Weather station

[cbouch]

I am interested in purchasing a weather station for my boat and was wondering what others have and how they stand up to the marine environment. Thanks

 

[ksanders]

I have a Davis Vantage Vue with internet connection as well as a local console

Here is a link to the public page.

https://www.weatherlink.com/embeddablePage/show/d28539cb1d234edebdcba7d59665f4e4/wide

It took all of 30 minutes to install, and works great!.

What I see is far more detailed than the public page. I get graphs of all the data, min/max, etc...

 

[FlyWright]

I use this onboard. No relative wind direction which suits me fine since I have a windsock on the bow for that info. The small footprint anemometer fits well on my radar mast.

https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-Wire...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WBJ7RCC6WRC4FK9TG4Q4

 

[JD5652]

This is on my winter upgrade list. I've done my share of research on this and am going with the Airmar W-220WX-RH. I particularly like the passive design with no moving parts to fail. This has the Relative Humidity sensor as well. You can easily get it without the RH sensor if that's not important to you.

https://www.imarineusa.com/AirmarWS-220WX-RH.aspx

 

[ksanders]

I use this onboard. No relative wind direction which suits me fine since I have a windsock on the bow for that info. The small footprint anemometer fits well on my radar mast.

https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-Wire...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WBJ7RCC6WRC4FK9TG4Q4

I like that Al! Easy peasy, and gives you what you need!

 

[kchace]

I use this onboard. No relative wind direction which suits me fine since I have a windsock on the bow for that info. The small footprint anemometer fits well on my radar mast.

https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-Wire...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WBJ7RCC6WRC4FK9TG4Q4

I have this same one and for the same reasons. Works well.

Ken

 

[ksanders]

This is on my winter upgrade list. I've done my share of research on this and am going with the Airmar W-220WX-RH. I particularly like the passive design with no moving parts to fail. This has the Relative Humidity sensor as well. You can easily get it without the RH sensor if that's not important to you.

https://www.imarineusa.com/AirmarWS-220WX-RH.aspx

I seriously considered the Airmar unit. Actually I really like the Airmar unit for all the reasons you mentioned.

Then I thought through my installation a bit.

once I have the weather sensor you have to do something with it. You have to display it locally, and one of my criteria was that I needed it to be remotely accessible along with historical data for when I’m not on the boat.

I could make it talk to my Nav system but I have three pretty busy screens as it is, so I was looking at adding another screen or another way to access the data.

Then I was trying to figure out how to tie it in to my boats network, and hopefully the alarm system I already have in place. I could get it onto the network but it was a non starter making it talk to my smart things alarm/monitoring system.

Yes I could buy a NEMA 200 internet gateway and do it that way but I would either have to have a dedicated IP address, or find a service to host this one data stream.

Then I decided to take off my engineering hat and just buy something that works already. Less than $500 and I have everything up and running. No wires to pull, no nothing. It just works. It even has a solar panel to extend battery life.

Easy Peasy. I like easy. and the older I get the more I like it.

Here are some screen shots from the app.

 

[helm]

We have a tempest weather station on our Lindell. Works well, ours is the original indigogo model. They are on their second generation now
https://weatherflow.com/tempest-weather-system/

 

[stevemitchell]

I have a few different things on board including a Davis Vantage Pro2, Tempest, Airmar WX-series, and a few N2K devices similar to Airmar but in separate parts/pieces including humidity, temp, wind direction, etc. I'm a bit of a weather nerd with 6 other ground stations at various places using all sorts of high end stuff.

For the boat, off the shelf stuff that is relatively inexpensive as well as the more expensive Tempest and Davis stuff will work, but the wind direction and such will always be messed up because the boat moves. If you're just looking for general conditions, and don't care the direction, then these systems are very easy to setup, as others have mentioned, and can publish their data to a website or app to let you see what is going on remotely.

If you want to go one step further, you can look at the article I wrote about making a full boat weather station at https://seabits.com/real-time-weather-from-the-boat/

The advantage for me is that I am on board almost continuously, and want accurate dashboards of the weather real-time, especially while at anchor in bad weather. Using an N2K instrument allows me to do that with SignalK and the Grafana graphs you see above, as well as drive alerts and other things off of it. The downside is that you need this info on a bus of some sort, like N2K, or somehow fed into SignalK.

You can also become a Windy mobile station using this method so you can check on things remotely, and also help contribute to local weather - mine is here: https://www.windy.com/station/pws-f0717799

Lots of options for weather aboard - simple with an off the shelf solution, or even just buying the cheaper N2K instruments from Yacht Devices, or going full crazy like me with multiple stations and on board servers

 

[JD5652]

I have a few different things on board including a Davis Vantage Pro2, Tempest, Airmar WX-series, and a few N2K devices similar to Airmar but in separate parts/pieces including humidity, temp, wind direction, etc. I'm a bit of a weather nerd with 6 other ground stations at various places using all sorts of high end stuff.

For the boat, off the shelf stuff that is relatively inexpensive as well as the more expensive Tempest and Davis stuff will work, but the wind direction and such will always be messed up because the boat moves. If you're just looking for general conditions, and don't care the direction, then these systems are very easy to setup, as others have mentioned, and can publish their data to a website or app to let you see what is going on remotely.

If you want to go one step further, you can look at the article I wrote about making a full boat weather station at https://seabits.com/real-time-weather-from-the-boat/

The advantage for me is that I am on board almost continuously, and want accurate dashboards of the weather real-time, especially while at anchor in bad weather. Using an N2K instrument allows me to do that with SignalK and the Grafana graphs you see above, as well as drive alerts and other things off of it. The downside is that you need this info on a bus of some sort, like N2K, or somehow fed into SignalK.

You can also become a Windy mobile station using this method so you can check on things remotely, and also help contribute to local weather - mine is here: https://www.windy.com/station/pws-f0717799

Lots of options for weather aboard - simple with an off the shelf solution, or even just buying the cheaper N2K instruments from Yacht Devices, or going full crazy like me with multiple stations and on board servers

Steve-

I "thought" I was a weather geek until I saw your setup and read you article.

That's an AWESOME system. From reading the article. it wasn't specific as to what data you were gathering from which onboard device.

Can I get similar data with just the Airmar WS-220WX-RH?

Your system is definitely "state-of-the-art". Can you estimate the time to setup, etc?

What sensors are you using for indoor temp and humidity and how do you get that data on the network?

I will be aboard almost continuously myself the next couple years and want access to accurate real time weather as well as trending.

All the above may be too much for this thread. Don't want to hijack the OP's thread.

Thanks!

 

[fryedaze]

We have had this model for 5 years. The app let's you access it. It will send you alerts on parameters. We added a water sensor and put it in the bildge.

https://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Techn...t=&hvlocphy=9006478&hvtargid=pla-801972410335

It does graphs. Attached is a 65 mph squall that went through Longboat Key a few days ago.

 

[Leatherneck]

Would be nice to see where you all mounted the sensors and displays for the units that have standalone displays. Any pictures?

 

[ksanders]

I have a few different things on board including a Davis Vantage Pro2, Tempest, Airmar WX-series, and a few N2K devices similar to Airmar but in separate parts/pieces including humidity, temp, wind direction, etc. I'm a bit of a weather nerd with 6 other ground stations at various places using all sorts of high end stuff.

For the boat, off the shelf stuff that is relatively inexpensive as well as the more expensive Tempest and Davis stuff will work, but the wind direction and such will always be messed up because the boat moves. If you're just looking for general conditions, and don't care the direction, then these systems are very easy to setup, as others have mentioned, and can publish their data to a website or app to let you see what is going on remotely.

If you want to go one step further, you can look at the article I wrote about making a full boat weather station at https://seabits.com/real-time-weather-from-the-boat/

The advantage for me is that I am on board almost continuously, and want accurate dashboards of the weather real-time, especially while at anchor in bad weather. Using an N2K instrument allows me to do that with SignalK and the Grafana graphs you see above, as well as drive alerts and other things off of it. The downside is that you need this info on a bus of some sort, like N2K, or somehow fed into SignalK.

You can also become a Windy mobile station using this method so you can check on things remotely, and also help contribute to local weather - mine is here: https://www.windy.com/station/pws-f0717799

Lots of options for weather aboard - simple with an off the shelf solution, or even just buying the cheaper N2K instruments from Yacht Devices, or going full crazy like me with multiple stations and on board servers

Wow! the depth of knowledge of folks here on TF is Amazing! Very cool!

 

[ksanders]

We have had this model for 5 years. The app let's you access it. It will send you alerts on parameters. We added a water sensor and put it in the bildge.

https://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Techn...t=&hvlocphy=9006478&hvtargid=pla-801972410335

It does graphs. Attached is a 65 mph squall that went through Longboat Key a few days ago.View attachment 111916

Very cool! That is exactly what I was looking for when I installed my Davis unit!

 

[stevemitchell]

Steve-

I "thought" I was a weather geek until I saw your setup and read you article.

That's an AWESOME system. From reading the article. it wasn't specific as to what data you were gathering from which onboard device.

Can I get similar data with just the Airmar WS-220WX-RH?

Your system is definitely "state-of-the-art". Can you estimate the time to setup, etc?

What sensors are you using for indoor temp and humidity and how do you get that data on the network?

I will be aboard almost continuously myself the next couple years and want access to accurate real time weather as well as trending.

All the above may be too much for this thread. Don't want to hijack the OP's thread.

Thanks!

I use 100% NMEA 2000 data right now for the graphs you see and the Windy station. That data included the Airmar WS-220WX-RH but I disconnected that for a while and am using the following:

LCJ Capteurs ultrasonic - wind / barometric pressure
Furuno SCX-20 satellite compass - outside air temperature
Yacht Devices temp/humidity sensors for inside & engine room temp/humidity
Airmar DST800 triducer for water temp

The Airmar WS-220WX-RH could replace the two outdoor components I'm using. I disconnected mine as I was testing the new SCX-20 satellite compass and didn't want that to mess with the testing. I also prefer the accuracy of the LCJ Capteurs wind over any other ultrasonic - much more accurate, but it is a single purpose instrument, and hard to get in the US.

Since NMEA 2000 is limited in the naming of sensors for temperature on most devices (grr) I chose to only have two - one in my main salon which is my "inside" temperature, and one in the engine room. The main salon one is a dual purpose humidity/temp sensor, while the engine room one is a temp sensor only. Yacht Devices has both of them here: https://www.yachtd.com/products/sensors.html

I already had NMEA 2000 in all of the necessary spots, so adding the sensors was pretty easy, and I actually did that within the first few weeks of owning the boat, mainly so I could keep an eye on engine room temps.

Getting the data on to graphs involved what I covered in the article - installing SignalK on a computer, connecting it to the NMEA 2000 network, and then building the graphs. I posted the graph configurations so you can download them in the article.

It is far better than any of the Maretron stuff (which I have an extensive setup of) or other marine solutions because of it's flexibility. Being able to change the time ranges, zoom in quickly, and look at anomalies or issues has become commonplace. I don't know what I'd do without it. There's another article where I take it beyond the weather station to electrical system and engine performance monitoring, so it's a platform you can do a lot with.

 

[stevemitchell]

We have a tempest weather station on our Lindell. Works well, ours is the original indigogo model. They are on their second generation now
https://weatherflow.com/tempest-weather-system/

I have the first and second generation Tempest - the first generation I have at home and the second on the boat. Have you noticed any issues with rain detection & vibrations from the boat? Because they use an accelerometer or something similar inside the top of the unit, I often will have rain being detected while underway....

 

[stevemitchell]

Then I decided to take off my engineering hat and just buy something that works already. Less than $500 and I have everything up and running. No wires to pull, no nothing. It just works. It even has a solar panel to extend battery life.

Easy Peasy. I like easy. and the older I get the more I like it.

While I love my NMEA 2000 system, nothing replaces a good Davis Vantage or one of the other nice display systems for ease of install and the nice indoor panel that you can glance at quickly to see what is going on.

They seem to last a long while too - I was expecting some sort of failures in the anemometers having had weather stations all over the place for years on land, but they seem to do OK with the salt water.

Can't beat the price and the display!

 

[psneeld]

I love a good weather station...but in reality the old expression " it is what it is" kinda took over my cruising decisions.

Not like I am gonna change the weather, not like a boat weather station gives you enough to predict the weather, and the weather is usually completely different along my trip than what I currently see at dock/ anchor.

The internet tells me whats gonna happen much better than what I can guess from the barometer.

So I keep putting off buying a really cool weather station because my brain wins over my heart on this one.

Between flying and professional mariner jobs, yes I depended on weather for 40 years... but I see it as a cool toy, not what I "need".

 

[fryedaze]

I love a good weather station...but in reality the old expression " it is what it is" kinda took over my cruising decisions.

Not like I am gonna change the weather, not like a boat weather station gives you enough to predict the weather, and the weather is usually completely different along my trip than what I currently see at dock/ anchor.

The internet tells me whats gonna happen much better than what I can guess from the barometer.

So I keep putting off buying a really cool weather station because my brain wins over my heart on this one.

Between flying and professional mariner jobs, yes I depended on weather for 40 years... but I see it as a cool toy, not what I "need".

[emoji106][emoji106] I am with you Scott. Having real-time temp, wind, humidity etc. doesn't change anything or help make decisions. It's just a toy. I do love my toys though. Like my Victron BVM that Bluetooth to my phone. The one usable feature of our weather station is the water sensor that will tell me my boat is sinking when I am away from the boat.[emoji33]

 

[OldDan1943]

All I am missing is a recording barometer, to make me happy.
I have an apparent wind speed and direction.
Also an outside current temp.
Combine the above with the weather maps from the apps on my iPad.....
SMILE
There are barometer apps available but, one has to keep restarting to record trends.

 

[Northern Spy]

We have a tempest weather station on our Lindell. Works well, ours is the original indigogo model. They are on their second generation now
https://weatherflow.com/tempest-weather-system/

I too have a Tempest on my house. Got it on Kickstarter. Best weather station I've owned.
I like how you can check weather in real time on other stations on the map. Comox has several in the marina.

However I think the haptic rain sensor would give false readings underway on a boat.

 

[psneeld]

A phone app tells you outside temp and forecast in seconds, heck nowadays, they tell you that when rain will start in your neighborhood and be accurate within minutes.

Granted this is not for passagemaking, but as discussed often on TF....very few actually do passages or even are in truly remote spots.

Outside the US...all bets are off as I don't have current experience with internet/ local weather outside North America.

 

[Simi 60]

Bog standard barometer on board for us
Observation out window to see rain
And have wheelhouse door jamb that whistles @ 30 knots
Overboard top deck drains play a tune @ 40 knots
And some timber strips attached to stanchions get a rattle at around 50 knots.

Not flash but it works, no battery's and very reliable.

 

[rslifkin]

The one weather instrument I do periodically consider adding is wind. Depending on local geography, the wind you're experiencing could be significantly different than the nearest reporting station. So it would be interesting to see wind speed / direction changes while picking out a spot to anchor sometimes.

 

[psneeld]

I just look at the ripples on the water.....


But more importantly is the forecast winds as they can be way different too than the current winds.

 

[FlyWright]

I love a good weather station...but in reality the old expression " it is what it is" kinda took over my cruising decisions.

Not like I am gonna change the weather, not like a boat weather station gives you enough to predict the weather, and the weather is usually completely different along my trip than what I currently see at dock/ anchor.

The internet tells me whats gonna happen much better than what I can guess from the barometer.

So I keep putting off buying a really cool weather station because my brain wins over my heart on this one.

Between flying and professional mariner jobs, yes I depended on weather for 40 years... but I see it as a cool toy, not what I "need".

I am with you Scott. Having real-time temp, wind, humidity etc. doesn't change anything or help make decisions. It's just a toy. I do love my toys though.

I agree with you both. It's just a gadget to tinker with but real info is available out the window or online, including some online weather radars. That's why I only spend under $100 for a station that lasts several years. It's 'good enough' without breaking the bank for other boat priorities...like IPAs and cold refrigerators!

 

[psneeld]

Sot not to seem like I took thngs to far off track...not only do I feel like they provide cute but not really necessary info, the cheaper ones I have had didn't last long and neither have friends ones, the expensive ones may last better...but with my philosophy on them, spending a wad of money just doesn't seem to make sense.


Even the expensive ones I have been around seem to have nagging failures that owners aren't happy about. Like anemometer failures, battery issues, inaccurate wind direction..... yet others seem problem free and owners love them.

 

[billdomb]

On our fourth Acu Rite.

Have not been that reliable.

Company does honor returns.

About to send them another one back. This time not showing wind direction.

All have failed in different manners.

 

[Knot Fast]

Per Airmar, the WS-220WX WeatherStation Instrument is “IPX6 waterproof rating (units with the relative humidity option added are IPX4 waterproof rated)”. My interpretation is that if you get the Relative Humidity Sensor you lose significant waterproofing.

My Maretron/Airmar WSO100 weather sensor is ~10y old and came with the boat. It has a Relative Humidity Sensor but that was a ~3y wear part that expired long ago. After 10y in the FL sun, the other functions still works well, not perfect. After heavy, driving rain, the wind speed and temperature can be erroneous (99mph, 300F) for a few days. I tried resealing the N2K connection, but no improvement.

When my WSO100 dies I will replace it with the WS-200WX (without RH). Amortized over the ~10y life, the cost is ok. The “220” series has, among other features, a solid state compass. I like the idea of the compass on top of the mast, away from interfering objects. This would probably improve my marginal old compass issues.

 

[Conrad]

We have an Airmar PB200 on Blue Sky, about ten years old and very reliable. I find it very useful for making on the fly decisions with its true wind speed and direction.(Due to the islands around here the winds can be quite capricious.) The other interesting parameter is water temp as it helps folks decide if they are going swimming.