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PERSONAL WEATHER STATIONS: Queries and Advice

Our man in Havana

I am looking to get a weather station soon and I am looking for suggestions please. Would like to do wind and pressure readings.

Thanks in advance.

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tylercollins

After my station being in the cupboard for about a year I decided last week that I'd get it back up and running. 2 packets of batteries, and a Raspberry PI later I'm about 75% of the way of having an always on station!

I've got the Raspberry PI talking to my station and downloading the data via a command. I just need to setup a cron job now to run the command every 5 minutes and also a cron job to upload that data to my website.

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Robxxx7

tylercollins wrote: »

After my station being in the cupboard for about a year I decided last week that I'd get it back up and running. 2 packets of batteries, and a Raspberry PI later I'm about 75% of the way of having an always on station!

I've got the Raspberry PI talking to my station and downloading the data via a command. I just need to setup a cron job now to run the command every 5 minutes and also a cron job to upload that data to my website.

What software are you using on the Pi to talk to your station ?

tylercollins

Robxxx7 wrote: »

What software are you using on the Pi to talk to your station ?

http://code.google.com/p/pywws/

I've not had time to do anything else to it since last week, but the station is still talking to to my Pi and it's on 24/7

Robxxx7

tylercollins wrote: »

http://code.google.com/p/pywws/

I've not had time to do anything else to it since last week, but the station is still talking to to my Pi and it's on 24/7

Perfect ... did try that about a year or so ago and had problems talking to my weather station ..will give it another go

joujoujou

tylercollins wrote: »

[...]

I've not had time to do anything else to it since last week, but the station is still talking to to my Pi and it's on 24/7

I guess you don't have data uploaded to www yet?

tylercollins

I don't, not yet. I'm sure I will have it done by the weekend though.

Are you running from a Pi as well?

joujoujou

No, unfortunately not.

But I've my laptop running 24/7 anyway, so it's not a big problem alright.

Maybe I'd consider to connect it into my SnakeOS based printserver (being printserver is just one of many things it can do), but I've all the weather history on a laptop's SSD, so maybe too much hassle.

kenmc

tylercollins wrote: »

http://code.google.com/p/pywws/

I've not had time to do anything else to it since last week, but the station is still talking to to my Pi and it's on 24/7

I'd be surprised if you don't experience the same problem I and many other wh1080 users experience in usb lockups
mine would run for weeks to months, then hang up, requiring a disconnect and battery removal to recover. a real pain in the ass. additionally my tx was chewing through batteries
gave up and am developing an arduino based solution using tinytx boards, and the wind and rain sensors from the station, and a pi to pick it up and collate, with a bit of help from some of the pywws modules for upload.
labour of love , playing with it for ages now, still not done

initially was just sniffing the comms from the tx to the head unit, but got fed up replacing batteries

kenmc

and just after posting this of course mine goes down this morning around 6:30. On the desktop now so can give some more details.

So I'm using tinytx boards (http://nathan.chantrell.net/tinytx-wireless-sensor/) which i got manufactured from the design by Nathan Chantrell, and they run ATTiny84s. There are 3 so far in operation, one as a temp sensor in the kitchen, one in my daughters bedroom which can also turn on/off the electric heater in her room if the temp gets too low or high, and one (which is currently indoors) to do the outside temp, pressure and humidity (BMP085, DHT22).
They all have rfm12bs mounted onboard to talk to the pi, which also has an rfm12b, which uses a kernel module (https://github.com/gkaindl/rfm12b-linux/) to drive the rfm12b

I wrote a wee python script to polulate a sqlite3 db with the data, and another script to parse the data and generate the output, which pywws "Upload.py" script pushes to website.

I've played with the rain and wind sensors a while back, but they're currently not attached to any tinytxs, as I still haven't gotten them working to my satisfaction (the tinytxs are all low power devices, sleeping between transmissions to save batteries - some have run for 2+ years on a pair of AAs)

Current issue is tweeking the settings of the rfms to increase the range enough to move the "outside" sensor outside and still have the PI in the living room recieve the data. That's the plan for this evening; oh and to discover why the data is not going into the database any more

kenmc

tylercollins wrote: »

http://code.google.com/p/pywws/

I've not had time to do anything else to it since last week, but the station is still talking to to my Pi and it's on 24/7

Oh, one thing I'd suggest is to offload the data directory from the SD card, either to a USB stick or to a NFS server or something; likewise the tmp dir to a ramdisk perhaps. I killed an SD card previously by leaving the weather data directory on the SD card. Lost everything

joujoujou

USB stick is as easy to fail as memory card - it just has different housing. So better NFS or the likes.

kenmc

joujoujou wrote: »

USB stick is as easy to fail as memory card - it just has different housing. So better NFS or the likes.

Yes it is, but at least you won't lose the whole OS, crontabs, config etc, just the data.

Turbulent Bill

I'm toying with the idea of building my own DIY weather station (off-the-shelf sensors with some customised interface to them). Ideally I'd like it to be as accurate as possible, with calibrated sensors in correct positions and enclosures. Is there some standard that Met Eireann etc. use from ISO or a similar body?

maquiladora

I don't know myself, but there are a couple of members here with Met Eireann climate stations that should be able to help you out with that.

Lumi

The guide is geared towards setting up a Davis station but it does contain some links and standards you might find useful.

http://www.davisnet.com/product_documents/weather/app_notes/AN_30-reporting-weather-data-to-noaa.pdf

These https://a0e4eb4f5e8798db398ea7bb58a9de4a6e0b4480.googledrive.com/host/0BwdvoC9AeWjURlFWdC1qSzRNdkE/wmo_488-2013_en.pdf
http://www.urban-climate.org/documents/IOM-81-UrbanMetObs.pdf might be of more use though

juansheet

Hi All

Looking to get the old man a weather station gadget for Christmas . He loves the weather

so looking to get him something he can check temp, humitidy etc

Anyone have experience of such gadgets below

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/2555199/Trail/searchtext%3EWEATHER.htm

Any info greatly appreiated

Thanks
Juansheet

joujoujou

That's a rip-off! :eek:

Look at them:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/technotrade-hygrometer-humidity-and-temperature-meter-n20dq

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-wireless-desktop-weather-station-with-barometer-a01qx

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/technotrade-mini-weather-station-n19dq

These guys - http://www.pjbonner.com/contact/ used to sell weather stations in good prices - maybe they still do?

KAGY

Hi everyone, finally got a PWS thanks to the good lady kagy and santa.

It's an (Aercus WS2083 - Fineweather clone) and it's up, mounted in a decent location and communicating with the supplied Cumulus (windows:() software!

Next step, I was hoping to use my HTPC as a server as that's already on 24/7 and has MySql / Apache running etc, but it's out of range. So I'm hoping to set up my RPi as a 24/7 server which leads me onto my questions:

What (Linux) software do people have? I've looked at weewx, (and know that wview exists) but is there anything else you'd recommend? I just need the usual logging and graphing and publishing to website. If it could be expanded at a later date to also log data from my electricity monitor that would be even better.

I'd also like to give back, what weather service do you subscribe to? Most seem to be either US based or simple display of personal data. I'd prefer something that could be of use to crowd sourced forecasting. maybe like http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk

Thanks!

kenmc

pywws is what I use, well supported

Strangegravy

Just ordered the Oregon Scientific WMR88 PWS as my old Maplin one hasn't really worked since the February storms last year.

I wanted one that I could hook up to the laptop with webpage for it. I know it doesn't have the datalogger yokey, but not too bothered by that.

It looks sturdier than my old one and nicer looking display.

Just wondering does anyone on here have one, and how is it working for them?

KAGY

Messing around with my Weather station connection I noticed this when I listed my usb devices:

lsusb
Bus 001 Device 004: ... WH1080 Weather Station / [B]USB Missile Launcher
[/B]

:eek: hope I don't hit the wrong button :eek:

anoble66

I took a punt on this unit:-

http://www.reichelt.nl/Weather-Stations/VENTUS-W266/3//index.html?ACTION=3&GROUPID=5992&ARTICLE=143279&OFFSET=16&

No data logging but with color screen, lightning detection and UV it seems good value....guess time will tell.

Philburns

KAGY wrote: »

Hi everyone, finally got a PWS thanks to the good lady kagy and santa.

It's an (Aercus WS2083 - Fineweather clone) and it's up, mounted in a decent location and communicating with the supplied Cumulus software!

Next step, I was hoping to use my HTPC as a server as that's already on 24/7 and has MySql / Apache running etc, but it's out of range. So I'm hoping to set up my RPi as a 24/7 server which leads me onto my questions:

What (Linux) software do people have? I've looked at weewx, (and know that wview exists) but is there anything else you'd recommend? I just need the usual logging and graphing and publishing to website. If it could be expanded at a later date to also log data from my electricity monitor that would be even better.

Thanks!

Santa also got me an Aercus WS2083, I have managed to get it connected through a Raspberry Pi using weewx fairly easily. I currently have it sending data to Weather Underground but I'm wondering if there are better alternatives.

Strangegravy

Philburns wrote: »

Santa also got me an Aercus WS2083, I have managed to get it connected through a Raspberry Pi using weewx fairly easily. I currently have it sending data to Weather Underground but I'm wondering if there are better alternatives.

These stations had good reviews, but seemed to be out of stock everywhere I looked just after Xmas. Where did you get the Raspberry PI from and was it any hassle to set it up with the station, any guide you used? Will probably go down this route in the near future.

Philburns

The Rasberry Pi belongs to my son, I can't remember where we got it, he's had it a couple of years, it was used for streaming videos to the TV among other things but now the Chromecast has taken it's place.

It is very simple to setup if you have a little Linux experience. These are the steps AFAICR

1. Install default Raspberian OS
2. Download the latest weewx.deb from weewx.com
3. sudo dpkg -i <weewx debfile>
At this point it will tell you there are missing dependencies and advise you to do
4. sudo apt-get install -f
5. Setup weewx - it will ask you most necessary questions on install. Plenty of information here weewx.com/docs/usersguide.htm

You can do this all either through the GUI or just as handy ssh from another machine.
You will need to plug the USB from the weather station monitor in before weewx will run.

There is a guide here, but it isn't as complicated as he managed to make it: davies-barnard.co.uk/2013/12/weewx-rasp/

Strangegravy

Thanks Phil. Ah I'm normally ok at figuring these things out so should be fine, but the guides definitely help.

KAGY

Strangegravy wrote: »

These stations had good reviews, but seemed to be out of stock everywhere I looked just after Xmas. Where did you get the Raspberry PI from and was it any hassle to set it up with the station, any guide you used? Will probably go down this route in the near future.

I had an rpi from ages ago. Think I got it from Farnell. Ie . I've being playing and tinkering with the software since I got it so I've made things more complex than was needed. If you've used Linux before it's simple. If not it is a matter of following instructions. Basically:

Download a raspbian image for the pies sdcard (the operating system)
Download weewx from weewxand follow the read me. You'll need to install some other dependencies e.g. python and also apache or similar If you want to run a webserver to view the results

Im messing around with two skins
[url]Http://Weather.whitehillenv.com[/url] 《~ the basic skin
[url]Http://Weather.whitehillenv.com/exfoliation/index.html[/url]

Edit: oops didn't finish reading the thread before replying so didn't see Phil s reply.
I used the weewx guide http://www.weewx.com/docs.html
I did the python install as it puts everything in one folder: useful as I'm using a nfs shared folder to reduce wear on the sd card and for easier backup

KAGY

Philburns wrote: »

Santa also got me an Aercus WS2083, I have managed to get it connected through a Raspberry Pi using weewx fairly easily. I currently have it sending data to Weather Underground but I'm wondering if there are better alternatives.

Had a bigger post here but the phone decided to lose it !
Im looking at but still waiting to make a decision
Wow.metoffice.gov.uk
Openweathermap.org

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

https://smartenergygroups.com/samotage/posts/84-Summer-is-coming

Villain

Just an FYI I just replaced my Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus with 24hrs FARS, some nice little improvements over the last model I got nearly 6 years ago including some anti-bird spikes. Purchased it in Germany so its the EU model, good bit cheaper than UK model.

DavisPro2Plus by WeatherSnapper, on Flickr

Cul a cnoic

anoble66 wrote: »

I took a punt on this unit:-

http://www.reichelt.nl/Weather-Stations/VENTUS-W266/3//index.html?ACTION=3&GROUPID=5992&ARTICLE=143279&OFFSET=16&

No data logging but with color screen, lightning detection and UV it seems good value....guess time will tell.

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