Weather Station Hardware > Remote Weather Monitoring
remote APRS WX station project
TheBushPilot:
Never been a fan of Hobo based on the fact that you're locked into their ecosystem. Despite using decent measurement equipment, their data logging stuff looks junk. For how much you pay I think a much better system could be made with significantly better parts.
I'd take what parts are universally measurable and move away from the hobo system.
I think if you get a CRBasic Campbell Scientific data logger with PPP you can send APRS data over TCP connection with your radio ID. Not sure what cellular reception looks like up there but you can get one of their low power OEM cell modems compatible with their data loggers and send data to the web that way(?) Not sure what coverage looks like up there but I'm sure there are also proper ways to convert the data to radio signal like you originally had looked into doing.
Assuming you know the protocol to connect and send data it should be pretty straight forward integrating that into the code.
Hobo is likely a dead end and more difficulty than it's worth given the closed architecture and limited customizability.
Cheers
havtrail:
I think the "smart" sensor designation simply means, as one Onset description reads, "All sensor parameters are stored inside the smart sensor, which automatically communicates configuration information to the logger without any programming, calibration or extensive user setup." You can plug any sensor into any receptacle in the logger, and the sensor will identify itself and things will self-configure. They also have a serial number built in.
The HOBO sensors are pretty high end compared to the typical hobbyist-grade weather equipment, and their prices reflect that. The S-RGx rain bucket, with a tipper mechanism, is larger (6 inch diameter and 9 inches deep) and I think far better than Davis, Ecowitt or others, from what I read on this forum. My weather station uses a "smart"-ized version of the Davis wind speed/direction unit, which Onset characterizes and offers as a lower-budget alternative to their own higher-priced unit.
Your S-LIA light sensor is a special one to measure light in the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) range rather than overall ambient light levels. That, along with the S-TMA temperature probe in a stainless housing usable in soil or water as well as air, suggests that the unit you have was geared toward plant or agricultural use, rather than general weather monitoring.
I'm not familiar with the H21 logger and the older Box Car software. The weather monitoring station I manage uses phone data transmission to Onset's HOBOlink remote server, but I also happen to use their HOBOware Pro software on a laptop in conjunction with Onset's small temp/humidity loggers (like the UX100) to measure and log conditions in an old stone house used by our local historical society to house its papers and artifacts.
I am not at all familiar with APRS. If you can download the data from your logger to a PC using their software, you may also be able to peek into the data file and try to figure out its formatting. That's well above my level of knowledge, but others here may be able to help you puzzle through it.
Rich K.
RonVE8RT:
If I'd joined this list a few years ago the bird feeder would have been put up somewhere other than the HOBO tripod :? Apart from the squirrel damaging a cable it's all there and in (as best I can tell) good condition. I did find the links on your signature file helpful - maintenance and inspection of weather stations in particular.
The HOBO sensors specifications are at best down to -40, but the accuracy of the data wasn't that important, what I did not want to have happen was for the information to be blanked out (one manufacturer I contacted told me that there product does that). FWIW interestingly all of the automotive temperature displays I've seen do read and reasonably accurately) below -40 [tup].
The APRS data can be set to report at any interval, for my purposes even once or twice an hour is enough.
Here is a link to an APRS site that I've selected the remote station (at our ski club) VE8SKI which has continued to operate without servicing for several years (and its made with inexpensive components). VE8TEA on the map is my home APRS IGate (internet access point for APRS data). Its not my station or I may have made a clone of it.
I'm encouraged by the help I've received here, maybe over the coming months my own APRS WX data will be online.
Thanks to all!
RonVE8RT:
Seen this happen so often before, here's the missing link.
https://aprs.fi/info/a/VE8SKI
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page
Go to full version