Davis Vantage Pro2 Product: Davis Vantage Pro2 Price: £635 Type of product: Weather Station Reviewer: Brian Gaze Date of review: 8th May 2005 Davis Vantage Pro 2 The Davis Vantage Pro 2 wireless is a sophisticated weather station that provides a wide range of data and flexibility, but at the same time is easy to set up and install. The whole package arrived by courier from the UK Weather Shop. Overview The wireless Vantage Pro 2 consists of an Integrated Sensor Suite (ISS) which collects the weather data, and the console which processes and displays the data on a black and white LCD screen. Several different versions of the ISS which include different sensors are available depending on which version of the Vantage Pro 2 you choose, but the review here is of the standard wireless one. The ISS contains a rain collector, temperature sensor, humidity sensor and anemometer and is solar powered. The temperature and humidity sensors are mounted inside a passive radiation shield which reduces the impact of solar radiation and helps to improve the accuracy of the readings. Although the wireless version of the Vantage Pro 2 is more expensive, the price difference is well justified in my opinion. Finding a suitable location to house this type of weather station can be tricky enough without having to worry about running cables to the console unit which you will probably want inside your house. According to Davis the Vantage Pro 2 series use frequency hopping radio technology which gives the transmitter a range of up to 300m which should be more than enough for most people’s requirements. Build and installation The Vantage Pro 2 ISS arrives complete, with only the anemometer needing to be connected to the main part of the ISS unit. This is the only part of the system which is linked by cable, and the one supplied by Davis is 12m long, enabling the anemometer to be installed in a different location to the main unit. The rainfall gauge requires the addition of a converter if you want to record rainfall using metric rather than imperial units. Installing this converter is not difficult, but does require a gentle touch! Once the assembly is ready, all that is required is a suitable outdoor location to host it. For many people there is not likely to be an ideal location in their garden for the unit, so some compromises will probably have to be made. The assembly is quite heavy, and ensuring it is firmly and securely attached (possibly to a post or pole) is very important. One point of note is the anemometer arm ideally should be facing directly north. If this is not possible, you will need to recalibrate the unit. This is not difficult and the process to follow is clearly explained in the documentation which is provided. Configuration Once the ISS is installed, configuring the Vantage Pro 2 console is simplicity itself. Onscreen menus guide the user through the process with most required inputs being self explanatory. A couple of things you will need to know are your elevation above sea level and the latitude and longitude of your location. The set-up also enables you to set the units of measurement for each of the different weather variables, so for example temperatures can be measured in Celsius or Fahrenheit, and rainfall amounts can be recorded in metric or imperial units. Using the Vantage Pro 2 Once configured the Vantage Pro 2 is ready to use. One of the best aspects of the product is the ergonomic interface on the console unit which means that you can quickly locate the data you want. The LCD screen is large and so capable of displaying all the data which most people will require on a daily basis. The Vantage Pro 2 offers both current data and historic data and the LCD screen can represent this graphically, for example displaying amounts of rain recorded during the last day, month or year. Options to display Hi/Low values for the day are also present, as well as the ability to set alarms for when certain conditions have been reached. The readings provided do seem to be very accurate, although as I mentioned earlier, finding an ideal location to host the system is difficult. For example, problems can be caused by nearby buildings having an affect on wind speed and direction at a very local level, and if the temperature sensor is housed above concrete rather than grass for example, the reading can be affected. As seems to be increasingly the case with electronic weather stations, the Vantage Pro2 does provide a weather forecast for the local area. This is based on calculations it does on the data which it is recording and the forecast period maybe for up to 48 hours. Generally it seems to be reasonably accurate, but it’s worth remembering that supercomputers used by the Met Office can’t always forecast accurately even 24 hours ahead, so don’t set your expectations too high. The Davis Vantage Pro2 can also be connected to a PC via WeatherLink software, enabling the user to view information via their PC as well as upload it to the Internet. We will be reviewing the software separately shortly. Summary This is easily the best weather station I have used. The range of data provided, the build quality of both the ISS and the console, and the surprising ease of use for such a sophisticated product all combine to make this an excellent product. If you are looking for a high end automated weather station the Davis Vantage Pro2 may well be the right option for you.