 I received my WS from The UK Weather Shop on Wednesday and have spent the last few days fine-tuning, it’s now up and running and I’m very pleased with the results so far. I opened the box and pulled out all the parts, the first thing that struck me was the LC display screen I think is very stylish and tidy. Then it was down to the setting up once I’d made sure all the parts were present and used the fixing provided to put them all together. The display screen was plugged in and switched on; I had to wait for several hours to charge the batteries in the instruments to charge by leaving them in a bright light for a while. I’d opted for the solar version of the station as I already have Oregon set-ups and I’ve found that with living in a flat, and the garden being a quite considerable distance from the building that the battery version doesn’t have a long enough range to pick up the signals.
Once that was completed it was time to insert the magnets for each part to activate the readings. This was a simple task and within a few minutes the station had picked up all the signals. Then I proceeded to place all the instruments outside, using the rest of the fixings provided, starting with the rain gauge. I have a shelf outside on the outer edge of my balcony and affixed the gauge to there making sure the base was level using the built in spirit level as a guide. It is placed away from the building to avoid splashes from the guttering. Next was the wind gauge, which is mounted on a wooden mast on top of the shed. I had to find a space away from trees and buildings so that the wind can get to it freely for accurate readings. The outdoor temperature sensor was placed in the garden under a shelf attached to a fence post so it’s out of direct sunlight also for a more acceptable reading. The last job was the brightness sensor, which was really easy to do, simply finding an unshaded area in the garden and placing the metal spike in the ground. Set up was now complete and thankfully all readings were still present on the display unit indoors. All in all the set up was relatively easy, I’ve since adjusted the air pressure to correspond with the sea level reading for this area, which can be found at local weather stations on the net, as well as set up the time and date settings etc. The next step is to connect the system to the computer with the lead and software provided which I haven’t had a chance to do yet..
I am very pleased with the results so far everything was present and correct for setting up and I didn’t have to go out and buy anything additional. As I said earlier, I already have an Oregon WMR112 set-up and the difference has been very much noticeable in performance. The main issue I had with the Oregon was the wind gauge never seems to be able to read higher strength winds. Back in October 2002 we had a storm and the wind speeds in this area reached a max of nearly 80mph. The max reading for that day on the Oregon was 27mph, which I was very disappointed with. Even on very windy days the max only seems to be about 15mph but the La Crosse has already picked up a gust of 17mph yesterday so I’m hoping to get much better readings in stormy weather this autumn/winter. Another disappointment I’ve had with my Oregon was the dewpoint and windchill displays, they only go to the nearest degree but the La Crosse tells you the exact reading in both area’s. .
I am very impressed with the functionality so far, and I’m also impressed by the design of the instruments and the display. None of the instruments are too bulky looking so they don’t look too out of place around the garden and the display unit can also hang neatly on the wall to avoid any cluttering on the desktop. I would recommend one of these to anyone who is looking for something a bit more advanced.
Update 7/12/2003
Having had the AWS up and running for a couple of months I’m getting to grips with it now. I’ve now since installed the software and I’ve been really impressed with the results it’s given. The graphical data on the pc is very clear and concise and I have had a lot of compliments about the results from them. There are still one or two functions on the program that I am unsure of how to use yet, its not explained very clearly on how to use them in the help section, so I’m still looking for some help with these i.e. how to save results directly onto my pc in a separate folder but its not a big problem and I can still look up any time period, monthly, weekly, hourly. Also the data can be printed out at any time..
I’ve not had any problems with any of the readings from the sensors, have had no lost readings apart from the brightness sensor which I’ve had a bit of trouble placing in the right spot. You can check that all sensors are reading efficiently on the pc software too in interface status and it will let you know if there have been any lost connection’s which is useful too.
People have been asking me now about my readings and my graphs that I’ve been posting up on the forums and asking about the weather station. I tell them I’ve found it to have much more functionality than my old Oregon system and it really is much more value for money. Having used this now for some time it has met my requirements and more. I’ll definitely be recommending this system to other weather enthusiasts. |