A few days ago I had the bright idea of using a magnetic angle sensor with an anemometer. I’ve been using a Hall effect sensor, which works fairly well, but I figured if I used an angle sensor I could take readings over a fixed time and use the number of degrees of rotation to calculate wind speed. In theory, I might shave a bit off the power consumption.
I did a quick Google search to see if I could find any references for this. I searched for “build anemometer with angle sensor”. Something in the AI Overview immediately caught my eye. The image on the right comes from my blog post Inside a Cheap Aluminium Anemometer. That anemometer doesn’t use an angle sensor, it uses a cheap toy motor, but at least it is an anemometer.
Then I noticed that some of the first sources the text uses come from my other recent posts. I did use an angle sensor, but only for the wind vane, not the anemometer. The text reflected that.
I did the search again, and got a similar response. This time the image wasn’t used, but the first two sources on the right were from my blog posts.
I understand Google tailors results to a user’s history, but I wasn’t aware the AI overview did, and perhaps it doesn’t. It may have been coincidence. It was both flattering and mildly alarming to see it quoting my blog. I barely qualify as an enthusiastic amateur, let alone a reference source. Maybe by combining it with other sources it makes up for that.
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