Oh God it's arrived

It's arrived and is on the kitchen table right now.



Agent Mothman-when you see this thread give me a call on the mobile number I provided to you.
Agent sailor neighbour with his GPS and compass will be here this evening

This also arrived


Tries to resist head spinning into IKEA mode*



*this is a weather station not a nuclear bomb

Mothman

LOL big boys and their toys.

I'm planning my next one

Be careful you're heading for sensory overload

I have the little un(1 week old in 6 hrs time) atm, so give you call after he wakes up.

Well she's built

The console is beside me here-just finished tweeking it.
I've more to do tomorrow and mothman is coming down.

Max wind gust recorded so far is 23mph from the south west
Barometer falling fast too-currently 1013.3

Currently 10 min average windspeed is 13mph


I've to add the soil temp station tomorrow-but very pleased so far.
The outside station is located a good few hundred metres from here in an exposed field.
According to the GPS it's 162ft above sea level

Temp has been rising steadily in the last 2hrs also

Started out around 12.6 and is now 14.8!

ninebeanrows

You lucky so and so

If i am correct that equip is the guts of a grand!!

Mothman

Earthman wrote:

Temp has been rising steadily in the last 2hrs also

Started out around 12.6 and is now 14.8!

It was probably your body heat giving false readings

Rofl...
currently 17c ( a degree behind yourself)

humidity 89%
Barometer 1011.7 dewpoint 16c

If i am correct that equip is the guts of a grand!!

It's way more than a grand weathercheck when you include the Ground temp weatherstation(which I'm connecting later today) and I got the UK VAT taken off of it.

Mothman,I'm free from about 1130 am or so.

mike65

Con, you'd better quit all other duties right now, cos you're going to be posting stats from now 'till hell freezes over are'nt you!?

Mike.

hehe

I seem to be consistently a whole degree colder than mothman here-that much I can gaurantee-Goood for the difference between rain and snow later in the winter maybe

Thanks by the way to mothman for coming down.

I'm a mean so and so-he didnt get the tea

I thought it was hilarious when we were running in from a heavy rain shower with the console having been out at the station...
I was soaking, the rain rate was 10.1mm per hr and scrolling across the bottom of the console was " It's raining cats and dogs "

14.1c at the moment by the way
dewpoint 11c
Wind west-6mph
Barometer 1010.7 mb steady
humidity 82%

High wind speed 26 mph at 1206

High temp 19.2 c at 1213

Mothman

Your time for max temp was before we corrected the time so is probably fairly close to mine.

Earthman's 2m windspeed is the same or if anything stronger than my 10m speed

He has a grand exposure, though the 2m wind would be a bit sheltered from northerly directions.

Mothman

Mothman wrote:

Your time for max temp was before we corrected the time so is probably fairly close to mine.

Hey now-You got to 22!

Earthman's 2m windspeed is the same or if anything stronger than my 10m speed

He has a grand exposure, though the 2m wind would be a bit sheltered from northerly directions.

Yeah thats a bit of a minus alright I'll see what happens.It's got every other direction exposed though even north East and probably a bit of Northwest.

The indoor temp is behaving itself now and the light is permanently on.I've put the console on the mantlepiece just beside the desk with the aerial horizontal and its getting a constant 18-21 signal which is just about enough.
The packet reliability is now up to 85% and it hasnt missed any packets at all

Temp 10.7,hum 73%,dewpoint 6c,wind wsw at 5mph(there are now a couple of light arrows indicating a bit of turnover in wind direction) and the barometer is rising slowly @1012.2


( I feel all nerdy )

Mothman

Earthman wrote:

Hey now-You got to 22!

Well I was meaning the time, not the temp. The missus was giving the little un (1 week old ) a bit of fresh air during the sunny 22C, and had to come in when that brief spell "cats & dogs" arrived.

The indoor temp is behaving itself now and the light is permanently on.I've put the console on the mantlepiece just beside the desk with the aerial horizontal and its getting a constant 18-21 signal which is just about enough.
The packet reliability is now up to 85% and it hasnt missed any packets at all

Temp 10.7,hum 73%,dewpoint 6c,wind wsw at 5mph(there are now a couple of light arrows indicating a bit of turnover in wind direction) and the barometer is rising slowly @1012.2

It seems to be behaving itself a bit more now

( I feel all nerdy )

Join the club, I seem to go through a lot of anoraks

BTW I have my console attached to a wall. There are a couple of screw slots in the back.

Well just to update you on this.

I had a look around for software to put up a website.
Theres two that I like.
The one I'm using at the moment is a 30 day fee trial from ambient called "virtual weather station"
It takes the information from the Datalogger and renders it into the website I set up.

The only problem is it has a bug which every now and then creates a phantom temperature of -17.8 c.

That mucks up the outside temperature graph but doesnt effect the actual live temperature except very rarely when the programme jpeg upload coincides with the split second spike to -17c.
I've only seen that happen once so far.

I've reported the bug problem to ambient, and if its not fixed,then after the 30 day trial is up I'll go for the "weather display live" and mesomap live" programmes.

www.arklowweather.com is the site Comments welcome

mike65

Oooh! Me likes!

Mike.

Supercell

That nice, are you sure the -17.8 isnt coming from station itself?, can you check the temperatures manually before its outputed to the software?

Supercell

Aha !! it is the software !! (maybe)

http://www.ambientweather.com/versionhistory.html

August 24, 2005, Version 12.07p52

* Fixed problem with 0.0 degF (-17.8 degC) if data is not available from certain stations. If the temperature is exactly 0, it uses the previous temperature.
* Fixed problem with Thunderstorm icon and data for 5-day forecast.

Get this and yer sorted!!
Needs to figure out why the data isnt available though - station to far..not have line of sight or smth ?

Edit:
Looking at the site, it appears there is info from the other instruments reaching the base station ..eg wind speed does change pretty much every update as does direction and pressure.
Thus the base station is communicating well it would appear with everything bar the temperature probe..the -17.8 is a manifestation of no data received..thus the temp gauge is too heavily shielded behind something..its batteries are low..or its faulty.

yeah the communication is grand 0 packet loss and reliability between 86 and 99%

thus the temp gauge is too heavily shielded behind something..its batteries are low..or its faulty.

The quirky temperature is only in that ambient programme.
The weatherlink software doesnt do that at all.When I'm running that, the log is consistent with no anomolies.

The console does not show this -17.8 c either and its here on the desk in front of me.

Pity because I like the graphics on that site as opposed to the more bland "weather display live" which looks like this

Aha!

I see I can d/l a trial version of weather display and the flash weather display live

I'm tempted to wait though untill the trial on ambiance runs out

ponders...

Mothman

Conditions at
22:49 on 6/10/05
Temperature
-17.8°C


:eek: :eek: :eek:

You'll have Weathercheck banging down your door soon!!

Mothman

Conditions at
22:49 on 6/10/05
Temperature
-17.8°C
Dew Point 11.3°C
Humidity 0%
Heat Index 16.2°C

A lot of it doesn't really make sense, I think your ponder is over...

Mothman

Mothman wrote:

Conditions at
22:49 on 6/10/05
Temperature
-17.8°C


:eek: :eek: :eek:

You'll have Weathercheck banging down your door soon!!

LoL

I know

*shivers*

I've ran some extensive tests this evening and I've now concluded that the -17c is as a result of signal drop outs.

This means I am on the phone tomorrow to order a repeater.

Theres a disused telephone poll outside the back door here with an unobstructed line of sight and a 45 signal on the console.
I would presume that this is strong enough to repeat without any drop outs.
From there it only has to go a further 5 metres or less but through 2 walls.

Currently it's travelling about 250-300 metres through a hedge and a grove and those walls-so I guess thats asking a bit much.

The signal max on the counter is 59 and in here as it is,I get a 27 or 28 most of the time with some 19's and 17's and some drop outs.
What I need is the constant 45 signal up that phone pole and a strong repeater signal in here of similar quality,which should be achievable at 5 metres and just 2 walls.

I'll be ordering the solar powered repeater tomorrow so theres going to be no improvements untill the middle of next week.

In the meantime - enjoy the occasional shivers we are supposedly having down here

I got the repeater today and at the top of the pole the signal is excelent.

Unfortunately I discovered the firmware in the VP2 console is january 2005 and ergo the repeater wont work with this console

I now have to buy a firmware update-imagine that :rolleyes:

On a positive note I got the weatherlink software to up load a temporary webpage-clicky on my signature for to see that-it's updating every 5 minutes now I think.
Weatherlink does do anomolies like that virtual weather station programme.

The signal strength is actually quite good tonight and I'm told by Davis that I can get a serial extension cable up to 48 ft which would be fine for to put the console out where it would get a 35/60 + signal anyway... of course I wasnt told this by the dealership in the UK :rolleyes:

Anyways-I'll eventually get this right.

Mothman

Earthman wrote:

I got the repeater today and at the top of the pole the signal is excelent.

Unfortunately I discovered the firmware in the VP2 console is january 2005 and ergo the repeater wont work with this console

I now have to buy a firmware update-imagine that :rolleyes:

B******* to that. The repeater you got today won't work for console you got 2 weeks back?? The firmware update doesn't come cheap.

If this is really the case, your supplier, who I'd consider reputable has something to answer for.

I agree.
I rang Davis and they said likewise.
I'll be ringing the supplier tomorrow

Davis said that under the circumstances they should loan me the updater(post it out) so as I can do the update myself and send it back then.
This should be at no cost to me.


Pretty darn annoying though :mad:

Mothman

Try contacting the main UK importer or email contact the guy (Steve Rogers)

Should be quicker than coming from US, but then maybe not.... :rolleyes:

I'll see what the people that sold it say first-the guy from Davis did mention mcmurroughs allright and said they would sort it had I been a customer of theirs.

Western marine in Dalkey are agents for Davis :eek:

I didnt know that-many is the time I've been in that shop.

Mothman

Earthman wrote:

I'll see what the people that sold it say first-the guy from Davis did mention mcmurroughs allright and said they would sort it had I been a customer of theirs.

Western marine in Dalkey are agents for Davis :eek:

I didnt know that-many is the time I've been in that shop.

You don't generally deal with Mcmurdo direct as they are the UK distributer, but I still think they'd be interested (I hope) in knowing and sorting you out.

First I've heard of an agent in Ireland, and yes I know Western Marine as well :rolleyes:

Ok
They apoligised for this and are sending over the updater to me.
They say it will take 10 minutes for me to update the firm ware and then I've to send it back to them by insured registered post.

That means I should be in business by the end of the week.

The new firmware solved an issue whereby the console was getting confused as to whether it should read the weaker iss signal or the repeater signal.
Currently it can't read the repeater signal as thats set to something only readable by the new firmware.


In other news,I've got the site sorted now with the weatherlink software though thats only an interim solution.I prefer the other options and would actually ideally like to use the VWS or the flash weatherdisplay programme.

I'm going to trick around with a trial version of the latter now for an hour or two and see what it puts out.

So the weather here will remain the same untill 8 or 9 pm or so

p.s its raining now-even though the barometer is set at 1023.7

Managed to get a web page up using the weather display programme

It's up now and comments are welcome

However :eek: :eek:

We've moved from a situation of phantom temperature change to phantom flash floods

Apparently theres been 35.4 mm in 45 minutes this evening here-It's a wonder the roof hasnt caved in

(It's a setting somewhere ,this I know as yesterday there was 574mm of rain-an extremely wet day and I managed to reset this to zero...)

Theres a lot of tweeking to be done with what goes up from WD on the web page-I'shall play with it for a while and see what happens!

ninebeanrows

I was wondering Earthman you don't want to send me out one of these
weather station to ensure i don't deal out false readings this winter,
do you??

Actually WC, I hear theres some older type Vantage pro ones going cheap on ebay, you should look into getting one of them.

I've manually reset the anomolies in this programme so everything should be running fine now touch wood.

Theres some pretty cool flash add ons for the weather display programme so when I've the time,I'll play with a trial version of them.

Peaked at 16.2 c here so far in a somewhat sunnier day than of late.

Mothman I still seem to be often running a degree colder by daytime than yourself so you might want to bring your wooly coat, the next time you come down here

Mothman

Actually WC, I hear theres some older type Vantage pro ones going cheap on ebay, you should look into getting one of them.

I got some of these, have just received them

so you might want to bring your wooly coat

I always bring my coat when going into the hills

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Davis-Vantage-Pro-6150-Wireless-Weather-Station_W0QQitemZ5817804564QQcategoryZ48625QQssPageNameZWD2VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

There you go weathercheck a steal-air mail from the states $50
Add another 30 for taxes and you have the lot for under €200

Though you might want a fan aspirated shield as from memory, the photo's of your garden that you posted up during last winter, the surrounding houses would make it either a heat pocket or a frost pocket.

Mothman

Earthman wrote:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Davis-Vantage-Pro-6150-Wireless-Weather-Station_W0QQitemZ5817804564QQcategoryZ48625QQssPageNameZWD2VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

There you go weathercheck a steal-air mail from the states $50
Add another 30 for taxes and you have the lot for under €200

Though you might want a fan aspirated shield as from memory, the photo's of your garden that you posted up during last winter, the surrounding houses would make it either a heat pocket or a frost pocket.

Yes but that particular model, which is a US version is illegal this side of the big pond.
I got mine from http://stores.ebay.co.uk/McMurdo-Obsolete-Stock_Davis-Weather-Stations_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQftidZ2QQtZkm.

And I'm not sure about the FARS unit. The maintanence instructions says to put in a new motor and batteries annually. Also if the fan is not working, then the shield looks as if it would perform a lot worse than the passive shield.

Mothman

And to connect the Davis stations to a computer, a datalogger is needed, with the Davis datalogger at c.£160, they're not cheap! They're less in the US and will work fine in the overseas versions

Yeah I forgot about that but he could spend the communion money on the Vantage pro and save for the datalogger again.

As regards the U.S radio signal-shush!!

Oh I must look at that mcmurdo's link-I did a simple ebay search and despite being in dot co dot uk.
I know someone up at about 900ft who may be interested.

Now reports from there would be interesting!

Radio signals don't like low pressure systems

The weather display programme is having serious difficulty interpreting the signal loss.
Unlike the Virtual weather programme, VWS cannot interpret rainfall and rain rates properly but is ok with the temps.

The console is displaying the correct data or at least the last correct packet.

Anyways-they posted out the updater yesterday so I'll say thursday will be the day I have it and with any luck a strong signal from the repeater.

Sigh

Updater came with envoy firmware.
Muggins updated the console without realising this.
(In fairness the supplier should have sent me one with the console firmware)

My console is now an envoy with no display and its not talking to the pc.

What I have to do now later is to go onto the davis website and download the correct firmware and......


Grrrrr:mad:

Tonight I might be right-tonight...

Tis is begining to read more like a web log than a thread now

Anyway-I rang Davis and they confirmed if I plugged the updater by serial to the pc and d/loaded the latest "console" firmware and then re update the console with that-It should work and it did.
I'm getting about 25% more signal in here now from the repeater.
But better still when I get a longer cable,I can get an even better signal upt to 45 out of a max 60.

Tried the VWS software again and it is still misbehaving even with the reliable signal so I am close to dumping that.
I rang ambient though and tbh I didnt like their attitude-they told me the same as the last time...
So its probably bye bye to them

Back on weather display now and I reckon I'll stay with them and put on the flash add on so the website will have virtual real time moving dials:cool:

Changed the update to every 5 minutes too.
Thats if my broadband can stick it-Eircom were supposed to have fixed the drop outs here but when the wind went NW tonight, I've been getting a lot of drop outs as the cable swings in the wind...
Hello Eircom-I'm renting the line and paying good money for it:mad:

Anyways-more tomorrow probably.

Flash test


Click on that above for an almost live flash version of the site.

The ten minute update page is temporarlly closed while I'm tricking about with that.

But hey we've gone from 10 minute updates to five minute updates to 30 second updates with moving fancy dials and stuff


[Edit] or no update at all if I'm tricking with that flash script which I currently am[/edit]

mike65

Ooops!

I'm running Opera 8.5 no java, with javascript.

Mike.

Yeah I'm having a few ISSUES with an xml configure script in the flash file.

The doctors and nurses are working on it as I speak

In the meantime the following testcard is still being updated every 5 minutes(tho-extra sooper dooper flashy site will return asap hopefully)

Supercell

http://arklow.741.com/weekrep.htm looks great imho, is this heavy user editing or the other software just behaves itself ?

Supercell

Also the temp scale of 0-40 c is a bit unrealistic, why not -10 -> 35c , seems to me to be a more realistic possible range

Indublin i'd make that -7 -> 33 and expect not to see that exceedede..but you have to ajust to yer local ranges.

Longfield

Longfield wrote:

http://arklow.741.com/weekrep.htm looks great imho, is this heavy user editing or the other software just behaves itself ?

It's a whole lot of things Longfield.
For instance in the weather display programme I had the rain guage setting wrong(It was correct on the console) so the Wdisplay programme was multiplying everything by ten at one stage.
This problem was fairly obvious when I noticed that the house hadnt floated away after about a foot of rain

Untill I realised this I had to manually correct the figures.
Also with the problems with reception and unplugging the data logger and closing programmes frequently to restart others-I discovered that some programmes were d/loading from the data logger and then clearing it meaning I've a mish mash of statistics some of which arent making sense.

What I propose to do with that is completely ignore and clear all data to date and start a fresh when I have everything working right.
I'll consider November 1 as the start date for when records begin.


The flash site worked for a while but there appears to be issues with the fowarding on arklowweather.com and it not recognising the flash script or interfering with it in some way.

If I get it back working in the next 10 minutes I'll re post the url for that here.
Unfortunately I'm jaded now as I've been working like a ...(very hard) today at other things

billy the squid

Wdisplay programme was multiplying everything by ten at one stage.

now i know why weathercheck wants one

OK I think I've got a lot of it fixed

The flash movie realtime weather is here

Theres some tweaking to be done there yet.
I'll also add a background.

I'll enter a link to it in www.arklowweather.com later which is now also back and updating every 5 minutes.

Comments welcome


By the way and mothman may have an answer to this.

Part of the teething problems I'm having is when I turn off the pc and the console via the datalogger is still connected to the pc, it stops logging data.
I lost all of last night and I'm sure there was an almost grass frost.

When it turned on WD treated yesterdays data as today but thats a separate issue which I'll look into maybe tomorrow when I've time.

Mothman

Earthman wrote:

Part of the teething problems I'm having is when I turn off the pc and the console via the datalogger is still connected to the pc, it stops logging data.
I lost all of last night and I'm sure there was an almost grass frost.

Can't help you on this I'm afraid.

No updates since midday yesterday to your site

Mothman

Mothman wrote:

No updates since midday yesterday to your site

Yes this is due to the fact that I've been in Cork since yesterday and am just back.
Apparently the phone line here was appalling in that time due to the wind.
It must have been very stormy as a piece of a treee blew across and smashed a window

Actually I see the sustained average windspeed was 26mph at around noon with a peak gust of 32mph today.

If I was here I would have manually restarted the broadband connection myself, which is something I have to do in these conditions.
Eircom are well aware that the cable is damaged and have it down for replacement.

Line rental eh :rolleyes:
As I type the connection has dropped again :mad:

Looks doubtfull that there are going to be any updates in the next 24hrs.

Cant Ring out from the phoneline here at all and people ringing in get through for a few seconds only sometimes only to be cut off again.

It's a wonder how I'm able to even get an internet connection at all on this and this is broadband albeit for about just .25 of a second at a time every now and then when whats left of the line feels like it.

Maybe this will encourage Eircom to speed up the replacement of the line :rolleyes: