Wind and Rain Sensors for Weather Station (Wind Vane / Anemometer / Rain Gauge)

Want to build your own weather station? This sensor kit has a cup anemometer and wind vane to measure wind speed and direction and a tipping bucket style rain gauge, together with associated mounting hardware.

The sensors in this kit are active mechanical sensors that work by physically interacting with the wind and rain. They use magnets, reed switches and moving parts to produce simple signals that a microcontroller or single board computer can use to calculate wind speed, wind direction and rainfall.

The sensor cables are terminated in RJ11 connectors (each sensor only uses two wires though, so if you wanted you could snip off the ends and connect the wires to a different kind of connector). Armatures to mount the sensors are included, as well as a short metal mast that can be lashed to the top of a suitable pole with the included jubilee connectors.

Please note that this kit contains the mechanical wind and rain sensors only, and doesn't include any electronic components. You'll likely want to hook these sensors up to something like a Weather HAT (for Raspberry Pi), a weather:bit (for micro:bit) or a Weather Shield (for Arduino).

Resources

Getting Started with Weather HAT

This comprehensive guide from RPi contains loads of detail on how to DIY your own weather station (it also contains lots of info about how these sensors work and how you can write code for them).

If you need pictures of how everything goes together, check out SparkFun's excellent hookup guide!

Datasheet

Kit Includes

  • Wind vane
  • Anemometer
  • Rain gauge
  • Short metal mast (made of two metal poles that slot together)
  • Two plastic arms for mounting the sensors
  • Mounting hardware: jubilee clips, nuts, bolts and cable ties

25 customer reviews

3 years ago
What can you say - they work fine and are easy to snap to length. Apart from their usual use, I use them to connect to terminal strips so that I can attach standard female 0.04" breadboard leads quickly and easily without using a screwdriver during the testing phase - see them on the right of the attached image.
by John about Break Away Headers via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Easy to cut to required length with stanley knife or similar. Used with displays and RTC.
by Anonymous about Break Away Headers via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Very quick delivery from Pimoroni, as usual - thanks. Use lots of these soldered onto perma-proto boards.
by Matthew about Break Away Headers via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
An essential item. More in a pack, for lower price, is the only suggestion.
by Richard about Break Away Headers via REVIEWS.io

2 user photos