks and accurate height"

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2379610&p=786072&hilit=iPhone#p786072

DrLW

@DrLightWind Thanks. In the video the iPhone is showed most, but it does also work with some android phones i.e. Samsung Galaxy SIII and SII. We haven't tested more android phones at the moment, but we believe that most high end android phones will work.

They other project is totally cool. I almost don't believe the accuracy/ niceness shown in the demo video. I looked into similar ideas when I started working with smartphones - Who doesn't want to know the height of your jump ? Anyway I deemed it impossible at the time, but that were also before they invented these high frequency gyroscopes.

Hi abo

How close must the phone be to the Anemometer?
If I was to use something like this I would have it mounted on a pole with my phone locked in my car so that it could continue to broadcast live wind while I was out riding, this would provide my friends in the city with live information in order to base their decision on without me having to take time off the water to let them know.

Pete

Neat idea using the magnets and phone's compass sensor; seeing it plugged into the headphone jack, I was expecting it to use the mic channel like the Square card reader.

LG/Google Nexus 4 support? It has a compass in it, so it should work right?

I can do some testing for you if you like.

I totally get your point. Unfortunately the range is only up to 15 cm, so it is not possible to stick it on a pole and let it wirelessly transmit the data. You could en theory mount HUGE magnets on your rotor and it would work, but that's properly more theoretical option.

We would love to develop that in another version, but we have decided to focus this rather more simple technical solution, which is very robust and have relative low start up production cost (we don't need any electronics in the device).

I would be very surprised if the Google Nexus 4 does not work. As you say it has a compass in it... What is essential is that the compass has a high enough update frequency. All android phone we have tested so far (HTC Desire HD, Google Nexus S, GALAXY SII and GALAXY SIII) all have a good enough sensor. However we do not want to promise that it will work with a certain device before we have conducted a live "high speed test" up to what is equivalent to 25 m/s or 50 knots. Currently we have only fully tested the GALAXY SII and GALAXY SII.

As we are a small team we haven't had time to test more android phones.

Regarding the testing, we are trying to figure out how to best test a lot of android devices. It would be nice to 'just' send out a device to some lucky android owners, but we want to make sure that the devices is tested well enough at high speeds. (This can be done by using a fast drill that can rotate at around 30 Hz or 3600 RPM).

/Andreas

Andreas,
That looks like a great project. I just backed it, looking forward to trying one out! Good luck. Any idea if a Motorola Droid Razr will work?

Awesome! . I can only give a similar answer to what I posted regarding the Google Nexus 4. I hope and expect that it will work. But until further investigations from our side we can not promise it will work. If the funding looks successful we will try to test more android devices.

You also have the Shaka Wind Meter for iPhone for 70USD
http://shakaon.net/

Features
* Current and average wind speed
* Maximum wind gust
* Ambient temperature
* Wind direction
* History in your phone and in the web
* GPS location of the measurement
* Map view of measurements near you

Coming soon (app update)
* Social sharing of your measurements
* Wind notifications
* Wind profile (graph)
* New exciting wind-related applications