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Author Topic: Buying a Weather Station  (Read 9180 times)

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bailey_uk

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Buying a Weather Station
« on: February 24, 2011, 05:56:28 PM »
Appologies for being off topic but not sure where else to post and know you folks could hold an answer to my question!

Im interested in buying a 'Weather Station' to display current weather and to keep a log and download to a computer. How many of you guys use one?

I see there are lots of different ones on the market however none of them appear to offer support for Mac? Id prefer to have it connected to my Mac really.

Does anyone here have one, and maybe suggest one to suit? PC or Mac?

Thanks,

JB
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orkney

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Re: Buying a Weather Station
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2011, 06:51:57 PM »
Hello

We use the non-wireless  Davis instruments vantage pro 2 with Weatherlinkip. although it was quite expensive The quality is excellent and has stood plenty of gales for the last two years. We tried the "toy" ones they all broke after a few months The weatherlink IP connects the weather station to the router and allows access to current and download archive data to a computer. It also automatically uploads the data to the weatherlink website and gets automatically displayed on the website.

Andrew

tarbat

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Re: Buying a Weather Station
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2011, 06:53:50 PM »
I've been running a TFA Nexus for nearly three years now, and I would recommend it.  Any questions, just ask.  It's survived 90+ mph winds okay!!

http://www.tfa-dostmann.de/TFA2003_englisch/default.htm

Some links to previous discussions:
http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=1164.msg8760#msg8760
http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=4141.msg41648#msg41648
« Last Edit: February 24, 2011, 06:56:02 PM by tarbat »

sherlock holmes

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Re: Buying a Weather Station
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2011, 11:02:03 PM »
Hi Bailey_uk,
I also have the Davis vantage pro2 and have had it for aprox 3 years with no issues. Excellent unit!

Sherlock Holmes

bailey_uk

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Re: Buying a Weather Station
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2011, 10:36:51 AM »
Hey thanks for your replies..

Orkney & Sherlock - Looks an awesome piece of kit with great reviews but unfortunately about x4 my budget ;-)

Terbat - I had previously dismissed the Nexus as I was hell bent on having the system working with my mac, but on hindsight it appears that the mac options are very limited.

Read up on the Nexus and it does look great with top reviews. A few questions - How often is the data transmitted / updated to the base unit? i.e windspeed and rainfall? The reason I ask this is that on the product description on a few sites, it says that data is recorded every 5 minutes, upto every 24 hours? However on a screenshot of the software page 20 of this document http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDYQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tfa-dostmann.de%2FBedienungsanleitungen%2F35.1075_PC1.3_e.pdf&rct=j&q=tfa%20nexus%20weather%20station%20software&ei=EodnTZ78ItGbhQeOtemfDw&usg=AFQjCNHrB4uupFwHcceX031Le74GVNSpEQ&cad=rja it suggests every 5 seconds?

Is there anyway of having the data instantly update onto the PC or is the computer mainly for reviewing the previous collected data?

Thanks

James
« Last Edit: February 25, 2011, 10:41:38 AM by bailey_uk »
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tarbat

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Re: Buying a Weather Station
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2011, 11:35:54 AM »
How often is the data transmitted / updated to the base unit? i.e windspeed and rainfall? The reason I ask this is that on the product description on a few sites, it says that data is recorded every 5 minutes, upto every 24 hours?

It's user configurable between 5 minutes and 24 hours.  I have mine setup to record data to the internal memory every hour, as I'm really only interested in statistics on an hourly basis.  But the data displayed on the base station is real-time, and isn't affected by this aquisition cycle setting.  Each sensor has a cycle time, so the wind sensor sends data to the basestation every 33seconds for example.

Is there anyway of having the data instantly update onto the PC or is the computer mainly for reviewing the previous collected data?

Yes, if you leave the basestation connected to the PC (via USB), it constantly displays the current data on the PC as well.

I used to have mine connected to the PC all the time, but now prefer to have the base station out in the hall where I can see it easily, and once a week I connect up to my PC to download the data.  I then analyse the data using Excel to show monthly rainfall average, max/min temperature, maximum wind gust, etc.
« Last Edit: February 25, 2011, 11:39:18 AM by tarbat »

tarbat

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Re: Buying a Weather Station
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2011, 11:43:53 AM »
If you really need MAC support, then software that also works with the Nexus (and others) is also available for MAC I think.  Take a look at http://www.weather-display.com/

bailey_uk

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Re: Buying a Weather Station
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2011, 01:39:09 PM »
Excellent, thanks very much for that looks to be exactly what I need! Cheers
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