Comments on: Weather vain: ISS lands in Boca http://benkolstad.net/?p=2594 Life through the lens of a SoFla amateur naturalist Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:02:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Ben http://benkolstad.net/?p=2594&cpage=1#comment-145 Ben Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:03:27 +0000 http://benkolstad.net/?p=2594#comment-145 @Oroboros: Wow, you are ahead of the curve! I'd love to do something like what you've done, but I face two issues at the moment: 1. No data logging with the VantageVue, unless and until I pony up the $165 for Davis Instrument's WeatherLink for Mac (USB cable to a dedicated machine), or for Windows (still USB cable to a dedicated, always-on machine), or $260 for WeatherLinkIP to upload the data wirelessly sans computer. In other words, it'll be at least $165 before I can log the data. Then I either need 3rd-party software to upload the logged data, or figure out how to send the data myself, which brings up issue number 2: I ain't no good at computers. I can run blogging software, and operate in web browsers and Micro$oft Office, and whatnot, but while I can parse the grammar of what you said ("write a little perl CGI script"), I wouldn't have the foggiest notion how to do it myself. So basically I'm just trying to recover from the fiscal crisis that is Christmas before I get to Stage 1 of weather data sharing (getting the data logging unit). Then it's on to Stage 2, finding the best way to send it out, both to a widget on my blog and to someplace like Wunderground or CWOP. @Oroboros: Wow, you are ahead of the curve! I’d love to do something like what you’ve done, but I face two issues at the moment: 1. No data logging with the VantageVue, unless and until I pony up the $165 for Davis Instrument’s WeatherLink for Mac (USB cable to a dedicated machine), or for Windows (still USB cable to a dedicated, always-on machine), or $260 for WeatherLinkIP to upload the data wirelessly sans computer. In other words, it’ll be at least $165 before I can log the data. Then I either need 3rd-party software to upload the logged data, or figure out how to send the data myself, which brings up issue number 2: I ain’t no good at computers. I can run blogging software, and operate in web browsers and Micro$oft Office, and whatnot, but while I can parse the grammar of what you said (“write a little perl CGI script”), I wouldn’t have the foggiest notion how to do it myself.
So basically I’m just trying to recover from the fiscal crisis that is Christmas before I get to Stage 1 of weather data sharing (getting the data logging unit). Then it’s on to Stage 2, finding the best way to send it out, both to a widget on my blog and to someplace like Wunderground or CWOP.

]]> By: Oroboros http://benkolstad.net/?p=2594&cpage=1#comment-144 Oroboros Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:38:59 +0000 http://benkolstad.net/?p=2594#comment-144 I ran a very crude weather station for some years, together with a webcam. The Wayback Machine has <a HREF="http://web.archive.org/web/20030601163208/http://lazyz.org/" rel="nofollow">snapshots of how I integrated the two</A>. For me, it was very practical because I worked in the plains and if the winter weather really turned bad at home, I needed to leave and get back before my driveway became impassable. In the summer time I also gave the cam's view a dedicated monitor at work to watch for smoke. That was a 1-Wire weather station by Dallas Semiconductor BTW. It had just wind and temperature, and neither measurement was terribly accurate from what I could tell, likely because of where I had to install it owing to cable lengths (direct sunlight, but also shielded by the house from wind). The software also sucked. But it logged to a plain text file, so I wrote a little perl CGI script to scrape the latest readings out and put them on the web page. The most amazing part was that the landlord allowed me to bore a 1/2" hole through my wall to run the data cables for both camera and weather station. Do you use wunderground? They have a system for submitting your measurements. <a HREF="http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/index.asp" rel="nofollow">See this page for info</A>. I never did that with my station, but there were others in our mountain neighborhood who did. I ran a very crude weather station for some years, together with a webcam. The Wayback Machine has snapshots of how I integrated the two.

For me, it was very practical because I worked in the plains and if the winter weather really turned bad at home, I needed to leave and get back before my driveway became impassable. In the summer time I also gave the cam’s view a dedicated monitor at work to watch for smoke.

That was a 1-Wire weather station by Dallas Semiconductor BTW. It had just wind and temperature, and neither measurement was terribly accurate from what I could tell, likely because of where I had to install it owing to cable lengths (direct sunlight, but also shielded by the house from wind). The software also sucked. But it logged to a plain text file, so I wrote a little perl CGI script to scrape the latest readings out and put them on the web page.

The most amazing part was that the landlord allowed me to bore a 1/2″ hole through my wall to run the data cables for both camera and weather station.

Do you use wunderground? They have a system for submitting your measurements. See this page for info. I never did that with my station, but there were others in our mountain neighborhood who did.

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