For some months I have been using an Oregon WMR180 weather centre but found it far from satisfactory. Wind speed measurements seem very low. Even in a good gusty wind it only just gets into double figures for mph. The rainfall gauge works when it feels like it. Worst of all to keep continuous records the computer has to be running 24hrs a day. My last station had a built in data logger which stored overnight readings. As seems usual with cheap systems the wind direction and speed detectors gave up the ghost and I had to repair the rain gauge.
I didn't particularly want to spend several hundreds of pounds for a more reliable system as I only keep a cursory watch on the weather. Having had a think and look round I decided to try a rather different type of weather station.
I bought the netatmo set up. The basic parts consist of two metal cylinders. The indoor one measures indoor temperature and humidity along with barometric pressure and, unusually, CO2 and sound volume levels. The idea being to indicate a relative comfort level indoors. The smaller outside unit just measures outdoor temperature and humidity.
Added to those there is now a rain gauge which I also purchased. The indoor unit receives wireless signals from those parts outdoors and connects to my WiFi as it sends readings to netatmo's servers. The data can be recovered and displayed on several devices. There are free apps for iOS and android phones and tablets. Also there is a web connection which can be used on PC or Mac.
The web display:
This can be scrolled to show all the various readings as graphs.
As displayed on an iPad:
The top part of the display can be changed to show the rain gauge readings:
Also graphs can be displayed - this from the iPod Touch:
I read that the company is developing a module for measuring wind so I will have to wait before I can add that.
There are other facilities with the basic units like sending warnings of, for example, low temperature to phones or tablets. Also, using the free app from ITTT (if this then that), something like a high temperature notification can be sent to a WeMo wireless electrical socket to switch on aircon for example.
