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Old 04-01-2012, 04:58 PM
echinosum echinosum is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2006
Location: Chalfont St Giles
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete C[_3_] View Post
That Maplin one will do nicely thanks
Pete C
I have one of similar functionality/price (from Lacrosse). However I discovered that I could only log data from it if I had it permanently connected to an always-on PC, which was not attractive to me either for the power consumption of the PC, nor from the logistics of locating a PC near where I could locate the receiving station.

You can get weather stations with integrated data loggers, if that is what you want, but they tend to be at the next quality level up, which is quite a large step.

I have found, at least in my case, that:
- Getting good temperature readings is mainly about getting a good location for the sensor, so it is not affected by sunshine or localised artificial heat sources, but without data-logging all you are doing is reading an instant value
- The rain sensor works well and has now collected 3 years data (without automatic data-logging, I read it once a month and write the reading down down - I occasionally have to guess adjustments for snow-fall and late readings)
- The wind-speed detector never worked properly and soon stopped working altogether, though it still shows direction. Even if it did work, locating it properly to be unaffected by obstacles (trees, buildings) is likely to be difficult - quite a different location issue from the temperature sensor where obstacles are useful for shielding the sensor from the sun - what you really need is a large open space without trees or buildings, where you can locate a Stevenson screen for the thermometer and a tall pole for the wind sensor, but this is out of proportion to the cost of the kit
- Some cheap weather stations show a recent history graph for the pressure, which is a useful feature missing from mine.