Buying a weather station

[wilderness]

If it's a REALLY special birthday then you can't go wrong with the Davis Vantage Pro 2, but you need to buy a data logger as well to connect it to a PC. These are big money but worth it. :lol:

Hi HebWX, I've looked at the price of the Davis and I don't think the family will see the birthday as that special

So how do I download the data from Benson EGUB?

thanks

Dave

[Budgie]

Hi Dave,

For Benson you go to:

Control Panel > FTP & Connections > Metar Download.

1. Turn on the main switch.

2. Select the ticky box marked "Use passive FTP", well it works for me.

3. Click on the button marked "Select Metar Download Folder" and choose where to put it. I suggest C:\Program\wdisplay\Metar if it's not the default.

3. Scroll through the list of Metars until you find Benson, select it and EGUB.txt should appear in the righthand window.

4. In the top left hand corner are the download time, I suggest just clicking on "Download Hourly" as they normally only get updated that often, and the download times will appear in the window next to the buttons.

5. Click "Test" and it should download the first Metar to the folder you specified.

Under the list of stations there are some other choices that will help you get that data into WD, the main one is the ticky box marked "Use this Metar to update Weather Display's data". You must set the WD to "Stationless" in Control Panel > Station Type & Settings.

Let me know how you get on.

Martin.

[wilderness]

Hi Martin, not sure where my previous reply went but here goes again.

Tried eveything you suggested but I don't get the EGUB.met file in the directory. The FTP log files show

*******list of files uploaded********

*******actual messages from upload session********

***Start Time/date***:20:30:06 02/03/2008

Permanent connection selected

Permanent connection, will do ftp now

Checking for what else to do...

there are 1 more things to do

Next file HTTP metar station download

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/observati...ar/decoded/EGUB

Downloading to :c:\wdisplay\metar\EGUB.met

final download setting=c:\wdisplay\metar\EGUB.met

Finished downloading metars

Finshed email agenda

Finished email agenda, no FTP items to do...

Doing abort procedure/program close...

and

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 20:30:08 02/03/2008

Time taken = 0.02 minutes

Total bytes uploaded = 0 K

Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb

Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb

Any ideas?

many thanks for your help

Dave

ps Is there any way of getting a bunch of historical information?

thanks again !!

[Budgie]

Well the FTP log is saying that it's downloaded it, no errors and no early closing, and it's put it here on your drive: c:\wdisplay\metar\EGUB.met.

Try going: View > Downloaded Metars - and switch the log ON (red switch in the top right corner of the window - should turn green), click OK and try another test in the Metar Download.

Once that's complete then go back into the Downloaded Metars log and see if anything shows up.

And no, I don't think there's a way to get historic data unless you want to pay for it, unless you've already got the logs from a personal weather station. :o

[wilderness]

Hi again Martin,

I've used a different Metar downloader which I pointed to the wdisplay\metar directory and got a downloaded file OK. It looks like this

EGUB|02/03/2008 11:13:01 PM|44.6|7|37.4|3|N/A|N/A|N/A|N/A|29.83|1010|230|8|KT|75|Mostly Cloudy|80|76

Does this look OK?

I'll keep trying with the downloader in Weather Display.

There are 2 small squares at the bottom of the main display just below the date & time, called Data Received and Data Quality. The Data Received is coloured red with a counter 10891 and rising. The Data Quality square is green. What is their significance?

cheers

Dave

Edited March 2, 2008 by wilderness

[Budgie]

That Metar data looks good to me.

In the Metar Download window, did you set the download directory? This tells the file where to go, so to speak, and you should have is set to c:\wdisplay\metar\ - not the location I posted above as I wasn't sure if Wdisplay wis in the program folder or not.

Now, as for the other stuff. Normally the two squares would be green but you've haven't got a station connected so one will be red (I think). The numbers that are changing are data packets that WD is receiving from somewhere, not sure where though.

Have you set WD to work "Stationless" (no weather station connected)?

If not then go to: Control Panel > Station Type & Settings > Stationless/WLK/Vortex/VMS - and click on "Stationless" then close the window.

In the Metar Download window, tick all the relivent boxes for using the data in WD.

Now to set your altitude: From the Control Panel, click Units & Other Settings and in the bottom righthand box, at the top, you'll see an area to put your altitude. You can also set the units you want WD to display in this area, once complete then click OK to save.

Now your position - Control Panel > Solar & Lunar Coordinates - Enter your latitude in the degrees, minutes & seconds boxes at the top and then click "Set Lat". Do the same for your longitude but tick the box to the right of the "Set Long" button if you're EAST of Greenwich. Now set your altitude again and click "Update".

At the bottom of this screen, make sure the date is correct, press the "Update" button next to the date and then OK.

There that should keep you going for now, next installment tomorrow.

Edited March 3, 2008 by HebWX

[wilderness]

Martin, the FTP download still seems a bit iffy. I have to press the "Test" button each time to get a download. It won't download each hour.

I've done the rest - thanks !

Dave

[Budgie]

Not sure why it's not downloading on it's own Dave.

I've done a bit of searching and there's a couple of things to check.

1. In the "Connections" page, check that the Main Internet switch is ON.

2. Also on the "Connections" page, make sure that there is a tick in the box for "Use Weather Display's own FTP", you'll find it under the "Host FTP Settings" area.

Then click on "Save Now" and OK to exit.

Maybe even click on Exit > Save & Exit - to close the program and restart. Sometimes a restart is what's needed.

If none of that works then try a search of the forum at http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php and see if you can find anything in there, maybe even post the problem as the author of the program is on there most day. :huh:

[wilderness]

1. In the "Connections" page, check that the Main Internet switch is ON.

Martin, That did the trick

Time to play ...

Many thanks for your help, I'll be back ...

Dave

[Budgie]

Glad you got it sorted.

Have fun!! <_<

[KevP]

i doubt very much that 99% of people here really need all the features that the Davis unit can provide.

[wilderness]

Hi again,

Looks like it will be the Oregon WMR928X. I couldn't persuade them that I was worth the Davis.

Martin, you mentioned in one of your posts about 1 wire systems. Does the Oregon support this as I would like to have a lightning detector.

Many thanks

Dave

[Mike Storm]

Hi Just brought a la crosse 2300 weather station from the Weather Shop in Eastbourne, I hope to get up on my roof tomorrow and mount the sensors! cant wait to start recieving some data

[Cookie]

I have just brought a new weather station

this one

http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/acatalog/in..._DI_6152UK.html

[Cookie]

it has arrived

[sunny scunny]

it has arrived

Nice one mate B)

[WhiteXmas]

Check out Lidl. They are doing weather stations for £14.99

I got one yesterday to see if it was any good and so good so far.

It gives temperature, humidity, 12 hour pressure trend, weather forecasts up to 8 hours in advance, moon phase, temperature history and times of sunrise and sunset. For only 15 quid it represents stunning value in my opinion. Seems accurate too.

Edited August 30, 2008 by WhiteXmas

[BARRY]

check this out,at argos you get all this for £64.99