Post date: Nov 22, 2016 9:16:28 PM
Last week I put up a weather station and this week I hooked it up to the internet. Davis VantagePro2 wireless with integrated sensor suite (except that the wind gauge is separate).
I got permission from my homeowners association to install a mast higher than the 17 foot height restriction. Actually, they were thrilled to have local weather measurements, as the word on the street is that it is considerably colder where we live than the other weather stations nearby.
I also got permission to put the wind gauge on the community barn, which is across the street from my house. That would maintain the height of the house and might (I thought) give better wireless connection to my house.
I ordered the weather station and a bracket to mount the mast on the gable end of the barn. This looked like an easy install and one that would not risk making the metal roof leak by mounting a tripod on the roof.
My neighbor Ross seemed particularly interested, so I roped him into helping mount the mast. (Most of what I thought I needed was help getting the big ladder up that high.) He screwed the bracket on the end of the barn, but when it came time to raise the ten foot mast above the peak of the roof, the top of the ladder was too precarious.
So I said that I would climb on top of the roof and hold it while Ross bolted the mast to the bracket. That involved a bit of bravado on my part, since the lower edge of the roof is about eleven feet off the ground. But we put a ladder up to the eave and I climbed up. The roof, being of metal, is slippery. I wanted a rope to steady me.
Ross went home and found a climbing rope that he had not used in years. I dragged a very heavy old steel floor jack to the other side of the barn. I tied the rope onto the jack as ballast. We tried to throw the rope over the roof peak but were unsuccessful. So Ross carried the middle of the rope to the top of the ladder and we draped the rope ends over both sides of the roof.
I climbed up the ladder, pulled the rope tight, and pulled myself to the peak of the roof, where I sat near the end. Ross carried the mast (with anemometer mounted) up the ladder. I grabbed it and held it upright while Ross bolted it to the mounting bracket.
The weather vane had to be pointed exactly north, so Stephen (another neighbor) held the compass on my cell phone and directed me to twist the mast until it was pointed north.
The rain gauge, with thermometer, contains the radio the communicates with the display console in my house. I had to make certain that the sensors could actually communicate. We had two possible locations for the sensors (and radio): in front of the barn (with possibility of vandalism) or behind the barn (where the radio signal would have to go through two extra wire mesh-reinforced stucco walls. So I put the sensors on a stool and moved it to the back of the barn. I went back in the house and checked to see if the console could read the weather measurements. Worked fine!
I could not very well leave a wooden stool behind the barn to support the rain gauge, and besides, it was too close to the ground. So I found another piece of pipe — the back of the barn has become sort of a dumping ground for lumber, metal, concrete blocks, and a couple of skunk traps — and pounded it into the ground.
Since the rain and temperature sensors are solar powered, I hope that the capacitor will be sufficiently charged, because the sensor suite is on the north side of the barn. In winter it does not get direct sunlight. At worst I will have to replace the battery every year or so.