NZ Weather Forum

I hope I have started this in the right topic.
I want to set up my own weather station here in Hamilton.
Id like eventually to be able to publish the information to a web site.
Ive been looking at La Crosse products and like the look of the WS 2350.
Ive seen 3502, 3600.
Ive checked out some Davis products-these look very professional but of course more expensive.
If possible id like to catch up with someone local to work out best options.
Price wize im expecting to pay around 400-500 $ I suppose

Thanks for any help

Hi Chris,

Catch up with Foggy who owns & runs these forums. He's also in Hamilton and is in a position to offer good advice.

Sorry, but the weather station I had up my sleeve went south to another cachers place not too long ago.

Regards,

Neill.

Thanlks m8

you will get faster data updates with the 2300 series station,but I recommend to replace the cables that come with it with twisted pair /sheilded
also note that as far as quality goes, yet get what you pay for too

Yep, feel free to PM me and you can have a look at my setup if you like! I don't really know much about the Lacrosse stations but you do get what you pay for in reagrds to quality.

Im running the station that went south...and I personally have been very pleased with it. The annenometre froze due to ice and snow but it came right once the sun hit it. Its the La Crosse 2300 and sure you can pay $1000 plus or $100 equally i have friends who own stations at both ends of the spectrum and both of them are happy with there purchases....a dick smith on sale for $70 and Davis pro at over $1000.
Interestingly the readings from both are not too far apart.
Buy what you can afford.

biggest problem with the 2310 type station is that over 95% humidity it losses accuracy more and more (i.e basicly it will not display over 96 or 97)
also once connected to a pc, it is badly affected by electrical interference, due to the cheap data cables used, and so you need to re wire it with twisted pair and sheilded cable (e.g Cat 5 E)
you can get a cup type anenometer instead of the propeller one, and that is better
also you can add a skirt to stop ice from forming in the slot...to stop the ice problem

I put a 2310 station up on a coast hill here...it seized up after a couple of months due to salt air
alot of 2310 owners use it as a stepping stone to say a Davis station

Manukau heads observer wrote:biggest problem with the 2310 type station is that over 95% humidity it losses accuracy more and more (i.e basicly it will not display over 96 or 97)
also once connected to a pc, it is badly affected by electrical interference, due to the cheap data cables used, and so you need to re wire it with twisted pair and sheilded cable (e.g Cat 5 E)
you can get a cup type anenometer instead of the propeller one, and that is better
also you can add a skirt to stop ice from forming in the slot...to stop the ice problem

I put a 2310 station up on a coast hill here...it seized up after a couple of months due to salt air
alot of 2310 owners use it as a stepping stone to say a Davis station

Some good suggestions there...mine has been rewired thanks to the previous owner.
I had considered upgrading the anenometer, im sure your right it is a stepping stone into the Davis stations.
Whats the cheapest source of Davis...ebay??

you can only legally a wired station into NZ if you are bypasing the local davis distributor
one problem with the vp is that alot of overseas companies do not ship to nz...
also you get stung by import duty and gst too....
having said all of the above, the 2310 is the 2nd most popular station for home weather stations (for PC connection systems) behind the Davis (which is 3 x as popular)
(world wide numbers)

I have a Vaisala WXT510 Ultra sonic station here on loan by Vaisala at the moment ....now thats a high end station....one problem with it, there is no easy way to separate the temp/hum sensor from the windspeed sensor (ie idealy you do not want to measure the air temperature at the top of the anenometer pole)

Manukau heads observer wrote:you can only legally a wired station into NZ if you are bypasing the local davis distributor
one problem with the vp is that alot of overseas companies do not ship to nz...
also you get stung by import duty and gst too....
having said all of the above, the 2310 is the 2nd most popular station for home weather stations (for PC connection systems) behind the Davis (which is 3 x as popular)
(world wide numbers)

I have a Vaisala WXT510 Ultra sonic station here on loan by Vaisala at the moment ....now thats a high end station....one problem with it, there is no easy way to separate the temp/hum sensor from the windspeed sensor (ie idealy you do not want to measure the air temperature at the top of the anenometer pole)

I can see why youd only want to loan one of these certainly high end.
What woud this station give you that a Davis or even a Lacrose wouldnt.
Curious as to how the high price tag can be justified.

the ultrasonic wxt510 gives windspeed to 0.1 knots resolution updated every 1 second
also, the piezo rain plate also measures and detects hail....gives hail accumulation, intensity, rate, peak rate, size, etc
as well as rain (and it also means the first rain drops are detected etc)


it does not have solar, but the new wxt520 now allows an external voltage connection from a external transducer (i.e it has a adc convertor)

it also has low power consumtion....actualy runs on only a 9volt battery for 9 hours even

cool to see windspeed updates every 1 second in the software with no moving parts on the weather station
(which also can have a heater added to it to stop icing up)

Hi all. I helped Meridian Energy install those Vasala weather sensors at the MEL stations and gates in the south island a few years ago. They are pretty good I have to say! It lets the generation controllers keep tabs on the conditions at all of their sites. The new model is going onto the wind turbines. We have different weather stations on those at the moment but if I heard right it looks like I will be helpting to installing some more Vasaila ones. They are not cheap gear but they do the job well.

Just heard they may be going with some thing more whizz bang than the Vaisalas units we already put in. What I am now hoping is that they up grade the Vais already at the stations with what ever new gear they buy and I will grab some of the old ones for myself!

Score!! I got 2 of the vaisalas!!

What's the new gear they're putting in?

DSE has a new low price on some Stations I saw

Hi guys. I don't know what the new ones are but they are damned expensive!! Now it looks like I can only have one Vaisalas and not two because they want to have some spares --- That's a bit of a bummer because I was going to have one for the house and one for the crib!!
I'll come back with info on the new stations later on. We had a quick demo of the new soft ware they have written for the weather network and it's damn amazing --- hopefully I can score a copy of that too!!
Now I better get back to work.

Hi all. It looks as if I will get to keep two of the Vaisala stations after all! I may even be able to score some more because they have decided not to use them as back ups. In stead they are ordering extra units of the new stations. I think MEL will want me to help the weather guys by supplying power from the station services bus so I wilkl try and get more info about the new gear if any one is interested in it.

you might know Gary down that way (you guys must have bumped into each other )
he has lots of experience with Vaisala stations
(i have on here on loan, cool bit of technology)

The guy in charge of meterology gear for MEL is Garry but I don't know if he is the guy you are talking about. Who does he work for?