I am contemplating treating myself to a home weather station this
Christmas, measuring all the usual weather variables. Must have indoor
instrumentation, linked (preferably) by cable, and must have serial
output for PC processing.

Recommendations anyone?

--
Ian

"news" wrote in message
...
I am contemplating treating myself to a home weather station this
Christmas, measuring all the usual weather variables. Must have indoor
instrumentation, linked (preferably) by cable, and must have serial
output for PC processing.

Recommendations anyone?

--
Ian

Have you tried a pine cone Ian ?
I have had mine fitted with a serial port & now its up to date it works
realy well

news wrote:
I am contemplating treating myself to a home weather station this
Christmas, measuring all the usual weather variables. Must have indoor
instrumentation, linked (preferably) by cable, and must have serial
output for PC processing.

Recommendations anyone?

What is your budget?
I recommend http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/ for their helpfulness and
knowledge

--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk

In message , Jill.
writes

What is your budget?

I don't really know what these things cost yet.


I recommend http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/ for their helpfulness and
knowledge


That's more like it. Thanks Jill.

--
Ian

"news" wrote in message
...
In message , Jill.
writes

What is your budget?

I don't really know what these things cost yet.

urm -- quite a lot of pennies - but then they are quite some bits of kit
We have been saving for a while now and are in the midst of dotting the eyes
and crossing the t's on the details.


I recommend http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/ for their helpfulness and
knowledge


That's more like it. Thanks Jill.

They have been really great. I hope to be giving them our hard earned very
shortly

--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk

--
Ian

" I recommend http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/ for their helpfulness and
knowledge


That's more like it. Thanks Jill.

They have been really great. I hope to be giving them our hard earned very
shortly

--

regards
Jill Bowis

I bought a station about four years ago from that source and I found them to
be very helpful when I had to have a defective humidity sensor replaced
under warranty. It is not a problem that should occur now as I think there
was a defective batch of sensors around at that time.

I would go for a wireless model personally as they are more flexible in
operation and the reception range has been improved in the latest model. I
would also go for a USB logger connection unless your PC is old and does not
have a USB interface.
Alan

Felly sgrifennodd Alan Gardiner :
I would also go for a USB logger connection unless your PC is old and does not
have a USB interface.

Why USB? Mine has a serial interface, and since I don't use the serial port
for anything else, it's not a problem. I also imagine that it's easier for
amateurs to reverse-engineer serial protocols than it is for USB protocols.
Not a direct advantage if you're not a developer, but it may help if you
want to use free/open source software to access your station (as I do)

OK I never tried reverse-engineering a USB protocol so I don't know.

Adrian
--
Adrian Shaw ais@
Adran Cyfrifiadureg, Prifysgol Cymru, aber.
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Cymru ac.
http://users.aber.ac.uk/ais uk

On Tue, 22 Nov 2005 15:44:25 GMT, "Alan Gardiner"
wrote:

I would also go for a USB logger connection unless your PC is old and does not
have a USB interface.


It's difficult to be definitive about serial vs USB. Obviously some
modern PCs don't have a traditional serial port and so can't acccept a
serial logger, at least not without using an external serial-to-USB
converter.

However, USB has at least 3 minor drawbacks:

1. While the great majority of users of USB loggers have no problems,
overall USB just doesn't seem as robust as RS232 and a small % of
users have difficulties maintaining a reliable connection. Maybe it's
because it's a shared protocol, where other devices or their drivers
can interfere. Maybe it's a function of the variety of USB chipsets
and their implementation. But it is occasionally an issue with USB
which virtually never happens with RS232.

2. RS232 cables can be easily extended to 15m (and beyond). For
reliable operation, USB is limited to ca 5m without special repeaters.

3. Traditional RS232 is a well-established protocol and there are
readily available fixes to cure eg ground loop problems, tunnel the
RS232 data across ethernet LANs and so on. While such solutions are
starting to appear for USB, they can still often be specialist and
more costly in practice.

In a typical data logging application where data rates are determined
by the internal design of the logger not the interface type, USB will
often no faster than RS232 and so typically USB speed isn't an
advantage.

John Dann
www.weatherstations.coi.uk

I recommend http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/ for their helpfulness and
knowledge

That's more like it. Thanks Jill.


I recommend whatever (hardware and software) this guy uses:

http://www.martynhicks.co.uk/weather/data.php

--
Hil

This site covers weather stations from very basic through to sophisticated
plus books on weather, atomic clocks and all sorts:-
http://www.meteorologica.co.uk/
Hope you find it as useful as me although I am still undecided as to whether
(sic) to expand my wireless Oregon, homemade rain gauge and aneroid wall
barometer!
Dave
"news" wrote in message
...
I am contemplating treating myself to a home weather station this
Christmas, measuring all the usual weather variables. Must have indoor
instrumentation, linked (preferably) by cable, and must have serial
output for PC processing.

Recommendations anyone?

--
Ian