I want to build a no moving part wind meter for my Arduino. I was wondering if this idea would work:
Have 2 one wire temp sensors, one mounted inside a sealed box and the other out in the open. Then have the Arduino measure the difference in temp to calculate the wind speed. Ideas?
JC
About the dumbest idea I have ever heard. You can be sure that, it was a good idea, everybody would be doing it and the regular anemometers would all be scrapped. Why don't you try an ultrasonic gas flow meter? I suspect it's not much smarter, but you might get a result.
No, both sensor should show the same temperature because the air in the wind does not a have another temperature than the still air. I guess you got to that impression because the human body feels colder if in the wind. But there you have two factors: heat of evaporation (if the human sweats) and lost of insulation (the surrounding air get heated by the body, if constantly moved away by wind the body has a constant loss of energy). Both factors are not given in your setup.
Nick_Pyner:
About the dumbest idea I have ever heard. You can be sure that, it was a good idea, everybody would be doing it and the regular anemometers would all be scrapped. Why don't you try an ultrasonic gas flow meter? I suspect it's not much smarter, but you might get a result.
I don't believe there are dumb questions, only dumb answers like yours...
This device does nearly what you're describing.
Have a look at this project - http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,53569.0.html - not thermal but it work
it still gives me the "me too" creeps 
I was wondering if this idea would work:
The power of imagination:)
This is how many great ideas start, by breaking with the common knowledge that something will not work.
The more I learn in my life the more often I hear myself think "that will not work",
and I learned myself to ask the question: "what would this idea need to succeed?"
Often many "dumb ideas" are needed to ignite the bulb of innovation
@chagrin
Nice sensor - measure the disturbance in the field you emit yourself !
What about one of those flex resistor sensors?
robtillaart:
@chagrin
Nice sensor - measure the disturbance in the field you emit yourself !
Your car operates on the same principle: Mass flow sensor - Wikipedia. I learned that the hard way with a $350 repair bill
Joecatch - Your idea is a commonly used air flow design approach. Here's a link to some ideas:
jb
robtillaart:
Have a look at this project - http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,53569.0.html
Ooooohh no.....
The idea had flashed across my mind, but I'm a yachtie and such things do when you are at the top of a 14m mast, and I didn't think anybody had seriously tried it.