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I'm trying out a Davis Instruments weather station for an upcoming review in MAKE, and we've installed it on the roof at the O'Reilly campus. It was pretty easy to assemble and we're getting some cool reports from it.
We're using Vantage Pro 2 wireless model, with Weatherlink software that downloads data from the console and uploads it to the web.
There's a flickr set of photos showing some of the assembly and installation.
For now, we're posting charts of current conditions here, and data reports here. The reporting templates are customizable and I've replaced the default java ticker at the top with a static view of readings for the current month. It's been pretty easy to customize those templates.
We're also posting data to NOAA as part of their citizen weather observer program -- here's our station report.
For some interesting controversy over NOAA data, see Tim O'Reilly's recent post, Federal Weather Info Could Go Dark about efforts to force the National Weather Service to quit providing free weather data so it doesn't "compete" with commercial services. Not only have we already paid for NOAA data with our tax dollars, but citizens are voluntarily donating data to NOAA daily.
I'm interested in intelligent control of my sprinklers. Seems like using real-time local weather data would allow much smarter watering. I've seen some commercial sprinkler controllers that use Evapotranspiration (ETo) profiles, but where's the fun in buying a pre-built solution? :)
Anyone else started down this road?
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That's a great idea! (You could increase watering during especially hot spells, too.)
Having automated watering has made a huge difference in my gardening "skills", but I feel like a knob when I forget to set the rain delay when we don't need the extra watering.
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Davis makes a nice system. On a slightly upscale note, I've been working with the Vaisala WXT-510 Weather Transmitter. I'll try to get some data and maybe a picture or 2 up soon. Means I've gotta finish the one at home!
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Davis makes a nice system. On a slightly upscale note, I've been working with the Vaisala WXT-510 Weather Transmitter. I'll try to get some data and maybe a picture or 2 up soon. Means I've gotta finish the one at home!
There's some good info on calculating ETO from Campbell Scientific; I can post the URL if anyone's interested. Requires Temp, Humidity, solar radiation.
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