WXforum.net
Weather Station Hardware => What Weather Station Should I Buy? => Topic started by: Old Tele man on July 01, 2018, 09:57:16 PM
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It's apparent that quite a few of us have owned/operated many other weather stations prior to what we're currently using, so what where those "other" products?
Here's my laundry list:
2004-2006 = Taylor 91756 & 91661 (3ch, wireless T & RH)
2006-2008 = La Crosse Technology WS-8610U (3ch, wireless T & RH; RS232 link)
2008-2012 = Oregon Scientific Instruments WMR200 (10ch, wireless; USB link)
2012-today = Davis VP2 & Envoy8X (upgrade to Vue console in 2016)
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Mine was an anemometer I made in 8th grade out of a half gallon milk carton, a cork and three large sewing needles. It registered up to 30mph and I believe I got an "A" for it. My science teacher was really cool....
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1994-1995 = Radio Shack cabled probe thermometer and a rubbermaid cup for a rain gauge
1995-1996 = Same Radio Shack thermometer and an actual cone style rain gauge
1996-1999 = Davis Weather Wizard III
1999-2002 = Davis Weather Monitor II
2002-2005 = Davis Vantage Pro (Lost to Hurricane Katrina)
2005-Today = Davis Vantage Pro 2
Needless to say I've been a fan of Davis weather stations and haven't looked at getting one from the competition.
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During my Jr. High School and High School years back in the 60's I had a variety of "home brew" instruments, with a lot of help from Dad. (some "government project" activity where he worked I believe). I had a really neat remote wind vane that used two servo motors, one with the vane and another inside with a homemade pointer.
I built a lightning detector using a transistor and milliammeter. I made an antenna with multiple "probes" out if 14 AWG copper wire. It worked well and I had a potentiometer to turn down the sensitivity as storms approached.
From the late 1990's ('98 I think) I ran a station consisting of Dallas Semiconductor "weather station" for Wind Speed and Direction. Temperature was pretty useless in this thing since it was heated by the sun.
I also had the DalSemi rain gauge. Both the rain gauge and wind set use TxWx mechanical components, but custom electronics showcasing the OneWire chips.
(https://txwx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/anaimomitor_whitesm2a.gif)
I added a One-Wire temperature / humidity sensor (AAG) in a fan-aspirated electrical box.
After a tree took out the wind set, I replaced it with a very similar AAG set.
In 2011 I installed a Davis Vantage Pro 2.
Later I added a Davis Temp/Hum station and upgraded to a solar door after about a year.
I have since added DFARS to both the T/H station and the original ISS.
I started out with Blitzortung with the USB version (final) of the "green" detector board.
I added RED station, then a Blue. I scavenged the antennas and enclosures from the "green" board system for the Blue unit.
I also have an R M Young Wind Monitor Jr. that I found NOS on eBay. There is a separate 6332 and Universal Anemometer Interface for it. My station wind data comes from the Young wind set.
Greg H.
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During my Jr. High School and High School years back in the 60's I had a variety of "home brew" instruments, with a lot of help from Dad. (some "government project" activity where he worked I believe). I had a really neat remote wind vane that used two servo motors, one with the vane and another inside with a homemade pointer.
I built a lightning detector using a transistor and milliammeter. I made an antenna with multiple "probes" out if 14 AWG copper wire. It worked well and I had a potentiometer to turn down the sensitivity as storms approached.
From the late 1990's ('98 I think) I ran a station consisting of Dallas Semiconductor "weather station" for Wind Speed and Direction. Temperature was pretty useless in this thing since it was heated by the sun.
I also had the DalSemi rain gauge. Both the rain gauge and wind set use TxWx mechanical components, but custom electronics showcasing the OneWire chips.
(https://txwx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/anaimomitor_whitesm2a.gif)
I added a One-Wire temperature / humidity sensor (AAG) in a fan-aspirated electrical box.
After a tree took out the wind set, I replaced it with a very similar AAG set.
In 2011 I installed a Davis Vantage Pro 2.
Later I added a Davis Temp/Hum station and upgraded to a solar door after about a year.
I have since added DFARS to both the T/H station and the original ISS.
I started out with Blitzortung with the USB version (final) of the "green" detector board.
I added RED station, then a Blue. I scavenged the antennas and enclosures from the "green" board system for the Blue unit.
I also have an R M Young Wind Monitor Jr. that I found NOS on eBay. There is a separate 6332 and Universal Anemometer Interface for it. My station wind data comes from the Young wind set.
Greg H.
Wow! Impressed.
Back in '62-64 I had a max min thermometer from Taylor. I kept daily records of temp, sky, precip totals that I got from homemade gauges (which were probably not very accurate). I really enjoyed doing daily records.
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During my Jr. High School and High School years back in the 60's I had a variety of "home brew" instruments, with a lot of help from Dad. (some "government project" activity where he worked I believe). I had a really neat remote wind vane that used two servo motors, one with the vane and another inside with a homemade pointer.
I built a lightning detector using a transistor and milliammeter. I made an antenna with multiple "probes" out if 14 AWG copper wire. It worked well and I had a potentiometer to turn down the sensitivity as storms approached.
From the late 1990's ('98 I think) I ran a station consisting of Dallas Semiconductor "weather station" for Wind Speed and Direction. Temperature was pretty useless in this thing since it was heated by the sun.
I also had the DalSemi rain gauge. Both the rain gauge and wind set use TxWx mechanical components, but custom electronics showcasing the OneWire chips.
(https://txwx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/anaimomitor_whitesm2a.gif)
I added a One-Wire temperature / humidity sensor (AAG) in a fan-aspirated electrical box.
After a tree took out the wind set, I replaced it with a very similar AAG set.
In 2011 I installed a Davis Vantage Pro 2.
Later I added a Davis Temp/Hum station and upgraded to a solar door after about a year.
I have since added DFARS to both the T/H station and the original ISS.
I started out with Blitzortung with the USB version (final) of the "green" detector board.
I added RED station, then a Blue. I scavenged the antennas and enclosures from the "green" board system for the Blue unit.
I also have an R M Young Wind Monitor Jr. that I found NOS on eBay. There is a separate 6332 and Universal Anemometer Interface for it. My station wind data comes from the Young wind set.
Greg H.
Great...I was wondering how many (if any) one-wire (Dallas Semiconductor) stations were used. At Hughes Aircraft Company, I worked with Tim Bitson who wrote a book on one-wire weather projects:
(https://d1w7fb2mkkr3kw.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/lrg/9780/4700/9780470040461.jpg)
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Ooooh, I've got a long list....
I had an Accurite wireless thermometer one time....
\:D/
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10 years ago I got a LaCrosse ?WS-2310? and within a week the anemometer cups broke off, so returned it to the store.
Did some research and ordered a Davis VP2 with the earliest data I have records July 2008.
Added a B-L sunrecorder in May 2011Blitzortung station May 2015Heathkit ID-4001 (without sensors) February 2016.
Replaced Davis VP2 ISS with VP2 PLus 24-FARS ISS May 2018
Enjoy,
Paul
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2006-2008 - LaCrosse WS2300 (software I used for that was Open2300)
2008-2013 - Irox/Honeywell TE923 (used WD mainly for that)
2013-present - Davis VPIIPro (mainly Cumulus/Cumulus MX which I still use, however I have an interest in looking at the new MB dongle for the VP once it is out).
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My first station in 1978 was all manual with full size cotton region shelter (whitewash no paint), Townsend mounting bracket for NWS max/min thermometers and 4" dia. plastic rain gauge (Cocorahs style). I used a sling psychrometer for humidity with one of those round dp/humidity calculators and kept a detailed journal of conditions.
First digital anything was Heathkit thermometer followed by
Heathkit ID-4001 Weather Station followed by
RainWise WS-1000 with printer followed by
Davis Weather Monitor II
Davis Vantage Pro
Davis Vantage Pro 2 (current)
Somewhere in there I built a HEATHKIT Barometer.
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My first station in 1978 was all manual with full size cotton region shelter (whitewash no paint), Townsend mounting bracket for NWS max/min thermometers and 4" dia. plastic rain gauge (Cocorahs style). I used a sling psychrometer for humidity with one of those round dp/humidity calculators and kept a detailed journal of conditions.
Sounds exactly like the setup we used at each of our USArmy Yuma Proving Ground laser PATS tracking sites: Stevenson shelter, mechanical circular-inking thermometer and barometer, and 'hand' sling-psychrometer and circular computer (similar to pilot's E6B).
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My first station in 1978 was all manual with full size cotton region shelter (whitewash no paint), Townsend mounting bracket for NWS max/min thermometers and 4" dia. plastic rain gauge (Cocorahs style). I used a sling psychrometer for humidity with one of those round dp/humidity calculators and kept a detailed journal of conditions.
Sounds exactly like the setup we used at each of our USArmy Yuma Proving Ground laser PATS tracking sites: Stevenson shelter, mechanical circular-inking thermometer and barometer, and 'hand' sling-psychrometer and circular computer.
Forgot I had one of those too, Mechanical circular-inking thermometer. :-)
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My first station in 1978 was all manual with full size cotton region shelter (whitewash no paint), Townsend mounting bracket for NWS max/min thermometers and 4" dia. plastic rain gauge (Cocorahs style). I used a sling psychrometer for humidity with one of those round dp/humidity calculators and kept a detailed journal of conditions.
circular computer (similar to pilot's E6B).
=D> Used to play with my dad's all the time!
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I have vague memories of a couple of "toy" weather stations. One was a sort of all in one post mount with a glass cylinder for a rain gauge and a thermometer, both mounted on a plastic wind vane that showed direction. Mounted on that vertical vane was a hanging vane, pivoted at the top. Markings on the vertical vane showed wind speed. The more horizontal it got, the higher the wind speed. Alas, I can't locate a picture on line of what I think it looked like.
The other was more of a kit. The only 2 things I remember were making the barometer with a plastic cup and a thin membrane, and the anemometer. As I recall, that was pretty cool, and high tech for a kid. The cups spun a worm gear that drove a pinion gear on a shaft. That shaft held a cam that closed and opened a switch, which lit a flashlight bulb. Counting the flashes in a given time period equaled the wind speed, I think.
Besides those, 30 or more years ago I had a Digitar pre-Davis. Since then, a cabled VP2, and now a bunch of wireless VP2s and Davis wireless sensors.
Oh, and a crappy LaCrosse that calls itself a professional weather station but is really just an indoor/outdoor thermohygrometer with an inaccessible baro sensor used for the crappy Zambretti style forecast implementation.
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Did not own any but as a Quarter Master in the U.S. Coast Guard I did weather observation on ships. Had to do vectors to get wind speed unless anchored or at a pier, we helped with weather balloons sometimes, did Bathythermographs as well as swells, wind waves, clouds, visibility wet and dry temps and any number of other obs depending on which type of observation you were making.
I was at sea for over 12 years, it got me hooked on the weather.
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Only 2.
WMII from 2003 to 2009. Fried by a lightning Strike.
VP2 from 2009 to present with a refurb in 2016.
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Thanks for tickling my memory, Ocala. I need to add a WMII to my list in between the Digitar and the cabled VP2. Both the WMII and cabled VP2 had 2 wired consoles on them.
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My first weather station was a Skilcraft Weather Forecaster in the 1970's:
(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/74/65/05/7465054c83d6bcc5d2f50c77787154d9--christmas-presents-weather.jpg)
Had to assemble the barometer, spin a cheap sling psychrometer over your head, and time the wind cups for X seconds to count revolutions, and obviously did not come with an uploader for WU in the box. :lol:
My father had an early wired Davis unit when they first came out, and I had one at work a few years later until it took a lightning strike and was never replaced.
About 10 years ago, I made a wrong turn in our local Lowes store and I came home with an Acu-Rite 5-in-1, with subsequent purchases of additional consoles, the Internet bridge, a replacement 5-in-1, and all kinds of add-on stuff. Great accuracy for the price, but just as labor-intensive as the 1970's Skilcraft to keep it running at times.
I finally bought a Davis (VP2) of my own this past spring, to add to my growing collection of stations. They multiply like rabbits in my back yard! The current count is 5 anemometers, 4 solar/UV gauges, 7 rain gauges, 4 temp/humidity gauges, and at least 4 independent weewx instances logging data with a fifth one for reference plotting it all onto one set of graphs for comparison.
As for future weather stations, I'm always on the lookout for an RM Young ultrasonic for the right price, and have a DIY idea for an automated snow board that I need to build and patent one of these days.....
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Oh my gosh, vreihen. =D> I had the exact same thing !!!! The anemometer was a joke, but the liquid barometer was interesting the way it worked. I ran across the record sheets a while back and couldn't remember where I got them. Now I know.
Thanks for the memories.
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Early 60s- Lionel Mark 2 Weather Station
2008- Bought a used (10 years old I believe) Davis Weather Monitor II with USB data Logger to dedicated PC
2015- Moved to new house, bought an Acurite 5-in-1 station with USB logger to dedicated PC
2018- Replaced Acurite with a Davis Vantage Vue with Pro2 console and Wifi Logger to dedicated PC
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Azjerry and SLOweather, that weather station you had with the clear plastic panel sounds like the ones made by Lionel. The one I had back in the 60's I treasured so much. It was a Christmas present. The anemometer was exactly as SLOweather described in his post above.
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I had a wireless Oregon Scientific for a couple years, after replacing the batteries charged by solar panels every year and the rain collector fell apart in the Arizona sun. I bought a wired Davis Pro which was a lot more difficult to set up but once it was up I didn't have to mess with it. Other than a freak hail/ice storm which destroyed what was left of the Oregon and broke the anemometer vanes on the Davis. Moved, sent the display unit in to Davis to have the barometer certified as cwop kept telling me it was drifting. Bought an upgraded rain collector with bird wires on it and put back up a few months ago at the new house which I've been living in 4 years now.. Part of the problem was the computer I had the station on died (high end Dell) and the cheep one I replaced it with didn't have a com port. At Christmas time I bought a refurbished HP, installed more memory, a bigger second hard drive, Blu ray player and a high power WIF (router is on the other side of the house) for a media server and weather station system. Virtual weather station kept crashing on it so now I have switched to Weather Display harder to figure out but at least it doesn't crash.
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Warning, Will Robinson! Warning! AZ sun rots Davis FARS plastic!
Bought my VP2 in April 2012 and yesterday, while replacing the failed fans, both of the top two plates literally broke/crumbled in my hands as I handled them. That is less then 6.5 years usage.
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Rising Barometer, I believe you've done it. The Lionel weather station certainly looks like what I remember. Thanks!
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Neat. Can someone post pictures of the 1960's Lionel weather station? I tried Googling but not really sure what I'm looking for.
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Lacrosse 2317 for years and got tired of parts dying.
Davis Vantage Vue with Pro2 console and Wifi Logger to dedicated PC now...runs great even in the Phoenix heat!
http://www.myglendalewxs.com
(http://www.myglendalewxs.com/header.gif)
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I see the Toys for Weather book. Lots of ideas in that. As a kid in the late 50s early 60s my parents took some hard earned money and bought my brother and me a Reader's Digest book of projects. One of the things was to make your own instruments. Being fascinated by anemometers (moving things that were bright and shiny?) I made one out of tinker toys and learned how to carefully cut a ping pong ball in half. Calibration was tough. And then found a selsyn motor for a remote reading wind direction, and convinced the high school science teacher to let me blow a glass column for a barometer, and he gave me enough mercury to fill it, but it wasn't nearly as neat as the commercial one with the little vernier to do 1/100ths of an inch of the column.
the biggest project was using a milk carton (which we didn't have since we had our own milking herd on the farm) and a straw, with a long blonde hair for a hygrometer. The worst part was getting up the courage to ask the ONLY blonde girl in school with long enough hair to be usable for the project, for some of her hair. It actually worked quite well. I got a Taylor Max/Min thermometer (the U shaped tube with the magnet to reset the sliders) for a Christmas present, and somewhere along the line a Taylor hygrometer with the wet bulb always wet from a little glass tube along the bottom. I recorded data every day, and somewhere I still have the notebook, along with comments on rain and snow measurements.
then my older brother who by then was running the farm, built a shop and 'office' in which he put a nice Taylor wind direction and speed indicator, the old black outside pieces and the wooden box with the meter that bounced up and down with the gusts and the direction indicator which needed batteries to work. The sickness was really starting to grab hold by then.
Never did I think that the string of home-made and then when I could earn enough money to buy Heathkit stuff 1290, 4001, 5001 and then on the the breathtaking Vantage Pro (1 but it wasn't called one at that time) and since then all sorts of rag tag stuff. My wife will be sad and happy when I die, but isn't sure how to get rid of it all.
The old saying comes to mind (especially with the RM Young, Vaisala, Peet Bro, Campbell Scientific stuff) that my greatest fear is my wife will sell all of it for what I told her I paid for it.
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Neat. Can someone post pictures of the 1960's Lionel weather station? I tried Googling but not really sure what I'm looking for.
Lionel Mark 1:
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Mark 2:
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
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That is really cool to see. Thank you for the pictures.Love those product marketing photos where the marketing people don't understand the product. What is the kid doing turning a dial when the station isn't even set up? But I guess you just have to be interacting with the product physically or it isn't exciting. And why are there two anemometers in the picture? And they could have stood up the rain gauge. Wonder if the map on the wall was included?
Amazing how far technology has come. Just think future generations will probably have their own 3D doppler radar and who knows what else.
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I thought that I would post a couple of photos from my One-Wire vintage setup. I rebuilt the wind set and gave it to my SIL, he gave it to his nephew. As far as I know, it's still in use. This picture shows the One-Wire rain gauge, anemometer/vane, and lightning detector. There is also a camera in the housing just under the weather equipment.
(http://www.miraculon.com/Wx-Cam-Lightning-Rain.jpg)
Here is a screenshot from the OWW display of the data. The values must have been changing and got somewhat jumbled during the screenshot. (it didn't normally look like that)
(http://www.miraculon.com/OWW_0_83_2_screenshot.jpg)
This plot is how I was able to view lightning counts from the One-Wire lightning detector. You can see the approach and departure of a storm near the right side of the plot.
(http://www.miraculon.com/gpc-20130409.jpg)
Greg H.
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Karbrite Weather Watch
Springfield
Heathkit ID-1290
Heathkit ID-4001
Heathkit ID-5001
Automated Weather Source AirWatch
Texas Electronics WR-25
Maximum WeatherMax
Columbia Capricorn II
RainWise WS-1000
Davis Weather Monitor II
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Here are some more pictures of the Lionel Weather Station. They made a few different versions. [ You are not allowed to view attachments ] [ You are not allowed to view attachments ] Here are some of the parts used: [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
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This one was a lot of fun. The version I enjoyed had the glass rain gage located in front of the pivot. The swinging pendulum was weighed down with a large ball bearing on each side. [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
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My first weather station was a childrens kit, with a cardboard display with four neon bulbs for direction and one, which blipped with every revolution of the anemometer. The wind speed was calculated by the number of "clicks" in a minute. Went from there to a Taylor Windscope but had constant problems with it so upgraded to a Maximum wind cube. Then, in the mid 70's, I was invited over to Texas Electronics in Dallas for a tour and they gave me surplus parts to build my own wind station. It was awesome. Since then, I have stuck with Maximum and Davis. I currently have a Maximum set for wired wind performance and a Davis VUE for all other, wireless parameters and a COCORAHS rain gauge for back up.
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Hello.....
My First was made by Maximum Inc and was called WeatherMax. I actually still have a spare one unused in the original Box Stored away in my Closet. Weathermax was a CABLED System. I bought mine back in 1995, price at the time was around $525.00. I used it from 1995-2007. In 2007 purchased a Vantage pro 2 and around same time got heavily involved with learning Weather Display software and learning how to make a weather Website. Website has been online now since 2007-present. Took many long nights of trial and error and also some very good help from many other members of the weather Forums to get everything to where it is today. Currently I am using Davis Vantage Vue with Meteobridge Software.
....chris