…And it looks like ANOTHER new weather station

My first weather station was an old National Geographic-branded station. I was okay – it provided the temperature, wind direction and speed, and rainfall information. But then I thought wouldn’t it be nice to be able to see this on a computer? Of course, the inexpensive weather station didn’t have any data output capabilities. So, what to do….

After checking out various weather sites around the ‘Net two companies stood out: Oregon Scientific and Davis Instruments. Of course, Davis Instruments was the Mercedes-Benz and I had a Volkswagon Golf budget. Oregon Scientific it was and the WMR-928. This was a nice little weather station: wireless to the base station, individual sensors (mostly) with solar, rechargeable and backup batteries. This system lasted about six years before the sensors started failing and, of course, you could not really replace them without spending what was adding up to a whole new station.

The hunt was on again for a weather station. Of course, Davis Instruments was the choice but I was still stuck on a Volkswagon – albeit a Jetta instead of a Golf – budget. Since Oregon Scientific worked well the first time I decided to go back to them. I bought a  WMR-200. I have to say I was a little disappointed with the WMR-928’s replacement – the base station didn’t seem to be up to the quality of the 928’s, the sensors now only had one solar panel with the rain sensor using only batteries. The 200 had USB which was nice as I had a USB-to-Ethernet adapter (and since the weather station workstation was by now a VMware vSphere virtual machine using the serial port wouldn’t work – but that is another story). Unfortunately my Jetta is falling apart after only two-and-a-half years – the anemometer is squeaking and reading low and the rain sensor just up-and-died.

This time I am going for the Mercedes-Benz. I think that it will be the Vantage Pro2 as some it has some features of the Vantage Vue don’t have. Plus, the Pro2’s base station seems a little higher quality. The only thing that I do not like with Davis is the need to purchase an additional – and relatively costly – adapter to connect to the computer. The choices are nice – USB or IP or serial – but you have to buy their WeatherLink software – and I’m not going to use it. Sandaysoft Cumulus is my choice.

 

 

About Mike Pelley

Let’s see… A little about me… I’ve been around information technology since 1983 with computers such as DEC Rainbows (weird machine – the standard DOS couldn’t format its own floppy disks – remember them? – and I had to format them on a friend’s IBM PC) to Radio Shack TRS-80 to Apple ][e and Apple //c in the beginning. I have programmed in 8-bit assembly language on 6502, FORTRAN and COBOL on IBM System/370 (and I still hate JCL), VAX BASIC and COBOL (and a weird and massive WordPerfect 4.0 macro) on DEC VMS (Alpha), C/C++ on Digital Unix (ALPHA), and C/C++, Perl (it may be powerful but I still hate it), PHP on Linux (Red Hat, Centos, Ubuntu, etc.). I have work with databases such as Digital RDB (later to become Oracle RDB), Oracle DBMS, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL on VAX, Alpha, Sun and Intel. Check out my professional profile and connect with me on LinkedIn. See http://lnkd.in/nhTRZe I still think that Digital created some of the best ideas in the world: VAX clustering, DSSI disks (forerunner to SCSI) and the Alpha processor (first commercial 64-bit processor – Red Hat screamed on an Alpha!). DEC just could not seem to be able to give air conditioners away to someone lost in the Sahara Desert! VMware is one of the best ways to get the most out of an x64 server. And I have tried Oracle VM, Virtual Box and Microsoft Virtual Server. Outside of that I am a huge military history buff starting in the early 20th century. I love Ford Mustangs (my ’87 Mustang GT was awesome) and if I had the money I would have a Porsche 928S4. If I had a lot of money I would have a Porsche 911 Turbo. I also play too much AmrA 3 Exile mod. Over 5,000+ hours... I have a wonderful son, Cameron. I have a long suffering (Do you really need all that computer junk?) wife, Paula. I live in Paradise, Newfoundland and Labrador.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.