Weather Station Hardware > Ambient Weather and Ecowitt and other Fine Offset clones

What pole diameter did you use for the 2902

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VinnyRI:
The manual says 1 to 2" pole. Not understanding how the sensor array will mount to a 1 to 2" diameter pole. Ordered the 2902A Saturday. Won't get here to RI till the 27th which sucks. $36.00 ground shipping. 3 day was more than double. Would have ordered it from Amazon but they don't have all the other pieces I ordered plus would have been a good deal more money.  Don't remember ever waiting that long for shipping!

WeatherHost:
5-6 Business Days is not slow.  We used to wait 6-8 weeks for mail ordered things.


When it arrives, you'll have plenty of time to read and experiment before trying to set it up.  This isn't a critical life safety issue, so taking a few days after you get it to try things out won't really matter in the grand scheme of life.

galfert:
The mounting is done by  2 U bolts one on top of the other. Because you can tighten the bolts to different thread depths is what gives you the ability to use between a 1 to 2 inch diameter pole. These U bolts are included. All you need is a pole.

I'm using a temporary 1.5 inch diameter pole 10 feet tall and buried 2 feet in the ground. I have ordered the Tele-pole 16 Foot Classic telescopic flag pole. Final height should be around 14 feet. This gives me the recommended ratio of 4x the difference in height as distance away from the house and surrounding trees. I'm fortunate to have an open space to do this. Other solution is to mount a good distance up on top of roof or side of house so as to eliminate roof radiation. But if on roof maintenance will be more challenging.

WeatherHost:

--- Quote from: galfert on August 21, 2018, 06:39:14 AM --- Final height should be around 14 feet. This gives me the recommended ratio of 4x the difference in height as distance away from the house and surrounding trees.
--- End quote ---

Which is why I don't like all-in-ones.  Wind is supposed to be around 30' and temperature is supposed to be around 8' or so.  The Fine Offsets aren't the best, but at least they let you separate the sensors properly.

galfert:
Well I wanted a VP2 but I though with it being very long in the tooth and the humidity issues and waiting forever for a VP3 I figured this new WS-2902A from Ambient looked like a good stop gap.

The WS-2902A is very impressive for being an all in one. I compared data from other WS-2902A before I got mine to VP2s and I have to say it was remarkable. Sure wind speeds aren't as high because of height but accurate wind speeds, at 32 feet and 9.7 inches, is the least of my concern. I wanted good temp, humidity, dew point, heat index, and most importantly rainfall. Mounting an all in one at a height that is a compromise of the two heights is acceptable to me for now.

There are also a lot of people that have VP2s and treat them like an all in one because of mounting option constraints. So there is that.

When the VP3 comes out and if it proves to be a worthy successor then I'll upgrade and get a bigger Tele-pole. Money is no object, I want the best, but I want it to be a sound investment and to me the VP2 is not at this point in time. Maybe the Acurite Elite will prove worthy when it finally comes out. So keeping an eye out for that.

As for the Fine Offset that separate the components, well those have very crappy sensors (as you mentioned) and looks as cheap and bad to me as it really is. The WS-2902A at least looks decent and is something I can be proud of in my yard. Everyone that has come over thinks it is neat looking. They are also impressed with my display console (unlike the very dated looking Davis consoles), and next to it I have my 2 ObserverIPs, Meteobridge, and NOAA Alerts SAME radio. I actually look like I know what I'm doing and I don't have the Raspberry Pi yet. I got 2nd ObserverIP to mess with and for ridirection to WeeWx. As you can see I could have afforded the VP2.... I just didn't want it. I'm mounting my cheap $37 but very nice looking and incredibly performing all in one on top of a $200 telescoping flag pole only to tear it down and replace with a larger Tele-pole when the time is right.

If someone has had a VP2 for some years then great they got good use of it. I just didn't want to buy it and have the new one come out a short while later. I didn't want buyers remorse. With the WS-2902A if it breaks or doesn't last long I won't be upset. $37 and I can replace the entire outdoor sensor array. If a hurricane comes at me it is staying up, I won't take it down. I want to see what it does. It will be fun and worth the $37 to replace to see that and get that data. I'm not looking to accurately measure the hurricane speeds. I'm just curious to see what happens and how well it compares to what is reported.

Sorry if I came across snippy, but I think the WS-2902A does not get the attention it deserves. I felt I had to defend it. And not all of us are real weather people. Most us us just want to see some data or have a more accurate idea of what is happening in our yard, especially rainfall. Because I can get accurate temperature, humidity, pressure, and wind from the local news, but nobody can give me accurate rainfall except if I do it. I actually wanted a weather station mostly because of my Hydrawise irrigation controller that now connects to my station and accurately adjusts to my rainfall. I don't care so much about the weather. I like to tinker with electronics as I'm an IT person and I like something that connects to the Internet and produces data that I can do all sorts of analysis with and save to SQL databases etc.

For what it is worth my neighbor replaced his old and temperamental and in need of maintenance VP2 with a WS-2902A rather than fixing it.

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