It's cool to know how far your hamster has run in his/her wheel!! There are a few of ways to do this!
Bike Computer (Difficulty: 2/10)
This is by far the easiest way to track how far/fast your hamster is running! You need to find a bike computer that allows wheel sizes to be customized down to the diameter/circumference of the wheel you have! I have found these before on ebay but can't find one now!! You can always set the lowest diameter allowed and then calculate the distances/speed yourself if the speedo you have doesn't go small enough!
You can then attach a magnet to the wheel and sensor to the cage!
This really is the easiest way of doing it!
Pedometer (Difficulty: 5/10)
This requires some slight modification of a pedometer which are a couple of quid at most and sometimes free with cereals etc! Basically a magnet is stuck to the wheel and the pedometer is modified so it counts either clockwise or anti-clockwise turns of the wheel (a simple piece of wire). When the wheel turns the magnet causes the pedometer to register a click!
Full instructions can be found here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Hamster-to-Mongolia/
Reed Switch/Computer (Difficulty 8/10)
This is the way I track Horatio. The actual build of the reed switch is pretty easy - you need to solder two wires to a serial post connector though, technically this is as hard as it gets. The hard bit is once the switch is set up and attached to a computer! You need to install some software to run a program found on the instruction pages below, you really need to have a good knowledge of computers!
I would be happy to help anyone embarking on this project!
Full instructions can be found here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Trac..._Hamster_Runs/
I've provided some of the detail on how I did it here, including some part details for Maplin:
http://hamsterhike.co.uk/blog/?page_id=63
http://www.hamsterhike.co.uk
Tracking How Far Your Hamster Runs!
Linear Mode
