PERSONAL WEATHER STATIONS: Queries and Advice

KAGY

Double post deleted

KAGY

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/auriol-3-piece-premium-weather-station-set-39-99-lidl-1724000
If its the same one as in this review of steer clear

Villain

Be far better off with http://www.maplin.ie/p/wireless-weather-station-n25fr as a starter station.

corsav6

KAGY wrote: »

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/auriol-3-piece-premium-weather-station-set-39-99-lidl-1724000
If its the same one as in this review of steer clear

It's the same one, cheers for the link, you saved me wasting money

Villain wrote: »

Be far better off with http://www.maplin.ie/p/wireless-weather-station-n25fr as a starter station.

That looks spot on for what I need.
I'm living in a fairly windy location so it will be interesting to get some readings, also handy for including data with my posts in the storm threads.
Cheers for the link, I appreciate it.:)

KAGY

When you do get up and running consider submitting your data to a wunderground or wow.metoffice.gov.UK
It's handy to have your data online plus the visualisations / graphs can also be better than the software that comes with the station

joujoujou

Even better:

http://www.maplin.ie/p/black-usb-wireless-touchscreen-weather-centre-n96gy

Irish Steve

caveat, the cheaper of the 2 Maplin stations has no USB link, so no history download, or computer storage capability,

SeaFields

joujoujou wrote: »

Even better:

http://www.maplin.ie/p/black-usb-wireless-touchscreen-weather-centre-n96gy

Maybe I got a dud, but my one of the above lasted less than 12 months before the touchscreen unit packed up. Wouldn't get a maplin one again.

KAGY

This is the one I got for Xmas last year http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weather-Wireless-Professional-Internet-Beginners/dp/B00APRBEPS

I have it hooked up to a raspberry pi mini PC board so I can't say much about the included software. The sensors Seem to be fine after nearly a year but I was changing the batteries (1st time) yesterday and there was a bit of rust on the pole, nuts etc.
Looking at the pic from Maplin it's the same sensor kit

joujoujou

SeaFields wrote: »

Maybe I got a dud, but my one of the above lasted less than 12 months before the touchscreen unit packed up. Wouldn't get a maplin one again.

Maplin gave them only their logo. They're FineOffset clones. And yes, you probably had just a bad luck. My station is up since May 2010, apart from very frequent rusty connectors problems (related to typical Irish wet weather) - no other issues.

KAGY wrote: »

This is the one I got for Xmas last year http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weather-Wireless-Professional-Internet-Beginners/dp/B00APRBEPS

[...]
Looking at the pic from Maplin it's the same sensor kit

Yep, they're both from the same manufacturer.

horsefarm

The wireless Maplin one, I was thinking of getting this for Chrimbo. I'm not very IT savvy so is it fairly straightforward? I live in a fairly exposed spot so i'm curious to get wind readings etc
thanks

Lumi

horsefarm wrote: »

The wireless Maplin one, I was thinking of getting this for Chrimbo. I'm not very IT savvy so is it fairly straightforward? I live in a fairly exposed spot so i'm curious to get wind readings etc
thanks

The wireless N96GY is a great little starter station- there's nothing really to match it in that price bracket and it's very easy to set up.
The picture on the Maplin site is a little misleading - you will be mounting the anemometer separate to the rain gauge etc
I also recommend that you download and use the free Cumulus software rather than the supplied Easyweather software. It's very straightforward and the instructions are easy to follow. Anyway, if you need any help/advice with the setup or run into any trouble just ask

Irish Steve

The IT side of it is not difficult,and there is an alternative software package from Sandaysoft (Cumulus) that is more flexible and capable than the standard package that comes with the Maplin units, and it's well supported with it's own forum.

The Fine Offset units have their moments, most users end up replacing the bearings on the wind direction and speed indicators at some state, (very cheap and easy to get locally) and the rain gauge has to be very carefully positioned to prevent shakes, which can badly distort the rain totals.

I got mine some while ago, so I don't know if the newest versions have changed, the older ones needed some screening around the rain gauge as well to prevent wind getting into the unit and tipping the measure, and to help prevent spiders from getting in through the vent grids on the bottom of the unit, which then nest in the moving parts section and cause inaccuracies there.

To avoid excess temperature readings, the sensor unit is better mounted in a piece of 6" rainwater pipe to act as a screen and prevent direct sun shine onto the unit.

I've had to replace a couple of the reed switches over the years, but they are easy enough to get and fit, but the other alternative now is to get a complete replacement sensor, as the prices are not expensive, and that's a quick and easy fix to do.

Due to being very sheltered here, I ended up putting my wind sensors on a much higher pole that normal, an extension lead using Gel crimps was easy, and to make for less work with the transmitter, I put dummy cells in it with wires connected externally to a pair of batteries that are mounted in an accessible location, they are rechargeable batteries with a mains power PSU keeping them alive, and the batteries provide power if the mains goes off for any reason, so I don't lose the signal.

I'm just in the process of setting my unit up again, I had to take it down due to problems with the mast, I need it for advance warning of high rainfall amounts, due to flooding risk issues, and last weekend came as a very big reminder to get it sorted, we might not be so lucky next time, and from comments elsewhere, next time could be as soon as next weekend, so it's going to be a busy week.

mickmackey1

You get what you pay for though, my N96 rain gauge packed up after a few months (following some heavy rain!) and was full of spiders, also my sensor got jammed in the screen thingy & couldn't be replaced. The rest of it did work well enough however to make me want a more serious set-up.

joujoujou

Just keep your rain gauge clean. What I do - once a month (sometimes more often, depends on my laziness) unplug rain gauge and put a bottle of water through it.

Philburns

That is good advice, my rain gauge stopped working after the dry spell in September, I tried putting water through but still no go, when I popped the cover off a spider had set up camp inside and tied the see-saw mechanism up.

garroff

I've got a Vantage Pro2.... My rain console reading is half the figure on the Weather link site. Anyone any idea what has happened. Does not make sense.

Villain

garroff wrote: »

I've got a Vantage Pro2.... My rain console reading is half the figure on the Weather link site. Anyone any idea what has happened. Does not make sense.

One set to mm and other inch?

pauldry

tipping gauge may only be reading on one side


mine was reading 0.3mm for every tip instead of 0.6mm and it turned out there was a spiders web in the darn thing. working fine now

garroff

I took off the funnel and checked the tipping. Seems to be reading on both side.

Where does web site get correct? reading (Weatherlink) if consore is showing half reading. I,d have thought that both get reading over air from outdoor weather station. Therefore if 1 side of tipping bucket only is working then console and Weatherling should both show half reading.
Am I missing something?

Thanks for input, Appreciated.

KAGY

garroff wrote:

Where does web site get correct? reading (Weatherlink) if consore is showing half reading. I,d have thought that both get reading over air from outdoor weather station. Therefore if 1 side of tipping bucket only is working then console and Weatherling should both show half reading. Am I missing something?

Try pouring a known quantity of water through, slow enough that it's read properly. Then divide that volume of water by the area of the collector (width x length)
Use cm for the lengths and ml for volume and you should get the rain height in cm.
You could be in a micro climate, rain blocked by the house etc.
You could also calibrate by using a jar to directly measure how much fell

garroff

KAGY
Thank you for your detailed reply.

Where does my Weatherlink web site get "correct" raimfall reading from?. This morning console 0.9mm,,,,,,,Website 1.8mm.

Lumi

garroff wrote: »

I've got a Vantage Pro2.... My rain console reading is half the figure on the Weather link site. Anyone any idea what has happened. Does not make sense.

Are you absolutely sure that both Weatherlink and the Davis Console are configured to know that its a 0.2mm gauge and that they are both set to 0.2mm units?
The readings on both are calculated from the number of tips of the gauge and both the Davis Console and Weatherlink need to be configured separately to read the same units.
The fact that one is reading half of the other suggests that the Weatherlink software is set to 0.2mm and the Davis console is set to 0.1mm.

garroff

Lumi
well done. Console was exactly as you suggested. Have reset it to conform. Website and console now reading same.
Many thanks.
Happy Xmas to all who contributed. Appreciated.

fred funk }{

Anyone know the cheapest place to buy a Davis station?

Jambo

fred funk }{ wrote: »

Anyone know the cheapest place to buy a Davis station?

http://www.forster-grosshandel.de/ in Germany appear to be one of the cheapest. (Its Where I sourced a vantage pro 2 station for work courtesy of their recommendation earlier on this thread)

fred funk }{

Jambo wrote: »

http://www.forster-grosshandel.de/ in Germany appear to be one of the cheapest. (Its Where I sourced a vantage pro 2 station for work courtesy of their recommendation earlier on this thread)

Thanks Jambo. They're a tad cheaper on Amazon at the moment. I was hoping there was a bargain somewhere in the sales.

pauldry

Is there any thing that reads wind gusts accurate

My weatherstation is way below showing gusts of 20 to 30kph

Tactical

What and where are you comparing gusts to?

What height is your anemometer mounted at?

horsefarm

I got the basic maplin weather station a few weeks ago. I've only been concerned about temp and dew point so far in my fruitless hopes for snow. Anyway with a windy day approaching I guess it's time to figure out the wind gauge! What is the unit of measurement? It's like single figures and not very impressive at all

Thanks!