Weather Stations Onboard

I'm not too happy with the Acurite reliability right now. I have one of these at my house. It is the second one I've bought. In each case, the outdoor sensor crapped out on me. The displays are still good, though. So, now my dilemma is: Do I buy yet another sensor for $100 and have 3 displays, or just give up on Acurite all together and throw away the 2 displays I have?

In each case, the sensors made it barely past the 1 year warranty period before dying.

That's my concern exactly with Acurite, and what the reviews generally indicated.
A great looking design if they could just get it reliable and roughly accurate.

As previously posted...I have 3 Acurites and none have had a problem with the remote sensor. 2 live at sea level where outside temps are benign but the third one lives at 4500 ft. The temp there often sees single digits. I always mount the remote sensor on the north side of the house, under an overhang. (Protecting it from rain and snow.) On my boat the sensor is mounted in the cockpit, under the flybridge overhang.

There is a heap of these on Ebay, incl the La Crosse. Some have a very compact sender unit,even with a solar panel, while others look like something out of Don Quixote (Tilting at Windmills), or a cactus bush, bits poking out in all directions.
How is the sender best mounted? Does it have to be above everything on a pole, or can you just attach it to a FB rail where it is not too impeded?

It seems tough to find a quality product under $1000 to just measure wind speed and direction.

This one has caught my eye though. Old school look, with some cool technology. It is self powered, generating it's own voltage. No power supply required for measuring wind speed.
$420 complete with 5 year warranty.


Maestro Anemometer Brass Case Silver Face - by Maximum - From Inspeed.com

AusCan said:

It seems tough to find a quality product under $1000 to just measure wind speed and direction.

This one has caught my eye though. Old school look, with some cool technology. It is self powered, generating it's own voltage. No power supply required for measuring wind speed.
$420 complete with 5 year warranty.


Maestro Anemometer Brass Case Silver Face - by Maximum - From Inspeed.com

Click to expand...

This is getting my attention...cheaper than the $1000 units, quality over the $100 units...

But $500 (probably with shipping) for information that is only "nice to know"....still near the bottom of boat baubles...

Save the indoor unit and see if the new outdoor unit will drive both indoor parts.

We have a similar model here and two indoor displays. The outdoor transmitter broadcasts the data to any receiver listening, so does not care which or both display gets the info.

Also, put lithium batteries in the outdoor unit. Much longer battery life, and wider temp of operation, and best yet... won't corrode / explode and damage the unit.

Alkaline batteries will leak, regardless of brand, although some sold at BJ's and Costco, etc. are much more prone to leaking and corroding your outdoor unit.

psneeld said:

This is getting my attention...cheaper than the $1000 units, quality over the $100 units...

But $500 (probably with shipping) for information that is only "nice to know"....still near the bottom of boat baubles...

Click to expand...

They also have another model for $209, with a 10 year warranty.
It only gives wind speed though.

AusCan said:

They also have another model for $209, with a 10 year warranty.
It only gives wind speed though.

Click to expand...

...even better...direction is easy and changes wherever you go unless open water where it is obvious anyway.

Speed indicators do satisfy that "number" curiosity.

A picture of this and a wave meter should be mandatory with every post about weather conditions...

I love seeing pics where the poster says 8 feet and 35 knots where I know better based on what several photos are clearly showing.

But sometimes it's not so clear and the "meter" would help...

I have not seen an answer to Chris' question in post #13 as to how the "forecast" is derived. I would assume that the barometric pressure recorded over time and a small tumbler in the back of the unit is used. At a certain time a coin in the tumbler is flipped and the weather forecast is determined just like real weatherman do.

The weather displays I am familiar with use a broadcast signal off of FM radio stations that is broadcast by NOAA, I think. I had a problem up in the mountains where radio reception was poor. How well it would work offshore would also be a good question.
Mine also had an atomic clock set thing listening for WWV broadcasts so the time was always right.

Well, I could subscribe to Sirius (sp?) and then display WX on my MFD.... but I don't see that as being any more accurate -- or "nearby" -- than the WU app (or whichever app you like) and nearby buoy reports.


Now a wave meter... that sounds like a winner! (Is there such a thing?)


-Chris

something like this:
NWW3 Product Viewer

Or did you want a display / app for that?

That's a good one, but what I wondered about is if there's something that'll tell wave height "right here, right now" (or maybe at least over the last several minutes or something).


I can check the two closest local buoys but I don't have perfect confidence in 'em, all the time. And sometimes (like right now, actually) they're both not reporting wave height, for some reason.


In any case, I hear about 4 and 5 footers from other folks around here from time to time... when I'm pretty sure they were maybe 3-ish or so. 3-ish on the Chesapeake can be quite uncomfortable, sometimes depending on wave period -- usually very short -- and direction of travel (both waves and boat). 4s and 5s would indeed be sloppy... but I usually suspect reporting error.


-Chris

If you're there, look out your window

Yeah, mostly this is curiosity after-the-fact... about what folks tell me they just experienced. It was 'orrible, Cap'n Ahab, waves over the top of the boat..." (and so forth).





-Chris

I have Ambient Weather station. I'd bought the cheap one from Walmart and returned it. The problem was the display. It was perfect if I was right in front of it, and not on any sort of angle away. The Ambient Weather I bought was one up from bottom of the line. It has an outdoor monitor which I put inside the refrigerator. Now I know how cool the box is without question.

My Ambient is three years old. When it croaks I'll buy another.
It offers 24 hour time and I've got it set at zulu time for cruising. That way my Log Book shows "true" time. That's the way we did ours on the 40'er and I've kept up the practice.

Oh, and it was $25 as I recall. It came from Amazon.

Thing I forgot: The Ambient is easy to read from all angles. It's perfect however it is not backlit.

"but what I wondered about is if there's something that'll tell wave height "right here, right now" (or maybe at least over the last several minutes or something)."

No problem a stable short wave radio and a computer can pull the world wide fax info , for outside your windo to theb seas off Murmansk.

Free , just a program to purchase , but it HAS to be a good stable SW radio.

Meh...


-Chris

I've had this LaCrosse Technology weather station at my house for a couple years but recently moved it to the boat. (Model #C86234) I like the display of information without the cartoonish guy dressed for the weather.

I left the rain gauge at home since it's clunky and I have neither a good place to place it nor a real need for that data point. If it's raining, my boat is normally in its covered slip. When it's not raining, I don't need the rain indicator. I installed the external temp/humidity sensor in a shaded but open spot on the FB. The solar powered wind anemometer fit beautifully on my anchor light mast.

The north reference is the bow, so it's always indicating a relative wind which mimics my windsock indication. (Photos taken at different times.)





The lower helm looks visibility looks more obstructed from afar than it does at the wheel. This will get a makeover when I finish assembling all the pieces for the helm facelift.

Do you leave the wind sock out at all times or only put it out when the helicopter is coming?

On a more topical post.... we have a much simpler weather station onboard than what FlyWright has, and the remote temp sensor meant to go outside we actually have in the engine room. Unexpectedly, it has proven rather useful.

Weather station

Aboard I have a simple weather station, but the graph barometer can register and display the weather pressure of the past 48 hours, there is alarm as well when large and fast weather pressure drop what is very important and convenient !

No Mast said:

Do you leave the wind sock out at all times or only put it out when the helicopter is coming?

Click to expand...

It stays out whether the chopper is in operation or not. It actually functions better than a burgee in that it makes no noise and is steady in all winds I've encountered.

No Mast said:

On a more topical post.... we have a much simpler weather station onboard than what FlyWright has, and the remote temp sensor meant to go outside we actually have in the engine room. Unexpectedly, it has proven rather useful.

Click to expand...

I did the same thing with my former OAT sensor. For a while it served as a fridge temp sensor and I would move it from fridge to fridge. Then Santa brought me a dual temp sensor for the fridges, so it now serves as the ER temp sensor. I'm still getting used to it, but the most I've seen so fay with 50-70*F ambient temps is 90*F.

Can you tell I love gadgets?

X2 on LaCrosse. We had a wireless model that we got for something like 90 bucks at Sam's. I managed to break a few pieces over the years and the anemometer blew off in a sustained microcell, and their customer service was excellent in and out of warranty. They had individual parts so I didn't have to replace the whole thing. The wireless aspect is great as you can take the display with you around the boat... helm. MSR, etc.



You can also get good deals on reconditioned units on their site:
http://www.lacrossetechnologyoutlet.com/weather-stations-reconditioned

I have had both Lacrosse and Accurite both about the same for me, barometric pressure & temp and humidity inside and out. I have a hand held wind speed indicator that works fine. Indoor humidity is a big deal here, to know when to crank up the dehumidifier.

For looks and working with no blown fuses the old style barograph cant be beat.

If anyone is interested I will part with mine for $175 plus shipping,

You will have a paper record to show "how low did it go?" when the hurricane went by!

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scanning laser wave height sensor

ranger42c said:

Now a wave meter... that sounds like a winner! (Is there such a thing?)
-Chris

Click to expand...

I could build a scanning laser system for about $15,000

How important is it? One we used in a past project could give you wave height alarms and direction up to 1500 feet out.

Barograph

Are you in UK or the US ?