New Zealand Local Weather Forum
Weather Discussion => Hardware Software and Technology => Weather Stations => Topic started by: Will on January 24, 2014, 11:34:07 PM
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Hi folks a young friend is thinking of purchasing the above - any thoughts?
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Hi Will
Feature wise it looks pretty good. Scientific sales have it at $349. There are are a lot of these ws model things about, so there should be someone on here who is able to comment on accuracy and how long they may last for.
JennyLeez appears to have one so she may jump on and comment later in the day.
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Hi Will,
I oversee 2 of these stations.
Yes I like. This model gives you the solar, sunshine hours, Light level ( Lux ) and the UV at an affordable price.
Has built in memory, all wireless and USB to PC.
No data logger which to me appeared to be a pain from what other members said.
I weighed up the davis but went with 2 of these instead. 1 is my backup.
The fine offset group appears to have slightly high temperatures. This unit does not.
The 2 issue I have is the UV is not reporting high enough. Both my units are the same, they do not get higher than 3.
Two other WS3083 units I oversee are the same.
Also periodically the console loses its way and I have to remove batteries and reset. It is possible though that with all the other wireless stuff in my workshop, this loss of signal may not be the consoles fault :)
I purchased these from Scientific Sales who are excellent to deal with. Replacement parts for the odd hiccup have always been sent out promptly.
I use Cumulus software which has no problem reading this unit in.
I am not sure how Weather Display runs. Maybe someone else can comment here.
Cheers
Jenny
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Hello Jenny,
I am Wills friend looking to buy my first weather station. Thank you very much for your reply!
So because it does not have a datalogger what would that mean for me? Would I be required to have a computer running 24/7 if I wish to monitor 24/7? On scientific sales description of the model it say that the main unit stores up to three months data which makes me confused. Could you or someone else please clarify this for me.
Cheers :)
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Yes correct, the internal storage is around 3 months so no you would not need to have your PC on 24 hrs a day.
I meant it did not have a separate data logger.
Have a read through this thread.
Some excellent opinions and information throughout.
http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/stations/which-is-the-best-weather-station-to-buy/ (http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/stations/which-is-the-best-weather-station-to-buy/)
and welcome to our our forum :)
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Are you able to open them up to verify that they actually have UV sensors? A lot of the cheap Chinese-made "UV sensors" just use generic photodiodes that mostly sense visible light and then assume that x% of it is UV. This is problematic in NZ because we get more UV than Europe and the US where they're typically exported to. If you can't open it up and read off the part number you could try exposing it to an incandescent lamp or some similar light source that doesn't produce much, if any, UV, and see if you get a "UV" reading. If you're getting one then it's not a genuine UV sensor.
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Hi Jenny,
What were the odd hiccup seeing as they wouldn't have been of great age?
I'm considering one of these as a spare if my Davis needs to be taken off-line for any amount of time.
cheers
Tony C.
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Hi Tony,
Yes this station would make a great backup station and affordable.
Comes with UV, Solar and Light Levels. When I upgraded I was keen to add sunshine hours to my reporting and this station does this accurately.
I have had the solar add on replaced twice at no expense.
I ended up purchasing a second unit as a backup so no down time. This I could not have done if I had of bought a Davis.
This station has been humming away fine all year with no issues whatsoever. ( I tempt fate in saying this of course ).
The UV was sorted by adding the correct multiplier in and the replacement solar has been excellent.
So yes a nice cheap model with pretty accurate data readings and reliability. Would make an ideal backup :)
Cheers
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I have just got one of these stations to replace my dead lacrosse unit but I seem to be getting a lot of jitter on the internal sensors, is this common with these models or should I be sending bits back?
You can see the untidy traces in pressure here. Andrewville Weather | Personal Weather Station: ICANTERB131 by Wunderground.com | Weather Underground (http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=ICANTERB131)
The internal temp has a similar trace too.
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That sure is a lot of movement :(
Here is mine, same model.
http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=IHAWKESB20#history/s20141214/e20141214/mdaily (http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=IHAWKESB20#history/s20141214/e20141214/mdaily)
Some what calmer.
What does cumulus's graph look like. Same thing?
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:( Yes, it's the same but only for pressure and internal temp.
I tried to get a screenshot but I don'[t seem to be able to get attachments to work :-[
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It is definitely not as it should be.
Have a look on your WU site and under tables.
The continuous jumps up and down between the 10 minute readings are crazy.
There is one for a difference of 3.5hPa over 10 minutes. Now that sure is 'Rising Rapidly' .. lol
Nope definitely faulty in my opinion.
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That's what I thought but I didn't want to complain about an easy fix if there was one :)
I've given the same info to the suppliers and I wait to see what reply I get.
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How did you get on Diogenese?
Did they replace the station for you?
TC
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Yes I did get a new unit but I'm still having problems.
the new unit got rid of the jitter but it still drops out of communication every now and again. It might be my wifi or plasma TV causing it as it seems to happen more when I an at home.
I am thinking of getting something else that is hard wired.
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I'd be surprised if it was your WiFi causing interference unless you've got some smart switches that control lights/appliances. A lot of Raspberry/Arduino devices work on the 433mhz band. I think virtually all the smart TV's are all on the 2.4ghz band. Some of the video senders are now on the 433mhz band and I would imagine take a bit of bandwidth. I presume you are using Lithium batteries?
One of the reasons I swapped from my old LaCrosse unit to a Davis was that it seemed to drop out for no reason. The Davis operates in the 800-900mhz band with less competition!
Anyway, hope you get it sorted!
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I'm thinking about a Davis VP2 but I don't like the extras you have to get to get your data online. I don't need a datalogger or even a console as I will have it connected to a PC 24x7.
I'm going to do a bit of investigation but it seems I might have to have a go with a rasberry pi, but the last time I programmed anything was a BBC micro!
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LOL! :)
Now that brings back memories. I started out with a Radio Shack TRS80. Typing out all those numbers was a pain especially when the cassette tapes got corrupted.
Anything hard wired will be pretty reliable. A friend of mine from Geraldine has been building his own station using Rasberry PI. (JKjohn). He's a member, but hasn't been active on the Board. You could Personal Message him if you need any help/tips/code. He seems to have most of it up and running, but not talking to the internet at the moment.
cheers
TC
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Ahhh memories . . . cassette tapes, Sinclair ZX81, Commodore Amiga, Dos even :D