PERSONAL WEATHER STATIONS: Queries and Advice

Philburns

KAGY wrote: »

And not quite weather related, but as i hope to expand into enrrgy monitoring to:

Would like to hear how that goes, I am doing some energy monitoring myself, taking daily records of the electricity usage of my air source heat pump, but nothing automated.

My weather station is here BTW phiznlil.ddns.net/weewx

joujoujou

Villain wrote: »

[...] its the EU model, good bit cheaper than UK model.

[...]

Nice one!

How much, if you don't mind me asking?

Villain

joujoujou wrote: »

Nice one!

How much, if you don't mind me asking?

€1200 with the data logger from http://www.forster-grosshandel.de/6163eu-davis-vantage-pro2-plus-fars-wetterstation-6163-eu-p-276.html?osCsid=f21kv9n0ei11l6ltqa82b7iek4

joujoujou

Ouch! That's quite a pile of monies.

I have to start saving.

anoble66

Hi,

Sorry just noticed your post. Yes, seems to be working well although no lightning in my area yet to know if the detector is really working. Barometer seems to track quite accurately, wind and rain measurement looks to be quite accurate. Only thing that I can't seem to get working is the radio signal clock sync but that could just be where it's located that it can't get signal.

Cul a cnoic wrote: »

Hi anoble66, are you happy with the VENTUS-W266 so far? Thanks.

Jambo

Hi All,

We have recently updated some of our risk assessments and procedures in our workplace and a result we have a need for a weather station to continually monitor (and preferably log) Windspeed and Direction , Temp and Humidity.

Can anyone offer some help and advice on what station and setup we should choose ? I have done some looking at the Davis Vantage Vue Pro 2 Wirless Range - but I am at a loss as to what setup is best and what we will need to achieve what we want?

Preference would be a Wireless , Ability to Log (Either Self Contained or to a Windows Office Server) I would like to think we don't need the console if the system will allow myself and other employees can monitor the data on our computers or via our mobile.

Sunlight is somewhat limited to out site in the winter months so we may need a reasonable battery on the station.

Is the console required if we purchase an Envoy System ?
Can the Vue Pro 2 systems be purchsed with a Envoy and not with a console ?
Do we need to purchase the separate software to view the data on our machines and mobiles ?

Finally can anyone recommend suitable UK or Irish Retailers ?

KAGY

Jambo wrote: »

Hi All,

We have recently updated some of our risk assessments and procedures in our workplace and a result we have a need for a weather station to continually monitor (and preferably log) Windspeed and Direction , Temp and Humidity.

Can anyone offer some help and advice on what station and setup we should choose ? I have done some looking at the Davis Vantage Vue Pro 2 Wirless Range - but I am at a loss as to what setup is best and what we will need to achieve what we want?

Preference would be a Wireless , Ability to Log (Either Self Contained or to a Windows Office Server) I would like to think we don't need the console if the system will allow myself and other employees can monitor the data on our computers or via our mobile.

Sunlight is somewhat limited to out site in the winter months so we may need a reasonable battery on the station.

Is the console required if we purchase an Envoy System ?
Can the Vue Pro 2 systems be purchsed with a Envoy and not with a console ?
Do we need to purchase the separate software to view the data on our machines and mobiles ?

Finally can anyone recommend suitable UK or Irish Retailers ?

I think most will do what you want. I've a Aercus ws2083 bought on amazon and that is wireless and has wind, temp, humidity and rain sensors. The console is plugged into a raspberry pi running weewx which stores the data in a mysql data base, creates reports and charts then FTPs these to a website weather.whitehillenv.com.

Villain

Jambo wrote: »

Is the console required if we purchase an Envoy System ?

Nope

Jambo wrote: »

Can the Vue Pro 2 systems be purchsed with a Envoy and not with a console ?

Yep

Jambo wrote: »

Do we need to purchase the separate software to view the data on our machines and mobiles ?

Yes you need to purchase a data logger which will come with Davis Weatherlink software

Jambo wrote: »

Finally can anyone recommend suitable UK or Irish Retailers ?

You can buy from http://www.weathershop.co.uk/ but they are rather more expensive than http://www.forster-grosshandel.de/6152eu-davis-vantage-pro-2-6152-eu-funkwetterstation-wireless-p-112.html?osCsid=f21kv9n0ei11l6ltqa82b7iek4 where I recently purchased my new station from.

That link above is for the station with the console and you can purchase it without the conole and get an envoy but the price isn't much different.

If you want some further advice pm and I can give you my phone number.

Jambo

@KAGY, @VILLAN - Thanks for the advice , Although the option of using the pi would be my my preference as I like a bit of tinkering we decided to go with the Davis Pro Vantage 2 Option as it is more or less a straight out of the box solution with readily available support which was a requirement considering it is to be used for a commercial application.

@Villan - thanks for suggesting that German Site - we went with them , they are a hell of a lot cheaper that the alternatives without even considering the vat rebate.

Just have to get a nice 10m lamppost concreted in now and ready for our delivery later this week !

Villain

Good stuff, just an FYI the standard height for measuring temps is 1.5 meters, also you can mount the wind anemometer and wind vane separately using http://www.forster-grosshandel.de/6332ov-davis-anemometer-transmitter-kit-6332-p-299.html?osCsid=f21kv9n0ei11l6ltqa82b7iek4

That allowed me to mount main unit at 1.5 meters for accurate temps and easy access to maintain but put wind unit off Chimney pole.

garroff

I have a Vantage Pro weather station and console. I am not happy with the software that enable me to view my station on the internet.
What software is available to enable me to view my weather station on the internet?
Thank you

anoble66

check out http://www.weather-display.com/wdlive.php

joujoujou

Cumulus.

http://sandaysoft.com/products/cumulus

ronn

I'm in the middle of renovating my house and I'd like to put in a weather station, just some thing that can read wind speed and temperature, nothing too fancy and simple to install, wireless preferably,
I've scaffolding around my house so I'm thinking it be a good idea,
Can anyone suggest a good weather station,
Thanks

garroff

I have a Vantage Pro 2 but my on-line display is stuck for the last few months. Monitor is fine. I tried disconnecting the monitor (batteries and power supply) and reconnecting.
No joy.
Anyone any idea how I can get my internet view to show what is on the monitor.?

Lumi

ronn wrote: »

I'm in the middle of renovating my house and I'd like to put in a weather station, just some thing that can read wind speed and temperature, nothing too fancy and simple to install, wireless preferably,
I've scaffolding around my house so I'm thinking it be a good idea,
Can anyone suggest a good weather station,
Thanks

What's your budget ronn? Maplin have a range of cheapish starter stations.

If you search this thread you should find plenty of advice

Lumi

garroff wrote: »

I have a Vantage Pro 2 but my on-line display is stuck for the last few months. Monitor is fine. I tried disconnecting the monitor (batteries and power supply) and reconnecting.
No joy.
Anyone any idea how I can get my internet view to show what is on the monitor.?

What software are you using garroff?

Keplar240B

Stupid Question?
I don't have a weather station, but I recently accrued a gadget with a range of sensors including humidity and pressure. The gadget is for indoor use
Is the pressure and humidity indoors the same as outdoors with windows opened and closed?

Interesting watching the pressure values fall over today

KAGY

Keplar240B wrote: »

Stupid Question?
...Is the pressure and humidity indoors the same as outdoors with windows opened and closed? ...

The pressure in the house will be more or less the same as outside, unless there's a very strong wind blowing against the house with windows opened.

The humidity inside is much more stable than outside, and is normally around 50%. My sensor is in the kitchen and you can see the spikes when we cook. Outside the temperature (and hence the amount of vapour the air can hold) changes much more rapidly, you can see this at night in the graphs below. Here's my daily, weekly and monthly comparison
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Keplar240B

KAGY wrote: »

The pressure in the house will be more or less the same as outside, unless there's a very strong wind blowing against the house with windows opened.

The humidity inside is much more stable than outside, and is normally around 50%. My sensor is in the kitchen and you can see the spikes when we cook. Outside the temperature (and hence the amount of vapour the air can hold) changes much more rapidly, you can see this at night in the graphs below. Here's my daily, weekly and monthly comparison

Thanks for that!
I see your graphs are Dated September.
If your windows where open in summer would you get a more accurate reading of the outside humidity?

KAGY

I've an outdoor sensor too so the wildly varying dark green line is the actual outdoor humidity.

BTW, the darker background is night time

AreWeAlone

Can anyone read this article double-u X 3.rmets.org/weather-and-climate/observing/make-rain-gauge..., surely the diameter of the 2 litre bottle will be too large and collect too much rain? Doesn't the guage have to be a standard width in order to get an accurate measurement?

Sorry had to edit the url as a new user.

Thanks.

KAGY

AreWeAlone wrote: »

Can anyone read this article double-u X 3.rmets.org/weather-and-climate/observing/make-rain-gauge..., surely the diameter of the 2 litre bottle will be too large and collect too much rain? Doesn't the guage have to be a standard width in order to get an accurate measurement?

Sorry had to edit the url as a new user.

Thanks.

Without reading the article: it shouldn't matter about the diameter if you are using a cylinder. A wider vessel will have more water in it but it'll still just reach the same height.
However if you have a big opening and a narrow tube e.g a funnel then the height will be different.
It's all to do with a definition of volume v=height × area

Keplar240B

KAGY wrote: »

I've an outdoor sensor too so the wildly varying dark green line is the actual outdoor humidity.

BTW, the darker background is night time

I understand ...
What I meant to say was

IF you leave a window open, Does the indoor humidity sensor readings look the same as outdoor sensor readings?

KAGY

Keplar240B wrote: »

I understand ...
What I meant to say was

IF you leave a window open, Does the indoor humidity sensor readings look the same as outdoor sensor readings?

I suppose it might if the temperature of the house tracked the outside but it would happen slowly. In reality I can't see the humidity inside changing fast enough to match that outside, there will generally be to many effects like soft furnishing absorbing and releasing moisture, the temperature inside is affected by the thermal mass of the house and solar gains.

Jambo

Hi All,

I have been having a few frustrating comms issues with my Vantage Pro 2 (Wireless) Data logger recently, either with a loss of comms between the sensor suite and the data logger or between the data logger and weatherlink.com hance I have had to power off/on a few to many times resulting in some data loss.
- one example of this is weatherlink software is telling me that I have had 37.0mm of rain this storm period - whereas the data logger says its 29.4mm !! simply down to two reboots today)

It is probably staring me in the face (or manual) but can anyone tell me is there an easy way I can write / save my data to the dataloggers memory before rebooting ?

Also is there any way of rebooting the unit without powering off ? or to upload recorded data to weatherlink.com that was recoreded on the logger but which was not uploaded due to a weatherlink ip issue.

adamshare01

It looks as if I'm a bit too late on this, but hopefully I can still be helpful.

I've owned an older LaCrosse model (the WS-2315) and it worked fairly well. It was a bit tricky to position the thermometer/hygrometer combo in a shady spot (it would quickly become inaccurate if left in sun for even a few minutes), and the impeller-based anemometer frequently under-measured wind speed. That station ran me around $110 a few years ago. Despite my misgivings with the impeller, I would get another LaCrosse station (just one with a more traditional anemometer). They are well-supported and pretty economical, and accurately report the main weather factors (if, again, positioned well).

If money is no object, the Davis VantagePro series is far-and-away the best. It is fairly easy to position (it is able to resist skewed temperature readings due to direct sunlight) and it has pretty decent bundled software. It, unfortunately, is around $500. It is a great piece of hardware, though, and I find myself coveting one for the day I leave apartment complex life again.

From quora

Danno

Anyone using the W920 Ventus? Any good?

corsav6

Weather station coming into Lidl Thursday, wondering should I take the plunge and get it.
Any advice from some experienced boards users?
Seen it on the app so can't link, sorry.

KAGY

Link for those interested
http://www.lidl.ie/en/Offers.htm?action=showDetail&id=33630

Doesn't mention any PC connection, you should look into that a bit more - all of the interesting stuff is about having past data