What's a Weather Station?

A weather station is a device able to measure weather parameters, like temperature, humidity, etc....

It is composed by two main parts, outdoors sensors and indoors consolle.

Outdoors sensors:

The outdoors sensors measure the following parameters:

- temperature

- humidity

- rain

- wind speed and direction.

Indoors sensors:

The indoors consolle measure the following parameters:

- temperature

- humidity

- pressure

How my installation runs:

Data from outdoor sensors are sent to the consolle in wireless mode.

The consolle records all data (outdoors and indoors) in its internal memory.

A computer reads all data from the consolle trough the COM1 port and records them in files.

A software (I have written in Visual Basic but can be developed in many other languages) read the data and generate the html page.

An FTP uploader (I am using SAVE2FTP) send the html page to this internet site each 3 minutes.

Datasheet of Weather Station La Crosse WS 3650

• Radio-controlled clock (Frankfurt antenna / DCF-77 Signal)

• DCF-77 ON/OFF function

• Manual setting function

• 12 or 24 hour display

• Time zone setting: +/- 12 hours

• Day / date / month display

• Alarm setting

• LCD Screen with 21 touch areas

• Interactive display with 32 characters of text message for instant weather information

• Wall-mounted or freestanding

• Unit: °C or °F

• Range: from – 9.9 °C to + 59.9 °C

• Precision: 0.1 °C

• Recording of the minimum and maximum data measured with time and date

• 20 second measuring period

• Unit : % RH

• Swiss made high definition sensor

• Range : from 1 % to 99 %

• Precision : 1 %

• Accuracy : +/- 3 % when temperature > - 10 °C and < + 40 °C and +/- 5 % outside these ranges

• Recording of the minimum and maximum data measured with time and date

• 20 second measuring period

Forecast

• Barometer with icon display (3 icons)

• Trend display

• User selectable weather icon for thresholds between 2 and 4 hPa.

• Unit: hPa or inHg

• Range for absolute pressure : from 300 hPa to 1099 hPa

• Precision : 0.1 hPa

• Historical 7-step bar graph over last 24 or 72 hours

• Absolute or relative atmospheric pressure display choice (range for relative pressure: from 920 hPa. to 1080 hPa.)

• Pressure sensitivity adjustable

• Recording of the minimum and maximum data measured with time and date

• Unit : °C or °F

• Range : from – 29.9 °C to + 59.9 °C

• Precision : 0.1 °C

• Recording of the minimum and maximum data measured with time and date

• 4.5 second measuring period

• Unit : % RH

• Swiss made high definition sensor

• Range : from 1 % to 99 %

• Precision : 1 %

• Accuracy : +/- 3 % when temperature > - 10 °C and < + 40 °C and +/- 5 % outside these ranges

• Recording of the minimum and maximum data measured with time and date

• 4.5 second measuring period

• Dew point display

• Recording of the minimum and maximum data measured with time and date

• Unit: km/h, m/s, knots, mph or Beaufort

• Range : from 0 to 180 km/h (or from 1 to 50 m/s)

• Wind direction displayed on a 360° compass

• Precision: 0.1 m/s

• Recording of the minimum and maximum data measured with time and date

• Up to 16 separate alarm settings

• Windchill display

• Recording of the minimum and maximum data measured with time and date

• Choice of rainfall display : over 1 hour, over 24 hours or the total volume

• Unit : mm or inch

• Range : from 0 to 999.9 mm (over 1 or 24 hours) - from 0 to 9999 mm (over 1 week, 1 month and total rain volume)

• Precision : 0.5 mm

• Rainfall per impulse: 0.518 mm

• Recording of the minimum and maximum data measured with time and date

• 6 second measuring period

• 21 alarms setting (with sound alarm option) :
  - hour alarm
  - storm alarm (sound alarm possible)
  - indoor temperature alarms (high and low)
  - outdoor temperature alarms (high and low)
  - indoor humidity alarms (high and low)
  - outdoor humidity alarms (high and low)
  - wind chill alarms (high and low)
  - dew point alarms (high and low)
  - precipitation alarms over 1 hour, 24 hours, 1 week, 1 month and total rain fall volume
  - relative pressure alarms (high and low)
  - wind speed alarms (high and low)
  - wind direction alarm

• Computer connection included

• Delivered with setup CD-ROM (in French, English and German) and one 2 metre cable for linking the base station and the computer

• Data is gathered by the computer, which can be used to create graphs or to export it

• Storage capacity of 1750 sets of data with date and time

• 1 minute to 24 hours data recording interval

• EEPROM memory (non volatile ring buffer memory)

• Every 4.5 second for the thermometer/hygrometer sensor

• Every 6 second for the rain gauge

• LCD contrast adjustable from 0 to +7

• EL Backlight activated for 20 seconds (with ON/OFF function)

• 1 outdoor temperature and humidity transmitter (TX 31 IT+)

• a rain gauge (TX 34 IT+)

• an anemometer (TX 23 IT+)

• cables to link transmitters to each other

• 1 AC/DC adapter

• 1 cable for PC connection

• 1 Cd-Rom with HEAVY WEATHER software

• Grey Argent

• Station ( L x W x H) = 154.6 x 30 x 255.1 mm

• Thermo/hygro transmitter ( L x W x H) = 57.3 x 156.9 x 62 mm

• Rain gauge ( D x H) = 131.6 x 151.5 mm

• Anemometer ( L x W x H) = 250 x 276.2 x 145.9 mm

• 3 x AA batteries, IEC LR6 1.5 V for the receiver or AC/DC adaptor

• 2 x AA batteries, IEC LR6 1.5 V for the thermo/hygro transmitter

• 2 x AA batteries, IEC LR6 1.5 V for the rain gauge

Pictures of the weather station installed

The software in the computer

The database in the computer

(the example shows data each 5 minutes but the time can be changed as desired):