Turn your smartphone into a high-tech meteorological tool with the Vaavud wind meter. Avaliable for iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 and HTC One the Vaavud wind meter stands out from competing products because it harnesses the power of smartphones to make accurate, crowd sourced wind reports. The rotor contains magnets, so the digital compass can pick up the rotations and use it for measurements. This has never been done before and has made new features a reality, as well as increased the general usability of wind meters.
Vaavud recently has been honored with a special mention in the category of ‘Marine electronics & Marine related software’ at the prestigious international design competition for new marine equipment and accessories, DAME 2013. The thumbs up from the DAME jury clearly indicates that Vaavud is well underway to fulfill its vision.
Design
The Vaavud design is inspired by professional cup anemometers, but with two cups instead of three, in order to make it truly pocket friendly. The one piece, molded rotor and the low friction Teflon bearing makes the Vaavud wind meter extremely durable. If sand or dirt gets inside the Vaavud wind meter it can easily be cleaned out with water. And The Vaavud wind meter can take quite a beating.
The Vaavud App
The Vaavud app gives you a clear overview of average, actual and maximum wind speed, as well as a real time graph. And you can scroll and pinch-zoom on the graph, if you want to taker a closer look at something. The unit of measure can be changed on the fly by simply tapping the screen. (Available units: m/s, Kmh, mph, Kts and Bft.)
A live map gives you access to measurements made by other Vaavud users globally. Tap on a measurement to see details and a map thumbnail of the location. Tap on the map thumbnail to zoom in and see exactly where the measurement was made or tap on a nearby measurement on the list to see it’s details.
Accuracy
The Vaavud wind meter has a wind range of 2 to 20 m/s. Precision is the least of +/- 4% or 0.2 m/s. The wind meter has been tested and calibrated in a professional wind tunnel at the Technical University of Denmark.
Because of the cup-anemometer design, the precision of the Vaavud wind meter is not affected by changes in wind direction (unlike a propeller based anemometer, which must point precisely up against the wind to measure correctly). And the Vaavud app taps into other sensors in your phone, to ensure that the device is held correctly, so the risk of incorrect measurements can be minimized.
