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Weather station advice / operation for a newbie!


Dr_G

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Hello everyone, My name is Garth, and I live in Sheffield, England. I am new to this forum, and I wondered if I could ask some advice? I have always been interested in meteorology, and have even made a few weather vanes and anemometers over the years. I fly model gliders, so it is good to know wind speed and direction!

Since my cobbled together instruments are now failing (or failed), I have been looking at getting a ‘proper’ weather station, and there is a bewildering array to choose from. Briefly, I would like the following primary features:

Wind speed

Wind direction

Outside temperature.

Barometric pressure.

Barometric pressure trend.

Forecast icon of some kind.

Secondary features would be:

Wireless - if at all possible (depends on accuracy and reliability).

Humidity – if possible

Inside temperature - if possible.

PC data recording - if possible.

I am not intending to leave the station connected to my pc permanently, if I had data recording I would anticipate downloading hourly data every 2 or 3 days or so. I would simply use this for my own records. I do not particulary want or need to display real time data on my pc, or upload data to a website.

I am looking at the Lacrosse WS1600, WS2300 or WS3600 stations, since these are the only ones within my price range.

I am getting very confused about the wireless transmission rates and apparent problems with under-reading wind speed and interference on these models. Could someone explain how wind speeds are achieved? Presumably by averaging a sample of readings over a time period, but is this sampling time period the same as transfer rate time?

Second question is how reliable are the sensors on these things, I’d hate to spend money on something that will pack up after a year. I fully understand that these are mass produced items which will have a finite life, but I simply cannot justify spending money on something of higher quality such as a Davis system.

These are the systems I am looking at:

The Lacrosse WS1600 is the cheapest at £95, but has by far the best wireless transfer rate of 4.5 seconds (with the new IT system), BUT it doesn’t have indoor temperature, or humidity, dew point or any pc connection. I do like the cup type anenometer though, because I think they are better for lower wind speeds.

The WS2300 is 8 seconds – even with a cable, but does allow download of data. No baragraph though. It is priced around £145.

Same 8 seconds cabled, with the WS3600, but I have heard bad things about the overall reliability of this model, and interference problems leading to winspeed and direction bugs. It seems however the most complete of the three. Price about £165.

Why isn’t there a model with all the features I want <_< I am drawn towards the WS1600 simply because it has most of the features I want, and also happens to be the cheapest. It is very annoying not to have an indoor thermometer though. How reliable is this unit??

So…which is best for me, or are there any alternatives for under £200? Any comments from the experts much appreciated!

Thnak You,

Garth Nicholson.

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Posted
  • Location: East Renfrewshire 180m asl
  • Location: East Renfrewshire 180m asl

If you could stretch your budget to around £300 you will be able to afford the oregon WMR928N which is very popular because of the number of features on it and it's cheaper than the best weather station(davis pro2) which a lot of people on here have and will be able to tell you more about it.

The first thing i would watch about choosing a weather station for measureing wind is the intervals at which it sends the data. There are some, i think they aere actually the la crosse ones, that only transmitted wind data every 10 seconds or so which isn't very good really. Some even only send the wind date every 58seconds. However if you get a wired station it willsend them at much more frequent intervals.

Actually for the WS3600

If the transmission is at 433 MHz, the recording is every 32 seconds (if the wind is more than 10 m/s) or every 128 seconds (if the wind is less than 10 m/s) or 10 minutes if the station fails to receive any data after 5 attempts in a row (all outdoor data readings will display “---“ except for the rain value)

Actually, just within your budget is the Oregon WMR112 which is the one i have. The only problem with it is that you cant connect it to your conmputer, however it is wireless has indoor temperature and humidity as well.

So i would go for either one of the oregons, the WMR928N if you can stretch your budget or the WMR112 should be around your budget <_<

Hope that helps.

EDIT: if it is for gliders you could look at some of the new handheld wireless weather stations?

http://www.meteorologica.co.uk/prodtype.as...PageHistory=cat

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Posted
  • Location: Scrabster Caithness (the far north of Scotland)
  • Location: Scrabster Caithness (the far north of Scotland)

well i run a lacrosse ws2300 and it does the indoor temp which is not displayed on y sebsite (my choice as the unit is sat in front of the window behind the curtain so strange anyway) this is what my display looks like direct from my site ....

weather.gif

i had problems with the windy thing but that was damp on the circuit board inside ... i took it down and dried it out then sprayed it with ignition sealant, seems to be doing the trick so far, i also changed the cable it comes supplied with to thicker cat 5 cable, and it was easy <_<

rain unit the reed valve went and it was replaced free of charge and postage refunded too so generally no complaints and it is coming up to 2 years use and up here i am very impressed! general maintenance 3 times a year should suffice to keep all the moving parts 'flowwing freely' should be enough :)

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Ross B, Paula,

Thanks very much for that info. Regarding the gliders, I really want to be able to look at the forecast option as well as the wind and direction. The flying slope is several miles from where live, so I'm always looking for westerly winds on average! A hand held unit wouldn't be much use at home. I have an old Dwyer wind meter for when I'm on site.

According to another post on this forum, I caould possibly cet a Davis Vantage Pro cabled, for about £330 from America. I would have to add tax to that, and maybe postage, but that would be my preference over the 928. I noticed the American website mentioned had a British branch as well - I wonder if they do discounts :)

Thanks again,

Garth.

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