Cumulus Support

Please could anyone recommend a weather station for use on a small exposed (50-ish acre) uninhabited island.
The unit will be purchased by the charity that owns and manages the island (ie money is tight!).

Due to the nature and location of the island the requirements are quite specific:

1) 240 V power is very limited, so would need to be battery / solar powered with AC option.
2) Would need to be rugged enough to withstand a harsh, sometimes salty environment.
3) Need normal measurements: Pressure, Temperature, Rainfall, Humidity, Wind speed, direction, UV, etc
4) Ideally be able to use Cumulus for stats / history etc
5) Onboard datalogger with timestamp.
6) Ideal wireless transmission between gauges and base unit (100 metres max)
7) USB connection to PC. Data can be downloaded monthly, except during winter.
8) Sufficient on board memory to store hourly data for several months. Could be less frequent to increase time between download.
9) We expect to pay over £300, but not pay silly money.

I've found the Oregon Scientific WMR200 which meets most of the requirements. Does anyone have anyone have any experience with this unit? Or should we maybe pay a bit more and be going for something like a Davies Vantage Pro2 Weather Station?

Your views would be very welcome.

Thank you.

I'd recommend a VP2. But you would be looking at considerably more than £300, particularly if you wanted a UV sensor.

I'd agree with Steve that a minimum would be a VP2, your requirements and the reliability needed I think means that anything less would be a bad investment. Even then I think something like a Vaisala setup would probably be better but then we are talking serious money and I don't think Cumulus supports it.

Stuart

Hi Berrowsands,

I must agree with the previous posters. Because of the reliability needed for this unit and the probable critically importance of the data gathered; I would also say Davis, preferably a VP2, is much better choice than a WMR200 (or any other budget weather station).



Francisco

Hi,

I see you have put a Fine Offset in your profile. Do you actually have one? If you have, then you may appreciate the (probably excellent) advice that others above have given. But to pick up on a few points above:

Do you really want "UV" if the island is uninhabited? I can understand "Solar" (Lux) if you want to know how much energy might be generated by PV cells.

Berrowsands wrote:8) Sufficient on board memory to store hourly data for several months.

That suggests a significant amount of memory. I believe that Cumulus is not recommended to use a logging interval of an hour or more, but maybe that's alright if you're only downloading logged data (i.e not online realtime)?

Cheers, Alan.

All good recommendations.

I can only suggest what I am familiar with - Vantage Vue. Meets all the requirements apart from the UV aspect. If you shop around you should be able to get a good deal - £350 to £450 including data logger & software.

As a beginner in weather monitoring, the main benefit for me is the all in one ISS and detailed console.

Set up is simple and it seems to be a rugged & reliable piece of kit.

Johnny

AllyCat wrote:Hi,

I see you have put a Fine Offset in your profile. Do you actually have one? If you have, then you may appreciate the (probably excellent) advice that others above have given. But to pick up on a few points above:

Do you really want "UV" if the island is uninhabited? I can understand "Solar" (Lux) if you want to know how much energy might be generated by PV cells.

Berrowsands wrote:8) Sufficient on board memory to store hourly data for several months.

That suggests a significant amount of memory. I believe that Cumulus is not recommended to use a logging interval of an hour or more, but maybe that's alright if you're only downloading logged data (i.e not online realtime)?

Cheers, Alan.

Hi Alan,
Thank you for your reply. Yes, I do have a Fine Offset - it's purely for home use - not something I'd even contemplate exposing to an island installation - hence my request for advice!

Paul

Thank you everyone for your helpful advice. I think the two units I'll shortlist are the Davis VP2 and Vue. I'm going to recommend we get the VP2, but at the end of the day cost may be the major deciding factor.

As far as UV goes, that was just a nice to have, not essential.

Many thanks,

Paul

While the VP2 is an excellent piece of kit and will probably work very well I am worried about the need for power for the console and data logger. The console will run on batteries but not sure for how long and you will have to be careful about the logging interval as at 1 minute it holds about 2 days (well actually a little under) of data, you can us longer logging intervals but 10 minutes will give only just under 20 days, right now can't lay my hands on the actual details. You will also have to have weather proof storage the console and what happens if you cannot get to the island within the logging interval or lifetime of batteries.

There is an awful load of things to consider when running something like this as I'm sure you can imagine. I think if there is no power or secure storage on the island this is going to get very much more expensive than just the cost of the VP2.

Stuart

Stuart, do not be so pessimistic...

The information you were looking for the Data Logger archived data:

• - the Data Logger stores up to 2560 archive records (one 52-byte record per archive interval ) for later transfer to a computer.
  - the Archive Storage Capacity (the amount of time before the archive is completely filled):
  • 1 Minute Archive Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 hours
    5 Minute Archive Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 days
    10 Minute Archive Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 days
    15 Minute Archive Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 days
    30 Minute Archive Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 days
    60 Minute Archive Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 days
    120 Minute Archive Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 days

There is the Davis Instruments Solar Power Kit (#6610) which provides power to a Wireless Vantage Pro2 console (or a Wireless Weather Envoy) when mounted in a remote location or in a field station. The kit consists of three key elements – a solar panel, a 6-Volt battery, and a regulator circuit – mounted in a protective housing - the Solar Power Kit is designed to provide years of trouble-free operation.

Finally, there is the Davis Instruments weather-resistant NEMA 4X Complete System Shelter (#7724) which provides protection from the elements for system components such as the Wireless Vantage Pro2 console (or a Wireless Weather Envoy).

I know, I know, this is getting to be a very expensive weather station installation (more so non-north-american residents).

That's interesting Ray about the solar power supply and housing, I was not aware of that. The only problem with the longer time intervals is the lack of granularity of data but I guess that is a judgement call for the people doing this.

As you say this is driving up the price especially for non-US residents!

Stuart

Well, we are going for the Davis Vantage Pro 2 with USB datalogger.

I want to set this up to use Cumulus on the mainland before installing on the island, but will I need 2 weatherlink user licenses, as the PC I set it up on won't be the same as the netbook we take to the island to download the data onto?

So, I really want the set-up on two PCs that are able to download the data from the console.

Many thanks,

Paul

I don't think you need an additional licence for the software; after you've set it up, uninstall and then install on the netbook.

steve wrote:I don't think you need an additional licence for the software; after you've set it up, uninstall and then install on the netbook.

Ok, thanks, I'll try that.