Weather Station Hardware > Weather Station Pictures

An Oldie, But A Goodie

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Zeus:
This Heathkit model ID-4001 digital weather computer has been in continuous operation at my house for 33 years, since it was built in June of 1982, and I have enjoyed every day of faithful service it has given me.


      The LED's are still uniform in brightness.  The fact that some look brighter is just an anomaly of the photograph.

One of my favorite features of this unit is that the wind speed and wind direction readings are in real time.  The time and date display alternates, 8 seconds for the time and 2 seconds for the date and the temperature display alternates between the indoor and outdoor temperature every 2 seconds.  The alternating functions can be switched off independently to display the selected readings continuously.  It retains the high and low readings for the indoor and outdoor temperatures, barometric pressure and the peak wind gust along with the time and date they occurred.  It also has a wind chill function, rate of change per hour for the barometric pressure and a wind averaging setting.  Another favorite feature is that since this unit is 16” wide, the display with ˝” tall LED’s is large enough to easily be read from across the room in any lighting condition.
 
As far as accuracy goes, it is spot on.  As an example, I compared all of the readings displayed on my weather computer at the exact time this picture was taken with those of a nearby friend, also a member here, who has a very comprehensive Web site utilizing very sophisticated data collection equipment, and all of my readings were exactly the same as his.

Luckily, in spite of the longevity of service, my weather station has suffered only a few problems over its decades of service.  In 1987, static discharge from a near miss lightning strike necessitated replacement of the main CPU chip and a memory chip.  Happily, they were still available at that time, which is currently not the case.  In 1997, the outdoor temperature sensor malfunctioned, giving erratic readings.  Since there were no temperature sensors available at that time, I had to fabricate one using an LM-3911 IC.  In 1999, one of the cups was broken off of the anemometer during a hail storm.  All in all, not a bad track record for 33 years of service. Luckily again, I was able to trouble shoot and repair these problems myself.


The wind sensor boom is located 30 feet above the ground.  Oh, and before you ask.  Yes, the TV antenna on my roof is functional.  I have not had cable or satellite TV service for over 20 years and have not missed one single minute of it.  I am amused by my friends and family who are paying dearly for 170+ channels of nothing worth watching.  But, I digress.

I have often thought of replacing the main CPU chip with a now available plugin circuit board providing a serial port that would allow me to connect the weather station to a computer for data recording and also then have the ability to share the weather data on the Internet.  How unique that would be to have this old war-horse hitched up to modern technology.
 
However, there are two drawbacks that have kept me from doing this.  One is that the real-time wind speed and direction data is sacrificed for a sampling rate display.  Also, the indoor Min/Max temperature data is not logged, which I suppose is not really that big a deal, as long as the furnace and A/C do their job.  I have a concern too that, because of its age, manhandling the internals by opening the unit up and separating the two main circuit boards in order to replace the main CPU with the plug-in circuit board and do some required rewiring might compromise the unit.  I am a huge proponent of the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  However, it is comforting to know that a replacement unit is out there should the CPU chip ever fail.

I have my fingers crossed and hope that my vintage weather station continues to provide me with accurate and reliable service for many more years.

Now, all I need is for someone to develop a computer interface for my weather rock.

Josiah:
Nice Station!
As a HAM, I've heard about Heathkit and how (when they were in business) used to make good equipment and kits. I guess this is another example.  :grin:

One thought to to giving it a computer interface, If you thinking about opening it up. Drop in an Atmel ATMega 328 Micro-controller, commonly found in the Arduino Uno.
It would require a bit of programming, but should be able to do what you need. just my $0.02 worth.

WA4TM:

Interface for 'Weather Rock'...


Sorry,, I couldn't resist the temptation....

BTW good looking rig you have there....

Zeus:
Thanks WA4TM for the compliment and your clever suggestion for an interface for my weather rock.  I got a big laugh out of that.  Cute dogs you have BTW.  I have to go now to walk my pet rock.

Cutty Sark Sailor:
Well Done!  Few devices could beat a HeathKit, if directions followed.... sigh... those were the days...
real honest resistors that could blister your fingers, components you could see without a magnifier...
Wire!  Remember Wire??? Anybody?  Chassis!  Good'n'heavy.. with the occasional burr to slit a finger...
Vibrators for batteries!  Slug Tuning!  Good Stuff! Something broke, ya replaced the broken part, not an  assembly. And ya could get it at your local TV Repairman's junk drawer...

Betcha that jewel has many, many years left!

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