How To Set Up a Personal Weather Station

How to put together a Personal Weather Station with Webcam!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• personal weather station
• Davis Vantage Pro
• rkresha
• Yawcam
• weather webcam
• Weather Underground
• Texas

[urgentcareguy3]

I have the Davis Vantage Vue. The WeatherLink software is pricey. Are there any other options?

[rkresha]

@urgentcareguy3 If I am not mistaken, the WeatherLink software includes the datalogger and is needed to take the information and export to a computer. It includes the ability to see the info graphically on your computer, but is not as elegant as some of Ambient.com's software for the internet access. I now use a Mac and needed WeatherLink for that too. Pain in the pocketbook.

[KD8NCL]

Very informative video. Thanks Rkresha, for taking your time to give us a tour of the wx station and for sharing the process of doing what you have done. Im in the process right now of installing a home wx station to broadcast the weather data over the net. This helps us locals with weather for our area bc our nearest station is 2 hours south of our location and as we all known; weather differs in areas. So its nice to know what its like in our location! Thanks!

[rkresha]

@KD8NCL Glad you found it useful - that was my intent. Ray Kresha

[shriramvenu]

very nice video! thanks for the info. Though i think it would be usefull to mention the sort of start up costs involved in setting up a system I notice that you Vantage II is quite an expensive version. Whats your opinion on LaGuardia PWS systems? they are cheaper than Davis

[rkresha]

@shriramvenu I did my research and wanted to put good equipment up in the long Texas summers, what with the high UV and heat, etc. Prematurely replacing inferior equipment would certainly cost more that buying quality to start with. Besides, the same system is up now for five year without much repairs, though only a couple of parts that were damaged by a lightning strike on the anemometer got into the main unit. the Davis is the only system I have ever had - no knowledge of any other brands.

[Dockellen]

@urgentcareguy3 I have a Davis Vantage Pro 2 with WeatherLink and had nothing but trouble so i got rid of it and am now using using Weather Display.and have had good luck with it it cost about $70 and you have so much more features with it also.

[shriramvenu]

@rkresha indeed. I went with a La Crosse initally and it started getting abit wonky. Kept it aside for now and it seems fine but I replaced it with an Oregon Scientific. Davis is still way too expensive for me though

[urgentcareguy3]

@rkresha

Thanks Raymond! Happy Weathering!

[Naturena105]

Thanks..........

[Pro1er]

Nice video Ray, well done. Just one correction, the solar panel charges a capacitor, whereas the battery is a backup should the capacitor become depleted.

I've been running the original Pro Vantage since 2003 but have gone though quite a few of them. I don't think they are built to withstand the harsh Northern climates.

I use one of my D-Link security cameras to simultaneously FTP to Wunderground. Since it communicates via the gateway, there is no need for a video card in the computer.