Good Choice?

[J-Rod]

Hi All,

New member here. I was wondering if the new AcuRite weather stations http://www.acurite.com/mybackyardweather (This one) would be good for what I am trying to do.

I am looking to position 4 sensors around a nearby lake, to provide more accurate forecasting for the water. The area forecasts are often inaccurate and some people travel to fish or enjoy it's other resources. Most important data would be wind, tempature and pressure.

Would I need a station for each location, or would I be able to have one station, and sensors and a wireless internet bridge for each of the other "non-main" station?

Is this data easily broadcasted to an external website? I would like to have one website, that shows the data for the four stations or sensors.

Is the station itself solar powered, or will batteries need to be changed? I am finding differing information.

Thanks for the help in advance. I appreciate it.

[Bushman]

One thing to consider is that unless the lake is small (really small!) you will have to find a way to amplify the signal to get it back to home base.

[J-Rod]

Well,

The lake is pretty big.  So, I would need a complete station for each location then? Correct?

[SLOweather]

It would really help us help you if we had more detail.

"Pretty big" is still nebulous. Do you know the acreage/square miles? Got a lat/lon, or lake name and state we can look at with Google earth?

Will the 4 stations have any access to AC power or internet? What's the climate like? Do you want to measure water temperature as well?

I'm doing a similar setup on a 350 acre ranch in along the central California coast with 5 Davis stations. The expertise is here, but we need more info.

Chris

[J-Rod]

It would really help us help you if we had more detail.

"Pretty big" is still nebulous. Do you know the acreage/square miles? Got a lat/lon, or lake name and state we can look at with Google earth?

Will the 4 stations have any access to AC power or internet? What's the climate like? Do you want to measure water temperature as well?

I'm doing a similar setup on a 350 acre ranch in along the central California coast with 5 Davis stations. The expertise is here, but we need more info.

Chris

Ok, it's 30 miles, by 10 miles. 137,000 acres. It's one of the biggest freshwater lakes in the country, I believe. The lake is developed all around, so power/internet wouldn't be an issue.

The climate? Well, it depends on the day. I live in WI, it was 85 yesterday, and they are calling for a high of 58 tomorrow.

I would love to use Davis stations, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get that kind of funding. Water temperature would be nice, but the lake does freeze, so anything that floats would be out.

Any other information you need to know, just ask. I enjoy the weather, but am a total noob when it comes to stations and what not.

I guess I may have posted this in the wrong forum? Could I get a mod to move it?

[Bushman]

Winnebago? 

Any way, what you are trying to do will take some work, not only to get the 4 sensors in but then aggregating the data on a web site in a way that makes sense.  The lake I am on is about 4 times that size - lengthwise at least - (well, four arms each that size of so) and even on my arm of the lake the weather changes from one end to the other and even one side to the other.  I don't think you are going to do this with Costco type weather stations.

[SLOweather]

Winnebago? 

Good guess, Bushman.

I concur with Bushman's assessment. For that project in that climate, Davis is the way to go. (I hate to jack the AcuRite topic this way.) Perhaps you can do one or two stations at a time. After you get a couple on the web, then the other areas will clamor for their own.

For what you are trying to do on a lake that big, the cost of the weather stations is almost secondary. You will need 4 separate stations, and 4 separate internet connections. You COULD try to do some sort of add-on long-range wireless but it would cost more and be less reliable.

Then you will need either 4 24/7 computers and software, 4 WeatherLinkIPs, 4 WeatherElement data hubs, or other IP based connection between the weather station and the Internet. And then all the website back end, hosting, domain, etc.

For the ranch, we are installing 5 Davis VP2 Plus stations, 5 WeatherElement data hubs which send straight to our server.

Each station will have it's own WeatherElement page like THIS, and after they are all on line, we'll make a station network page for them.

[SLOweather]

BTW, if you are looking at Davis list prices for guidance, don't. Davis has a Minimum Advertised Price policy, which means that their dealers can't advertise any prices less than that. However, they can SELL at what ever price they want.

So dealers like rainmanweather.com and ambientweather.com have ways of showing you their special discount pricing, either by "joining" or sending an email.

[Bushman]

4 Vues and 4 loggers/envoys could do this.  Router and internet at each site of course.  That would run roughly $2000 plus daily net charges.  Put the 4 stations on a simple webpage map.

[Rhino]

You could use 4 of the AcuRite web bridges, and connect a wireless water temp sensor (and other sensors to each if you wish) to each one.

Web bridge: $60.00 each (available this month)
Water Temp Sensor (00617): $15.00 each

This setup also requires a internet connection for each web bridge, but then you could connect each bridge and share on www.acu-link.com and view and chart each sensor all on one screen, and on a iphone and android app. Would be quite a bit cheaper as well ($300.00 for equipment plus connection costs)

I know of a yacht club signed up to use the bridges and weather sensors/water temp sensors down near Lake Geneva, WI- similar setup!

[Bushman]

The OP needs temp, wind and pressure (and possibly water ) so he's looking at more like double the cost you quoted.

[J-Rod]

Rhino,

I sent you a PM.