Topic: Newbie question... why USB?

[jasperx]

I recently got my hands on a lightly used Honeywell TE831W weather station and have been really enjoying it.   Now I am thinking about taking the leap and buying the software to store and display data.   I am intrigued by the prospect of remotely monitoring conditions in and out of the house. Having the data on a webpage accessible on my LAN would be  cool and I would not mind having it on the WAN provided I could use my own server or existing hosting arrangement.
 One of the things that has held me back is the apparent need to connect my  weather monitor via  USB to a computer (in my case it would be a Mac).  The sensors are wireless so what is with having to use a wire to get the data into a computer? I do understand that the wireless used by the weather station is  a different beast than my wireless LAN but it sure seems like someone would have figured out how  to replace  that USB port with  an (802.11a/b/g/n) antanae and some software  to package the data. Conversely, it seems like it should be possible to build a receiver that  would hook directly on the computer which  would receive data from the sensors... skipping the monitor entirely.

This site is really cool, though a bit  daunting for the budding hobbyist.  One of the things that would be really neat to see is photos/diagrams of different setups of weather station... from instruments, monitors, servers to  web.

[Weather Display]

the data needs to go from the console to the PC
which is where the USB comes in

[mmorris]

I recently got my hands on a lightly used Honeywell TE831W weather station and have been really enjoying it.   Now I am thinking about taking the leap and buying the software to store and display data.   I am intrigued by the prospect of remotely monitoring conditions in and out of the house. Having the data on a webpage accessible on my LAN would be  cool and I would not mind having it on the WAN provided I could use my own server or existing hosting arrangement.
 One of the things that has held me back is the apparent need to connect my  weather monitor via  USB to a computer (in my case it would be a Mac).  The sensors are wireless so what is with having to use a wire to get the data into a computer? I do understand that the wireless used by the weather station is  a different beast than my wireless LAN but it sure seems like someone would have figured out how  to replace  that USB port with  an (802.11a/b/g/n) antanae and some software  to package the data. Conversely, it seems like it should be possible to build a receiver that  would hook directly on the computer which  would receive data from the sensors... skipping the monitor entirely.

This site is really cool, though a bit  daunting for the budding hobbyist.  One of the things that would be really neat to see is photos/diagrams of different setups of weather station... from instruments, monitors, servers to  web.

I think you answered your own question you still need something connected to the computer to receive the data, or another box connected to your Lan. I suppose that someone could build a complete Weather system that would use a expansion card of course that not a good Idea if your using a laptop and some of these new mother board don't give you much in options to plug thing in. My self I've never been a big fan for wireless my laptops some times lose connection when I'm using them.
If you Google wireless usbyou can find all kinds of option now if they work with the weaher stations someone will have to spend the money and let us know as I have never heard of anyone using any of these on this forum.

[jasperx]

Thanks for the thoughtful answers.  I had not heard of wireless USB...it seems to be something still not fully hatched.  As I thought about this answer another solution occured to me.  How about having a second monitor in the setup?  I have not seen where Honeywell builds a secondary monitor  but perhaps it would be possible to just run two in my set up.  The first monitor could "live" where the people are in the house and the second monitor could "live" with the computer equipment.  I like the idea  of using the small battery operated display for quick glances at the outside conditions. Has anyone tried a 2 monitor system?

[Weather Display]

a second irox console should work to show the current conditions in another location in the house