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2011-08-03 00:00
in Computers, Linuxha
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A fair amount of people get weather info (wind, rain, and others) using 1-wire equipment, which is a pain both for having to run 1-wire to places outdoors (although I already was doing that), but more specifically because the mast the wind sensor is on is a lightening rod which has fried many people's home computers and networks.
The simplest way to avoid this problem is simply to go wireless so that lightening does not reach your inside computers and networks. As a side note, the WMR968, while far from perfect, is cheaper than 1-wire equivalent solutions (only $200). The equivalent functionality with 1-wire is about $500
The kit comes with solar panels that recharge your device batteries, so they're supposed to run forever (i.e. until they eventually die), and you get:
Indoor temp / humidity / baro pressure
Outdoor temp / humidity
Wind speed / direction
Rain gauge
wind sensor on the roof with the portable receiving console
rain sensor on top and hygro/temp sensor in the shade under the roof
little 'hack' to make the rain sensor more sensitive
The main thing that is nice with that kit outside of the fact that it's cheap, is that you can buy more receivers than there are in the kit (like multiple indoors BTHR receivers to get humidity in different rooms) and while the main console will not receive more than one, the rfxcom receiver I have plugged in my PC can receive as many as you can have (even your neighbours' :) ).
This allows for having the console in the kitchen for instance, and not have to run a cable to your computer in the closet by having it use its own receiver with a bigger antenna and processing ability for many more devices (see list).
Here is a link to all the WMR 968 graphs received from the rfxcom via XPL, with a couple of samples below:
The only caveat is that it's a bit cheaply built, some of the outside sensors are not super water proof, so I slightly modified mine to make sure I had good water seals, and so far so good: can't beat the price and it hasn't failed for me yet :) Not having to climb on the roof to change batteries every so often is a nice bonus :) |