Stress-testing the new Vortex anemometer
with carbide bearing design

Uppsala 2009-11-09 Robert Olsson < robert@herjulf.net >

The bearing problem with vortex anemometers seems finally to get solved although some long running test in aggressive environments should be performed. This stress-test that has unveiled problems with earlier bearing designs.

The Vortex anemometer was mounted on the car roof for a long to north Sweden in total approximately 1000 km. Rain & snow temperatures around 0-10 C. Speed around 80-120 km/hour

Car mounting

This Vortex is a rebuilt with low-power Hall element and connected to low-power logger. About 400 km were logged. The reported speed is lower then the actual speed. This probably due to the mounting of the anemometer.


Inspection of bearing after 1000km car ride


No wear. The new design seems promising...