Weather gadgets

[washman]

In addition to enjoying doing laundry with my SQ, I have, for a number of years now, liked weather and weather stations. I went through a few over the last 15 or so years, the last one being a LaCrosse Tech weather station with wind, rain gauge, and direction. It lasted all of a year before the outdoor unit literally crumbled in the toxic W Pee Ay environment.

In the pics is a basic Oregon Scientific w/ Atomic Clock and forecaster.

The piece of resistance however is the Acurite unit. I got this directly from Chaney Instrument with they had introductory price of 54.99. While it lacked an Atomic clock, it does have a power adapter w/ battery backup thus no need to change batteries every so often. It xmits at 433mhz and has decent range for my use. It did not "auto learn" the baro pressure to be accurate enough, so I manually adjusted it to local NWS settings. It does a pretty decent job of predicting weather. It also has an auto diming backlight feature that dims at 9 PM then comes on bright at 7, I think.

Also you will notice some white thing under a rather strange tree. That is the weather pagoda I got from ambient weather. Being these are homeowner weather stations and thus lack sufficient protection from the elements, I found out the hard way having something like this is the way to go. It is plastic and the reason I mounted it under the weird bush like that is because it is literally the only place I can place it where it does not get inflamed temps from the heat radiating off the brick wall of my condo. The pagoda is 7 plates, I think, and offers ample air flow while at the same time keeping drenching rains off the outdoor sensor.

I got one for dad and it is quite humorous in sunny S. FL where it switches several times a day from sunny to t-storm in the forecast screen! Nary a day goes by w/o some kind of rain or storm however they are brief in duration.

 

[whirlcool]

We like weather stations too. We've had them for years.

Three years ago we bought a LaCrosse unit as well. The TOL wireless model. The problem with these units is that they are very cheaply put together. Our first wireless solar windspeed/direction died at 4 months because there was no sealant around the solar panel at the top of the unit. The rain would drip in on the circuit board shorting it out. We exchanged that for a new one and I used silicon sealant around the solar panel. The unit lasted 18 months more before it died.
The outdoor sensor that senses temp/humidity just died a few weeks ago. The rain guage died last summer. The system worked well enough, but it was just too cheap.

We plan on upgrading to a Davis station soon. Those are much more rugged. But you will spend $$$$ on them.

 

[circlew]

Got one a few years ago, but the outside unit went bad after a while. I still use the inside part with thermometer, hygrometer and clock.

 

[mattl]

I've got a few too. One I really like has a projector that shines the time and temp on the ceiling, actually it have a second similar version that both feed off the same temp/humidity sensor. I bought a unit that had two sensors, temp/humd and wind speed and direction, but both faild quickly, ate batteries like candy.

The other day I picked up a three in one unit for $19 marked down from $79. It ok, but I wish it has a backlight. At some point I'd like a good unit that does it all including rainfall, but never see one at a good price for my budget.

 

[rockland1]

Weather

Home weather stations are very nice. Davis has a weather site "Weather Link Network" that
reports on weather stations across the country. I am very fortunate that the unit in our area is less than a mile away.

 

[chachp]

How do these devices communicate with the weather station?

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I have always been curious about this.  My sprinkler system has a feature where there is a sensor in the yard that somehow communicates with "weather" whatever that means.  </span>

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: 12pt;">It is always adjusting run times based on current weather conditions.  On days rain is predicted I can see in the display where is has turned on the rain delay in advance.  It also has a rain gauge that will shut the sprinklers off if it starts raining while they are on.  The rain gauge makes sense to me because it's something that will get wet when it rains but I don't understand how the rest of it works.  It is battery operated and I'm told the battery is good for 5 years.  We added this feature a couple of years ago so the battery is still good as far as I know.  I think it will tell me when the battery is low.  I'll have to look at it.
</span>

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Since it's been so hot the past few weeks I have noticed how they appear to be running longer than what they were running before.  I wonder if these all use the same kind of technology?</span>

 

[tolivac]

I have seen and installed such weather devices in radio stations-usually in the main air studio-The DJ looks at the device and tells you the weather.We used to have one here at the transmitter site-can't remember the brand-Had a logo of an owl on it-the machine measured temp,humidity,wind speed,direction and so on.It got taken out by a bad thunder storm-both me and another operator jumped out of our skins when the "owl" took a lightning hit-blew the thing up with a LOUD bang!The wiring from that now feeds a simple windspeed meter.It has weathered several storms and a few hurricanes-the wind meter sometimes is PEGGED by the wind from a hurricane!!The weather units I installed at the radio stations were usually Heathkit-they were pretty good and accurate-easy to read and use-install.

 

[petek]

Bobcats lickin agin the grain, come that night its likely to rain.
Rooster crows before he goes to bed he'll wake up with a soggy head

 

[kb0nes]

How do these devices communicate with the weather station?

Well first off you have to get the data from the outdoor sensors to the indoor unit. This is done either via radio or hardwired depending on the brand. Most of the consumer stations will use the low power 433Mhz FCC Part 15 band. Higher end like Davis Instruments use 900Mhz spread spectrum telemetry which is FCC licensed and higher power. The most rugged weather stations are the Peet Brothers models and they are generally hardwired although they may offer some wireless options by now. One issue with wireless sensors is they need power from somewhere, often a small solar panel.

Once you get the data from the outdoor sensors to the indoor unit then you can share it with the world via the Internet. Again this can be either wired or WiFi. Some systems are stand alone and don't require a running PC to handle the data before feeding it up to the Internet.

One of the best resources for accessing personal weather station data is via Weather Underground. They maintain a large network of weather stations claimed to be 32,000 worldwide. Unlike the Davis WeatherLink network the Weather Underground system embraces most weather hardware and is totally free. I have several friends that are part of the Wunderground personal weather station network. There are a lot of Hams that run home weather stations. Many feed weather data out over the amateur radio APRS network as well as the Internet.

Sorry you asked yet? lol

 

[arbilab]

Weather Underground also links to nearest NWS where you can view what NWS is saying to all the TV station weathermen (oops, persons). If you read it, be patient with yourself. It will look like gibberish at first until you become familiar with the terms and correlations. Give it about a month. After all, the guys (oops, persons) this is written for went to 4 years of college to understand it.

Weather is largely elementary fluid physics and LOTS of observations. Pressure and thermal gradients, that kind of stuff. If you make boiled eggs you have a headstart. You don't have to know the impact of the parameters, NWS will explain those once you catch on to their lingo. Fantastic learning opportunity if you're really interested.

 

[whirlcool]

I use the Weather Underground too. There are stations all over our area. Probably 30-35 of them. One block alone has three of them. So as a storm front comes through I can monitor it's progress just by looking at stations along its path.
In college I had to take 12 hours of Meteorology as part of the flying curriculum.
That has always came in handy.

 

[jerrod6]

I have a Davis Vantage Pro.  The sensing unit is outside and uses a solar panel to recharge the battery.  The battery lasts a little over two years using this solar panel. It can also be hard wired but I didn't want to bother with running electric to it.

 

It communicates wireless to the base in my dinning room. The base has a USB connection for my PC. My PC then has the software installed to download the weather statistics to a file so that you can create charts and graphs and print reports.  The software will also let you publish a web site to weather underground so that people can log on and see the weather in your area.  There are several around my area, but I chose not to do this because I would have to keep my PC running all the time

 

I've had my station since 2010 so there are probably better ones available now. 

 

[philr]

I also like weather gadgets. I recently got the one I wanted most (in fact, I needed two incomplete ones to make a good one) but I haven't used it yet! If I ever get a 1961 house, I'll have to find a use for it!

 



 

 

 

[twintubdexter]

I saw one of those Honeywell "Weather Station" HVAC controllers for sale at a flea market in San Jose many years ago, in a box with tons of wires and of course no instructions. There was some sort of sensor thing that apparently went on the outside of the house. The thing I remember is that the sensor had one of those very cool names printed on it...Comfort-Tron or Weather-Tron or something like that. It's a very nice thing to have even if you don't ever install it.

 

[philr]

One of them was new-in-box but had a missing outdoor thermometer and remote thermostat attachment.  The other one was a salesman demonstration kit in a carrying case that has been damaged in transport. With both, I was able to make a complete one.

 

The exterior temperature sensor on this one is just a probe like those for oven thermostats with a very long capillary tube.  Maybe there was some sort of cover for it but I don't have it. 

 

At the very same time I bought this on eBay, there was another brand new-in-boxes complete Honeywell Weather Station but the asking price was quite high and it did sell to someone else after a while. I haven't seen another one on eBay since. 

 

The clock can be set for a night setback of the system just like in my programmable thermostat from the same period (other pictures). 

The remote thermostat for the weather station uses a mercury switch but there's no direct adjustment for it. The adjustment is done by a potentiometer on the control panel. I don't know exactly how it works...

 

The programmable thermostat on the second picture still uses the old style bi-metal strips and contacts. 

 

[jerrod6]

PhilR

 

I like the dials and hands on that weather station.

 

[tolivac]

The Honeywell system is kinda like those I have seen in radio stations.Nice unit!

 

[sudsmaster]

I have a few Oregon Scientific battery operated units. One I rely upon to tell me the temperature outside (in the yard, in the shade), and inside the enclosed patio, and of course inside the house. Although there is a barometer reading as well, I usually ignore it, because the weather in the SF Bay Area is so affected by the Pacific Ocean that predictions of rain may mean it will rain 25 miles out to sea but not on land.