PERSONAL WEATHER STATIONS: Queries and Advice

Red Nissan · 25-03-2014 4:02pm

riffmongous wrote: »

Do you use the converted sea level pressure to compare to the airport values, just out of interest?

Have you tried doing anything with your temp and humidity sensors? Not so easy at all for them

I take the high pressure reading from Met Eireann and set that as absolute pressure and the software does its conversion. I only seem to have problems after extremes.

Temp, I tend to knock 2° off in Summer and add 2° in Winter ~ temp is not consistent showing warmer in warmth and colder in the cold ~ does not maintain a linear error. I have made an extra shade for the sensor housing which helps a bit but not enough.

I don't seem to have a problem with humidity.

Danno · 28-03-2014 2:29pm

riffmongous wrote: »

Has anyone running their own weather station for over a year now got any of their instruments recalibrated? Is that even possible with personal weather stations?

I am fortunate enough that my own station sits in the same site as the Met Eireann station. There is rarely any huge difference (~+/-0.4c) between the Davis and the manual thermometers.

riffmongous · 28-03-2014 5:28pm

Danno wrote: »

I am fortunate enough that my own station sits in the same site as the Met Eireann station. There is rarely any huge difference (~+/-0.4c) between the Davis and the manual thermometers.

Interesting, and how long have you been running yours for?

Storm 10 · 22-04-2014 11:47am

Guys thinking about getting this as its on special offer at the moment, anyone have and what are they like any help appreciated.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/silver-usb-wireless-touchscreen-weather-forecaster-n96fy

[Note: Thread Merged]

Hooter23 · 22-04-2014 12:17pm

I got one last september havn't had a problem with it so far it survived all the storms anyway....
There is one thing though I have it in direct sunlight and the temperature is not right when its sunny other people who had this problem just put some reflective foil tape on it problem solved have not tried that yet though.....

Lumi · 22-04-2014 12:38pm

Storm 10 wrote: »

Guys thinking about getting this as its on special offer at the moment, anyone have and what are they like any help appreciated.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/silver-usb-wireless-touchscreen-weather-forecaster-n96fy

I'd recommend going for the slightly cheaper N96GY
It's the same station, just a different colour and this model has the added advantage of a synchronised clock

Storm 10 · 22-04-2014 3:37pm

Hooter23 wrote: »

I got one last september havn't had a problem with it so far it survived all the storms anyway....
There is one thing though I have it in direct sunlight and the temperature is not right when its sunny other people who had this problem just put some reflective foil tape on it problem solved have not tried that yet though.....

Any problems with the signal from the roof to where you have the unit mounted

Hooter23 · 22-04-2014 5:50pm

Storm 10 wrote: »

Any problems with the signal from the roof to where you have the unit mounted

No problems with the signal at all since I've had it....

codie · 12-05-2014 1:47pm

Got the N96gy at Maplins when it was on offer and put it away.Got it for my 6yr old when his 7th birthday comes during the week.He seems to be very interested in weather so just got it as a little hobby for him.I have read about these units eating AA batteries and the sales guy told me they were pretty heavy on them .Anyone tell me how heavy?

Red Nissan · 12-05-2014 1:52pm

codie wrote: »

G.I have read about these units eating AA batteries and the sales guy told me they were pretty heavy on them .Anyone tell me how heavy?

Three to six months depending on the quality of battery.

However, the batteries are still perfectly good for other things like torches and radios so don't throw them away.

It appears the stations want a high voltage so it decides batteries are flat when still quite good, that's my latest theory.

codie · 12-05-2014 2:06pm

Red Nissan wrote: »

Three to six months depending on the quality of battery.

However, the batteries are still perfectly good for other things like torches and radios so don't throw them away.

It appears the stations want a high voltage so it decides batteries are flat when still quite good, that's my latest theory.

Not that bad I was picturing throwing batteries every couple of weeks

Lumi · 12-05-2014 4:56pm

codie wrote: »

Got the N96gy at Maplins when it was on offer and put it away.Got it for my 6yr old when his 7th birthday comes during the week.He seems to be very interested in weather so just got it as a little hobby for him.I have read about these units eating AA batteries and the sales guy told me they were pretty heavy on them .Anyone tell me how heavy?

Make sure you use lithium batteries codie.
The station transmitter will stop working once the battery charge falls below 1.1v so if you use anything less than lithium batteries you will be replacing them every month or so.
When I had a Maplin station I needed to replace the batteries approx. twice yearly at most.

vicwatson · 19-05-2014 11:53am

Have this station - http://www.amazon.com/Ambient-Weather-WS-1080-Wireless-Logging/dp/B003E7H5HW/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

and had a problem with the anenometer in that it seized up after months mind you, ordered a new one online, it worked for about a week and got stuck again - this was a new anenometer and the darn thing is stuck again.

Any suggestions barring sending it back to the retailer (only cost about €4.00) in how to fix it?

No point in keep purchasing new ones if they are just going to break after a week.

joujoujou · 19-05-2014 1:22pm

I'd say it's quite unusual.

I've the same weather station for approx 4 years, and no problem at all.

Stuck once only, when got frozen during famous 2010 winter.

Once you have two of them now, try to open up one of them, clean it up and put some grease/oil maybe?

Lumi · 19-05-2014 6:30pm

vicwatson wrote: »

Have this station - http://www.amazon.com/Ambient-Weather-WS-1080-Wireless-Logging/dp/B003E7H5HW/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

and had a problem with the anenometer in that it seized up after months mind you, ordered a new one online, it worked for about a week and got stuck again - this was a new anenometer and the darn thing is stuck again.

Any suggestions barring sending it back to the retailer (only cost about €4.00) in how to fix it?

No point in keep purchasing new ones if they are just going to break after a week.

It's generally a problem with the bearings seizing through getting rusty or dirty. Is there water getting into the housing? I've seen reports of the same problem over on the Sandaysoft forum & apart from send it back for a replacement, you could try prising the housing apart and oiling with some light machine oil or replacing the bearings. If it's only been a few weeks I'd send it back tbh - you probably got a dodgy replacement unit.

AstraMonti · 17-06-2014 1:42pm

Any opinions on this? http://uk.oregonscientific.com/cat-Weather-sub-Anywhere-Weather-prod-Anywhere-Weather-Station-Advanced.html#.U6A0pvldU2Z

I very much like the idea of the data being sent directly to the portal for ease of use.

zagmund · 17-06-2014 2:40pm

I got this and then returned it as there was no ability to access data directly as well as via their portal. While the portal idea was good, I wanted to be able to download the readings to my own (yet to be built at the time) server running weewx or equivalent.

In general terms it looked good (better than other Oregon Scientific devices), but the lack of ability to download the data ruled it out for me. If you only want a portal hosted externally then go for it.

z

AstraMonti · 17-06-2014 3:25pm

Thank you. Do you think the portal does not give you enough information or you just wanted your own server for the sake of playing around with it?

zagmund · 17-06-2014 4:47pm

It was more that I wanted my own server to play with. If I got the portal as an extra that was fine. But the portal as an only solution . . . not so fine.

As far as I remember the model you linked to supports 10 remote probes, so you could measure (and record) the temperature in all the rooms of the house (or 9 of them at least) and outside as well. Other Oregon Scientific ones only support 4 I think.

z

AstraMonti · 18-06-2014 10:26am

Zag how long ago did you try it? I created an account on the portal and I can see an export data choice, did you have that before?

Edit: Just read the reviews on amazon, they make it look like a horrible product! Is there anything else like this from another company?

zagmund · 19-06-2014 8:30am

Astra - I don't think I even got that far. From what I recall the lack of ability to communicate directly ruled it out. I think I remember seeing the function you referenced, but I would have to upload the data first and then download it again manually instead of just having an automated direct link.

z

KeRbDoG · 23-06-2014 5:35pm

joujoujou wrote: »

FYP :pac:

Cumulus can calibrate FineWeather stations no problem.

Memory erasing is actually not really necessary - if memory's full, the newest data will overwrite the oldest. But can be done directly on unit's display - touch, then touch and hold memory icon.

=======================

Solar charger equipped version on ebay:

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/330475014848

Competitive price I'd say.

Always wanted to setup a weather station outside my house

ordered that solar version. I was looking at the Davis unit but the initial price for the Vue unit put me off. This unit I will hopefully hang off my server at home to grab data.

Anyone have any idea of the range of the wireless unit from the sensors?

Lumi · 23-06-2014 6:17pm

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Anyone have any idea of the range of the wireless unit from the sensors?

450 feet in open ground according to the manual

KeRbDoG · 23-06-2014 7:13pm

Lumi wrote: »

450 feet in open ground according to the manual

I like this odds! Thanks for the info

joujoujou · 24-06-2014 1:38pm

Open ground vs. obstructions: I have additional display in a shed, approximately 30 metres away from transmitter.

And six concrete walls between.

No problem at all.

delw · 27-06-2014 10:09pm

Any one purchase one of these before & if so is it any use?
weather station.jpg

left_behind · 31-07-2014 9:48pm

Just bought an aercus weather station ws3038.
weather station

I have no connection for the outdoor temperature and outdoor humidity.
I have tried resetting rechecked connections and batteries.

The wind and uv working no prob.

joujoujou · 01-08-2014 12:23pm

Yet another FineOffset clone.

More than likely it's transmitter unit (outdoor thing with batteries in) is faulty.

rochestown · 08-10-2014 12:15pm

Can anyone recommend a weather station that will connect with my home WiFi and can be accessed on my Android phone?

Something reasonably priced fort a beginner...

Thanks.

Meteorite58 · 08-10-2014 8:59pm

Don't know much about this but maybe worth checking out....

http://www.amazon.com/Netatmo-Weather-Station-Android-Devices/dp/B0095HVAKS

tylercollins · 09-11-2014 12:52pm

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.

10733963_1505782316351288_6033637991347210460_n.jpg?oh=ca96c5dd002fb7af7c3fa104a68924a1&oe=54E50F64&__gda__=1424553053_240db27f95a1d6fd75480be3948e7898

10733963_1505782316351288_6033637991347210460_n.jpg?oh=ca96c5dd002fb7af7c3fa104a68924a1&oe=54E50F64&__gda__=1424553053_240db27f95a1d6fd75480be3948e7898

1920306_1505782656351254_5805280738655225726_n.jpg?oh=360e1a56476484962616d40a00d7312a&oe=54EB549E

Robxxx7 · 13-11-2014 1:18pm

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 · 13-11-2014 1:27pm

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 · 13-11-2014 3:19pm

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 · 13-11-2014 5:45pm

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 · 13-11-2014 6:05pm

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 · 13-11-2014 6:10pm

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 · 13-11-2014 11:52pm

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 · 14-11-2014 10:10am

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 · 14-11-2014 3:13pm

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 · 14-11-2014 9:02pm

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

kenmc · 15-11-2014 12:07am

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 · 19-11-2014 10:45pm

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 · 19-11-2014 11:22pm

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 · 19-11-2014 11:57pm

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 · 10-12-2014 12:13pm

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 · 10-12-2014 4:48pm

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 · 26-12-2014 1:32pm

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 · 26-12-2014 7:35pm

pywws is what I use, well supported

Strangegravy · 29-12-2014 3:45pm

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?

PERSONAL WEATHER STATIONS: Queries and Advice

Comments