VP2 Upgrade Adventure

Glad to hear that you have upgraded to the VP2, Chris! :slight_smile:

It’s pretty difficult to really say what you could do without any pictures…but the tripod idea that niko mentioned sounds like a good idea. How far is the flat roof away from the house?

–Tim

Pictures are tricky…it’s dark when I go to work and dark when I get home. Maybe I’ll manage to grab some at the weekend.

The flat roof is attached to the house. It extends about 7ft south and about the same east, so the corner is about as clear a spot as I’ve got.

Chris, you lucky BLEEP getting a VP2 :lol:

Just taking all the bits out of the box and reading the manual (yes actually reading it) to see how they all fit together!

To tell you the truth, I’m really curious to see how well the drip ring on the anemometer works out…

We’re expecting a significant amount of sleet/ice here (possibly up to 0.25" of it 8O) and it’s supposed to be breezy.

–Tim

if you live on or near hill tops/ridges, then your overnight temperatures can be alot higher than people in the same area who live in hollows/basins/flat areas …

I’m making progress…

Console setup and data logger installed.
Anemometer set up and connected to transmitter
Rain gauge set up for 0.2mm.tip (what is the 0.1mm/tip setting for on the console?)
FARS built and connected to ISS.

That’s enough for tonight. I need to get the serial to USB adapter next so that I can hook the console up to the PC and get WL installed. Then it’s outside when I can get a man with a ladder to climb up high and bring my anemometer mast down to ground level.

Sounds good. I have a new toy waiting to be set up too - a new PC is sat on the floor at the moment - I am waiting on a serial to USB converter too so I hope my lowly WMR928N works ok with that or I will have to get a serial port PCI card!!! I am away at the weekend so the new PC will have to wait until Monday to be powered up. So my weather data may disappear for a while.

One day I will get a Davis!

Is it normal for the outdoor T/H sensor to give different readings to the indoor sensors (when they’re in the same place)? I’ve got the console sat on top of the rain gauge, so the sensors are very close. The console is currently showing 19degC for outdoor and 22degC for indoor (my OS T/H sensor about 4 feet away is saying 21degC. Humidity is also different (53% outdoor and 45% indoor), but this might just be down to the temp difference. The console and ISS have been together in the same room for 24 hours, so they should have reached a stable and similar temp.

I’ll monitor it for a while longer, but is this to be expected?

is the light on, on the console?
also the rain gauge is black…try moving it away from that
also i dont think the specs on the indoor temperature as as accurate as the outdoor temperature…so differences will occur…

I just went through this with mine. I had a weather monitor II that was zapped with a serge from the computer and bought the VP2.

I did as you have done and put them in the same room for a long time. I would say that they should read the same if they are in the same room for a reasonable length of time. There is a way of adjusting that. If you look in your manual to see the procedure. The only thing that is the unknown is which temperature is the correct one so that you can adjust the right one.

I got another thermometer to put in the same place and decided which one was correct. Unless you have a hygrometer, it is a tossup about the humidity. I adjusted mine assuming that the indoor one was correct and may need to refine that based on humidity readings in my area.

This was my experience and method for doing this.

Gary

I think this may have been true before but acc to the vp2 manual on the website they are both +/- 0.5 deg C. I’m not surprised by the discrepancy Chris is seeing though, there are so many possibilities for air currents or other effects acting differently on the two sensors. If it was all wrapped in a thermal insulating blanket for a while then I would expect them to the same within the limits of the spec.

I have my VP2 set up on the roof using a TV aerial stand - the bottom of the unit is a touch over 2 metres higher then the peak of the roof.
When I set it up, I had three different weather stations all located in a close proximity with all of them showing very similar data so didn’t need to tweek anything.
Old Chinese Proverb - “Man with one watch always know time, man with two watch never know time”

Temperature radiation from the roof was my biggest concern on installing there, but I also had issues with location in the garden area - too many trees and shrubs - so up there it went. Temperatuers readings seem to closely mirror other data in the general area, so I am quite happy with the readings I get . In New Zealand of course it is unusual to have no wind at all to flow over the sensors so roof radiation is not usually an issue. Obviously, up there grass temperatures get missed.


VP2Setup.JPG

Is that a “hot tin roof” ?

[quote author=nikoshepherd

:lol:

The temp differences have settled down overnight which seems odd. Temps are now 16/17 (out/in) and humidity readings are now 61/57 (out/in).

They’re close enough now (bearing in mind the +/- 0.5deg accuracy).

Some pictures (now that it’s light enough!)

Looking West, this puts the current sensor positions in context…

A) Anemometer
B) 2m/70cm vertical antenna
C) Rain Gauge
D) G5RV wire antenna


anemometer_annotated.JPG

Looking North-East (two pics…one from inside which has some reflection from the glass)…


north_east.jpg

north_east_2.jpg

Looking South-East (difficult shot with the sun this morning)…


south_east.jpg