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WH1080 weather stations

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dcfcdave
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat 21 Feb 2009 5:40 pm

WH1080 weather stations

Post by dcfcdave »

:oops: please can anyone help me im new to this but iv been thinking of getting a WH1080 weather station is there anyone out there who can tell me if thay are anygood i live in derby uk i also want to know if thay are anygood for forecasting the weather aswell thankyou very much for your time and help dave
broadstairs
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Weather Station: Ecowitt GW1003/GW1103/GW2000
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Re: WH1080 weather stations

Post by broadstairs »

I cant comment on the station specfically, however even the relatively inexpensive stations can provide reasonable data if you take good care of how it is installed especially with regards to the temperature sensor's location and shielding.

As far as forecasting is concerned anything more than something very basic based on changes of pressure is not really achievable. If you want to do anything like reasonable forecasting you need software which is much more complex than any of the weather station monitoring programs currently available.

Stuart
dcfcdave
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat 21 Feb 2009 5:40 pm

Re: WH1080 weather stations

Post by dcfcdave »

thankyou stuart for your help iv been looking at this WH1080 weather station i just hope its going to be ok is there away you after installed it especially with regards to the temperature sensor's location and shielding.then see im new to this :oops:
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steve
Cumulus Author
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Re: WH1080 weather stations

Post by steve »

From what I've seen (although I don't own one), you won't find better than those stations for the price. Yes, their quality not the best, and they have their quirks, but many of these can be worked around with a bit of effort. If you have a look in the Fine Offset part of the forum (the stations are manufactured by a company called Fine Offset), you'll find lots of stuff about siting the sensors and modifications you can make to improve them, if you're that way inclined.

Steve
dcfcdave
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat 21 Feb 2009 5:40 pm

Re: WH1080 weather stations

Post by dcfcdave »

thanks very much steve for your help thats great
AndrewNZ
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun 18 Jan 2009 9:38 am
Weather Station: WH1081
Location: Canterbury, New Zealand.

Re: WH1080 weather stations

Post by AndrewNZ »

Hi Guys
I bought myself one of these Fine Offset weather stations for Christmas and I have to tell you I am sold on it, based on what you get for the price. I bought mine here in New Zealand for NZ $240 which is incredibly cheap for a professional class station. I didn't know they were made by Fine Offset until I saw this forum as it seems they are being bought in large numbers by various dealers who then put their own name on them, mine is called a 'Tesa' WS1081.

I like this station because for less than one quarter of the price of a Vector anemometer you get a wireless station that runs for over a year on 5 AA batteries, logs one months worth of data in a circular non-volatile memory, has a USB connection, and the full range of sensors which appear to be well designed. Up until now such equipment has been very expensive or of a very poor quality. I predict that if this type of equipment continues to come out of China then we are going to see some well known manufacturers go the same way as the American car industry.

There are of course some faults which I identified. Firstly the wind direction resolution is only 22.5 deg which is not really good enough for research work, but okay for ordinary home use. Secondly the screen illumination, at least on the 1081, is poor and it is hard to read. Thirdly I have noticed that the interval at which the station logs data sometimes jumps around for no reason. I have mine set to log data to a file every 5 minutes but sometimes it briefly logs it after only 2 minutes, or 10 minutes. The wind vane is also highly sensitive and will rotate in turbulence so be careful to locate it well clear of any obstructions. The station reads the sensors every 48 seconds and calculates the average after a specified time so turbulence problems are ironed out to a certain extent.

Recently, before I got my WS1081, I did some work requiring the measurement of wind speed and direction at a site. I used a Campbell Scientific data logger with a Vector A101M anemometer and a locally made potentiometer wind vane. It took a while to wire it up, program the logger, set up a solar panel with a regulator, buy an expensive lead acid battery, transport the heavy equipment to the site, and set it all up. Then I had to download it every 5 days which required alot of travelling. And I only had wind speed and direction data. This equipment is also extremely expensive. In other words the WS1081 would have been a much better system to use in this case.

So Dave, I would recommend the Fine Offset station as a means of measuring and recording the weather at your site. If you want to do your own forecasting then the more information you have about the state of the atmosphere the better. Looking at you own site data is only the first step, to improve your accuracy you will need to access the wealth of data available on the net.

Regards
Andrew
dcfcdave
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat 21 Feb 2009 5:40 pm

Re: WH1080 weather stations

Post by dcfcdave »

Thanks Andrew for that i cant wait to get mine now looking forward to it coming and its great to have members that can help me
cheers mate
regards dave
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Super-T
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Re: WH1080 weather stations

Post by Super-T »

Andrew. Have a look through the forums here for the simple fix for the anemometer. I had the same problem with the instability here in Auckland.
Just to burst your bubble, there is a new version available called the wh-1083 which apparently fixes the display problems but I haven't seen one yet. TESA should have some in next month.
The only problem I have had with the WH-1081 is the bearing in the anemometer seized up the other day due to lack of lubrication. Looked like it had never had any grease from the start.
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GarethTS
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Weather Station: Oregon WMR88
Operating System: Windows 7
Location: Llandudno. UK.
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Re: WH1080 weather stations

Post by GarethTS »

Hi All,
Also new to the forum, (and weather stations) but can recommend the WH1081 currently on promotion at Maplin for £69.95 (as a USB weather station). Then when married up to the excellent Cumulus software, it can be linked to say weather underground, and you have an excellent budget online weather station.

See mine at http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstat ... =ICONWYLL2.

PS. Forum is also great Steve, and I must also look at duck tape on my wind vane!
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