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[GrayRodent]

I recently created a counter for my chinchilla wheel using some inexpensive parts and it works beautifully.
The counter is made using a pedometer from a dollar store that I got for a dollar. If you don't know what that is, a pedometer is a device that counts your steps when you walk. There is a small pendulum inside that closes a contact with the movement of each step and that increments the count which is displayed on a small screen. More expensive pedometers typically have other features but this one is a simple counter.

I removed the pendulum and wired in a magnetically sensitive "reed switch" in its place. A magnet activates the switch each time the wheel rotates so it now counts rotations.

If you know the size of the wheel you can determine it's circumference which is the equivalent distance traveled if the chinchilla is running on a flat surface. If you multiply that by the count you get the total distance ran. In this particular setup the magnet trips the switch twice for each rotation so you must divide the result in half.

Last night I got a count of 11435, which is actually 5718 rotations. My wheel is 14" which makes approximately 43.9824" linear inches per rotation. Altogether he ran about 3.97 miles last night! I am very curious to see how that compares each day.

Eventually I'll have my PC log the data and be able to do a more in-depth analysis but for now I'm very pleased with my simple counter.

[mojito]

Wow that's really neat!! I've wondered before how much my guys run, I practically sleep to them running on the FS! Not that its loud or anything, but I'm so used to it now since it seems like they run all night! Keeping a log would be a great idea to see progress over time.

[GrayRodent]

So far the results of my log are quite varied but lately my sleep schedule has been too so that might be a cause. I'll keep gathering data and post it after a few more days and maybe make some sense out of it.

[GrayRodent]

So far I have been logging the counter for 11 days. The first day was inexplicably high compared to the others. Maybe Kulu got upset when I removed the wheel to work on it.
(Calculated with formula (c/2*d*pi)/n where c=raw count, d=14" wheel diameter, pi = 3.1416, n=63360 number of inches in mile.) Rotations in table were rounded up after calculations were made. If you recall the raw count is twice the number of actual rotations.

Data was collected by logging the count each morning and resetting. I've noticed there are usually around 200-300 rotations between morning and 10:00pm.

Date	Rotations	Miles	Kilometers
8-15	5718	3.97	6.39
8-16	2059	1.43	2.30
8-17	2366	3.28	2.64
8-18	2022	1.40	2.26
8-19	2217	1.54	2.48
8-20	3134	2.17	3.50
8-21	2545	1.76	2.84
8-22	2145	1.49	2.40
8-23	2200	1.52	2.46
8-24	2332	1.61	2.61
8-25	2638	1.83	2.95

Omitting the first data point Kulu runs an average of 1.64 miles a day on his wheel. He still likes to jump from shelf to shelf in his cage so he could easily do more. It is interesting to note that most rodents will over-exercise on a wheel. It does not seem to hold true for this individual since his average weight has actually been higher that previously logged since the wheel was installed.

[mb30]

Wow. This is very interesting and informative. Excellent stuff.