Topic: Heathkit-ID-1290

[Barry Curtis]

I would like to know if the wind vane and anemometer that came with the ID-1290 would work with the weather computer ID-4001.   Thanks. 

[WA7FWF]

Quick answer is no, the 1290 used reed switches and magnets for direction and speed, the 4001 and 5001 use IR leds, photo-transistors and optical discs. The 4001 and 5001 are interchangeable with just a little rewiring.

Kevin

[Kev]

Barry,

If you're handy you could build a wind boom for your ID-4001.  The main part would be constructing a housing, shafts, optical disks, and a vane. Heath now makes a replacement cup set for the anemometer.  All the interior components are readily available and could be mounted on a perf board.  As Kev says, all the boom uses are IR LEDs and photo-transistors wired in series, there's no circuitry in the wind sensors. I have the Heath schematics if you're interested and the encoder disk pattern could be scanned and sized to scale.