This Arduino ‘weather station’ acts as an example of the functionality of the Arduino microcontroller (which is used in the TC-1). It was presented at the recent Ru workshop as an “Arduemo” (!?) and is a nice little project for those with little or no experience in wiring or coding the Arduino. Here is a picture showing the layout of the circuit:

The temperature/humidity and pressure sensors are Arduino-compatible modules from freetronics, while the anemometer is ‘home-made’ from two ball bearings in a brass casing with a steel shaft and windcups (see specifications). The anemometer sensor is a magnetic reed switch from a bike computer, so the Arduino simply watches for when the switch is opened and closed. A closer look at the individual components and wiring of the circuit can be found here.

This project is very flexible and could be modified to include many more sensors. My version of the Arduino sketch and a Python script to display the data on a computer are just one example of how the data can be read and processed.

Hundreds more Arduino examples and a huge number of helpful Arduino tips can be found at the Arduino playground: http://playground.arduino.cc/