Weather station -- update

[Ed Pawlowski]

I had everything on the Zephyr unit working but I was not happy with the outdoor temperature. Mounted on the pole, the sensor got too much sun and it would read high. So, I re-did everything.

Instead of the wood strip with the metal on top, I used a 10' length of 3/4" tubing as was used by Red Green. I mounted that against my deck rail with some straps and a block of wood drilled for the tubing and screwed into the deck. That gives me a total height of about 12' of the pole, plus the 8' height of the deck. Thee is a bit of sway so I'm going to keep an eye on it in strong winds. At that height, it may need a backer of a wood strip to stop the flexing.

Rainfall readings won't change, but the wind speed and direction may be a bit more realistic, but I'm not about to cut down 100 trees to get perfection. The temperature gauge is mounted on the side of the deck out of the sun. At 8" high, it should not be affected by the thermal mass of the ground either.

Forgot to mention, the wind direction module has the compass points marked on it. The first time I did not see them, but I managed to get it accurate by dumb luck. I still may be off a few degrees, but considering the location, it is close enough. The things you learns after reading the instructions!

The software is installed, but I've not done much with it yet. It does have historical data for all the features so it may be handy for rainfall. While not life changing, it will also tell me the high and low temperatures for the day. At times I'm curious how low it goes in the winter.

[IGot2P]

I must not have read your original post concerning your weather station but if you point your browser to

you will see the results of mine. It is a wireless La Crosse Technology unit and I have the inside base connected to one of our PC's and I have the software set to upload and update to the above URL every two minutes. I think that I currently have the wind sensor 32' off the ground. I just had a couple of large trees removed last week so the wind speed should be closer now. I also have a new, and supposedly better, wind sensor that I am going to install and at the same time I plan to raise the unit another 10' just for good measure.

Don

[Red Green]

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in news:loudnW3MyM2JOMfXnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Is the sway from the length leverage at the mount point at the bottom or is is the actual pipe itself flexing. If the latter, maybe for neatness a wood dowel inside the pipe length? The longer a single piece the better of course but not sure what the longest you can get at that small diameter.

8" or 8 feet? 8" I'd disagree but I think you meant 8' since you said the deck is 8' off the ground.

Uhhhh, yea... RTFM :-)

[Added "Zephyr" to Subject for added search detail]

Assume yours also came with a 2nd CD "Weather Display". Did you install that? If so, does it give some ooo and ahhhh that the supplied Easyweather Software doesn't?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Never thought about a dowel. I was thinking of putting a 1 x 3 and them clamping the tubing to it. Right now, the highest clamp is about3 feet or so, leaving 7' to flex. An 8' dowe l can do the job.

Yes, feet

The weather display give information such as: Maximum gust today Maximum gust last hour Maximum temperature (and time) Minimum temperature (and time)

It is essentially the same information but easier to find at a glance instead of going through the touch screen. There are also a few graphs showing the same information.

But wait, there's more. A right click will get you fire weather index, moon rise and set, tide predictions, bar graphs, and if you just click, you get a huge display with colorful dials giving real time info. The dials also have markers showing the min/max for the day. If nothing else, it is more colorful than the Easy Weather screen.

[Red Green]

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in news:loudnW3MyM2JOMfXnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Ed:

Even though I went over the manual maybe I missed something. It seems on the EasyWeather software display it constantly shows both my indoor and outdoor temp max & mins as the current temperature. As the temp changes, both indoor/outdoor max & mins follow.

The base station display of these is correct.

See:

What are you seeing?

[Ed Pawlowski]

I'm seeing the same except for the outdoor minimum that is reading 31.5F It has not been anywhere near that cold yet. The setup is minimal and I don't see any way of changing anything that would have any affect on the readings. I did clear all the data and I'll see tomorrow if it changes anything.

On the Weather Display software it is showing the proper temperature and the time it occurred. Only shows outdoor min/max though, unless you click and it opens another window with the rest of the information.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Problem solved. I went to

The latest version shows the min/max temperatures properly. It is an RAR file so you have to get the RAR software first to open and install the program. Quick and easy to do.

[Red Green]

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in news:SpSdnc-YnJLcZvzXnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Thanks Ed! I see that and downloaded it but do not have software to unpack. It looks like Rarlab has a trial version to unpack it.

As with you I'm sure, they sent an old crippled version 3.0 and the current one is 6.1.

Sidebar: We had a hell of a thunderstorm last night. Winds were up but not that bad, like 25mph. Enough to cause power irregularities. Station survived fine. Lightning all over the place. Was wondering about that copper pipe mast I put up. Thought I might be up for a Darwin award. No issues though...this time.

To be continued... :-)

[LouB]

I can't resist. Please notify us if you qualify for a Darwin award.

Lou

[Ed Pawlowski]

There is a link to the RAR software right below the weather software.

While it corrects the problems of the high/low reading being the same as the current temperature, it gives odd high and low marks that I've never achieved. The "record" temperature is in the unit itself. You have to go to the touch screen to reset the min/max for both indoor and outdoor temperature. They will go to the present settings and should adjust accordingly as time goes on.

[dpb]

Red Green wrote: ...

How can 25mph qualify as a "hell of a thunderstorm"????

Anything under 30 is just a gentle breeze... :)

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[Red Green]

dpb wrote in news:h3u5k2$nu3$ [e-mail]:

So, you can't have a thunderstorm without wind huh? Yes, I saw your ":-)".

To that I respond you go hold on to my copper pipe mast during it. After all, there is no thunderstorm! :-)

[dpb]

It's grounded, isn't it??? Maybe you can tie a kite string to it an see if can recreate Franklin???

Just reminded me of the TN/VA weather--saw more SLCs(1) that actually did nothing and the occasional t-storm w/ associated 45mph(!) winds would get written up in the paper as the mother of all storms... :)

Of course, 30-40 mph winds did more damage (particularly power lines/outages) there than 70+ typically does here because of all the trees and that they simply don't have the nearly continuous wind and severe t-storms that keep all the weak stuff cleaned out much more frequently/thoroughly.

Out here it's possible to have a mild t-storm that doesn't generate much wind, but w/o all the hills and trees to break it up near the ground there's typically a strong wind gust front associated w/ almost any t-storm of any respectability. Did have a little sprinkle yesterday afternoon training off an edge of a higher elevation jet stream that rumbled quite a bit w/ only a minor surface breeze that convinced me to quit working in the yard under the highest row of windbreak trees around, though... :)

A moderately frequent occurrence in TN was cattle in pasture seeking shelter under a tree being turned into steak-on-the-hoof... :(

(1) Scary-looking clouds...

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[Red Green]

dpb wrote in news:h3v748$12f$ [e-mail]:

That's what you holding it is for.

[Red Green]

LouB wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Well if a car antenna did the job for this woman I'd say my copper pipe

25 feet in the open above my roof says I'm sure to be nominated and in the top 3.

"The theory is the lightning struck this radio antenna at the front of the car..."