Topic: question on PC softwere

[schmism]

New to the boards, been trying to track down some answers and figured the best way would be to just ask.

I DO NOT want a wireless setup,  ive had bad experiences in the past with wireless instruments and if connection issues are a problem then battery life is.  Wired instruments only!

Ive narrowed down my search for weather stations to likely a Davis product.  Perhaps a  Weather Monitor II

My question is how the softwere works.  Im not looking for a weather station that has a billion bells and whistles on the console itself, but instead intend to track,log etc most data via PC.  (thus no need for a wizbang console)

My question is, Do i HAVE to have weatherlink to pull data from the console.  I see there are various 3rd party apps out there to process weather data and display it for you on a PC, but do they all require you have weatherlink to actually interface with the davis hardware in order to "decrypt" the proprietary data?   

Or is there a 3rd party softwere that interfaces directly with the console in order to pull the data off it and store on PC without requiring Weatherlink.

To that end, is there some other option out there that allows me to run high quality instruments (with little or perhaps no base console) and just grab the data and drop it right to the PC thus useing a 3rd party softwere to deal with said data. (like VWS)

[ocala]

First off the WMII is no longer available. It was disco about 2 years ago I think.
A Davis wired VP2 would meet your needs.
To get data from the the sensors you need the console. Now to get that data to a pc you need what is called the data logger. The data logger is shipped with Weatherlink software but you don't need to use it. Any other software like Weather Display, Virtual Weather Station, and  Cumulus will interface with the data logger. There is also a program called Virtual VP which lets you use all those software programs at the same time using only one port.
Virtual Weather Station and Weather Display are available for a fee however Cumulus is free.

[schmism]

First off the WMII is no longer available. It was disco about 2 years ago I think.

so new old stock then?

http://www.ambientweather.com/dain74cowemo.html

[ocala]

First off the WMII is no longer available. It was disco about 2 years ago I think.

so new old stock then?

http://www.ambientweather.com/dain74cowemo.html

Yes sir.

[Bushman]

Available here - a buddy just got one:  http://www.forthebirdsnatureshop.ca/store/product.php?productid=17173&cat=370&page=1  The bucket-less model is 50 bucks less.  They work fine.  And you need the logger to get the data.

[ocala]

If you can get a WMII I would recommend it. I had one for several years until a lightning strike fried it. Very good system. I am surprised there are still some available but with the popularity of the VP2 stations I can see why.

[PCBob]

I did some similar study on the software as I tried to cut budget on my first purchase but learned the cable to connect the console to the PC was a key piece of hardware that you need and doesn't come with the other popular software packages.

I still doubt it adds up to $120 that Davis gets for WL but I didn't want any surprises.

Bob