Topic: Davis Vantage Vue - Albany, NY

[bbowers]

Just got my Davis Vantage Vue last week and got it up in a decent spot. It was in the back yard on the fence... but with the house so close, and the back yard enclosed in trees, and a garage and the neighbors it wasnt seeing any wind or sun. So my upstairs neighbor let me put it up on his deck upstairs out front. I fabbed up a clamp type of mount with some plywood, 3/8" bolts, t-nuts, and a 1" flange and pipe...painted it to match the color of the trim and installed it. Worked out pretty well beings as neither of us wanted to screw into the wood and deal with it later. The wind data is actually pretty good up there... I didn't want to make it any higher because I wanted to make it as stealth as possible for visibility for him, and didn't want to worry about dealing with the landlord to get it on the roof, or the time it might take to get it down should I need to do maintenance.

So.....it's out in the open (as good as it will get for me now) and collects good data, and gets good sunlight... good enough for me!






Pole height is 18" btw...

[DaculaWeather]

Congratulations on your Vue!

[mackbig]

Nice non invasive install.  Given the all in one nature of the Vue, and your location sounds like the best place for you to have put in. Congrats.

Andrew

[SlowModem]

I hope you enjoy it and that it works well for you. 

[DanS]

Good location for access to periodically check and clean out the rain gauge too. Enjoy!

[bbowers]

Thanks guys. It's definitely a good spot. I asked that he just come out and check the rain gauge from time to time for debris... I'm going to make a nice screen for the top of it too just in case. After the backyard location wasn't going to work, I talked with my upstairs neighbor and asked him if he might like to donate a corner of his deck to science... he was more than happy to help. All he asked was to be able to view the data if possible... so once I get the USB data cable I'll set up a small site for it so he can see the data real time. So it worked out well for both of us.

[SlowModem]

All he asked was to be able to view the data if possible... so once I get the USB data cable I'll set up a small site for it so he can see the data real time.

If you're a really good neighbor, you could buy him a console!   

[justin470]

Very nice!

I love the mount you made for it.

Justin

[JeffWx]

Yes, nice job on building the mount!

--Jeff

[Garth Bock]

Nice install !!! Good to see an example of the flexibility of the Vue. Shows that anyone can have a weather station that blends in nicely.

[d_l]

That's a clever installation!

[bbowers]

So far so good with the Vue. I got my wireless issue worked out by moving the antenna horizontally rather than vertical. To be honest I don't even see the thing when I'm coming down the street unless I'm really looking. The readings, from what I've seen, are most likely accurate for my part of town, and correspond with my other temp sensors I have for my basic clock/date/thermometers. So far it's seen over an inch and a half of rain, most of which was in one rain storm.

Today I get the data cable, and I'm still on the fence on if I want to keep the console in my room and run the software on my PC in there? or if I want to run it on my smaller portable desktop with a wireless card and webcam that I can plug in anywhere. My only concern is that it will dump the wireless every now and then and stop uploading to the net. I'm a computer guy so I'll figure that out later...I could always grab another long run of cat5 the network guys are throwing out, there's always lots of that.

[bbowers]

I forgot to mention this... I have a story to tell... bear with me, grab some firewood too...

When I originally did the mount I fabbed it up in about 20 mins... my neighbor gave me a look and asked if I just put that mount together now? I said yeah, only took a little bit of time and some hardware. (Keep in mind I'm a problem solver, I deal with almost 100 servers at work that like to mess with me, and break for no reason, so I have great troubleshooting skills!)

Anyway I originally used a scrap piece of wood I had in the basement and two pieces of threaded rod I had used when I made a shelf mount that mounted to the back of my LCD TV for my center channel speaker. Later while watching TV with my girlfriend, and marveling at my ingenuity, I realized a critical flaw in my design... The grain of the wood was running sideways on the mount... meaning, with enough force pulling down on the sides, it was possible with enough sun and weather, to split the wood.

I went down into the basement and grabbed another 1ft piece of the scrap 3/4" wood I used for the base, brought it upstairs and proceeded to use two thumbs pressing on it to snap it in two. I immediately called my upstairs neighbor and told him there was a recall on the mount design I used and I'd be up in the morning to replace it with a better version. I went up and loosened the nuts just in case. When I went up to replace it what did I find? It was split, 3/4 of the way through. The only thing holding the two pieces together was the flange for the pipe. Good thing I thought of that and switched the grain direction (which you can sorta see in the first/second pic), the last thing I would want was a smashed Vue on the roof of a pissed off neighbors Prius in the driveway!

[CNYWeather]

Nice job! 

[bbowers]

Well... I have some wind speed.... but as far as wind direction... that's stuck due south thanks to a build up of water running out of the rain gauge that has frozen... Tried to knock it loose, but it kept sticking, and I kept getting ice pellets in my eyes so I gave up. I'll fix it tomorrow..