Hi all,
My old weather station WM918 is slowly giving up the ghost and I am wanting to replace it with one within my budget one would be the La Crosse WS-2355, as this appears to have either battery operated sensors or these can be powered from a line and at my age this is better than trying to climb ladders to change batteries.
I would appreciate any comments both pros and cons on this unit keeping in mind that I have high powered AM radio transmitters within about 700M as the sparrows fly. and I wish to continue using WD and only have USB.1 and the standard serial port input available.
As I wish to move quickly on selecting a replacement time for comments is short.
Alternative sugesstings in the same price range would be welcome.
The La Crosse units are cheap and reasonably reliable and with hardwired and power fed from the house along the standard La Crosse cabling then you get 8sec data lots coming thrugh, and Windy has just about got the wind spikes covered with correct settings. I am not sure if the WS 2355 has the same wind spike issues as the 2310/2308 series but yes being hardwiored, they are fed power from the console in the house. I think that model has the improved design of the tri-wind cup anemometer style as opposed to their older design of small propellor. I left you a pm for a contact today.
Says it is a USB feed to the computer direct. It also shows a serial plug and cable, so it may have either options. And I assume it is also hardwired as well as wireless option. No manual to download… And yes it does have the improved three cup spinning anemometer.
Much obliged.
My three main concerns are [1] that I can use WD, as I do not want to loose the continuity of data collection I have built up over several years also it will make the transition from the old station easier.
[2] I don’t mind using the wireless link as long as I can supply the power via wire, although I have no personal experience in using such a link in a heavily built up area, with all the possible sources of electrical interference.
[3] I am keen to hear from any one whom has actually used a similar La Crosse unit so that I can be a aware of the pluses and minuses of operating such unit what I hope will be an extended period ( assuming the man with the scythe dos not come calling too soon).
Graeme I will take up your suggestion sometime tomorrow.
I am not familiar with the WS2355, but in the past 1.5 years I have had two 2310s and one 2308. The only difference is the console. One of the units came with the USB hookup and after a week of pulling my hair out, I sent it back for the serial version and added a serial port to my computer. (maybe that should count as a 4th unit :roll:) Two of the units stopped working after lightening storms. While I could not see a direct hit (nothing black or melted) we had a close strike in the area. The third unit I modified running CAT5 wire so I could mount it far from the house. The wireless was just out of reach. It worked well with out any spikes for 6 months and then it was just a nightmare, so I replaced it.
I am lucky that my wife bought me a VantagePro2 that I will be installing today. For the cost of three WS2310s I got the VantagePro. I am hoping that this one will last. If it dies after a lightening storm, I may be looking into a new hobby. :? 8O
It looks like the only difference between the 2355 & the 2310 is the anemometer and the console. If you still want to go the La Crosse route, they have “scratch & dent” web page where I purchased the 2308 for ~$80 - almost 1/2 price. http://www.greatbigoutlet.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=22
Thanks to you all for your help and advice, as a result I have decided to go for the La Crosse ws 2355 and have placed my order for same, which I hope to have installed and operating in the next 2 weeks.
Another option, the IROX PRO X2 was considered as well. The WS 2355 will do him well I’m sure. There are friends around to help him change them over and there will be plenty of advice to help the installation and switch go as smooth as we can. Unfortunately I am too far away for practical help, but I can still help in otther ways. Keep us up to date Oldun!
An update, I have given up on the La Crosse unit, the wind unit is just incapable of operating in the presence of high RF fields from AM broadcast band transmitters.
This means if I cant find a used WM 918 or similar which uses simple non active components as the WM 918 does, I am stuffed and will have to give up my main hobby.
These modern designers of such equipment are grossly incompetent in electronic design and have never heard of the KISS principle, and how they get past the USA FCC interference design rules, I just don’t know.
Depressing eh!
Maybe I,ll use my website to expose the shortcomings of the current field of weather stations at least the cheaper ones!
Not all of us whom are retired and on fixed incomes can afford to pay thousands of dollars for a station. Thanks so much to all who tried to assist me to get the La Crosse unit to work.
I bought my Davis VP2 for WAY under $1000US from Ambient. I did not get the solar unit, 24 hour FARS or any extra sensors. I have added the daylight FARS since. Personally I don’t see any sense in having the solar sensors and not having the solar unit will save a few dollars. I started out with a LaCrosse but quickly bought the Davis.
I agree, a wired VP would be good and reasonably priced here in the US. Unfortunately, if you translate old un’s coordinates you’ll see he’s somewhere that a Davis costs real money
I’m in the same situation as yourself when it comes to available budget (being an O.A.P.) but fortunately I do not live in close proximity to an constant A.M. broadcast station. My bogies are of my own making - one being my own transmissions on the H.F. amateur bands and the other my washing machine. The former is self-explanatory the latter not quite so. Nevertheless I have been toying with the idea of putting a couple of caps in parallel across both ends of the cabling signal line(s) (probably 0.01 and 0.001 ceramics) to earth to see if that would suffice to filter the unwanted signals.
Given that it’s a damned awkward modification I have not as yet girded my loins and attempted it.
I am lucky in that I know when my problems occur and can monitor and then adjust for problems. Good luck, oldun; please don’t give up and throw in the towel there is too few a number of us.
Arthur - there was another complete thread discussing this complete idea with diagrams and links and advice for the anemometer lockdown which then took out the Hygro. The other alternative is also to feed the current cables inside copper tubing or aluminium or swagelock SS or even galvanised pipe as a full shield and earth the pipe/tube. He could not find a source of ethernet cables and he hasn’t mobility for the roof level work and needs others to do it for him. He does however, have a lot of industrial experience himself and electronics/electrical knowledge. I may try and contact a friend in Akld.
Thanks for your comments, I would not mind so much if I was still an Amateur and the interference was mine but I gave that up a good few years ago for much the same reasons.
I can’t believe that so called reputable companies can be permitted to make such rubbish, my old wm918 had no such problems, the main trouble with their " wireless" designs is that a byproduct of keeping the battery consumption low is that all the circuitry is high impedance.
I too am considering modifying the unit to filter and decouple the lines at the distal end, but La Crosse have not and will not provide the circuit diagrams nor publish the data stream data which makes doing this almost impossible as I suspect that any attempt at effective filtering will make the data stream useless.
Their so called design engineers are probably young nerds, whom have not heard of transmission line theory or practice, if they had they would realize that a correctly terminated transmission line will not radiate nor absorb an RF signal.
This lack of diagrams also makes cable replacement very difficult if not impossible, I am currently trying to assert my rights under our “sale of goods act” to return the unit and have my money refunded, hopefully I shall not have to resort to the courts to be successful in doing this, I shall then restart my search for a new unit that will work in a manner for which it is sold.
This is the final update on the La Crosse WS2355 saga.
I finally worked out that the RF was being picked by the 10M anemometer to Hygro/thermo unit cable and saturating the electronics in the latter unit, the fix involved surrounding the cable with a aluminum pipe with the anemometer unit mounted on top of the pipe, this has the effect of forming a Faraday shield around the cable thus reducing the electric component of the RF field from the nearby AM transmitters sufficiently to allow normal operation, I also took the precaution of activating the Wireless mode allowing the Console to HT unit cable to be removed.
I still think that these modern units are a heap of crap with their poor design and thus the great susceptibility to RF interference.
When I win Lotto!!! I will install one of those ultrasonic units at their price they should be perfect Ha! Ha!.
Thanks to all for your help during this frustrating time.
I am so glad that suggestion has worked! It was a simple alternative to the tricky field replacement by splicing and soldering the cable. Glad you could get someone to help you with that Rob…
And yes it does have the improved three cup spinning anemometer.