Looking for wireless weather station

quicksandfarmer · Jan 21, 2015

PandDLong said:
I've had an Acurite for 3-4 years. One of their Pro 5-in-1 weather stations. While I've been pretty happy with it, two of the anemometer cups recently broke off (it just looks like the plastic got too brittle with age) and in the last year the temperature reading has started to lag reality on occasion (eg. as the temperature drops in the evening it is still showing warm afternoon temps). I never found the forecasting to be very accurate but perhaps that is a function of my locale.

So it is probably time to replace. As per the other posters, I may go back to Acurite and just recognize I may need to replace the unit every few years but the outlay each time is pretty reasonable. But two features I'd like to get with the next unit is:

1. Data logging. I want to be able to look up recent history - particularly rainfall where my current unit tells me how much rain has fallen in this "event" and in the month but not in the last week or in the last "event". Of course once I had data logging I would think of more uses for it. Looks like this feature is available, so I am sure I will get it.

2. Snowfall. Living in the north, how much snow and/or rain equivalent is pretty useful information for half of the year. Do any units measure this?

Weather! Always something to talk about and being the local micro-climate expert is nice.

I just bought the 5-in-1 with internet bridge and it does logging. If you already have the 5-in-1 you can buy the internet bridge alone for about $75.

forestcreature1 · Jan 21, 2015

OH OH OH!!! I forgot to tell you about my MOST ACCURATE WEATHER STATION!

You get a medium sized rock and some string.... (why yes, I actually do have an assigned NWS id number)

RedNeckGeek · Jan 21, 2015

B7510HSD said:
The Davis Vue can be had for around 257.00..

Looks like the prices are going down. Best price I could find in January of '13 when I bought my Vantage Vue was $286.95 plus another $148.50 for the WeatherLink.

If I'da known it would take me a year to get around to putting the thing up, I'da held off on the purchase, too.

Country Geek · Jan 21, 2015

I wouldn't worry too much about logging. Just sign your unit up on weatherunderground.com and let them do the logging. They do a good job and also can produce pretty good reports pretty easily.

B7510HSD · Jan 21, 2015

fordmantpw said:
The Davis unit does not come with internet connectivity for $257. There is an extra charge for that.

That is true I home brewed mine for $18 and some guys sell the ones they make a lot cheaper the the OE ones..

fordmantpw · Jan 21, 2015

If anyone is interested, here is a link to my station on weather underground: Linky

It was completely painless to set up. Put a pole in the ground, made sure it was level, attach the 5 in 1 sensor, turn everything on inside, link it up online, and voila!

Scooby074 · Jan 21, 2015

B7510HSD said:
That is true I home brewed mine for $18 and some guys sell the ones they make a lot cheaper the the OE ones..

I like your Beachhouseweather website, particularly the Virtual console. Nicely done.

Any info on your home brew USB dongle? Im set up now, but it would have been nice to have several years ago instead of paying for the official Davis version.

HeLa · Jan 21, 2015

fordmantpw said:
If anyone is interested, here is a link to my station on weather underground: Linky

It was completely painless to set up. Put a pole in the ground, made sure it was level, attach the 5 in 1 sensor, turn everything on inside, link it up online, and voila!

cool. can't wait to get mine!

B7510HSD · Jan 21, 2015

Scooby074 said:
I like your Beachhouseweather website, particularly the Virtual console. Nicely done.

Any info on your home brew USB dongle? Im set up now, but it would have been nice to have several years ago instead of paying for the official Davis version.

Thank you!
I will have to look thru my mess not sure if I still have the plans around or not the one I built is on the RentonWeather.com site I have the VP2 at this location and the different console online as well...Lots of fun playing with the sites at times..Wxforum is where I found my plans to build mine if I remember correctly..

Complete Turf Care · Jan 22, 2015

Are any of these weather stations 'portable'?

For example, each year I have jobs that could be 100 or more miles away from me, and will last about 3 months. It would be nice to put a station at the job site that I could monitor from my office, but that I could easily remove and move on to the next job.