Hi, I've been testing a soon to be offered kit that may allow those of us with an old Heathkit ID-4001 sitting around to see action again. How many of these old workhorses do you see on eBay or here, looking good except for the anemometer boom, or the temperature probe?
The big LED display makes it easy to see from across the room, and they really are dependable and not bad looking, either. While they don't have all the whiz-bang stuff that the newer stations have, they still can be a useful station, or a nostalgia piece.
Angry Electrons has put together an interface board that allows you to plug in a Davis anemometer head (7911 or similar) to replace the now unavailable Heathkit anemometer booms. In addition it will furnish indoor temperature to replace the old sensor that came with the station, and supports a way to add an outside sensor, too.
And something I'd never have thought of is the ability of the kit to connect to your WiFi, grab local wind and temperature from a Weather Underground station,and display that, although not updating very fast.
The board is also able to (with an update) interface with the even cooler looking ID-5001, the blue station, and can then display humidity also. That code hasn't been tested yet and isn't functional on the board that will be coming out, but the developer told me it is in the works.
I offered to test the board awhile ago and frankly was a wee bit skeptical as to what I'd see when I got the USPS box. It is a very well laid out and constructed board, with resist and silk screen that is professional grade.
The test board I got was assembled, but I think the kit is going to include a few resisters and capacitors, along with some RJ45 type connectors so a little skill will be needed in assembly, especially since kit building which was a key part of the Heathkit influence and impact on electronics nuts like me, aren't out there any more.
There are no surface mount devices that I can see.
The person to contact is Mitch
http://angryelectrons.co/then click on the Weather Interface tab at the upper right of the home page.
DISCLAIMER: I have no business relationship with the company, and agreed to test since I have a couple ID-4001 units, including one with the Data Professionals CPU modification (D8apro.com), and a couple ID-5001s also, so I had the stuff to test his initial designs.
I cannot attest to how difficult the assembly might be, since my board was sent assembled to speed up the testing process. When he updated the software on the controller board, it was a simple process to quickly load the new .bin file to the board. I have built the Blitzortung Red and Blue lightning boards and I'd guess this will be much easier than those boards with fewer components and no surface mount devices to solder, however it appears not to have step by step instructions at the same level as Heathkit had in the manuals for assembly.
I'm very anxious to have the ID-5001 portion tested and turned on, since I really loved that station and had it limping along as well as I could tweak it well beyond when the sensors went sour.
Again, I am telling folks this just to increase awareness if you have been hoping for some sort of way to get the anemometer and temperature working on your old beauty again, and with the clever trick of displaying info from WU if you can't have sensors on the roof. Dale
