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WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Sat 17 Oct 2009 4:35 pm
by Repairman77
Hi, I'm new to the forum; I've been collecting data manually (and with a thermo-hydrograph) for over 20 years but have just changed over to a digital WX station (EasyWeather WH1080).
I found your site and installed Cumulus 1.8.7 and appear to have it working.
I have attached a screen shot of the Station Settings and wonder if I have set this up correctly.
Perhaps one of the regulars could take a look.
Many thanks,
Mike.

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Sat 17 Oct 2009 5:58 pm
by steve
Looks good to me, except that you probably should have 'use data logger' ticked, unless you had a good reason for unticking it? If you intend to run Cumulus 24/7, then it doesn't matter so much, but if you do ever shut Cumulus down, then you will lose data as it won't download the missed data from the logger at start up.

It doesn't matter, but you don't actually need the location of the easyweather.dat file in there; that was for the older 'easyweather.dat' support for Fine Offset stations.

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Sun 18 Oct 2009 1:34 am
by Super-T
Altitude 5 ft?

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Sun 18 Oct 2009 6:14 am
by steve
Super-T wrote:Altitude 5 ft?
Cambridgeshire.

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Sun 18 Oct 2009 7:15 am
by Repairman77
Many thanks for all your replies; I will turn Data logger on.
Yes 5ft is about right according to the high resolution Ordnance Survey maps; surprised me too.
The actual sensor units are around 30ft up and I have to allow 1mB difference between the readings 'Absolute' and 'relative'.
I have an old Altimeter next to the computer and a very accurate scientific mercury stick barometer in another room.
The WH1080 does seem to work well but the EasyWeather software is a little basic.
I can't wait for Cumulus2 to be finished, the screen shots look very good.
Mike.

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Sun 18 Oct 2009 7:47 am
by Repairman77
One thing I noticed on the settings page was the option of hPa and mb for the barometer settings.
I always assumed that these were the same; is this correct?
Mike.

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Sun 18 Oct 2009 11:10 am
by steve
Repairman77 wrote:One thing I noticed on the settings page was the option of hPa and mb for the barometer settings.
I always assumed that these were the same; is this correct?
Mike.
Yes, that's right. The difference is purely cosmetic.

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Sun 18 Oct 2009 4:34 pm
by Repairman77
Hi Steve, I thought they may have been the case.
By the way I wonder if it would be possible to include a wind direction graph option in Cumulus2; no software seems to include it?

Also can anyone who uses a WH1080 tell me why the screen (in radio controlled time mode) shows exactly one minute ahead of all my other radio controlled clocks. I wonder if it is deliberate for some reason?

Thanks,

Mike.

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Mon 19 Oct 2009 2:39 am
by Super-T
I hope there is no direct route to the sea when global warming arrives :-) I guess if you keep the Console on a desk you should be OK. (I have a strange, inherited English sense of humour).
There was a story going around when Fiji had a tidal wave in 1952. We heard that one guy, who lived on a small atoll (Nukulau) just off the coast of Suva, saw the wave coming and tied himself to a coconut tree with a bucket over his head and he survived.

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Mon 19 Oct 2009 7:02 am
by Repairman77
LOL Terry, when I looked at the map published by the council on flooding, the worse case scenario showed it as ending at around 100 yards from my house. ;)
Do you have a radio control time signal down there Terry or do you have to set it manually?
Mike.

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Mon 19 Oct 2009 10:03 pm
by Super-T
The 1080's that come out down here are 1081's......no radio time set and different frequency in the wireless connection. Manual setup.
Better buy a boat and some water skis for when the ocean arrives :-)

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Wed 21 Oct 2009 7:32 am
by Repairman77
Well we just got some rain overnight and I've had to recalibrate the rain gauge readings to x2!
Can't believe how these WH1080s can be so far out with their readings.

Guess I was expecting a little to much with such a cheap unit; thank goodness Cumulus has a calibration feature. :)
I wonder how many purchasers just assume the readings are all correct?
Luckily I have other systems to calibrate it with.

Mike.

Update... The rainfall was not quite as far out as I though (after getting a bit more rain to calibrate it) now set at 1.3.

Perhaps there's a standard starting point for all these units for calibration or perhaps they are all different?
Mine at present is set to...
(Offsets)
Pressure 0.60
Temp 0.0 Indoor 0.00
Humidity -1
Wind direction 0
(Multipliers)
Windspeed 1.00 Gust 1.00 (nothing to calibrate it against at present)
Temp 0.00
Humidity 1.12
Rainfall 1.3

I'm a bit of a stickler for accuracy but fear I am going to have to put up with some inconsistencies with the WH1080. :(

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Thu 22 Oct 2009 6:51 pm
by aeropic
Hi Mike,

Concerning calibration of rain gauge I've more or less the same concern. rather than using the cumulus software amplification, I've chisen to install a hardware one ! (see post https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1307).

Btw I have found the same 1.3 factor ...

I've also an "optimistic" outside temperature sensor with a +0.8 °C offset ...

Nevertheless 1080 are quite fun toys for the price !

Alain

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Fri 23 Oct 2009 6:49 am
by Repairman77
Hi Alain, yes, perhaps we are expecting a little too much for the price.

I have suspicions that the pressure sensor is temperature sensitive as it doesn't seem to be tracking my altimeter very well; that must be well temperature compensated.

More tests needed.

Mike.

Update...
As the outside temperature warmed up the pressure tracked a lot closer to the Altimeter; suspicions confirmed.
The only way around this problem would be to recalculate the pressure relative to the temperature reading, but whether it would be worth it would be another matter. It can appear to drift up to 2Mb out in cold conditions.

Re: WH1080 Station Settings

Posted: Sun 25 Oct 2009 3:11 pm
by Repairman77
Well after a few days of trying to calibrate it I have ended up with these figures; until I can check in the Winter with more extreme readings they'll have to do. My suspicion is that the barometer and hygrometer are both affected by temperature. The rain gauge, even when calibrated, is not that accurate against a conventional rain gauge, but the whole system does give a guide to the weather even if not suitable for serious data collection. Not bad for the price. I guess you have to pay several times that for something a few percent better, as is usual for all electronic equipment.
Mike.