WS2310 and WD - Sensor siting and calibration

Archive Archived Weather Display Usage Questions
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Gidday guys,

My station has been up for 5 days continuously (a big thanks to Brian for all his assistance!!), but today I decided to move the sensors from the temp location to the permanent site. A couple of questions have arisen:

  1. Does the standard rain gauge supplied by LaCrosse require any calibration for it to be read accurately by WD? Is there any way of testing that it is measuring accurately? Is there a preferred location for a rain guage to be installed? Some web sites suggest that it is oK to mount the guage on a mast…

  2. I am mounting my anemometer on the top of my CB aerial mast to achieve around 7m clear height. Is there any reason why the Thermo/hygro sensor cannot be mounted on the same mast in a waterproof (but vented) enclosure?

  3. What other optional sensors (if any?) can be added to the WS2310 and WD? If none, can I install other sensors that just plug directly into my USB ports? Will WD be able to detect them?

  4. External webcams - I’d like to mount a webcam on my mast pointing west towards the weather… what are you guys using to achieve your external pics?

Cheers lads, your advice has been awesome!! Brian, am still waiting for replacement console from WDU, so don’t fear, i ahve not left the country!!!

Thanks Again,
Andrew

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yes to all the above

and yes, using labjack, which is USB, you could add say soil temperature, and even a lightning counter, grass minimum, solar sensor…

note that the temp/hum needs to be only at 1.8m height, or so

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4. External webcams - I'd like to mount a webcam on my mast pointing west towards the weather... what are you guys using to achieve your external pics?

I would caution against pointing your webcam where it might ‘see’ the sun. I did that with mine and caused permanent damage to the camera. North/South are safer directions to point your camera…

Dan

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On the webcam front I am currently using a Logitech Quickcam ccd webcam, that is capable of the 640 x 480 pic here…www.larsenz.com/webcam/ with a nifty piece of software called Conquercam. I have ideas of usuing a 2.1 megapix camera at some stage but for now the webcam does OK. I mounted mine in an outdoor brass spotlight unit from Lighting Direct (here in Wellington and probably Akl too). It has good silicone seals and came complete with a mounting bracket that made it ideal to go on a pole. At the moment its pointing out my office window to the south west (to avoid that burnout !) until I get power to the garage sorted.

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I’m using an old Creative Web Blaster Webcam via USB. It is controlled by WD directly. For the $20 I spent on this camera 5 years ago I can’t complain about ‘burning’ it.

Dan