need help: weatherstation for a vineyard

[HerrHolle]

Hello folks,
I'm coming to you with a specific question I cannot answer by myself, because I'm not that fit in electronics and informatik . Maybe someone of you can help...

I want to use a weatherstation in a vineyard to get spezific data that might be helpfull for my work as a winegrower.
That would especially be:
- temperature
- humidity
- precipitation

Further would be interesting, if its not too expensive or complicated:
- soil moisture
- insolation
- wind speed

My questions are:
- are there favourite stations to buy (with at least: temp/hum/prec) or would it be better to construct it by myself? (then, please, tell me how to find cheap sensors)
- are there special stations or produvers for use in agriculture or fruit-growing?
- and mainly: if I would buy any station and would use it with cumulus, is it necessary to keep a pc running all the time next to it? are there other ways to send the data to the internet? it may happen that i'm not visiting the vineyard for a week, but I want to be informed about the weathersituation anyway. because of that a datalogger would not be that useful without transmission.

I hope this questions seem not too dumb or lazy,
thanx for your help and your suggestions!
(I'm also happy for help to help myself )

[gemini06720]

Other than building your own weather station, the only weather station that I know would do all that you ask for is the Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station - the Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station has been used for some years in many of the California vineyards. But it is a fairly expensive weather station, more so with additional sensors... It is also a very reliable weather station.

Depending on the size of your vineyard, you might even need a wireless repeater (an additional receiver/transmitter) if the distance between the ISS (integrated instrument suite - the sensors) and the receiving console is greater than 1000 meters (at best).

Just have a look at the Davis Instruments Weather Products web pages or download the Davis Instruments 2011 Weather Stations Catalog

[Gina]

I'm producing my own weather station sensors in addition to running a Fine Offset WH1081 with Cumulus and Linux based software I'm developing. My hardware is based on the "1-wire" wired network and hence NOT wireless though the range limit is 300 metres using twisted-pair cable (CAT5 UTP network cable is ideal and relatively cheap). The sensors are quite cheap - costing a few UK Pounds each mostly. I'm talking of the raw chips which can be made up into sensor units to connect to the 1-wire network or you can buy ready made units for a few tens of pounds/dollars(US).

[HerrHolle]

thanx for the answers!

@gemini06720
Yes, the VantagePro2 seems to be really good, but it is definitly too expensive for my purpose. I only have half a hectar, and the weatherstation will be half fun/hobby and is not fundamentaly necessary for my work. but it would be helpful. I think I will concentrate on temperature, humidity and precipitation for now.


@Gina
Could you please explain some more? I just don't know what 1-wire exactly means and couldn't understand it through articles in the internet. also the english language is kind of a barrier ...

- Let's assume that I install the sensors of the WH1081 in the vineyard and they will send wireless to the station, which will be in the house (not more than 100 metres away ...). The main problem is now, that I want to send the data directly and constantly to the internet (homepage, twitter, homepc etc.) without a pc. Is there any option to do that. What would be the smallest "computer"/system I need, that only has to "connect" the station with the router (and maybe translate the signal)? Would this be some 1-wire-bus-master-thing? or is 1-wire the connection system for your self-build sensors to the station?
But mainly I want to know how to minimize energy/costs in the whole operating system. an all-time running pc is not what I want.

- If I choose the raw-sensors, is it possible for a novice to make them up into sensor-units as you are doing? Can I buy the station (or another) without the sensors (haven't found it yet...)? I found it with sensors for around 100dollars, that would really be ok. How much would it be without sensor-units?

dreaming of wires and waiting for answers...

[HerrHolle]

hey,
I just found a few discussions on this board and links like hobby-boards.com for 1-wire.
I will do my best, and as wilco would say, please be patient with me...

[Gina]

I started a thread about 1-wire here :- https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3860

I got a number of suggestions and also did some searching of my own and now I think I know what I'm doing I have posted examples of my circuits in the 1-wire thread. I have also posted diagrams and photos on my weather website under "Future Developments" (or go straight there from this link :- http://ginad.org.uk/weathergd/DevelopmentTestPage.html .
Link to my main weather site :- http://ginad.org.uk/weathergd/home.shtml

The OWFS website give some good information on 1-wire systems :- http://owfs.org/

I use HomeChip (in the UK) :- http://www.homechip.com/catalog/
and HobbyBoards (in the USA) :- http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/main_page.php
for items not available from HomeChip. In fact their international shipping price is quite reasonable. These suppliers also have useful information on their websites.

I've also posted a "beginners guide to 1-wire" on another board but I think it's a closed board so I'll copy the info and put it in another page on my website.

Now, regarding keeping power low, there are very low power computers available - such as netbooks. The Linux operating system will work on simpler and more basic computers than MS Windows. It's free and so is most of the software for it.

I'm not sure what I can do about the language problem but I understand that English is not your first language and I'll be happy to explain any words you do not understand. Don't worry about trying my patience I'm happy to help all I can.

[wd40]

i got to wondering if there was a wireless soil moisture indicator. Sure enough there is one and it is economical.

Maybe a Fine Offset and Cumulus then add this gadget.

http://www.weatherconnection.com/produc ... &s=froogle

Randy

[Gina]

Now if this had some way of getting the data out of it's base unit it would be great, but from the spec, it hasn't, unfortunately!

I would think that to do so yourself would be either extremely difficult or impossible. Nowadays, it seems all these sort of things use a microprocessor directly connected to the display. I've looked at several devices including remote thermometers and humidity sensors and all I've seen have a surface mounted chip, display panel and a few SM components. The display is scanned by the chip, reducing the number of connections. It might just be possible to connect these data lines to external electronics and decode the data but it would be an enormous reverse engineering job.

There are soil moisture sensors available form HobbyBoards :- http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/pro ... ts_id=1547
It seems these are intended to be connected to their moisture meter which is currently out of stock but you could make your own or use another make perhaps.

[HerrHolle]

I think now the best solution for me will be a Fine Offset with Cumulus on a small linux computer.
With my actual knowledge I couldn't build a weatherstation by my own, I don't have the time (and the brain...) to learn that much about electronics to set up a 1-wire-network. maybe to build it, but not to programm or calibrate it. you would have to explain nearly EVERYTHING I would have to do. I also would prefer wireless connection. and at last, it won't be much cheaper. only the rain-gauge was about 100dollars on hobby-boards.

I also thought about microcontrollers, but I would have to write software for it, what I can't...

I'm more interested in the weather than in the station...
If I want to meassure more parameters in the future, maybe I think about 1-wire again ...

thanx for your help and inspirations
this topic hasn't to be ended, just write on if you like, I will check it!

[Gina]

Fair enough Though you need Windows to run Cumulus. I expect to have Linux software for the Fine Offset station ready to publish sometime in the future. It's based on "pywws" by Jim Easterbrook which you could use as is :- http://code.google.com/p/pywws/
This may be just what you want - to quote from Jim's website :-

The software has been developed to run in a low power, low memory environment such as a router. It can be used to create graphs and web pages showing recent weather readings, typically updated every hour.

[HerrHolle]

that sounds great, I will check this soon.
finally, the idea becomes a shape...
thanx gina

...

does this mean that I can install pywws on a router (for example WL-500gP V2)? the router is creating or communicating with the webpage and I can watch from somewhere else trough the net?
this would be exactly what I want!

[jim-easterbrook]

does this mean that I can install pywws on a router (for example WL-500gP V2)? the router is creating or communicating with the webpage and I can watch from somewhere else trough the net?
this would be exactly what I want!

Yes, that's exactly how I use it. I have a website hosted by a hosting company in the usual way. As part of the website I have files that include other files to create a complete page. The pywws software updates these included files every hour and uploads them to the hosting company by ftp. It also posts to Weather Underground and Twitter.

Note that the router I run pywws on is not the same router that handles my internet connection. A router's stock firmware will not run anything useful such as pywws, so you need to 'flash' different firmware on to it. This is not a job for the timid, and there is a risk of 'bricking' the router, rendering it completely useless.

There are other low power computing devices, such as the Sheevaplug, which can also run pywws. A few such systems are mentioned on the pywws 'compatibility' wiki: http://code.google.com/p/pywws/wiki/Compatibility

I'd better stop now before this looks even more like an advert.

PS I'm thinking about visiting Dresden on my summer holiday this year. Does it get very hot in July?

[HerrHolle]

That's great Jim. I will try this as soon as I can, I'm kind of busy right know. And maybe I will tell here how it worked. For the software-stuff I will ask my cousin. He is receiving a doctors degree in informatik, so who would get this straight when not him ...

When people do advertising for stuff they don't want to sell, it's not really advertisement at all, so please don't worry ...

And the weather-forecast for july 2011 in Dresden, you know, I'm not god or mister Kachelmann (a broken german weather-guy) ...
But usually it gets hot, last year around 30°C, but that was a bit higher than normal. Even if it rains, come to Dresden. It's a beautiful city with famous buildings, the characteristic landscape formed by the river Elbe and a lot of friendly and calm people (except a few idiots you might heard from...).

Have a good time!