Weather Station Hardware > Remote Weather Monitoring

Help me design this remote weather station with a cellular connection!!

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jas340:
Ambient weather sells a Meteobridge Pro + Davis Vantage Vue combo for $580.00. https://www.ambientweather.com/am6357weatherbridgeprokit.html

I have a 40 acre parcel located 3km from my house that I would like to monitor. I  will use a 10ft mast with a cement base to hold/secure the components. I believe with the above kit I need a weather proof housing to hold a battery + the Meteobridge pro. I will need solar panel and charge controller. Very important will be the USB cell modem. I need the most inexpensive plan since I am only updating weather data. I can use Verizon or Sprint out here in the boonies.
   I am looking for a kit to assemble that will be pretty much plug and play once I order the components. The electronics are the hard part. Anybody want to look into this??? It could become the go to "kit" that WX forum members use for "economical" remote monitoring. Thanks

Mattk:
Some thoughts for you.

"Economical" in this instance may infer a % of capability which you may be happy to accept but others may not so I don't believe one design fits all in this area. 100% availability may never be totally possible but one can come close depending. The question then is what availability are you expecting?

Primary effort has to be power supply, batteries, solar & regulator etc with 1 of each being a single point of failure especially with a combined MBPro and USB modem. Split the modem and MBPro unit/power wise and the capability then exists to manage the power, that is if your battery is going down for some reason, say failed panel, regulator or no sun for extended period, all tied together with battery capacity etc then with a separate Modem one could auto switch the modem off while giving the MBPro longer run time while maintaining data/logging etc, of course up to a point where the MBPro would need to be auto shutdown to protect the battery.

Once the modem is shutdown then this can become a flag that something is wrong and gives a chance to rectify the condition without loss of data etc as the MBPro will still be running, for a period of time anyway? A combined unit once powered off is 100% loss for the time involved.

A combined MBPro/USB modem could draw 500-600ma which is getting up there without a fairly hefty battery & panel to provide some backup contingency. Another thing to consider with a combined setup is remote access to the SMB data area, that is if you require such access?

       

tavis:
How did your project pan out ? I'm investigating converting my existing APRS weather station into a GPRS weather station.

jas340:
I never got beyond the pre-planning stage. Cost to benefit was not worth it for me.

Mandrake:
I know this is an old thread but wondered if the OP was aware that Ecowitt sell a standalone solar powered Cell weather station.
take a look at www.ecowitt.com
I have seen a video of it being used/tested in Norway

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