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Looking for recommendations for a weather station
Main requirements
- ability to download/store data (automatically preferably, e.g. via api)
- multiple outdoor sensors
- rain and wind gauge
Not particularly bothered about viewing data in a phone app or whatever, just want to be able to log the data.
Davis Vantage Vue.
I've had mine for four years and it's been great.
Not sure of your budget though.
Agree by and large whichever Davis system you can afford. Looked at loads of cheaper options and nothing seems to tick all the boxes so have decided to wait until I can afford a Davis
Davis is probably a bit more than I want to spend.
I have a ClimeMET (rebadged by Maplins).
I run mine using a Raspberry Pi and PYWSS, which feeds onto Weather Underground.
https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/ISTIRLIN11
For you, plug a laptop into the base station, running something like Cumulus, and it does everything you want. I would love a Davis Pro system but their software is proprietry and everything costs a lot more than I can justify. My total spend was £100 including a pole.
Whatever you buy you will need to position it correctly and perform occasional maintenance: clearing spiders out of the rain gauge etc. I also clipped on some £5 ebay solar-powered fans to reduce solar effects.
Anyway - I'd ask a shop that specialises in this sort of thing: https://www.weathershop.co.uk/shop/brands/davis-instruments
Was just about to start a thread as I've been looking for the same thing, but found this.
I'd be happy to pay for a quality system like Davis, but my understanding from the weathershop pages is that to download the data via wifi you have to pay an on-going subscription, which seems crazy?
What I'd like is:
- Wifi, with a console read out
- Ability to download data in csv format (for home science with the kids, learning excel etc), ideally over wifi
- Temp, pressure, rain (not too bothered about wind, though might eventually put a sensor on the roof if we are up there for something else)
- Happy to pay for quality upfront, but don't want any on-going costs.
I'm heard mention of the Fine Offset - anyone with experience with that set-up? How would it compare to the Davis?
Do I want a weather station? 🤔 What are people actually doing (or plan to do) with this data?
The Maplin weather station I run is also known as a Fine Offset wh1080.
They are descent and spares are readily available. Quality is apparently lower than the Davis - but it was a fraction of the cost and mine is still working well after 5 years.
You need to think about the following:
Positioning is everything.
Solar radiation - solar fans help here ( a couple of £3 clip-on ebay jobbies). I did have a set up using a Davis solar fan (stolen from a discarded weather station retrieved from a construction site skip), but it stopped working.
Wind speed - gusts are notoriously difficult to capture.
Wind direction - my vane is a bit spinny (as they all are), not helped by distubance from the surround buildings.
Rain gauge - spiders move in every so often (every September!) and so I need to clean it out. .
The base station stores several weeks worth of data. You can download csv files from any weather software plugged in via a PC.
I run a Pi - that's the tempermental bit.