My perfect weather station...

[dubmuffin]

Since my laptop gave up the ghost in May I've solely been using a Tablet, but now winter is approaching I'd like to see my weather station data again. Unfortunately with no USB input or suitable Android app, my Tablet is not much use with my Fine Offset. I never liked having my console permanently attached to my laptop anyway, and having to leave it on 24hrs a day was also a pain, so I did some research.

 

My first discovery was the Oregon Scientific Anywhere Weather Station - looks ideal, but terrible reviews and you seem to be limited to uploading your data to the Oregon Scientific servers, then I found this:

 

Ambient Weather WS-1001-WIFI OBSERVER Solar Powered Wireless WiFi Remote Monitoring Weather Station
http://www.ambientweather.com/amws1000wifi.html

 

Perfect I thought, exactly what I was looking for, wifi (no need for a hub), uploads directly to wunderground - but alas - too good to be true. It's not available in the UK

 

So - any other recommendations/experiences? I'm not ready to invest is a Davis with datalogger, but I'm reluctant to except second best with the Oregon

[Bobby]

The Netamo weather station might be what you want? No experience of it personally though but it seems to be well regarded.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netatmo-Weather-Station-for-Smartphones/dp/B0098MGWA8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413898807&sr=8-1&keywords=netatmo+weather+station

 

The Netatmo Urban Weather Station. The First made for iPhone and Android Personal Weather Station, with Air Quality measurements, to monitor and track your environment. The Netatmo Station wirelessly transmits all your data to your smartphone. The Netatmo App displays your Station's indoor and outdoor measurements into clear and comprehensive dashboards, graphs and notifications. All of your data is recorded online and made permanently accessible for you, on your smartphone.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Bobby

[dubmuffin]

Hi Bobby,

 

Thanks for mentioning that one, I had forgotten about it. It does look good, but there is no rain or wind gauge. Maplins do have the Oregon on special offer at the moment - only £40 so almost worth a punt...

 

Claire

[Mapantz]

I use the Netatmo station along side my Davis as I'm in the same boat. I invested in a tablet so i could read my Netatmo data, i absolutely love it! I had to buy the rain gauge separate and an anemometer is coming but what makes it easy, is that it has WiFi built in and uploads your data to the Netatmo servers for life. It also comes with a data logger built in, in case of any issues with electric or WiFi.

 

You can have widgets on Android and iOS8, like this:

 

 

Or view your data by the app, or web page, like this:

 

 

You get all sorts of customisations, notifications etc..

 

Ps: Never buy a station outside of Europe. American made stations use transmitter frequencies which correspond with mobile phone frequencies, it can get you in to trouble. 

Edited October 21, 2014 by Mapantz

[h2005__uk__]

Have you considered using a Fine Offset station with a (Linux-based) Raspberry Pi and software such as 'weewx'? There's quite a bit on Google about that if you do a search. The weather station plugs into the Pi, then weewx logs data from the station and generates webpages with graphs and data which can be viewed on your local network (and you can make them viewable on the internet). Weewx can also be programmed to upload data to the Met Office 'WOW' observation site, as well as Wunderground and others. A Raspberry Pi can be left to run all the time as it uses little power and a screen is optional (as you can remotely access it from another computer).

 

Obviously you'd have to invest in a Pi (they cost around £25 + a few pounds for a wifi dongle) but they're very good. The only downside is that a lot of the setting-up for weewx (and other software) is done by editing configuration files which takes a bit of getting used to. I managed to do it though with very little knowledge of Linux and no knowledge of weewx. My weewx & Pi set-up can be seen here: http://www.henryandjoey.co.uk/weewx

Edited October 21, 2014 by h2005uk

[dubmuffin]

Hello, and thanks for the replies.

Mapantz, I was really interested to see that the Netatmo has a rain gauge now, is there an anemometer available for it, I couldn't find one on Google? Does it accept more than one outside temperature unit? The app looks good and the developers seem to be involved on the project. Bit pricey when you add on all the extras. Lucky you living in Purbeck, we're regular visitors, say hello to the square for me:)

H2005uk, I did consider a raspberry pi, I'm reasonably computer literate and thought it might be an interesting project. I have an old xp laptop that still fires up, can I use that as a screen to access the pi interface? I'll do a bit more Google research

[h2005__uk__]

H2005uk, I did consider a raspberry pi, I'm reasonably computer literate and thought it might be an interesting project. I have an old xp laptop that still fires up, can I use that as a screen to access the pi interface? I'll do a bit more Google research

Probably not - you'd need a TV screen that has an HDMI or RCA port to connect it to, as there's no VGA output (although I think you could use a PC monitor if you had an HDMI > VGA adapter).

 

I initially connected mine to my TV, then once it was up and running I could control it from my laptop by remotely connecting to it and doing stuff from a Linux command prompt.

[dubmuffin]

Well, I've taken the plunge and ordered a raspberry pi, let's see how things pan out. I might be coming back here for advice very soon! If I fail miserably, I'll be looking into the Netatmo