New to this site. In fact, just spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to post in “WD FAQs” until realizing that I couldn’t.
I am hoping to get some “lessons learned” information from folks.
I want to set up a weather station that has the following trimmings (hey, it’s Thanksgiving):
internet access to the information
Typical info (i.e. wind/temp/rain/etc.)
web cam
animated doppler radar (I assume gathered from an external source)
detailed forcast (I assume gathered from an external source)
So, I am at ground-0. I have a lot of experience in both linux and windows; is either OS preferred?
Can WD do the above things?
I have absolutely no experience with weather equipment; are there any preferred products for compatibility with linux/XP, or for reliability?
Hoping someone can point me in the general direction that I need to go in… Looking forward to tinkering to set this all up, but I figured some advice from experienced people would help guide me.
I was just about the same place as you are about 2 months ago. I purchased the “Entry Level” Davis Equipment and have been very happy with it! “read up” online on your hardware choices, I’d highly recommend Davis equipment if you can afford it. Seems like less people complain about Davis than the others! I got into the weather game to relate it better to my fishing!
I am running the Windows version of WD & it is super! Seems like Brian updates the Windows version more often than Linux, at least in my short time here. I love my Linux for servers, but run Windows on the home systems. I dedicated a older P4 to the task of “weather Station”. This has allowed me to get steady data collection.
I initially purchased my hardware & software from Ambient. Was very pleased with the transaction & service. I have since basically replaced all my software with WD & WDLive. I also run Tinplates software to allow both WD & VWS to run at the same time. All the software “gets you there”, the question is do you want to drive a Chevy(Others) or a Porsche(WD)?
I have spent the last 2 months designing my web page, and it still needs a ton of work!
My advice: buy the best equipment you can afford. Have a look at http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/ws_pro.php and avoid anything that looks like anything there (similar is sold under several names). This is the voice of experience. After 1 year I’m changing mine for something better.
Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Station (think about including a solar sensor)
Weather Display Software (takes care of your web site publishing and web cam requirements)
The Carterlake Templates for your web site (available at carterlake.org … includes the radar and forecast you mentioned)
Then expand when ready:
Weather Display and/or Mesomap Live
WxSim for forecasting (there’s a forum on this site)
GR3 radar software (a lot of info on this site)
Boltek Lightning Detection
You can research all the above using the excellent search on this site. Good Luck. - Jim
I agree with what’s been said. I’d had two different Oregon Scientific stations (one wired, one wireless) which both gave up the ghost after a year or two of operation. In 2004, I bought a Davis Vantage Pro with FARS, and upgraded it to a “Plus” by adding Solar and UV sensors in March 2006. All were purchased from Provantage. I recommend the Davis system, and that you get the UV/Solar sensors – with Weather Display, it will adjust the summary icon for cloud conditions based on the solar sensor. Also get the serial interface (not USB) for the Davis logger – a few folks have had problems with the USB drivers, but none reported with the basic serial interface.
I’d designed my own template set based on Dreamweaver’s 2-col-left-nav template, but starting with the carterlake templates is MUCH easier Make sure your ISP for your weather website supports PHP – there are a lot of free weather related PHP scripts to make your website much more informative to your viewers.
Using VirtualVP, I’m running Weather Display along with Davis WeatherLink (the original software for the station, and used for NOAA reports).
More on my station configuration at http://saratoga-weather.org/station.php if you’re interested.
Brian’s support for Weather Display is nothing short of phenomenal! I highly recommend it, and you’ll find outstanding support from the fellow weather enthusiasts here.
Wow. I have to say that I really didn’t expect to receive so much assistance, so quickly. I appreciate everyone’s response, and want you to know that I appreciate the fact that you have all taken some of your personal time to help me.
FishDude: Thanks for your insight, insofar as being somewhat in the same boat as me. I like your site, and appreciate your comments about Davis, and about the update frequency of WD for windows. I still need to look into “Tinplates” to see what that does, and if I need it.
Devil: I appreciate the advice on hardware. I was hoping to get steered away from products that people have had trouble with. I am sure that you’ve saved me time, aggravation, and money.
Jmcmurray: Thanks for thinking like a newcomer to the weather world, when respoding to me. The conciseness is ver helpful. Questions: Does the Davis Vantage Pro 2 not have the UV and solar senors built-in? And, can you advise on the pros/cons of the cabled vs. wireless model? And thanks for the templates information, to make setup easier. And the “when you’re ready” stuff looks interesting!
KTrue: Ah, thanks for the hardware recommendations. With your comments on top of all the others, it seems to me like Davis is the way to go. I think I need to do some reading about your VirtualVP comments, and how they relate to Davis WeatherLink and NOAA reports. I don’t understand that piece yet. And your comment about the support of WD is very helpful. And I can tell already, based on everyone’s responses, that the user community is very helpful, which makes going with WD a no-brainer. I had feared the “figure it out yourself” responses, but the responses I received were wonderful… Thanks to everyone, for that!
General questions:
Would it be safe to assume that using a desktop is better than using a laptop, because of serial port availability and the ability to add cards (lightning detection, etc.)?
If I go with Windows, does the WD software include a web server, or would I have to run IIS/Tomcat/Apache? Has anyone had problems with security, or people breaking into the web site?
You have to purchase the “plus” models to get the addition of UV and solar. If you have a desire for these, it’s best to get them when purchasing your station vs an add on later. I believe it’s cheaper and saves you the installation.
I’ve owned a Davis weather monitor II for many years now and have recently upgraded to a wireless VP2+. Still using my WMII for the primary station until the new anemometer can be installed. My “weather office” is in the basement but even so I’m impressed with the reception. Averaging about 96-97%. My transmiter is about 75 feet from the house. Wireless is obviously much easier to install and much more flexible should you find a need to move the sensors in the future.
Welcome to the forum! A lot of great folks participate with a wealth of knowledge.
PS…If you get time, a quick update of your profile to indicate your geographic location is always appreciated. I’m guessing you’re in the US??
you would be best to use say windows web server…and set the webfiles folder in WD to that ISS server location
i do have a http server built into the wdwebcamcapture…which dishes up selected file from the url selected, straight from the webfiles folder
The better options for stations are the Oregon Scientific WMR-9x8 series for price, however for better station overall definately look at the Davis Vantage Pro 2 stations.
If you want solar and UV sensors, the Davis is the only way to go, and you should buy the station with those sensors at the start as they are quite pricey to add in later.
There’s two commercial weather packages available, one I used to run here(vws) and finally escaped from it, and Weather Display which really does work, and work very well I might add.
Windows or Linux ? well I much prefer Linux any day, but the linux version of WD is lagging behind the windows version by quite a bit I believe. I run Weather Display under XP Home here.
As far as the website is concerned, start off with the carterlake templates and build on from there.
I’ll chime in here with my odd ball advice, be sure to look at the Texas Weather Instrument line of stations. If you want to install it and forget it, be able to view it’s console from acrss the room then take a look here: www.txwx.com/prod.htm
The Texas Weather Instruments look good, but pricey… I may stay with Davis just because it seems that it’ll do what I want, and there are many others with the same equipment, in case I get stuck.
Windy - thanks for the web server advice. I hope I can get things set up soon!
Weatheroz - yep, I prefer linux too, but it seems like it’s a Windows world, at least at the consumer level.
Hydrowx - thanks for the wireless info. and yep, I’m in the USA - Maryland. I’ll update my profile soon to reflect that.
OK gang, I think I have the advice I needed. I now need to get the equipment. Sheesh, but the weather stuff could easily cost more than a half-way decent desktop
I had originally posted this thread a while ago, to get advice on weather stations. Now, I’d like to make the weather station information internet-accessible. that would include a camera of some sort, to see things right fromt he web page.
Anybody have recommendations? I haven’t decided whether to use a wireless camera, or even if i should keep the camera protected in the house, or mounted somehere outside; so, advice for any type of camera would be appreciated. Also, if the manufacturer/type matters with respect to posting the images/video on a web site, please let me know.
I’ve used a standard Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000 for my site and it’s house in a waterproof box I fixed outside. It’s connected through two 5 metre USB booster cables to the PC. Then I let WD handle the live webcam updates and WD’s built-in Moviemaker builds the videos (all day & last hour) each hour and uploads them to my site.
If you search through the forum then you’ll find that others have used the same camera as I have, other webcams, older digital cameras and some have old camcorders linked to a video capture card.
If you want to see the capture quality I’m getting then click on the banner below and you’ll see the video buttons across the top of the screen. I use the .jpg images taken at 1 minute intervals to make the video but you can also have the movies in java or .swf.
One thing that I thought I’d mention, which hasn’t been so far in this thread, is: If you don’t have a weather station set up yet then you can still download WD and have it set up to use the weather data from your local NOAA reporting station. WD will display that info until you get your own station up & running. You can also get the website going using this information if you want to start playing before you’ve found that $500+ for a Davis.
thanks for your response. i looked at your site, and really like it. seeing how your camera works was very interesting.
of course, the most important piece of information i picked up wasn’t about the camera, naturally; i never even thought about setting up the web site first, then incorporating the weather station information. thanks for giving me a new way to think about things; i appreciate it.
i’m really anxious to get this stuff going. the choices for cameras are staggering, though. might just pick a cheap one to get started, and after a while, i should get a real feel for what i ultimately want, and can upgrade later.
OK, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at cameras for my web station, based on the responses you’ve provided, and the threads you’ve recommended.
I am leaning toward a waterproof dome camera with IR capability. These cameras (at least the ones I’ve looked at) don’t seem to be all that expensive, from maybe $30 - $150, or thereabouts.
My issue now is the connector; It seems that the types of cameras that I’m looking at have an RCA plug to connect to a TV. But, I have a laptop. Not sure if it has an RCA input, but doubt it. Is there an easy way to make these types of cameras behave like the typical ‘web’ cam with a usb connector? Or, should I abandon this idea and look more towards the typical usb web cam, which I assume comes with software, etc.?
From what I know (not a lot really) about the IR cameras is that they only have IR for as far as the IR LED’s go, which judging by the IR capability of my Sony camcorder isn’t that far.
If you only want the IR to cover your yard then it’ll be fine but it won’t give you night time pictures of the clouds etc any better than a webcam.
Make sure your ISP for your weather website supports PHP – there are a lot of free weather related PHP scripts to make your website much more informative to your viewers.
A lot of great folks participate with a wealth of knowledge.
