(sorry in advance for the following Davis ad, I just had to…)
Okay, I have to get this off of my chest…
When I bought my Oregon Scientific WMR200 I was pretty happy for what is did and its capabilites for the most part. I own other OS products and have been happy with them. But I did have some issues with the temp/hygro sensor and so I returned it for something different. I then chose a Davis VP2 system and all I can say is WOW! The two systems are nothing alike.
I mean to say that there is getting weather data on a display and there is displaying weather data and being able to figure out what it means to you. The console is the biggest advanatge that I’ve noticed. It gives a lot more information than the OS system. The countless graphs built into the unit will let you thoughly analyze many weather events in detail. And that’s without the use of external software. The text forecasts are also something very surprising and welcomed. I think that I’m the most shocked in the fact that I thought these two different systems were comparable in some way when in fact they just aren’t.
Now, I’m not trying to discount the WMR200 which would be fine for my parents or others with a passing interest in weather, but they are not in the same league; more like the EPL vs. League 1 (a football reference). If you’re trying to decide between the Davis and the OS offerings then I have to say pick Davis. You do get what you pay for in this case.
Thanks for the advice and information provided here. It has helped me make the right choices along the way. I did get the serial data logger as suggested and it works great. Thanks again for steering me away from USB!
Hope you have much pleasure with its info combined with WD’s wide capabilities.
Watch the battery charge level on your FARS motor. Charge lost very quickly.
I am running a WMR200 side by side and after much tweaking they are now following a very similar dataset ; well within the parameters set by the specs. However, I find it to be a fairly cheap and poorly designed station
Do all the sensors have to be together, cause thats how the majority of the setups
i have seen are?
Basically if i ever do manage to afford 1, I would like the sensors to be placed where
i already have mine now, The wind thing on the mast, then the rain on the fence and
the temp in the Screen, the mast is about 20ft away from the Screen and about 30+ft
in the air, the rain bucket is about 6 ft away from the screen and about 12ft from the
mast.
Would this cause a problem cause im sure i can only see 1 solar for all the sensors, can
anyone explain to me please?
The wind meter comes with a 40 foot cable; it’s very easy to separate it from the rest of the sensor package. My anemometer and it’s vane are placed about 8 feet from the main ISS, though I’d like to go further in the air. Perhaps this summer. Very easy to do, as long as you have the pole already in place. If you need more than 40’, you can either get an extension cable or even a remote wireless transmitter just for the anemometer.
Separating the temperature from the rain bucket is another matter, though. The default Davis VP systems have these built into one unit. You can purchase a separate temperature/humidity sensor and remotely locate that, but seems like a lot of trouble to me.
All Davis VP packages I’ve seen come with a white temperature screen preinstalled. You can pay a bit more and get a fan-aspirated version as I did. This will further reduce ambient heating around the thermometer. Such a solution is likely to be less money than purchasing a separate temperature/humidity sensor. Especially for only 6 feet of distance between them.
The default temperature shield is very effective, though. Unless you live in the desert (as I do) or have to place your ISS over concrete, asphalt, or shingles, you may not need the fan versions.
You can order the plastic rain gauge base / ISS mount from Davis for about $25 to separate the parts. There’s a long thread on the splitting issue here.
Bashy…just curious as to why you would even want to seperate them out. I was thrilled to be able to put the whole unit on the anemometer mast. With my LaCrosse I had the rain gauge on top of a swing set crossbar and thermo-hydro attached to the same crossbar sideways and shaded with a piece of plywood held onto the crossbar with a large “C” clamp. The anemometer was and still is on the 33’ mast. With the Davis “all-in-one” I used the enclosed “U”-bolts and put it on the mast with the anemometers and away she went. Putting it on the mast also allowed me to turn it South so I can get max sun on the panel. #-o
The Davis rain bucket is an integral part of the whole unit…it’s a big round plastic “bucket” that snaps on to the top of the rest of the sensors. The whole thing is one large unit held onto a mast with two large supplied U-bolts…you’ve seen one close up…yes? It’s not supposed to be more than 5’ off the ground, anyhow (except for the anemometer)
Yes i have seen one close up, Thing is, I need to have all the sensors separated.
the temp needs to go in my Stevenson Screen, the bucket needs to go on the fence
and the wind sensor needs to go up 30ft or so, I dont want to use the shield that
comes with the Davis, i would most certainly prefer My Stevenson shield…
My garden is positioned in such a way that the sensors cannot be placed together
I have my separated my anemometer from the main rain and temp unit by about 60 feet and solar sensor by around 40. As in most cases position is still a compromise but much better than having all in one.
Hi,
I was the originator of the thread Niko was refering to “Re: I Want a Davis VP, but… “integrated sensors”!”, but I went ahead and bought a Davis VP2 pro to replace my old La Crosse WS2308, and have not looked back it’s a great piece of kit, very robust and reliable. With regards to the sensor separation, I had the same issue as you, I needed to separate all of them, and I did so successfully. It’s not that hard, the basic rule is you cannot extend the Thermo/Hdyro sensor cable from the ISS, that has to remain asis. I have the anemometer on 120ft of extension cable (basic ADSL straight through extension cable) on top of my chimmney. The rain bucket I detached from the screen/ISS and bolted to a fence post 30ft from the ISS, again using 30ft of ADSL extension cable. I then made my own mount out of wood for the ISS box and thermo/hdyro unit, you could of course buy a replacement rain bucket base as mentioned by Niko.
So for your setup I would advise the same for the anemometer and rain sensors, but for the thermo/hdyro sensor which you want to mount in your own Stevenson screen you simply need to unscrew the sensor from the Davis screen put it in yours and mount the ISS box on the outside of your screen. The sensor itself is only about 1 inch high on a small PCB. The cable from the ISS to the thermo sensor is only about 1ft long though, so you may need to be clever in positioning the ISS box depending on position and how big your Stevenson screen is.
Hi leonarda and thank you very for the indepth advice and instructions
This will really help me when the time comes and its good to know it can be done
the reed switches are very fragile and do break easily…
One other thing to consider, does taking the station apart as proposed void any warranty with Davis if the station needed to be returned. Not that many have to return it… they generally get a part back and forth.
But I would guess if one were to contact Davis and mention that the problem happened after the separation of the rain bucket and tipper from the main unit… might give them a loophole to say… you broke it, you pay for it regardless of how long you have had it.
I don’t think anyone was suggesting taking the gauge components off the base, just separating the temp/hum enclosure and transmitter unit from the complete rain gauge = base + bucket.
