Cumulus Support

The Maplin N96FY is on offer again at £69.99 until 28/08/2012. I had one for 18 months until I upgraded to a Davis Vantage Pro2. (Thanks Steve and Cumulus ) Good value. Only problem was a failed anemometer bearing. Easily replaced from " Simply Bearings".

Hi,

Also get a £5+ off voucher for signing up to their newsletter.

But for the next couple of days (in the UK) the arguably superior Clas Ohlson version is only £39.99, delivered.

Cheers, Alan.

And the Maplins N96GY (the touch screen version) is on sale at £64.99 (weird, the nornally more expsnsive is cheaper..)

Qn - So why (apart form £25 ) is the Clas Ohlson version possbly better?

Hi,

Clas Ohlson appear to offer a two year warranty on all their products.

There are a number of differences in the specification relative to Maplin's, CO's generally superior, but others might consider particular disadvantages:

The CO version uses an 868MHz radio frequency (cf 434 MHz), generally a less "congested" radio band (and an opportunity to run two independent stations without interference) but the maximum range may be more affected by obstuctions. Obviously not compatible or usable as a "spare" if you already have a 434 MHz kit (but the latest Maplin stations appear to have a changed radio protocol, not compatible with earlier versions).

The CO has a Radio Controlled Clock. Nominally "Plug and Play" but it can be a further complication getting the RCC antenna pointing in the correct direction, and it can take a significant time to automatically set the time when it starts up. However, note that Cumulus doesn't need/use the logging timestamp anyway.

The CO User Manual is specially written/edited; more readable but referrring primarily to Northern European countries.

CO sell spare parts for their station. I guess if a sensor fails within the warranty period, they're more likely to supply a replacement part rather than expect the whole kit to be dismantled and returned (but some users may prefer to get shot of a faulty kit and receive a full refund).

Cheers, Alan.

Many thanks, reasoning much appreciated

Seeing the prices I've just bought two!

One for my dad who's in his 80's and has been a measurement nuty all his life (keeps daily traditional barometer and rainfall readings on paper traces)

And one theoritically for spares, though seeing as that won't now be the case it means that I can use the two to compare real values and remove local micro-climate variations.