Well, after too many weeks my weather stations is up and running in its Version 1 configuration. Had to learn to program in Java (with much needed assistance from my son Christopher) and it was great fun to be totally immersed in an old-fashioned hardware-software engineering project. It’s now time to get back to my photography before summer and my Version 2 effort.
Hardware issues: Freezing of anemometer and wind vane in temps around 32 F. and just below. Rain, snow, condensation? I haven’t come up with a solution yet. Suggestions are always welcome. The 1-Wire technology generates occasional errors but these are infrequent (about 1 error/hr), non-critical and ignored. This summer I plan to move the wind stuff to my roof peak to get more accurate readings. Our place is surrounded by tall trees so getting the sensors higher should help. I also need to bury the cable once the ground thaws.
Software: I’ll modify the user interface to include some of the parameters that are now hard coded. I’ll also get the database set up for storage of long term data. Right now I’m just saving the daily logs.
That’s it for now –