Cumulus Support

G'day all, Tom from Adelaide South Australia here.
I've recently moved to Second Valley, a coastal town south of Adelaide and note that it gets quite windy here. Given that we rely completely on rainwater, I thought it would be interesting to start recording this data. A friend of mine is right into the weather station thing and recommended the Cumulus software.

....so....

I note that Cumulus only works with specific weatherstations so obviously I'd prefer to select a station from one of those, therefore, can anyone recommend an online shop (the US dollar is really good at the moment) and a model that works reliably with Cumulus? The Davis range seems quite expensive (over $1K) and a bit out of range in terms of budget, the Oregon Scientific seem quite reliable, and priced right but I'm having trouble locating the models listed in the 'Supported Devices' page of CumulusWiki..

Can anyone advise?

Thanks,

T

The Oregon models currently supported are now discontinued, which is why you'll be having trouble finding them. I hope to start working on support for the current Oregon models soon.

Of models currently supported, at the budget end I would have to recommend the Fine Offset (available under numerous 'badges') over the La Crosse. While the Fine Offset stations do have their 'quirks', these can be overcome to a certain extent with a bit of ingenuity. I actually own one of these for testing purposes, so I am always going to be able to support these better than I can the La Crosse stations, about which I know very little.

Not another bloomin Aussie

Seriously mate, welcome to the forum, and yeah as Steve says, the F/O can be a bit quirky, but with a bit of tweaking, quite accurate and reliable. Easy to set up, VERY easy to tie into cumulus, and the whole thing is extremely addictive!!!

Welcome T,

A number of other South Aussies own Fine Offset stations and are members of this forum. Why not have a look at the the websites and data we have on the web.

Here are a few of us:

http://members.aussiebroadband.com.au/muster/
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~storerfamily/weather/
http://users.adam.com.au/landj/

The biggest attraction of the Fine Offset is the price. With a bit of tweaking and a few modifications, you can come up with a very good system that gives great results for the investment.

Bob

I've got two of them They're a lot of fun to improve and the improvements you can make are many Certainly good value for money.

Hi, Ive had mine for about a week (wh1081)' and it's so far been a great device, really enjoying being in with the weather!

Setup was easy, made a new pole from 2inch x 2m hand towel rail pipe from bunnings so it's elevated above the roof, put some mesh on the rain gauge and linked it in to cumulus software. With the great help from other forum members I'm up and running with a godaddywebsite..


Just great!

gtr161 wrote:The Davis range seems quite expensive (over $1K) and a bit out of range in terms of budget, the Oregon Scientific seem quite reliable, and priced right but I'm having trouble locating the models listed in the 'Supported Devices' page of CumulusWiki..

Can anyone advise?

Thanks,

T

G'day Tom, I bought a Fine Offset from Ebay for my birthday in November '10.
Item title: BRAND NEW PROFESSIONAL WEATHER STATION WH-1081
Web Address: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 0609548708
Item number: 110609548708
Seller User ID: ce-technologies
Your total: AU $99.80

Best price I found, and sent from within Australia. They don't advertise them as Fine Offset, I only heard of this brand through Cumulus and this forum. Mine is badged "Sinometer", but they have the same model in at least 4 different brands on Ebay. I'm not sure if CE-Technologies sell them anymore, but they are easy to find. When I got mine the right half of the screen wouldn't show, but I got a reply to say pull the back off or he could send a new replacement. Because I live in Darwin/Palmerston and I don't mind tickering, I went with opening the back. I think mine was repacked and not absolutely new. The front had rub marks in the corner. A screw was in the wrong place (I think it had been opened before). I fixed it. Although now the touch screen doesn't work, but I don't use it because I always have it connected through Cumulus on the computer. The screen is hard to see at times, but if I take the touch pad sheet out, it is much clearer. Hope this helps (scrolling the web for reviews was a hedache in the end).

Hi all, thanks for the informative responses, very helpful, it's quite handy to know that Steve utilises the Fine Offset for testing purposes, so based on your responses and Steve's support for the F/O, that has to be 'the go'...

I'll have a surf around the web today but prefer to purchase new, Ebay just seems to be full of shonks as whilst i'm kinda handy with fixing some stuff, im not too interested in a second hand model, thats supposed to be sold BNIB - Ebay just seems a bit dodgy.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a reputable store?

Thanks all and once again, your responses have been very helpful

Cheers, Tom

Jaycar has them, cat. no XC0348 for $199.

gtr161 wrote:Can anyone point me in the direction of a reputable store?
Cheers, Tom

I bought mine from Jaycar Digitech XC 0348. $199 you should be able to haggle the price but 10% off is probably the best you'll get.
I had to return an anemometer after about a month and it was as easy as, walked into the store and thet swapped it with one out of another box, no problems at all. At the time (18 months ago) I could've purchased one from ebay for about $130 + p&p.

This is where the stores are in SA

GREAT... Thanks, for the responses..I might pick one up tomorrow...

T

I got mine from ozplaza.living on eBay, just hunt for Pro Wireless Touch Screen Weather station

They were quick and product was new, happy with them

gtr161 wrote:I'll have a surf around the web today but prefer to purchase new, Ebay just seems to be full of shonks as whilst i'm kinda handy with fixing some stuff, im not too interested in a second hand model, thats supposed to be sold BNIB - Ebay just seems a bit dodgy. Cheers, Tom

Tom, it will depend on who you purchase from on eBay. You need to look at the feedback a dealer has to see if any customers have had issues with the seller. I purchased my Fine Offset WH-1081 and know that I got an upopened brand spanking new unit from an Aussie dealer with near 100% positive feedback. From memory it cost me $115 including postage.

Here are a few examples:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Wireless-Profess ... 20af7092bf
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Wireless-Weather ... 335f90852e

There are many more, some with more features.

Bob

I've always been very wary of buying from eBay. But a month or so ago I got fed up with re-lighting our solid fuel Rayburn the old fashioned way and did a search for a butane gas poker. A firm on eBay were selling them at half the price of others direct so I took the plunge. The goods came quickly and were perfect for the job. I am very satisfied. The seller had a very good rating.