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Interfacing (high-end) homebuild weather station

For discussion of DIY weather equipment - sensors, accessories, improvements to existing kit etc
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henker
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue 20 Dec 2011 1:21 am
Weather Station: Homemade
Operating System: Win XP
Location: Prospect, NS, Canada

Interfacing (high-end) homebuild weather station

Post by henker »

Good day,
Recently I finished my homebuild Weatherstation. After loosing three (cheap) store units due to high winds here on the Coast of Nova Scotia, I took the task to build my own weather station. From a simple project, it has become a fairly complex station that observes; Wind direction, speed, pressure, humidity, temp and it has a tipping rain bucket.
The PIC controlled unit, calculates, Dew point, Pres in Inhg as well as wind in M/s and Knots
Being in the Marine industry, I made a regular serial NMEA serial interface.
My plan was (and still is) to make a LED panel for on the wall showing the immidiate readings. For now, I would like to interface the system to software like Cumulus and use this software to monitor the station. Unfortunately, I haven't found a software package that accepts this Marine NMEA standard.
I'm now looking to use the Easy weather format, however, i'm not sure if this data is actually transmitted in a CSV format by the weatherstation, or, if Cumulus is creating this file.
I have looked at the Davies output as this is easily available on-line, however, due to the enormous amout of data in this format, I prefer not to use it.
Are there other supported formats that are available as an example online?
looking forward to your comments!

Thanks
Henk
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steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26672
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
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Re: Interfacing (high-end) homebuild weather station

Post by steve »

There's some information on the easyweather.dat format here: http://www.jim-easterbrook.me.uk/weather/ew/ and a thread about the way Cumulus can use it here: https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4344.

It's not a very satisfactory way of getting data into Cumulus, but unless you emulate a 'standard' supported station, there isn't really any choice.
Steve
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mermaidbeachweather
Posts: 71
Joined: Mon 05 Sep 2011 5:19 am
Weather Station: Vantage Vue
Operating System: Windows 7
Location: Mermaid Bch QLD Australia
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Re: Interfacing (high-end) homebuild weather station

Post by mermaidbeachweather »

Hello Henk,
are you able to post any photo's of your build and i can understand why you built your own, the quality is lacking lately on products on the market these days.

Cheers

Brian
sooty
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed 17 Dec 2008 12:01 am
Weather Station: Davis
Operating System: W7
Location: USA

Re: Interfacing (high-end) homebuild weather station

Post by sooty »

I think Weather-Display software takes NMEA data.
henker
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue 20 Dec 2011 1:21 am
Weather Station: Homemade
Operating System: Win XP
Location: Prospect, NS, Canada

Re: Interfacing (high-end) homebuild weather station

Post by henker »

Brian,

I have attached two pictures when I had the station under construction. I'm not at home so I can't make a picture of the unit "in action".
There are already several changes I have to make; One thing is that the vane is too instable, causing it to change direction to quickly. I need to make the "flaps" (don't know the correct word) larger and then re-balance it.
Also, I need to find a better alternative for the "teater todder" in the tipping rain bucket. At this moment, this is a pvc pipe cut in the shape of a teater todder. It is not stable / accurate enough.
Thanks
Henk
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uncle_bob
Posts: 505
Joined: Wed 17 Aug 2011 2:58 pm
Weather Station: WeatherDuino Pro2
Operating System: 2008
Location: Canberra

Re: Interfacing (high-end) homebuild weather station

Post by uncle_bob »

That looks well constructed! Great work!
Interested in building your own Weather Station? Maybe check out the WeatherDuino Pro Project Here
Conder, Canberra Weather
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Matt.j5b
Posts: 512
Joined: Mon 28 Nov 2011 2:13 am
Weather Station: Davis VP2/ WLL with DFARS
Operating System: RPi Raspbian (Buster)
Location: Ferny Grove, Brisbane, Australia
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Re: Interfacing (high-end) homebuild weather station

Post by Matt.j5b »

Thats so looks so well made and professional. Well done.
Regards, Matt of Brisbane, Australia
Ferny Grove Weather
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yv1hx
Posts: 223
Joined: Mon 05 Apr 2010 10:40 pm
Weather Station: No station yet ...
Operating System: Win XP Professional
Location: Some point in the Earth

Re: Interfacing (high-end) homebuild weather station

Post by yv1hx »

henker wrote:........ I would like to interface the system to software like Cumulus and use this software to monitor the station. Unfortunately, I haven't found a software package that accepts this Marine NMEA standard.Henk
Dear Henk,

I have almost the same problem that you, We ordered a Vaisala WXT520 Weather transmitter (Will be arriving latest January days, I think) and this station is capable to output the data in several formats and protocols, including the NMEA Weather Instruments sentences ($WIxxx...)

Did you are using the same output/sentences format? I such case, maybe the *nix based wview http://www.wviewweather.com/ can be useful for you.
henker wrote:.....I'm now looking to use the Easy weather format, however, i'm not sure if this data is actually transmitted in a CSV format by the weatherstation, or, if Cumulus is creating this file.
Thanks
Henk
If you are planning to use Cumulus with your home built station, maybe the only way is write a "translator software" that's deals with your station on one side and "emulates" a Cumulus know station in the other side or making your station to directly emulate a Cumulus know station.

Please let me know if I can help you.

Best regards,
Marco
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