The annual 'my wife says I can have a weather station' thread

ch750536

Normally changes before christmas.

Fingers crossed.

Anyway, budget of €300 all in, what is the best thing to go for?

Ta,

ch750536

For added detail, I can site the station about 100m from the PC in an unsheltered area, I have a .n router which I have in the loft.

Also a very windy location.

Snowbie

VP2 range has the longest range for transmiting data,i'm not sure about the rest(oregon etc on their range) but the price tag on this exceeds 300lids.

Have you try using the search on this forum?
There are a few threads about staions throughout the forum.

SpitfireIV

For that price you'd probably an Oregon Scientic station, there are really only 3 brands of weather stations (from what I seen anyway). La Crosse (cheap, cheerful, but does the job, good for beginners and getting a taste for weather watching), Oregan Scientific (bit more up market, more expensive and a good brand!) and Davis (get the cheque books out and prepare to hand over an arm and a leg , but they're probably the best of the best).


Have a look here, at 'Weathershop':

http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/acatalog/complete_weather_stations.html

I got my La Crosse WS2300 from them back in August, http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/acatalog/info_2_ES_WS2300.html it was £99 if I remember correctly, but it does me fine, and havent had any issues with it. Might move up the ladder a bit and fork out on something more expensive in a year or two. I'm set up in a pretty confined space, so I went with the 'wired' option, which means I get feed back every 8 seconds. If you are to go wireless I think the refresh is over a minute!

My brother got an Oregon Scientific:
http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/acatalog/info_2_OS_WMR928NX.html
from some shop in the US, the installation is grand because all the units are wireless and solar powered, so its pretty convinient, perhaps better suited for more open locations where you have the space to spread the components about.

ch750536

funny you should say that, looked at this one earlier.

Is the one your brother bought good enough?

If I were to buy this, I assume all I would need to add is a pole, sunk into the ground adequately, to attach this to.

Trogdor

CroppyBoy1798 wrote: »

For that price you'd probably an Oregon Scientic station, there are really only 3 brands of weather stations (from what I seen anyway). La Crosse (cheap, cheerful, but does the job, good for beginners and getting a taste for weather watching), Oregan Scientific (bit more up market, more expensive and a good brand!) and Davis (get the cheque books out and prepare to hand over an arm and a leg , but they're probably the best of the best).

And these are the best of the best of the best:p
http://www.weatherhawk.com/store/parts.cfm?parts=4

CroppyBoy1798 wrote: »

Have a look here, at 'Weathershop':

http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/acatalog/complete_weather_stations.html

I got my La Crosse WS2300 from them back in August, http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/acatalog/info_2_ES_WS2300.html it was £99 if I remember correctly, but it does me fine, and havent had any issues with it. Might move up the ladder a bit and fork out on something more expensive in a year or two. I'm set up in a pretty confined space, so I went with the 'wired' option, which means I get feed back every 8 seconds. If you are to go wireless I think the refresh is over a minute!

My brother got an Oregon Scientific:
http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/acatalog/info_2_OS_WMR928NX.html
from some shop in the US, the installation is grand because all the units are wireless and solar powered, so its pretty convinient, perhaps better suited for more open locations where you have the space to spread the components about.

That Oregon seems to be at a good price but it'd work out around €415
This La Crosse WS3600 might be better suited to your budget
http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/acatalog/technoline_WS3600.html
EDIT: Actually, on ebay the vantage pro 2 seems to be going for around €260, in that case if your willing to buy off ebay I'd definitely do for that. A few US sellers seem to ship worldwide

ch750536

trogdor wrote: »

That Oregon seems to be at a good price but it'd work out around €415

It says €262 + delivery. Does this require other components to be bought?

Also, I'm a whizz with the interweb etc, it seems to come with 30 day trial of software, I assume this is the software to put the data on the web, if so, is there a free alternative?

eta
Just found this link:
http://www.weathermania.net/wm918soft.htm

Seems a little out of date but mostly good

ch750536

Oh, they just built one of these, that pic is from my garden. Bit of a monster.

However, does make it an interesting location to have a station.

Trogdor

ch750536 wrote: »

It says €262 + delivery. Does this require other components to be bought?

Also, I'm a whizz with the interweb etc, it seems to come with 30 day trial of software, I assume this is the software to put the data on the web, if so, is there a free alternative?

eta
Just found this link:
http://www.weathermania.net/wm918soft.htm

Seems a little out of date but mostly good

Don't think there's any other components, i was going on the UKweathershop prices. If you can get a vantage pro 2 as cheap as this then I'd go for that instead though
http://cgi.ebay.ie/NEW-DAVIS-WIRELESS-VANTAGE-Pro-2-WEATHER-STATION-6152_W0QQitemZ170169593639QQihZ007QQcategoryZ48624QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem
wrt software there's a list links on the bottom of this page, some of which are free.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_weather_station

ch750536

cheers trogdor, help appreciated.

Couldn't find any VANTAGE Pro 2's for a decent price though (didnt look too hard to be honest)

Anyway, can anyone confirm the following.

1. Buy the Oregon listed above for €262
2. Stick on big pole at end of garden & attach monitors.
3. Setup router to allow data to PC
4. Get software for webspace + webspace.

Then I am all up & running.

Obviously some technical puter stuff, not too bothered about that bit.

Thanks.