weather station Archives - Everybody Staze...

Spiders, spiders everywhere!

2015/07/21 By staze

I recently was out in my back yard when it was breezy, and when I glanced up at my weather station, I noticed the anemometer cups weren’t spinning. They’d twitch just a bit, but not spin. I had a feeling I knew what was up (A spider had “tied” them down), but it required a trip to the roof to check.

Once on the roof, I took the station down (my 10ft mast detaches at the half way point so I can work on the station). And indeed, an industrious spider had managed to put a web in each cup, and then linked each cup to the ISS (Integrated Sensor Station). Impressive. I cleaned the station up with some paper towels (including the solar panel), and got the spider down to the ground (attached him to the roof line, and let him lower himself down). Then put the station back up.

Checking my submitted weather data, at first, I thought I had lost a month worth of wind data, but checking again, showed about 12-16 hours of it missing (can’t really tell when the wind was zero MPH vs when the anemometer was stuck). Then the question became, how do I keep this from happening again, and me losing a week+.

First, software. I submitted a request for Weathercat to notify me when wind data remains at zero for a long time. Others on the forum also suggested I sign up for AWEKAS, which apparently WILL notify if sensors stop making sense (no wind for days/weeks). So, here’s my station on AWEKAS.

Second, how do I keep spiders off the station. I’ve thought about putting “Tanglefoot” on the mast, but that seems like a pain. I’ve also heard flea collars will repel them, so I think I’m going to try that up by the station next time I’m on the roof. For now, though, if you own a weather station, you may want to check your station in the summer to make sure a spider hasn’t made a home and wrapped up the whole thing disabling any of the moving parts. =)

Davis Vantage Vue 6250

2013/10/11 By staze

When my previous weather station ( LaCrosse WS2316) started dying, I didn’t have to think long about what to get as a replacement. I friend had recently received a Davis Vantage Vue, and loved it. So with money in hand (bank account), and ordered it, and the serial weatherlink interface from the cheapest place I could find online at that time, Ambient Weather. Total cost, including shipping, was ~$410. I also liked that they were in the west (faster shipping). In interesting bit, and of great credit to them, I found a cheaper price through Scientific Sales, INC, and emailed Ambient Weather. Within an hour, even well after their business hours, I had a refund for the difference of about $36 through PayPal. So, huge credit to Ambient Weather, I will certainly buy from them again.

The unit arrived a few days later, and I have to say, I was a bit surprised at the size. The sensor suite is a bit bigger than I thought (though I understand the Vantage Pro sensor cluster is REALLY big). Anyway, the console looked great (more on that later), and the sensor unit required some minor assembly. Sadly, the unit arrived on a Thursday, so I had to wait a couple days to install… I did do the assembly, and set the unit on a table, and then plug the console into a computer to test the data transmission. Documentation all says 1000ft line of sight with wind every 2.5 seconds, and then other data every 10 seconds. After hooking it all up with the Davis Weatherlink Serial, to a Keyspan USA-19HS, and grabbing the data with WeatherCat, after a couple days on my Macbook Air, I was seeing about 1 CRC error for every 10,000 good packets. Not too shabby. One note is that the console comes from the factory with insanely low contrast (which kind of made me think it was broken). To adjust, you just hit “2nd” then the up arrow multiple times to get it to where you want it.

On the following Saturday, got up on the roof and removed my old LaCrosse Anemometer, and PVC mast from the chimney straps, and went about installing the Davis. The first thing I realized was that the 10′ steel mast I had was too damn cumbersome to deal with, especially since I’ll have to take the unit down once a year for a backup battery change, and cleaning. So a hack-sawed the mast in half, and flipped it around to make, basically, two 5′ masts. This should make maintenance much easier in the future since I can just remove the top 5′ mast. The unit itself clamps to the mast with a U-bolt, which seemed a bit weird, but hey, installation of a wireless single piece unit was SO easy compared to my LaCrosse unit. I don’t look forward to the maintenance, but hey, it’s not too bad.

So install went great, and the unit talks to the console perfectly. About 1 CRC error in 10,000 good records. According to what I’ve seen online, this seems to be almost unavoidable with the US Console, regardless of the Weatherlink style. Ah well… 0.01% error isn’t too shabby.

And after a week of using the weather station, I can say I’m extremely happy with it. The console is easy to use (though I rarely do), the software I have used for years (WeatherCat, formerly Lightsoft Weather Center) works great as well (not surprising since the author uses Davis units). Really my only complaint is the cost of the Weatherlink. While I ended up getting it for just over $100, that’s still a lot to pay for a serial connection to a console. There are 3rd party ones through wxforum, and here. But given the wxforum ones are $75 or so, and the second doesn’t have logging (as well doesn’t work with console firmware 3.0 (which specifically seemed to address 3rd party adapters)), I figured I’d just get the real thing. It would just work, and warranty would apply should it die.

[xrr rating=5/5]

Busy weekend…

2009/04/19 By staze

Last weekend Tara’s family came down for Easter. It was pretty fun, but it was a lot of people in the house (9), that all stayed the night. Got to show Tara’s uncle, the hobby carpenter (a very talented one who basically completely built their house). He was quite impressed with our flooring and tiling jobs. Everyone else was impressed by the tile as well as our new pots and pans. Yes, we bought about $500 in new pots and pans that would be over $1000 retail. They’re very nice.

We had to put a bed in the office, an inflatable in the living room, and have someone on the couch to make room for everyone. Lot of people! Dinner was great, though, one of the nights we had mashed potatoes with spinach in them. I love spinach, and I love mashed potatoes, but putting them together, not great. You couldn’t taste the spinach, but you certainly got the texture. Not great. =/

Since then, we’ve been trying to keep the house clean, and doing yard work, etc. It’s been nice the past couple days, so we got a bunch of weeding done (Tara did all of that), planted some roses (that actually happened before Tara’s family came), planted a kiwi in the back, moved a blueberry, pulled up a dead Dogwood, and an ugly Mock Orange, mowed the lawns, etc. Tomorrow and Tuesday are supposed to be in the 70’s to 80’s again, so that will be nice to get some more sun, and get some more things done.

The garage needs cleaning as well, and I hope to get my radiation shield for my weather station completed tomorrow.

On the other side, and this is mainly for my own memory: one of the 3 plumeria cuttings that Tara brought back from Hawaii in January 2009 survived. The other two both got stem rot. I hope to buy a few cuttings online from Maui Plumeria next month, and get those planted, but we’ll see. The one that survived seems quite healthy. I’ve been putting it outside during the day the past couple days to get it some heat/air/sun. Here’s hoping it helps.

Oh, and in the past 2 years we’ve had a tomato in a bucket upside down, and it’s been great, but the bucket is fugly. This last week, we bought one of those Topsy Turvy’s. I’m not sure there’s enough soil held in them for a tomato to really thrive, but we shall see. It’s certainly prettier than a 5 gal bucket, and it has a pivot so that it can move in the wind (which might prevent one issue with the bucket in that, the tomato really tried to grow toward the sun). We shall see. If it works well, maybe I’ll get another one next year for Cucumbers, or Bell Peppers or something. Supposedly they work for Eggplant too. =) Will post more when I know more.

I also hope to fertilize two of the blueberries soon. Once the flowers open, I am supposed to give them each a cup of Ammonium Sulfate. We’ll see how that goes as well.

Think that’s it. I’ll try to write more later in the week.