My opinion…
I think both systems are great if you have some technical knowledge. Maybe the 1-wire option is more user friendly. You have many prebuilt sensors and plugging it all is easier. WD seems to work fine with 1-wire systems.
Labjack is at a lower level in handling, but its possibilities are almost infinite. Older Labjack units (U12) works nicely with WD. I can’t say the same with newer ones (U3). There are some glitches and bugs in the WD-U3 interaction. See these topics for more details:
http://discourse.weather-watch.com/t/25247
http://discourse.weather-watch.com/t/28462
Unfortunatelly I’m the only one using WD-U3 combination (now there is another Spanish guy making some devices), so Brian’s actitude is understandable.
Anyway, you can run it as a standalone system. Labkack units include a free software: DAQFactory. Here you have how I built my “Labjack solar sensor” and a screenshot of what DAQFactory is giving me now:
http://discourse.weather-watch.com/t/23697
http://discourse.weather-watch.com/t/26354
http://meteo.aerolugo.com/fotos/Daq.jpg
The screenshot is in Spanish, but you can see:
- Local and Solar time.
- Sun azimuth and elevation (position in the sky)
- Equation of time
- Global solar radiation (10 s. updates).
- Calculated max values for (60 s. updates):
- Extraterrestrial beam radiation.
- Atmospheric attenuation.
- Horizontal surface beam radiation.
- Diffuse radiation.
- Global radiation.
All this plotted in graphs and numeric values as you can see. And even more, in some other DAQFactory pages I have control over my home built FARS. I can make it work as a daylight FARS or 24 hour FARS, monitoring motor rpm’s, comsumption, etc… Possibility to automatically switch it on or off depending on wind speed, and more…
Hoping to be of any help for you…