During my Jr. High School and High School years back in the 60's I had a variety of "home brew" instruments, with a lot of help from Dad. (some "government project" activity where he worked I believe). I had a really neat remote wind vane that used two servo motors, one with the vane and another inside with a homemade pointer.
I built a lightning detector using a transistor and milliammeter. I made an antenna with multiple "probes" out if 14 AWG copper wire. It worked well and I had a potentiometer to turn down the sensitivity as storms approached.
From the late 1990's ('98 I think) I ran a station consisting of Dallas Semiconductor "weather station" for Wind Speed and Direction. Temperature was pretty useless in this thing since it was heated by the sun.
I also had the DalSemi rain gauge. Both the rain gauge and wind set use TxWx mechanical components, but custom electronics showcasing the OneWire chips.
I added a One-Wire temperature / humidity sensor (AAG) in a fan-aspirated electrical box.
After a tree took out the wind set, I replaced it with a very similar AAG set.
In 2011 I installed a Davis Vantage Pro 2.
Later I added a Davis Temp/Hum station and upgraded to a solar door after about a year.
I have since added DFARS to both the T/H station and the original ISS.
I started out with Blitzortung with the USB version (final) of the "green" detector board.
I added RED station, then a Blue. I scavenged the antennas and enclosures from the "green" board system for the Blue unit.
I also have an R M Young Wind Monitor Jr. that I found NOS on eBay. There is a separate 6332 and Universal Anemometer Interface for it. My station wind data comes from the Young wind set.
Greg H.