Weather stations

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
are any of the cheap weather stations any good.
My old rain gauge has just cracked so I am looking for a replacement, but can these stay the pace for a few years , giving me readings in the house of rain wind temp etc?
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Mine came from Maplins 5 years ago and still works apart from the wind measurement. Was never in a good spot to measure the wind anyway so didn't bother fixing it.
Only problems with rain measurement is when spiders tie the mechanism up with cobwebs inside. Clean it out, spray inside with Raid and good for another 6 months +
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
I have a Watson W8681 which finally died after about 4 years. I think it was bought with Syngenta Points. The anemometer was the first to seize up, then the wind vane. The temperature sensor was the last thing to go last winter. They do have PC link software - Cumulus is free to download.

The Davis gear is the best but even a lower spec Vantage Vue is £500 by the time you've got it hooked up to your router. Add a couple of hundred for a better Vantage 2/Pro

At home I had a Science Museum one which lasted for 10 years. Just an external temperature sensor though.
 

sjt01

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Norfolk
Try these guys - in Suffolk too.
Soil Moisture Sense Ltd,
Cloverlea,
Nuttery Lane,
Aldringham,
Leiston,
IP16 4QW
Office email: [email protected]

Its a web based system, which we use for soil temperature monitoring. Cheaper than a full weather station even with rainfall etc, but there is a subscription
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Think I'll just stick with my basic rain gauge, min/max air thermometer and a battery of cheap soil thermometers + a notepad and basic Xcel spreadsheet :p
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
I have a Watson W8681 which finally died after about 4 years. I think it was bought with Syngenta Points. The anemometer was the first to seize up, then the wind vane. The temperature sensor was the last thing to go last winter. They do have PC link software - Cumulus is free to download.
Same here but mine has lasted longer. Just ordered the bits to fix it at £12.50 inc postage.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Think I'll just stick with my basic rain gauge, min/max air thermometer and a battery of cheap soil thermometers + a notepad and basic Xcel spreadsheet :p
Nowt wrong with that but I know I'd forget to record it.
For less than £100 you can measure all that, automatically record it, upload to the internet automatically and analyse the results of any period you like for as long back as you had it. You can do all that from anywhere in the world, even on your smartphone. Not for everyone of course but money well spent as far as I am concerned.
 

Horncastlefarm

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Wakefield
Do any of yours easily link with gatekeeper? I have seen an import section but ours doesn't seem to like the file type of our current station. It would save us having two systems on the go if I could import the file directly to gatekeeper
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Have got my Watson station up and running, must say quite easy, shame about the long leads they put on some of the Ethernet cables. I cannot comment on the accuracy of any of its readings, but one thing I cannot fathom. Has anyone worked out how to change the 24 hours, it works in for Rainfall?
As far as I can see it is on the standard 24 hour clock , i.e.. requires reading at midnight.
I prefer to be in bed long before this, any one been able to make it read 8AM - 8AM ?
 

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