Hello to all. Been doing much reading of the forum and have some questions about the various Weather Stations and capabilities.
First off, let me state that I have been researching the various different weather stations available over the last couple of months and have pretty much already made the determination as to which Weather Station manufacture that I am going to go with but I have a couple of questions that I need from experienced users about setup locations, capabilities, and known issues that I may have concerning given my locations.
As a preamble, I am located in Seffner, Florida about half way between Tampa to the west and Plant City to the east, along the I4 artery that runs east-west across central Florida, 2 miles east of the Interstate4/Interstate 75 interchange. I live on slightly more that 1/3 of an acre that has large trees in the front yard and some open areas in the back of the house. I have a pool in the back yard that is not enclosed so I have a body of water that can affect the immediate climate as far as temp and humidity are concerned. The front of the house faces West and the rear faces East. I live on a mild slight downwards slope with the high ground to the West and the high elevation to the west (about 1/4 mile away) is about 15 feet higher than my property. There are large trees throughout the neighborhood. I get full sunlight in the back yard from about 1/2 hour after sun rise to about 6PM, depending on the time of year.
I have been researching various weather stations to fit my needs and have some questions concerning them. Let me say at first that my budget is limited to no more than $1K which also has to include any software, dongles, PC hook-ups, and mounting of the system. Less would be very nice but I do not think that I can get what I want for under $600 for the station alone. I also want an expandable system so that I may add on to it later. My wife has a vegetable garden that we grow veggies for three seasons of the year, fall, winter, and spring. So the ability to monitor soil moisture and leaf wetness for irrigation purposes is a capability that I will eventually want.
Some of the requirements that I have is that it has to be expandable, and would prefer that it runs on solar (wireless) instead of a cabled system but this is not a deal breaker. However, the needed hardware for a cabled system will make a cabled unit almost as expensive as a wireless unit. Due to the constraints that I have place on the weather system, I am looking at either a Davis unit or the pending WMR300 unit from Oregon Scientific. However, I do have to state that I am concerned if I go with the WMR300 system because of the issues that I have discovered with lack of support from OS from what I have read on the "net". I am also concerned that there will be another push back on the release of the WMR300 as well as the availability of the current non existent, future add on sensors that they claim will be available at some future date. Based on my conversations with OS, this unit was suppose to be release in Jan 13, and now has been pushed back to Aug or Sep 13 and I suspect that it will be pushed back again to a latter date. Also, pricing of the unit is not available per my conversation with OS, but from what I read, it is suppose to be comparable with the high end Davis units. I am also concerned that the WMR300 is a bastardized Davis unit from what I have read about it. As a result, I am leaning more towards narrowing my choices to the Davis 6152, 6153, 6162, or 6163 units, with my leanings more toward the 6153 or 6163 units and this is based solely on the 24 hour aspiration fan, which given my location, is probably a requirement for accurate temperature and humidity readings. I have also looked at Rainwise MKIIII and their cost. While near the upper end Davis units cost wise, they are not expandable so they do not meet one of my major requirements for expandability.
Of the Davis units that I am looking at, I really do not need the solar sensor but like the UV sensor as my back yard is in full sun most of the day and given the amount of time we spend in the back yard, I consider is a must. No matter how I try to configure the lower end Davis units that I am looking at though, it appears that a unit with the solar and UV sensors and the 12 hour aspiration fan is only about $50 less than a unit with the UV and solar sensors, and with the 24 hour aspiration fan. As an example, if you take the 6153 and add the UV sensor with the shelf, is it more expensive than the 6163 unit that comes with the UV and solar sensor. If you take the 6152 unit and add the UV sensor, mounting shelf, and 12 hour fan, it comes out to about $807 with the software, and the 6163 has the added 24 hour fan and Solar Sensor for just $70 more. These prices include the dongle and software package as well.
I have checked the various sales sites and have tried to configure the units through many iterations with different parts from different sellers and pricing is almost identical, to within 10%. But if you include the taxes that some have to collect, the 10% savings is lost. This is based on research on the "best pricing" quotes from Archer, Rainman, Weather Shack, as well as others. As a Floridian, both Archer and Rainman have to charge me the tax and while Archer has a great sale on the UV sensor and has great pricing for the mounting shelf and 12 hour aspiration fan, for a few dollars more I can upgrade to the 6163 and get the solar sensor as well.
So now on to the questions.
Oregon Scientific WMR300 unit.
I have read the thread and other threads concerning this unit but as I stated, I have a fear that the delivery of the system will again be pushed back, the support is less than desirable, the "future" sensors are iffy right now, there is no pricing available, but it does include a software package that does connect/talk to a PC as well as weather software.
Are these fears justified?
Does anyone know what the pricing of the WMR300 will be?
Does anyone have any more information as to the supposes expandability of the sensors and what their pricing will be other than what is posted on the corporate web site and is listed in the PDF users file?
When will these additional sensors will be available?
What will these additional sensors will collect?
Does the wireless unit utilize frequency hopping?
How robust is the software package suppose to be?
Is the "upside down" placement of the anemometer a potential problem?
Is it a comparable unit with the added on future sensors along the lines of the Davis 6153 or 6163 units?
Davis Units:
Is there a way to hook up the console to the PC without the use of the proprietary dongle that is available without having to "build" one?
Does someone make a after market unit that they sell that is comparable with the proprietary dongle?
Is the software that comes with the dongle as bad and antiquated as what is posted on line, ie "its so 80ish"?
Are there other software packages that can be used on the PC with the Davis units?
Is the 'dongle' required for PC connectivity?
How is the main unit updated through firmware iterations?
Do you need to purchase an additional firmware update unit just to update the firmware on the console?
Is the "Weather Bug" systems just a Davis re-branded unit with an included 'dongle' for PC connectivity but with the "Weather Bug" software package and not the Davis weather software?
Can the wireless Davis weather sensor units be broken apart and placed in different places using extension cables to the main wireless sending unit or are additional sending units required for this?
Placement and Connectivity:
Why are the wireless units more desirable than the cabled units other than cable routing?
If using a cabled unit, what additional hardware requirements are needed for cable routing to prevent electrical spiking?
How do any of the units deal with lightning as I live in what is described as the "lightning capitol of the world"?
Should the mounting structure (metal pole mast) have a grounding rod and what gauge copper wire should be used for grounding?
If I use a non conductive pole (fiberglass) is grounding of the sensor units still required?
How far from standing trees do you need to place the anemometer to get accurate readings and what is the ideal height to place the unit?
Considering I have some high trees nearby, will that cause inaccurate anemometer readings?
How do you prevent birds and small rodents from staying off the rain collector units? Are there after market, for less of a better word, critter prevention screens or something?
Does it really matter where you place an aspirated temp/hum sensor as I have read that the best placement for these sensors is about 6 feet off the ground in a shaded area on the north side of the house?
What would be an ideal distance from a body of water (pool) to place the temp/hum sensors?
I apologize for the long winded post but I want to make sure that I am fully versed on the ins and outs of a weather station before I take the plunge.