Cumulus Support

fadiaz wrote:Hi Charlie,

As I said before, lack of wireless will not be a "deal breaker"... but surely will be a "-1" in the evaluation.


Francisco

Charlie,

Since I am licensed radio amateur, Telecoms Technologist and work for a small meteorological unit in a research center, it seems a very interesting project to my eyes

Have you tried this part: http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/RF/H ... manual.pdf for making your station wireless? I'm never used or tested this part by myself, but I heard good comments from some former students.

Last year we purchased at my lab 4 XBee Pro 50mW RPSMA - Series 2 (ZB) units from a http://www.digi.com local vendor for a small project that we are working now and the performance was pretty good in the initial testings. (50mW output, +17dBm)

These boards are very easy to integrate into existing systems and are fully FCC certified.

Hope this info can be useful for you.

Thanks for the suggestion, however adding $100 cost ($44.95 + shipping per end) before integration to convert 1-wire to RS-232 would be a deal breaker, I think. The concept was to utilize those 1-wire modules most long time weather hobbiests played with at one time or another, in a product that could be used with Cumulus. 1-wire is really only the transport protocol, so making it wireless sort of defeats the purpose.

While for several people like Steve, wireless is a must, most stations are on the sides and/or roofs of our homes where running a wire takes a bit of time, but is not a big deal... and a small price to pay for a robust system that no longer includes data spikes, lost contact errors, etc. etc. that plague low cost systems.

I have not seen a lot of interest here, so either Cumulus people tossed those modules, or the 1-wire folks love their stations more than Cumulus and use other software (hence never reading this forum). A loss I think, when you CAN have both.

Charlie wrote:Thanks for the suggestion, however adding $100 cost ($44.95 + shipping per end) before integration to convert 1-wire to RS-232 would be a deal breaker, I think. The concept was to utilize those 1-wire modules most long time weather hobbiests played with at one time or another, in a product that could be used with Cumulus. 1-wire is really only the transport protocol, so making it wireless sort of defeats the purpose.....

What about a "add-on wireless module" for those people that cannot go wired?

Charlie wrote:... While for several people like Steve, wireless is a must, most stations are on the sides and/or roofs of our homes where running a wire takes a bit of time, but is not a big deal... and a small price to pay for a robust system that no longer includes data spikes, lost contact errors, etc. etc. that plague low cost systems. ...

I agree totally with your point of view.. at home my WS-2310/15 (in wired mode) sometimes got a spike, fortunately filtered out thanks to Cumulus "Spike removal" tool.

Charlie wrote:I have not seen a lot of interest here

I'm surprised that there hasn't been much interest, given the number of requests I've had in the past for 1-wire support. Perhaps not many people read the 'homebuilt' section, or maybe they don't understand what it is you're offering? I'm quite happy for you to 'sell' your product here; you did have the courtesy to contact me privately to discuss it before you even mentioned it publicly. Not everyone does that before posting their 'click here to buy now' links

Agree with Steve ^--^

Just a quick reply but, I would be interested in one of your Wired Systems.

Thanks

I'm interested and keeping a watchful eye, but not in a position to buy anything at the moment - now if the FO were to 'die'

mcrossley wrote:I'm interested and keeping a watchful eye, but not in a position to buy anything at the moment - now if the FO were to 'die'

You could shoot it Mark, that's what I did with mine. Of course, it had an organ donor card, so the wind vane, anemometer, and rain gauge were re-purposed to the new system.
Speaking of which, are there any recommendations for better units?

Charlie, how about those sponsored on the Hobby Boards weather web pages - certainly not the lowest priced items.

Replacement parts for the Davis Vantage Pro weather stations could also be 'possible candidates'...

You did write that the FO (and similar) stations were not very reliable - all those mass-produced poor quality control Asian weather stations...

If i missed this somewhere along the way, sorry.

But, am I correct in assuming this is going to to connect via 1 wire?

And, does Cumulus currently support 1 wire?

Duke

duke wrote:But, am I correct in assuming this is going to to connect via 1 wire?

It uses 1-wire sensors, yes.

And, does Cumulus currently support 1 wire?

No.

Charlie's device emulates a Fine Offset station.

steve wrote:And, does Cumulus currently support 1 wire?

No.

Steve, I did read somewhere that you said you had had numerous requests for 1 wire support, is this something that may creep into Cumulus? I realize & understand you already put a lot of time and effort into Cumulus.

Duke

duke wrote:Steve, I did read somewhere that you said you had had numerous requests for 1 wire support, is this something that may creep into Cumulus? I realize & understand you already put a lot of time and effort into Cumulus.

Definitely not. I won't be adding support for any more current weather stations, and I include 1-wire in that category. This is why Charlie created his device.

I have extensive and multiple 1-wire networks using the 2 Temp-08's, 1 Temp-05 and many Maxim Serial 9097's plus a newly developed from Asia mini-USB 9097. I use a mixed topology combining the star / hub and spoke setup. Mostly multiple humidity/temperature sensors inside and outside of the house. Over the years I have added lightning, barometer, light and dual counters. Most recently the newer light and humidity sensors have been short lived having to replace them after 6 months or so. It seems that the first generation of combo 1-wire sensors though are still fine after 10 years or so.

My 1-wire network started with the AAG Weather instrument (Dallas Instruments). I purchased two of these over 10 years ago. It worked over the years and I would swap one for the other after every 3-4 years. None the less one day around 5-6 years ago I started to pay attention to the wind speeds. They were off and they were totally off on both wind instruments. I took apart the device a few times and modified the design a touch; but it seemed that debounce and or inertia would provide a 30-40% faster than real wind speeds. After that and before purchasing the Fine Offset / Davis Vantage Vue I would tweak the numbers from the AAG Weather Instrument.

The above mentioned I still utilize the extensive 1-wire network everyday but do not currently use the flawed design AAG / Dallas 1-wire weather instrument. I believe though the newer generation of 1-wire wind instruments; a bit more expensive; work better. I also installed a custom pagoda aspirated with multiple 1-wire sensors about 4 years ago. That instrument and sensors quit working after about 8 months and even with the dual mast brackets on it ($80 USD) broke off the mast after about two years or so ago.

The above noted; I have stable 1-wire networks but there is some "magic" to 1-wire where as it works or it doesn't depending on the topology and reflections. Many folks are today using the 1-wire hubs which appear to function just fine with their 1-wire networks. (plug n play).

I've been most recently testing 1-wire connectivity to my sprinkler system Seagate Dockstar Arch Linux box. Works fine. I also utilize the 1-wire network with the xAP network and it also works fine and provides network xAP "capture" of all of the 1-wire devices (> 40 or so).

BTW first gen combo humidity / temperature sensors used to be around $15 USD. Most current versions are around $40 or so USD. 1-wire temperture sensors are pennies each if you purchase them in bulk. My preference is to utilize 1-wire with only two wires; but with additional power requirments its three wires.

steve wrote:...
Charlie's device emulates a Fine Offset station.

Steve, The "Fine Offset" stations have a Data Logger ?

Thanks!

yv1hx wrote:Steve, The "Fine Offset" stations have a Data Logger ?

Yes, they do. As does Charlie's device.