El cheapo weather station.

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

sorry Phil - i was looking at Rob's site

sorry Rob --- oh never mind - i think it is called old age

geoff

[StarLane]

Can someone please help me out on this question,

My question is, on top of the original box it has a sticker saying it operates at 433.9 Mhz, on the sides of the box where all the functions are listed it says it operates at 433 or 868 or 915 Mhz. Does the unit automatically change channels when another device nearby is using the same or similar frequency???????

The reason I am asking, I have a wireless door bell than also works at 433Mhz, didn't seem to be causing interference until today. Does the frequency of the weather unit change to avoid interference??? hence the different frequencies on the box.
Last night we had 2.7mm or rain (registered and displayed on screen last night), this afternoon it now says 1.8mm, displaying the 24hr mode at the moment, today was sunny no rain.
Is this interference from the door bell?
How can it delete some of a previous figure? Has anyone else experienced previously displayed data going missing????

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

don't think it would change automatically Paul
can't say as i have noticed anywhere that it could be manually changed either

funny you should say that it subtracted from the total though
i could have sworn when i was playing around with mine that i saw a smaller total than was there before , but only once mind.

geoff

[turbo_pascale (Rob)]

They sell them at different settings for different countries, I assume because of regulations in different countries.

Note on the back of the unit I have, it has the 433.9 printed on it (as it did on the sticker on the box).

There might be some way to crack it open and jig some switches (you'd have to do it at the sensor end too), but I'm not game to even attempt it. The entire thing seems a bit fragile to be honest.

I'd just get a new doorbell if it was that much of a problem. How many visitors do you get anyway?

I have to say that having the graph stay "good" for over a day now is very satisfying. I will now actually bother to try to "pretty up" the website it generates rather than the mess of stuff it generates by default.

Has anyone purchased the "live" version (I assume not given we've had headaches just getting it to work) It's much prettier, but I don't know if it's worth it given the 1 minute intervals between readings. For $25 odd, seems like a cheap way to get it looking pretty.

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

don't know that i will bother with the LIVE version either Rob

i think there is a lot more we can do with what we have - with a little creative html

geoff

[Ian Robinson]

My weather station is pretty cheap :

I look out the front and back windows - if it's cloudy - it might rain (I also note if the little black ants are climbing higher up - if they are it's definitely going to rain) , if it's sunny it probably wont .

If I go outside and it's warm , I smile , if it's cold , I go back inside unless I have to do something outside.

If I want to know what weather is likely tomorrow or later on the same day I go to the BOM and look at the charts , and I visit ABC's Weather Link and see where the radar says the rain is and what way it's going.

Costs me nothing.

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

and i guess we with the weather stations do all that too

but there is nothing like having TOYS to play with

geoff

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

Rob

don't speak too soon

have you lost your wind direction and speed on the graph ?

geoff

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

and i think convention say's the rain should be reset at 9am in aus and nz
not midnite

geoff

[turbo_pascale (Rob)]

Originally Posted by GTB_an_Owl

Rob
don't speak too soon
have you lost your wind direction and speed on the graph ?
geoff

Gonna go give it a spin now for laughs.

Originally Posted by GTB_an_Owl

and i think convention say's the rain should be reset at 9am in aus and nz
not midnite
geoff

Why?

[turbo_pascale (Rob)]

Just no wind!

Admittedly, the sensor pole is just pushed in to the ground, and it wasn't quite level, so it may not be quite as easy to move from a dead stop. Plus, it was quite wet, so the added weight of the water sitting on it probably didn't help.

Jiggling the unit also seemed to register some rain (must have moved the bucket a bit). Seems to be working.

ps. have been reading the wd forum, and discovered the "onepagecustomtemplates.zip" file in the main directory. Will be fiddling with that one next. I agree that the LiveDisplay stuff is a bit restrictive, but it IS pretty.

I'm running the website off my main PC with IIS, so have no idea about PHP/AJAX etc. Will see how far I can go with a custom HTML page before I delve in to that.

My main thrust with this project will be to somehow put together local weather page for my astronomy purposes (linking in BOM weather images and other such stuff). I'd love to somehow get a cloud sensor going (the Boltwood one seems to be the only commercial product and it is priced based on this fact). There appears to be some documentation on a DIY solution on the net, but quite painful as far as I can tell.

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

AMAZING !

your last post took just 7 minutes to cop a listing on Google Rob

geoff

[acropolite (Phil)]

I look out the front and back windows - if it's cloudy - it might rain (I also note if the little black ants are climbing higher up - if they are it's definitely going to rain) , if it's sunny it probably wont .

A bit hard when you're interstate, at least with a weatherstation and WD you can check your weather from the net and see whether the roof has blown off...

BTW the latest version of WD seems rock solid so far for me. I've read on the WD forum that there seems to be a problem with readings as the WS1081 buffer fills. Clearing out the buffer seems to cure a lot of the funnies. Hopefully Brian will write something in to periodically clear out the buffer.

Rob if you want an easy cloud sensor why not get a $20 webcam and point it upwards, WD will support that.

[turbo_pascale (Rob)]

Originally Posted by acropolite

A bit hard when you're interstate, at least with a weatherstation and WD you can check your weather from the net and see whether the roof has blown off...

I had my station when my roof blew off, but it was still inside being tested. Kind of glad it wasn't attached to the shed at the time now, although it would have been interesting to see if it actually got the 100km/h+ winds registered

Originally Posted by acropolite

Rob if you want an easy cloud sensor why not get a $20 webcam and point it upwards, WD will support that.

(a) PC is in the house, wireless IP webcams cost LOTS
(b) would like to know about clouds when it is dark

USD$1500 for the Boltwood is just too steep. One project at a time though!

[KenGee (Kenith Gee)]

Hi All,
I'm working on a cloud sensor based on infrared temp sensor, it will be connected to my observatory pc via usb. Current results look good. Will write it up if it works. Am trying to to keep usb one under $150.

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

under $15 would be even better Ken

geoff

[turbo_pascale (Rob)]

Originally Posted by KenGee

Hi All,
I'm working on a cloud sensor based on infrared temp sensor, it will be connected to my observatory pc via usb. Current results look good. Will write it up if it works. Am trying to to keep usb one under $150.

I did a lot of research and found one unit that had USB output measured up to -40C which should do the job (but the only supplier was in the USA and it was not 100% guaranteed to do exactly what I thought it would. Plus, wasn't quite sure how to weatherproof it. Am very, very keen to see how you go.

Turbo

[snowyskiesau]

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

I'm still waiting for my replacement weather station to be delivered, it's been three weeks.
Last communication said that they were checking the returned unit, not sure why this would take three weeks though.

Finally! my replacement weather station was shipped today.
It took the supplier 2 weeks to decide it was faulty but at least that is sorted out.
Perhaps I'll have it set up in time to report some summer weather.

At least there has been time for you guys to sort out the software issues, thanks

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

new update available on their website
specific to our model

geoff

[acropolite (Phil)]

I've been running 10.37K build 00, it's fairly stable but seems to have a few spike readings that simply aren't there. Hopefully the last few bugs will be ironed out in this release.