Outdoor weather station recommendations?

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rmt38

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#198986 30-Jul-2016 11:52

Anyone got one that they're happy with? I'd prefer not to have some tablet gadget that comes with it which acts as another custom display inside. Ideally, something I can connect to via wifi and can download the data for, generate my own graphs.. or set off an alarm if it gets cold enough to freeze the pipes.

I had some cheap tesa thing that was bought in dick smith, and died the other night, but am considering something less locked down and inaccessible.

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#1601301 30-Jul-2016 12:03

Here is a bit of a guide if you want something that can display on "youweather" on Metservice

http://about.metservice.com/our-company/your-weather/compatible-weather-stations-and-software/

richms

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#1601303 30-Jul-2016 12:07

Ive bought several cheap wireless ones and they are all crap. Wireless drops out and needs a resync _all the time_ which is absurd. The button is on the thing on the roof for one, and the other I have to take the batteries out and put them back in the outside part. When they are on a pole on the roof that is wonderfully fun.

It seems that if the base misses more than a few transmissions they just give up, or else have lost sync with the timeing of them. Its still transmitting, can see it on the RTL-SDR waterfall every 50ish seconds.

Richard rich.ms

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#1601313 30-Jul-2016 12:26

@sbiddle has one at home I think... Paging Mr Biddle.

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richms

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#1601315 30-Jul-2016 12:30

As does @zollymonsta too I think?

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sbiddle

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#1601331 30-Jul-2016 13:11

I have an Acuweather device. It's a nice unit with an Ethernet adapter but is really designed to be an all in one solution rather than allowing easy access to data from 3rd party apps.

Oregon Scientific or Davis aren't cheap, but are probably the best brands overall.

rscole86

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#1601334 30-Jul-2016 13:21

I am using a variation of the Fine Offset WH1080 or WH1081, cannot remember which. It was great for the first year, I used Cumulus by Sandaysoft to collate the data and spit it out to my own domain, along with WOW, Weather Underground and PWS.

However I would not recommend it, you get what you pay for, and it has been terribly unreliable since to the point I really should throw it in the bin.

Using Cumulus with WOW will allow your data to be available on the metservice your weather page. Cumulus has been running fine on my WHS2011.

AFAIK Davis and Oregon Scientific are the better brands, as sbiddle mentioned, and most(all?) models will work with Cumulus.

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Handle9

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#1601337 30-Jul-2016 13:32

If you are really keen Vaisala make the best weather stations on the market. We use one on an infrastructure customer site in an extremely aggressive environment and they are great with no moving parts.

You have to be really keen to spend $5k on one though

frankv

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#1601351 30-Jul-2016 13:54

If you want to roll your own... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sunair/diy-weather-on-your-raspberry-pi-weather-weather/description

afe66

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#1601353 30-Jul-2016 14:03

Davis vantage pro 2 since 2006 but yes you pay for it.
Suck data out via serial cable to nuc running weather display software.
Www.kags.net

You can see that front that hit Dunedin a couple of hours ago.

A

ZollyMonsta

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#1601415 30-Jul-2016 18:29

richms:
As does @zollymonsta too I think?

Yeah I have a cheapie WH1080 or something from TradeMe.
As reliable as a bucket full of holes.

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#1601462 30-Jul-2016 21:51

I've been using an Oregon Scientific weather station (WMR200a) for a couple of years no problem so can vouch for them. That said it is a tablet gadget thingee inside the house, though I use a RFXCOM device to pick up the data in parallel (it sends on 433mhz). Software wise like others I use Cumulus and then a bunch of custom scripts/code to tie in other data such as home sensors and lightning strike data.

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richms

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#1601501 31-Jul-2016 04:49

ZollyMonsta:
richms:

As does @zollymonsta too I think?

Yeah I have a cheapie WH1080 or something from TradeMe.
As reliable as a bucket full of holes.

Looks like the same outside part I have on one of mine. I have been meaning to get around to recieving the transmission on a raspi as I have seen others do but when it works I think it is no very accurate anyway so not sure if its worth it TBH.

Richard rich.ms

rmt38

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#1601504 31-Jul-2016 07:38

Shimmer:

I've been using an Oregon Scientific weather station (WMR200a) for a couple of years no problem so can vouch for them. That said it is a tablet gadget thingee inside the house, though I use a RFXCOM device to pick up the data in parallel (it sends on 433mhz). Software wise like others I use Cumulus and then a bunch of custom scripts/code to tie in other data such as home sensors and lightning strike data.

Good news. My WS1151 has gone from all lit up, lcd filled up with beeping to normal again, with a change of batteries. But I see your 433mhz reference, and I see that it also transmits on that. So now I think looking into picking up the signal and recording the data sounds like the next step, rather than upgrading.

A quick google tells me that you can get a $2 receiver, but the problem is processing the signal which is why people buy the rfxcom for $120US. Anyone know of any cheaper receiver solutions?

DS248

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#1601978 1-Aug-2016 00:30

We have an Aercus WS3083, which is a re-branded Fine Offset instrument. Quite common though - quite a few NZ weather forum members seem to use them. A bit more 'up-market'(!) than the WS1*** ones mentioned above but is still definitely a 'low end' weather station (~$240 on TM). One brother also has one. They do come with a console, which initially I was not really wanting. But they are very easy to connect to PC / internet via a router. Have our own websites, plus feed to WOW. Aercus do now have an online only version. But the console does mean we get inside temp & humidity etc, and occasionally it is convenient for a quick glance at current weather readings, if not working on PC etc at the time.

Initially (~2 yrs ago?) I used Cumulus, which was fine but at the time it only came as a Windows version, which meant having to run on my PC. Not so great for 24/7 feed to the internet. Really need that for sites like WOW (or even for checking our weather while travelling etc).

Now running WeeWx on an RPi. Have customised WeeWx a bit: added extra table for 'Yesterday', including total solar radiation for the day; a bit of colour coding in the tables (highs red, lows blue), made the main charts show 3 days rather than the default 24 hrs (I like to get a bit of context), customised the chart axes, and a few more things like that (http://cotlandslodge.com/Weather/index.html). All credit for customisation to one of my sons! Could do with some improved eye candy but I am mainly interested in the info.

Customisation is a plus for WeeWx over Cumulus but WeeWx is a bit basic. Cumulus is more polished but has limitations.

A few comments on the instrument itself:

When I first got it it seemed rather flimsy. I initially doubted it would last the first big blow. To my surprise no storm damage so far but we are in a sheltered location (surrounding trees!). Wind speeds typically half to one tenth those at my brothers place 20min drive away. His still survives but has only had it set up a few months.
For such a cheap instrument quite impressed by some aspects. Temps seem surprisingly accurate - providing no direct radiation! eg. during the night or on a cloudy day, can have 4 - 6 local sites showing the same temperature on WOW (incl. a Met Office one).
Biggest problem I have (at least till recently) is that the solar shield is hopeless in our situation. When the sun hits on a sunny day, we get a very sharp jump in outside temperature. Seems typically about 4deg C too high if suns rays are on it, occasionally even higher. Had intentions to roll my own solar shield but have never got around to it (life too short). For a long time I wondered why there were not more complaints about this. The solar shield seemed hopelessly inadequate. But to my surprise, when my brother set his up (identical WS) he did not have anywhere near the same problem - temps perhaps 1 deg too high if that. Now seems the sheltered environment at our place may be the main culprit. The wind sensor is not set up at 10m height but then the temp sensor is not meant to be that high (should be 1.2m IIRC). Anyway, I am interested in conditions we experience, not Met Office standard info. Wind speed (not gust) rarely exceeds 1m/s and often is near dead calm from say 10pm to perhaps 10am. Many days it seems like just local eddies due to solar radian. (The last few days not good examples - has been quite windy much of the time). I now suspect that even a higher end instrument such as a Davis VP2 may not do much better unless it had an aspirated solar shield (10x the cost of the WS3083). Because of the shelter, wind direction is often meaningless here - wind vane sometimes spins faster than the anemometer cups!
Have had problems with the rain sensor, most of which would be common to any station short of a Vaisala or similar (still waiting for lotto); eg. bird dropping blocked the hole; then a spider decided to built a nest full of baby spiders under the tipper (applied residual type fly spray to the inside after that); then a small snail decided to take shelter in the same place! But two more serious problems: (1) the rain sensor seems prone to occasional stray readings (eg 150mm, or even 12,000mm in one hour), which has happened half a dozen times or so. Not easy to fix the stray readings in WeeWx. Messes up plots and averages etc; (2) then in the last couple of weeks the rain readings seem too low (know this because I still take manual rain gauge readings due to the stray readings issue). Previously the two sets of rain readings were generally remarkably consistent.
The solar radiation readings have degraded. On a bright clear day solar radiation reading is significantly lower than equivalent initially (& than reading from brothers station). Slight discolouration of the plastic cover does not seem sufficient to explain this so I suspect the PV cell has degraded?
We did experience quite a few wireless drop outs initially. Replacement battery improved it for a while, then got a few more intermittent drop outs. About 6 months ago I decided to replace the batteries in the outside sensor unit with good quality lithium ones. Has behaved well since then, only about two brief drop outs that the system recovered from by itself. Problem is drop outs can result in stray readings. Can see this in the 'Year' charts - 5x over the last year the daily low temp dropped to zero (& are corresponding spikes in the max gust speed. Actual max gust rarely exceeds 8m/s). I suspect the 'drop out' in early Jan may be when we last changed the battery in the outside unit.

I probably can replace the rain and solar sensors but at this point an upgrade may make more sense. A cost justification issue, plus as above I suspect I would need an aspirated solar shield to get reliable temp readings here. Cost for that could be half the cost of a Vaisala system? Hmm ...?

mattwnz

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#1601983 1-Aug-2016 01:29

I've got one of these

http://store.oregonscientific.com/asia/wmr88-wireless-professionnal-weather-station-with-usb-upload.html

Pretty good for the price, and you can keep it connected to a PC, and download the figures as an excel file. The PC software it comes with is pretty crap though. I wouldn't consider it a professional station, more for an enthusiast. They are a good reliable brand I have found, as I have an interior weather station by them, that is over a decade old.

It really all comes down to your budget and what you want it to do.

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