One of my projects has been to repair my weather
station. A year (or two??!!) ago, I took the station down because the
anemometer was not working - the bearings were sticking, and the rain gauge was
indicating dozens of inches of rain on dry days. So I ordered another OWW
(One Wire Weather) station - with just the anemometer, direction and
temperature sensor device, hoping to repair the rain gauge. The
original unit is 10 years old, and I wasn't certain the thing
mechanically could be repaired.
Well, the new station arrived, and I decided to attempt to repair the old station first. I used some WD40 to soak the bearings and then dried them, and applied some graphite to help with lubrication. Got it working, and also was able to get the rain sensor working again as well.
So then I (for ease of testing, mostly) downloaded the new (simple to use) OWW station software. The software I normally use is Weather-display, which supports virtually every computerized weather station hardware ever made, and has more features than can be imagined. It has the ability to interface with other software like HomeSeer, and many others. It has a web page editor, ability to download weather forecasts/maps/photos/metars and more, can do email alerts, voice announcements of weather or alerts, and even will interface to my Envi Current cost power meter. It takes quite a bit of time to get it setup the way I like it, so a simpler way of testing this new OWW station is nice.
So. I really didn't pay too much attention to what was inside (I should've, though) - the case is clear. One problem with the earlier version of this station is the housing is obviously enclosed, which heats up, so the temperature is a couple of degrees too high on warm days. I assumed the new one would be the same. NOT. WORSE.
The original OWW station uses ibutton sensors. Dallas Semiconductor Corp.
designed the ibutton, which is a computer chip with a sensor, and sometimes
eprom/ram/electronic switches in a small
metal coin sized container, (although the guts are also available as
chips). It has a ground wire, and uses the second wire as both low speed
data and 5v power. The older station I have has a few sensor chips and
reed relays to provide wind speed and direction, and a temperature sensor for
temperature. Very simple, effective, and it has worked really well.
And as with most devices, moving parts tend to wear, which is where the
maintenance is going to happen.
The NEW station. I really don't know what the hell the designer was
thinking when this thing was put down on paper. Mechanically, its almost
identical, same shape, except clear plastic where the first unit is white, and
almost identical in size. The new bus they are using has 8 wires, not
2. (actually, the first used phone wire, so it used 4, so if you
wanted to run longer wires, the data and power could be separated). The
new bus provides two grounds, for power and data and 2x +5 and +12 v power.
It should be illegal for some people to be engineers. This guy
decided, gee, we could add a simple micro to this thing. Keep in mind it
has the same sensors as the original unit (which worked fine with a 70 foot
cable). I think the idea for the micro was to make the data more stable
over longer distance cable runs. That makes sense, but what about the heat from
the additional electronics, with regulators supplying power? And also,
lets make the case clear. That's cool! Since the case is clear, the
micro, which is reading data from the sensors, can do other stuff. Like
turn the 20 super bright RED LEDs on and off. And turn the 16 superbright
blue LEDs on and off. And flash them!!!!!!! DAMN! HOW
COOL IS THAT?????? WOW! Now I have to be concerned with 777
aircraft thinking I'm running a landing strip. A BEACON that can probably
be seen from space. OH. And something I never would have thought of
- the temperature sensor is NO LONGER GOING TO FREEZE! THIS IS
FANTASTIC! NOT. Its running almost 20 degrees warmer with the LED's on,
and 10+ degrees warmer when flashing! WONDERFUL! And even when the stupid
LED's are off, the thing is still typically 4-5 degrees warmer than the actual
temperature because of the additional electronics.
I do believe I did not buy an extra weather station, I bought a space beacon! Or, perhaps, parts to keep the old one working. I'm sure as hell not putting that thing on my roof!
Art Roberts
Well, the new station arrived, and I decided to attempt to repair the old station first. I used some WD40 to soak the bearings and then dried them, and applied some graphite to help with lubrication. Got it working, and also was able to get the rain sensor working again as well.
So then I (for ease of testing, mostly) downloaded the new (simple to use) OWW station software. The software I normally use is Weather-display, which supports virtually every computerized weather station hardware ever made, and has more features than can be imagined. It has the ability to interface with other software like HomeSeer, and many others. It has a web page editor, ability to download weather forecasts/maps/photos/metars and more, can do email alerts, voice announcements of weather or alerts, and even will interface to my Envi Current cost power meter. It takes quite a bit of time to get it setup the way I like it, so a simpler way of testing this new OWW station is nice.
So. I really didn't pay too much attention to what was inside (I should've, though) - the case is clear. One problem with the earlier version of this station is the housing is obviously enclosed, which heats up, so the temperature is a couple of degrees too high on warm days. I assumed the new one would be the same. NOT. WORSE.
The original OWW station uses ibutton sensors. Dallas Semiconductor Corp.
designed the ibutton, which is a computer chip with a sensor, and sometimes
eprom/ram/electronic switches in a small
metal coin sized container, (although the guts are also available as
chips). It has a ground wire, and uses the second wire as both low speed
data and 5v power. The older station I have has a few sensor chips and
reed relays to provide wind speed and direction, and a temperature sensor for
temperature. Very simple, effective, and it has worked really well.
And as with most devices, moving parts tend to wear, which is where the
maintenance is going to happen. 
The NEW station. I really don't know what the hell the designer was
thinking when this thing was put down on paper. Mechanically, its almost
identical, same shape, except clear plastic where the first unit is white, and
almost identical in size. The new bus they are using has 8 wires, not
2. (actually, the first used phone wire, so it used 4, so if you
wanted to run longer wires, the data and power could be separated). The
new bus provides two grounds, for power and data and 2x +5 and +12 v power.
It should be illegal for some people to be engineers. This guy
decided, gee, we could add a simple micro to this thing. Keep in mind it
has the same sensors as the original unit (which worked fine with a 70 foot
cable). I think the idea for the micro was to make the data more stable
over longer distance cable runs. That makes sense, but what about the heat from
the additional electronics, with regulators supplying power? And also,
lets make the case clear. That's cool! Since the case is clear, the
micro, which is reading data from the sensors, can do other stuff. Like
turn the 20 super bright RED LEDs on and off. And turn the 16 superbright
blue LEDs on and off. And flash them!!!!!!! DAMN! HOW
COOL IS THAT?????? WOW! Now I have to be concerned with 777
aircraft thinking I'm running a landing strip. A BEACON that can probably
be seen from space. OH. And something I never would have thought of
- the temperature sensor is NO LONGER GOING TO FREEZE! THIS IS
FANTASTIC! NOT. Its running almost 20 degrees warmer with the LED's on,
and 10+ degrees warmer when flashing! WONDERFUL! And even when the stupid
LED's are off, the thing is still typically 4-5 degrees warmer than the actual
temperature because of the additional electronics.
I do believe I did not buy an extra weather station, I bought a space beacon! Or, perhaps, parts to keep the old one working. I'm sure as hell not putting that thing on my roof!
Art Roberts
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