Author Topic: Kit for a beginner - how can I feed my weather data into my PC?  (Read 1707 times)

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Offline Gaz2

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Hi,

Can anyone point me towards a weather station - and software - for a beginner who hasn't much to spend?

Ideally I'm maxing at £160 / $200 so I'm not expecting anything professional. And I'm UK based where kit seems to be more expensive. I would go a little higher if the perfect kit was out there!

I want to capture basic weather data on my PC (or at a pinch my old desktop Mac). I'd like over time to create a weather history of my location which I could slice & dice & show using graphs etc. on the PC. I'd even be happy to forego specialist software and use Excel (I'm reasonably competent in creating displays, etc.) but what kit do would enable me to even do that?

I'd looked at an older model Bresser 5-in-1 (with a monochrome screen) which fed into Weather Tool software but it sounds like that software is getting old & tired. Assuming it did work as it ought to, would it allow me to play with the data & create graphs, etc?

Bresser's newer models connect to apps but would the apps allow me to create a history that I could in due course delve into? Would the apps work on a PC or even an old Mac? Do any of these apps allow for data to be played with?

I do like the idea of the station feeding into an app on my iPhone but it's the capture and use of the data I'm more interested in. The screens that come with these weather stations look very impressive but I'd ideally have all the history on my PC.

And if I fed into Weather Cloud or Weather Underground, do their systems allow me access my own weather history?

Any suggestions gratefully received!


Offline davidefa

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Re: Kit for a beginner - how can I feed my weather data into my PC?
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2022, 12:25:22 PM »
I can suggest an ecowitt station.
I have this one ( no console ): https://www.expondo.co.uk/steinberg-systems-factory-second-wifi-weather-station-outdoor-sensor-indoor-sensor-20030583
In England you should have good deals on Watson station ( ecowitt rebadged ) ex: https://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/product/watson-w-8686/
With these you can send ( and visualize ) your data to a few online cloud service ( wu, ecowitt.net... ) and even to your own server.
You can 'brew' your own software or you can use already made 'weather templates' ( I use meteotemplate, and I recommend it as it is highly configurable/powerfull/extendable, you can see an example in my signature ), other you may find in the weather software subforums

P.S.
Forgot to add that ecowitt stations proposed are expandable ( at reasonable costs ), see this post in the ecowitt/ambient subforum
« Last Edit: March 14, 2022, 12:28:51 PM by davidefa »

Offline Gaz2

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Re: Kit for a beginner - how can I feed my weather data into my PC?
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2022, 01:07:11 PM »
Many thanks for that - whole raft of good ideas.

Sorry to admit it but until now I hadn't even spotted any stations without consoles - must try harder!

Will now work though your suggestions - all look promising.

Offline DelChard

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Re: Kit for a beginner - how can I feed my weather data into my PC?
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2022, 09:32:28 AM »
As a newbie that spent over 10 years looking, and as you're also in the UK, I'd recommend you look at the Ecowitt GW1101 (on amazon at 129.89 with a further 6% voucher). This comprises A WS69 and A GW1100 gateway, which I run together.
Before you decide, register on Ecowitt.net, and have a nose about. You are guaranteed to find stations near to your location.
Use the extra pennies to puchase a raspberryPi and run weewx or cumulusmx.
There is lots of help out there for linux newbies.

Offline broadstairs

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Re: Kit for a beginner - how can I feed my weather data into my PC?
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2022, 10:35:52 AM »
If you go for a GW1100 based system you can use an older Android tablet if you have one as a console using an app called PWT Personal Weather Tablet.

Stuart
Ecowitt GW1003 with ultrasonic wind gauge, lightning sensor and PM2.5 sensor with Personal Weather Tablet as a console.

Offline box

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Re: Kit for a beginner - how can I feed my weather data into my PC?
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2022, 06:15:52 AM »
Hi,

Can anyone point me towards a weather station - and software - for a beginner who hasn't much to spend?

Ideally I'm maxing at £160 / $200 so I'm not expecting anything professional. And I'm UK based where kit seems to be more expensive. I would go a little higher if the perfect kit was out there!

I want to capture basic weather data on my PC (or at a pinch my old desktop Mac). I'd like over time to create a weather history of my location which I could slice & dice & show using graphs etc. on the PC. I'd even be happy to forego specialist software and use Excel (I'm reasonably competent in creating displays, etc.) but what kit do would enable me to even do that?

I'd looked at an older model Bresser 5-in-1 (with a monochrome screen) which fed into Weather Tool software but it sounds like that software is getting old & tired. Assuming it did work as it ought to, would it allow me to play with the data & create graphs, etc?

Bresser's newer models connect to apps but would the apps allow me to create a history that I could in due course delve into? Would the apps work on a PC or even an old Mac? Do any of these apps allow for data to be played with?

I do like the idea of the station feeding into an app on my iPhone but it's the capture and use of the data I'm more interested in. The screens that come with these weather stations look very impressive but I'd ideally have all the history on my PC.

And if I fed into Weather Cloud or Weather Underground, do their systems allow me access my own weather history?

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Hi there

I have a gw1003 station which suits me and my site

One key consideration is how/where you intend to mount your station

All-in-one or separate sensors have their pros and cons. From my perspective I had the space to mount separate sensors and site them appropriately, an all-in-one will always be a compromise location

So it's your site that may end up driving your solution. Ecowitt does both types  and links to the internet via a gateway unit which can also feed your PC and logging/analysis/reporting software like Cumulus MX or weatherview

Offline Gaz2

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Re: Kit for a beginner - how can I feed my weather data into my PC?
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2022, 12:42:01 PM »
Many thanks for all the advice - all very very useful.

I've just ordered a GW1102 as it ticked all the boxes plus it was a bit of bargain on Amazon (less than £130).

I'm sure I'm going to be back here as I scratch my head staring at the bits on my kitchen table. And that's before I try to figure out the software, the apps why I might need a raspberryPi!

Offline box

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Re: Kit for a beginner - how can I feed my weather data into my PC?
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2022, 02:36:28 PM »
Many thanks for all the advice - all very very useful.

I've just ordered a GW1102 as it ticked all the boxes plus it was a bit of bargain on Amazon (less than £130).

I'm sure I'm going to be back here as I scratch my head staring at the bits on my kitchen table. And that's before I try to figure out the software, the apps why I might need a raspberryPi!

I recommend that you do a practice install with everything in their relative positions and turned on to check signal strengths and that everything is talking to the gateway which is in turn talking to your router. Then put things on walls and up posts or on roofs!

It was when I did this that I realised my planned site for my gateway unit didn't work and I had to move it to a different location to ensure connectivity, basically it couldn't see one sensor

 

anything