Lark Ascending

..yes, it'll take a mast pole with a dia between 25mm-50mm (1"-2"). I've just attached the Watson W8686 it to a DAVIS 7716 weather-station tripod, which has a 32mm (1.25") diameter pole. I recommend these tripods, as you don't want to just insert an aerial pole in the ground as it'll wobble around way too much! (-triggering the rain sensor, among with other problems). In open ground get the 7716A - that has long threaded ground screws included. Otherwise fix an aerial mast to a fence post - something v.rigid without wobble.

This has a minimal workman-like console (that runs off batteries) and automatically saves 3 months of data within it - which you can then download. Aercus Instruments™ WS2085 Wireless Weather Station - Aercus Instruments WWW.AERCUSINSTRUMENTS.COM The WS2085 is the next generation in all-in-one wireless Professional Weather Stations. With its easy set-up and comprehensive weather information the WS2083 is a popular choice for commercial and home... Connect the console via USB to your PC you can see live data in the free Cumulus v1 (PC only) and EastWeather software (PC & Mac). In that software you can also set alarms for min/max values and see graphs. I think it's as close as you'll get to what you want. The outdoor sensor array (made by Fine Offset) is tried and tested - as reliable as is feasible under £500 (and far better than most other offerings!). It's a really great WS. Hope that helps!

I just replied to someone else looking for a ~£200 WS. The Bresser's are not really from a very good stable, I would not advise to chose them. I do though 100% recommended the Watson W8686. I'll copy my response here as I think it's valid for you also... Watson W8686 Weather station with Colour screen and WiFi: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK Great prices on your favourite Gardening brands, and free delivery on eligible orders. or direct from the seller... Watson W8686 – NEW! – Nevada Radio WWW.NEVADARADIO.CO.UK It's maybe at the top end of your budget but is such a great WS - and the display it one of the most advanced out there - displaying clear full-screen graphs from all the sensors. It saves data every 5 minutes by default (can be change to shorter or longer) the internal memory contains months of data and can be backed-up on a mSD card. Live data can be pushed to Wunderground (who I do not like at all), WeatherCloud (who I like a lot) and Ecowitt (who I like a lot and have professional visuals / graphs). I've just ordered some soil sensors and a lightning sensor for it! (-you can also add additional internal temp/humidity sensors, air quality and leak detector). Truly a great WS, could be priced at 4 times it's current and still be great deal value. As others have said these WS all come out of Fine Offset (OEM - HP2550, and appear in different countries as : Ecowitt HP2551, Froggit HP1000SE-PRO, Ambient Weather WS-2000). Ecowitt is taking much of the lead on additional sensors and firmware - and are a great company. For £190 you will be chuffed at the Watson W8686 - get it!

Hey I see you are not so far away from me - up in Norfolk. I 100% recommend.. Watson W8686 Weather station with Colour screen and WiFi: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK Great prices on your favourite Gardening brands, and free delivery on eligible orders. or direct from the seller... Watson W8686 – NEW! – Nevada Radio WWW.NEVADARADIO.CO.UK It's the top end of your budget but is such a great WS - and the display it one of the most advanced out there - displaying clear full-screen graphs from all the sensors. It saves data every 5 minutes by default (can be change to shorter or longer) the internal memory contains months of data and can be backed-up on a mSD card. Live data can be pushed to Wunderground (who I do not like at all), WeatherCloud (who I like a lot) and Ecowitt (who I like a lot and have professional visuals / graphs). I've just ordered some soil sensors and a lightning sensor for it! (-you can also add additional internal temp/humidity sensors, air quality and leak detector). Truly a great WS, could be priced at 4 times it's current and still be great deal value. As others have said these WS all come out of Fine Offset (OEM - HP2550, and appear in different countries as : Ecowitt HP2551, Froggit HP1000SE-PRO, Ambient Weather WS-2000). Ecowitt is taking much of the lead on additional sensors and firmware - and are a great company. For £200 you will be chuffed at the Watson W8686 - get it!

I updated to firmware v1.6.9 from Ecowitt, all ok no problems. The name of the station is still W8686. I wish the display was more 'instrument' like, less like an iPad app, less messy. So the data was presented more orderly, rather than in different sized fonts - some of which are almost too tiny to read! Could easily look more pro, and present data more clearly. Oh well you can't win them all.

I drew a blank on the additional sensors, so I emailed Ecowitt and a response came back the next day - with a smily - 'It may takes 3-4 weeks to prepare the order and 2-4 weeks to deliver.' As they seem to be 'on it' in terms of shipping (they are outside of the EU so nothing has changed in terms of delivery to the UK), I think I'll make the order - and be patient!

The W8686 is arriving tomorrow. I'm wondering if I should update the firmware (after I've tested it all works out of the box). Though I've been reading over on the wxforum that the Ecowitt v1.6.9 firmware (for their HP2551, single arm array) may cause a problem... HP2551 Firmware Update WWW.WXFORUM.NET HP2551 Firmware Update ...I have downloaded this along with the one from the Froggit site v1.6.7 (HP1000SE Pro, Y-shape array) as shown under the Documents tab here... Froggit Wetterstationen Shop - HP1000SE PRO Wi-Fi Internet Funkwetterstation WWW.FROGGIT.DE any advice? is the Ecowitt firmware worth the risk (-if there is a risk). + does anyone use a small UPS with these base-stations, if so any recommendations? - the smaller the better - and 99.99% safe (not a potential fire hazard). + does anyone know where I can get a soil moisture sensor in the UK (868MHz), as I just emailed Froggit but they are no longer shipping to the UK due to Brexit tax complications. I really wanted the soil sensor!! ( - and I'd even give the lightening sensor a go if easily available, but I don't want to order direct from China - as I hear that can take many months to arrive, if at all). Many thanks in advance!

...fantastic, real info, many thanks for going to the trouble of investigating your base station! I've been swaying between ordering the Watson W8686 and the slightly more pricey Youshiko YC9391 (has a new 'Davis looking' outdoor array unit) which I think will have more accurate and perhaps more robust sensors (and has internal batteries in case of power failure) but it has no internal memory and no access to Ecowitt or the soil sensor etc, so I'm now getting closer to the W8686. I checked your PWS dashboard, a great look, I particularly like the graphing options available. To do something like that I presume it needs to be hosted on one's own personal website.

I see the duration between data samples when downloading a month from Ecowitt is quite long : 4 hours, a week is better at 30 mins, but downloading 24 weeks to cover 6 months is not ideal! WeatherCloud's free account has a duration between samples of 10 minutes (which is fine), but it's info does not mention if that's carried through to downloading a month's worth of data (or if the duration between samples again increases). * Hence I'd really like to know from anyone here what is the capacity of the internal memory of the Watson/Froggit base unit (the downloadable manual gives no mention of this). How much data can it hold, 2 days, weeks, months, a year? - before current data overwrites old data.

I'm not so keen on Wunderground - how they changed their API and I believe the ability to download CSV files... and while I'm at it their interface seems buggy, messy and sprayed with ads! - so I'll be using WeatherCloud. Anyway when there's the worst weather here (read the best!) there's often power outages, which means missing data online. Also I like to use CSV files to make my own graphs and calculations based on comparing last year to this over the same week etc, so having all the data close at hand reliably on an SD card works for me. I'll wait to hear if 'etaf' chimes in about my questions above, about the SD card, as that's important to me.

I'm interested in ordering the Watson W8686 (from Navada Radio), though have a technical question regarding its ability to save history data to an (optional) SD card - that I hope you guys can answer!.. From reading a manual I found online I'm none the wiser on a few important points... 1. it appears the display unit already has 16MB of internal memory? 2. what is the interval it automatically saves data to its internal memory data? 3. how long does the internal memory lasts before history data is overwritten and lost - weeks / months? (I'm assuming it doesn't automatically write to the SD card) 4. so assuming the SD card is not written to automatically, and the process of saving internal history to SD memory is a manual process, how does this work? - is all the history dumped to the SD card on demand? or what? ...I'm sure there's a simple answer to the above but I can't find it. / Already many thanks to all those above, as you've homed me into the WS I'll probably be ordering. My search was for a WS that has real-time WiFi internet display (WeatherCloud) and a SD card, but this was surprisingly difficult! This Watson W8686 seems to fit the bill, just need to know how the history and the SD card works.