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etaf

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    Placing a Weather Station

    in Weather stations and equipment

    Posted · Edited by etaf

    cannot see the left scale - so not sure if spike is 0.5C or more 

    see https://www.ecowitt.net/home/index?id=19826 

    you can change to different time scales - maybe last 30days 

    Just looked st the ecowitt and is it set to F which would change more i guess

    How long has it been in same location - just looking at month/weekly figures

    14:30 does seem to be highish in some/ most days - perhaps the sun position or ground reflection, but you are on grass 

    Placing a Weather Station

    in Weather stations and equipment

    Posted

    Quote

    That's great thanks. How do you find the temperature readings with it? 

    I'm not looking to be 100% accurate to be fair, BUT it does seem to correlate well with the BBC Weather for this area.

    SO on BBC weather its saying 10c and my temp 9.5c 

    and over the last 6mths , seems to match those readings , indoor is accurate as we have a mercury thermometer next to the sensor and they match OK too.

    BUT as i say , after various forums and advice from members like Mandrake I understood the sensor pack was always going to be a compromise, but for a Davies I was looking at £1500+ !!!!

    We also back onto a PARK and to the north of that a large field, and 0.5Km from the sea , with just bungalows between us and the sea. 

    • Like 1

    Watson W8686 Clone of HP2550 Fine-Offset

    in Weather stations and equipment

    Posted · Edited by etaf

    I used just some tie wraps around 

    I just deleted the photos the otherday, luckily they stay in deleted for 30days on photos app

    The tie wraps i purchased in Lidl when they had an offer on for various sizes in a pack. Before lockdown.

    two thicker ones around the rim and very thin ones sticking up - hopefully you can see the setup from the photo.

    Never seen a bird near it since putup in may 

    Screwfix/toolstation have various tie wraps available 

    I chose black only because it matched the rest of the setup

     

    1 - 1 (10).jpeg

    • Like 1

    Watson W8686 Clone of HP2550 Fine-Offset

    in Weather stations and equipment

    Posted

    Today , I setup the barometer correctly with a lot of help from another forum

    So my server updates for pressure should now be correct , based on METAR from goodwood airfield & my elivation of 6m based on various websites to get the correct REL prssure

    good fun so far m and unit has met all y expectations no limitations so far

    now reporting to the following servers , quite easy to setup

    I also have the ability to set a custom server to another service , so just looking at those

    PWS
    Ecowitt.net:https://www.ecowitt.net/home/index?id=19826
    Weathercloud:https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/ICHICH51
    WOW:https://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/observations/details?site_id=feda8d77-15a3-ea11-8b71-0003ff59b0d7
    https://app.weathercloud.net/d3476715338

    Watson W8686 Clone of HP2550 Fine-Offset

    in Weather stations and equipment

    Posted

    i have Now fixed the unit in its final (hopefully) position.

    cleared all the data and started again on the Web server sites

    Also managed to connect it to ecowitt.net & weathercloud 

    PWS
    Ecowitt.net https://tinyurl.com/ydhbdqhv
    Weathercloud https://tinyurl.com/yatfdmx7

    need to create a free account to view the data on Ecowitt.

    The Wunderground site just reports the unit as offline , not sure why 

    And WOW met office site, wont let me login , site seems to be down.

    E-Witt-W8686-ETAF

    the indoor temp gauge is very slow to respond, i have trie dout in fridge and also had the unit in a fridge in the garage about 50m away and it never lost connection, so very good 

    I have a BBQ 4x & weber instant thermometer which i'm comparing to

     

    PWS-Pos1.jpeg

    Watson W8686 Clone of HP2550 Fine-Offset

    in Weather stations and equipment

    Posted · Edited by etaf

    i have added the unit to ecowitt.net, very very simple to do 

    6554b6be8c0d829a8bf63ae0c82cf121_link.pn Ecowitt Weather

    WWW.ECOWITT.NET

    But you need to register an account to see the info, even though set to public, which i did not expect, hoped that just with the URL and ID irt would display

    I will have another play today 

    Indoor sensor is in the fridge , its very slow to respond been in for 50mins and still going down 

    I will test the rain meter

    Also put the indoor sensor in various location

    Re-site the sensors to hopefully their final position

    Screenshot 2020-05-30 at 06.57.18.png

    Watson W8686 Clone of HP2550 Fine-Offset

    in Weather stations and equipment

    Posted

    i thought i might provide some info / update on my new Weather station i have just received today (29th May 2020)

    I spent a few days doing a lot of research and had some great advice and links to information from members on another forum.
    And certainly was seriously considering the Davis Plus Pro2 but for various reason , Position , Price I stopped that, maybe if i get hooked in the future £1500
    So i decided on the Watson W8686 , a clone of the HP 2550 from Fine-offset / Ecowitt
    Ordered the Watson W8686 from nevada Thursday 28th May around 10pm


    And it arrived today around 2pm (although expectations were set it may take 2-3 days given covid situation).

    Wiped down, and cleaned all the box/weather station and took out the weather station today , rather then leave in quarantine for a day or 2 which we are doing

    I will be honest first impressions, were not that great as it seemed a bit cheap and plastically with a display screen much smaller than i had expected. BUT that's because i had been looking at £1500 worth of kit on youtube etc, i had watched a youtube video on the HP2550 and for some reason had an impression the screen was larger.

    The unit went together very well, once i got a magnify glass out to make sure i got the wind direction vane aligned.
    The mounting bracket is inserted into some small plastic lugs, which jaybe a weak point and these were pointed out on the youtube video.
    I also added some washers, nylon locking nuts and also used tie-wraps so if the thing does break away its at least tithed to the pole.

    Added the batteries to the sensor array, and I immediately got the flashing LED and then pulsing every 16 secs, (the sensor update time 16 seconds to console ) the indoor sensor gives 3 readings on its own display and worked immediately
    The console display I thought had battery backup , but it does not.

    Powered up the console and immediately started to get a reading from the outside array and then a few minutes later received the indoor sensor. The indoor sensor updates the console every 60 seconds
    All worked straight away, I have NOT tested the rain sensor yet, will do that tomorrow.

    Entered into the console setup and started entering the parameters I wanted , longitude/latitude had difficulty setting that as every website seemed to quote a - number, but sorted out in the end with help from google.
    connected to the wifi straight away, internet time etc , so very easy to set-up.

    looking at the manual, i can also add additional sensors , Soil moisture WH51, air quality PM2.5 WH41 & additional Temp/humidity sensors WH31
    and shows where on the display those items would appear, However, those extra sensors do not appear to be available in UK and shipping to UK is very expensive at the moment according to Ecowitt. Hopefully, Navada will get some in on their next shipment. I have emailed Ecowitt directly to get an idea of cost and availability.

    Really pleased with Weather Station, now its all up and running,
    Put the inside sensor in the garden in the shade and the difference in temp was 0.1C between it and the sensor array 4.5 metres up  in the sky.

    Wind direction is great and also shows a 10min average pointer and reading.

    Not sure what timescale the Hpa weather forecast differeence reads, its seems to be the difference from a maximum and was making sense compared to the MAX for the day , but now its changed , so will have to look into that further, Well it appears to compare the reading with 2hrs previously , still working on it , But that appears to be what it does , shows difference from about 2 hours.

    I will have a play over the coming days and see how it all works and then connect the unti to some websites and see how that all goes

    I have attached a couple of images, one where it is now on a pole in centre of garden for testing
    and then hopefully attached to a 6' 4x4 post about 2m above the conservator, should be rigid and the pole is in parts so i can remove for maintenance

    I may put some pins around the rain trap to stop birds sitting on it, or tirewraps / fishing wire , have to look into that tomorrow too.

    Some images of where th esensor is at the moment, where I plan to put it and the console display , which was one of the factors in buying as my wife like the easy to red dispoly and colour circles

    Anyway , I may post more to this thread as time goes by , hope it may help others thinking of buying a clone HP2550 or getting into Weather stations

    I may still end up down the Davis Pro2 Plus route some time in the future, once we see a benefit and i can locate the sensors in more appropriate places 

    WeatherSt-Console.JPG

    WeatherSt-pos.jpg

    WeatherSt.jpg

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