Weather Station Update

Information from the weather station I have been using since December 2014 has been erratic for the past few months.



Sometimes when it was teeming down with rain it would record nothing. Every so often the clock would jump to a random time. Also the temperature measurements would suddenly jump up or down several degrees.  A few months ago I took it apart to give it a thorough cleaning and could see the rain gauge had overflowed and soaked most of the electronics and sensors. That is one problem with having everything contained in a single enclosure.

I spent a few weeks perusing various sites and reading reviews with the aim of buying a new weather station. Two of my main considerations were the use of rechargeable batteries on the outside unit, charged in situ, and the ability to send the data to the Wunderground (Weather Underground) weather site.

In the end I chose the 'Ventus Colour Weather Station with WiFi Internet Connection' from the Weatherspares site.



Indoor display (sorry about the reflections)
All digits are white. Only the forecast graphic is in colour.



It was dispatched and arrive by courier within a couple of days and took little time to complete the small amount of assembly needed, power it up and make sure the outdoor unit was 'talking' to the indoor display. A free app had to be downloaded to my phone to enable the display to connect to the internet and enable a connection to the Wunderground weather site. Once I had found my way round the menu system on the display I adjusted the barometric pressure reading to a close match to the readings shown on the Met Office weather maps.

The WS View app is available on Apple and Google app stores.
It can also show the present day's readings from the Wunderground weather site.
To view historical data the web site has to be used.



Click on the above collage to see it larger on my Flickr account.

As well as sending data to Wunderground it could also send it to Weathercloud and / or WOW (Met Office Weather Observation Website).

Initially I had inserted Ni-MH rechargeables in the outside unit but by the mornings the display was showing them as about quarter charge even after some decent Sunlight the days before. One of the problems with Ni-Cad and NiMH AA cells is they are only 1.2V whereas alkaline cells are 1.5V. Fortunately I got round to removing the batteries from the old weather station and had forgotten they were:



Rechargeable alkaline cells are not so common but they are 1.5V. Even though they had been in continuous use for five years they were still holding their charge so I put them in the new weather station and they seem to be working just fine.