WTB - Weather Station

[kaimaikid]

Hi,
I am after a weather station that I can set up in Tauranga and interface with my pc and the internet.

Pref. wanting one that does indoor/outdoor temps, rain guage, wind speed and direction, wind chill, dew point, humidity etc etc

Rather a wired one as to a wireless but then beggars can't be chosers I guess.

cheers
Gary

[Shepherds Valley WX]

I have a Lacrosse 2310. It does everything you have metioned. My WX interfaces with my dedicated WX PC and runs 24/7/365. Cost approx $450 imported from Australia (weather down under store) and my PC uses Brian Hamilton's excellent Weather Display software for graphing, logging, analysis and display purposes. The complete system works very nicely, although I am now starting to add "one wire" sensors to the system to add some additional features.

Hope that helps a little Others here will know a lot more than I!!

[Gary Roberts]

Hi,
I am after a weather station that I can set up in Tauranga and interface with my pc and the internet.

Pref. wanting one that does indoor/outdoor temps, rain guage, wind speed and direction, wind chill, dew point, humidity etc etc

Rather a wired one as to a wireless but then beggars can't be chosers I guess.

cheers
Gary

Tons of choices. If you don't want to spend a lot of cash and can live with less-than-research level gear, check out Jaycar's range (http://www.jaycar.co.nz).

Another option is to try and track down an Oregon Scientific WM-918: it's been discontinued for a while and much sought-after, so don't get your hopes up. They are amazingly good little stations for the price.

Oregon Scientific (http://www.oregonscientific.com/eng) still make stations, but they are wireless. Pretty good though, for the money, as are the La Crosse (http://www.lacrossetechnology.com) range.

Davis (http://www.davisnet.com) have a wide range, but they are overpriced, IMHO. Good gear, just too expensive for what you get.

You can import inexpensive, well-made components from a variety of offshore sources, such as Fascinating Electronics (http://www.fascinatingelectronics.com).

Another alternative is the build-your-own approach...check out Jeff Northcott's superb site (http://weather.northcott.co.nz/index.ph ... &Itemid=81) for an excellent overview of such a method.

If you have money to burn, check out Vaisala (http://www.vaisala.com) or Campbell Scientific (http://www.campbellsci.com/index.cfm). These are research grade, and you won't get any gold coins in your change from them, but then they are a whole different kettle of fish to the home market products above (such as Oregon Scientific, Davis, et al).

Let us know how you get on.

[03Stormchaser]

BTW if you shop around you can probably pic up a Lacrosse 2310 for $165 USD (cheapest i have seen it) on the net. But what I have looked into them they dont have good reviews.

[kaimaikid]

Thanks, will investigate, so far the OS jobby is looking the best...

[Gary Roberts]

Thanks, will investigate, so far the OS jobby is looking the best...

You may score and find an unsold one someplace, so good luck. Quality-wise they are very good, considering the price. Similar stations from other manufacturers sold for five times the price. If they are properly installed and maintained the WM-918 is extremely reliable.

The wireless OS stations are an unknown quantity to me: I'd recommend checking out the forum for it at Andy Kier's FreeWX site (http://www.austorm.com/phpBB2/index.php). He has a version of FreeWX (FreeWX-Wi) for those particular models, and I'm sure you'll find a wealth of knowledge and experience there.