colweather.org.uk

Can anyone give me advice on how to go about uploading data from a Davis Vantage Pro2 on to sites such as WUndergound etc? I am aware that I can obtain a Davis IP logger in place of my current USB logger for weatherlink but gather these are very expensive as they include membership to the Weatherlink Site. I am not keen on having a PC running 24/7 connected to the net, so am considering the Meteobridge unit. Does anyone have good advice on this particular unit, or any other good way of uploading data without breaking the bank, and without needing a Degree in electronics/web operation ?

Regards

Trevor

Hi Trevor.
I have purchased a station from Instromet with datalogger and had the same thoughts regarding having the PC turned on for 24/7. My answer to my question was to obtain a raspberry pi 3, install windows on it and then cumulus which I can then send data to met office and other sites. I'm in the process of setting it up so eventually it will be permanently turned on with my live weather website, this will then save having the PC on all the time.

Jonathan

Hi Jonathan, thanks for your reply.
Is it relatively easy to install Windows on the raspberry pi, and cumulus? Sounds a bit scary to me, someone who is not too well up on software and installing etc!
I am sure it's not as difficult as it sounds though! I notice you have Instromet equipment, so I guess the same principle would apply when working with Davis equipment, as I do?

I use Weather Display myself, but Cumulus is just as good for your purposes and I believe is free. I run a PC alongside my macs to do this and it really is very easy in setup. I know Weather display almost does all the work for you.


Mike

Trevor, I have a PC running 24/7 and it uses a tiny amount of electricity.

I recommend a netbook! The one I used was a Asus Eec X101-CH and it would run Windows 7 or 8 with no issues. It used only 5 - 10 watts but the only problem with this model was it had only 1GB RAM. I got round that by inserting a 16 GB SD card and using ReadyBoost (included in Windows) as spare RAM. It worked a treat.

The only issue is that it a little slow as a multiple media server (only a Mbit ethernet) but as a standalone weather PC running programs of weatherlink/weather display/virtual weather or Cumulus together with a webcam, and datalogger for the R&D sunshine recorder programs etc etc; it was perfect. I had it running for 4 years continuously and it is now spare and needing a home.

I upgraded by building a small mini-ATX PC with the latest Celeron 6 watt quad core processor. It runs at 20°C without any cooling and with 8 GB RAM it is now a very capable computer that runs Windows 10 and handles all my 3 weather consoles and multiple weather programs, HD webcams, media serving, sunshine recording, VPN, 4 hard drives for media storage etc etc for just 5 to 15 watts.