Mobile Weather Station Project in the works.

[Doc]

OK, I occasionally do some weather spotting on Amateur Radio through the Central Indiana Skywarn Network.  Since I live in Indianapolis, there are plenty of us and I don't really have to go out that much anymore.  I do miss it.  Then I've got this wacko research associate who is doing many things weather (like supplying me with cameras and such).  Then we have this wonderful governor who enjoys killing our education system by cutting funding for the schools in as many ways as is possible, including the sciences.  So suddenly there were several hundred very old Davis Weather Monitor II systems in the trash.  Most were beyond usable, many were good for parts, some still were in the box fairly used, all had the manuals and some were wireless!  Not one single datalogger in the bunch   

So associate hears of the garbage, tells me, we go and fill my pickup truck with as much of the junk units as we could lay our hands on.  Managed to get about 90 units.  Associate puts up grant money to buy several spools of all weather phone cable, and modular plugs, a case of Dust Off cans, and various hardware we'll need to put some of these back in use.  I put one aside for later.  A bunch went back to some of the schools that wanted them.  A bunch went to a few hospitals.  A lot went to the spare parts to keep the rest running for a while.  And then there was the one put back for later, actually five of them.

Seems we have this crazy idea of putting these to use mobile during sever weather, and I'm the test truck.  It's been done, I know, but this cheap?

We already have computers in the trucks, but that's for APRS, which reports our positions and can be brought up online (aprs.fi and find your area, if you use CWOP you will find your station on the screen).  This is a pretty useful system the amateur radio operators use during events and can also be used for messaging for the groups. 

The unit I have has all the sensors, temp, rain (yes the big bucket), humidity, dew point, pressure, old wind chill, wind speed and direction.  Once I get it all working, the rain bucket isn't registering, bad cable I'm pretty sure on this, I'll be working on mounting it on the truck some way.  Temporarily.  It all has to come down in the winter and at car washes.

Once it's up and working, and after I get a datalogger donated or find one really cheap, I'll have it running Weather Cat in some way.  After that, it might get interesting    Just need to add logging of the GPS positions and.........later 

More to come as time allows!

Doc

[embayweather]

That sounds a really interesting project. So looking forward to hearing how you get on. I know your governor appears to be trashing these weather stations, but ours never get them in the first place. Are we really investing properly in our kids futures anywhere? i doubt it.
Please keep us informed as to progress.

Best wishes

Mike

[elagache]

Howdy Doc, Mike, and WeatherCat fans,

Sorry, I "lost" this posting yesterday in all the craziness.

Certainly an interesting to be able to collect weather "on the fly."  For folk where extreme weather happens - there is a greater potential interest.  Although I have to confess my interests in "weather on the go" are much more "mild mannered" than yours.  I don't want my beautifully restored wagon anywhere near the sort of weather you and Randall have had to deal with!! 

So good luck, but my wagon and I will . . . . . sit this project out!! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[Doc]

I like that my roof on my truck is built with heavy duty construction to near armor status to survive hail and having things dropped on it.  The paint may not hold up, but nothing is coming through the roof any time soon.  Any I not adverse to bolting a large sheet of lexan to top of someones prize rebuilt station wagon, after all, we do want to protect that roof don't we 

Anyway, the project progresses.  I had a nice talk with Leticia at Davis today about them selling me individual components for their sensors, so I'm getting two new wind vane 25k pots and several reed switches for the rain buckets.  They aren't cheap, but it's cheaper than having Davis do the rebuild.

I'm wondering right now if it would be better to mount the sensors on a heavy duty 2x4 mounted to the tail gate.  Or use a pipe mounted to a floor flange and braced to the side wall.  The wood mount has the break away advantage should it be hit by anything, I would loose the sensors, but at that point insurance would take over.  I'll be looking at several methods. 

Weather service people I talked to about what they would like to see reported from a mobile station was:
Winds:  Speed, gusts, and if possible direction.  To get direction you have to calibrate the wind vane to the truck body and park with the truck
            body pointed in that direction, not 100% but close enough according to the weather service.
Pressure:  Specifically large drops and rising pressure.
Temperature:  Any large change in temperature.
Hail:  size does matter

The rest they aren't that interested in.  So why the rain bucket?  They like that I can get a rain rate reading, which they can use from anywhere!

We're also developing reporting protocol as we go.  At the moment, reports will be entered manually into the APRS status lines and these will go out automatically, Skywarn netcontrol can pull this information off APRS.FI.  Once I have a Mac available that I can externalize the WIFI antenna, I can put up a mobile WIFI antenna with several miles of range, I know most of the free hotspots out there and can use WC to update a mobile CWOP account as WIFI permits, this will also show up on the APRS maps as a WX station.  And there is the possibility of adding a webcam to this mess eventually 

At the moment, I think I can do most of this without any major modifications of the WC software.  I just have to make sure everything will run mobile, so far so good on that.

I'll have pictures as I progress with this. 

Doc

[WCDev]

Fascinating stuff Doc!

Is the idea to drive into some 'interesting weather' and then abandon ship or to stay with it?

Cheers,
Stu.

[elagache]

Howdy Doc and WeatherCat fans,

I like that my roof on my truck is built with heavy duty construction to near armor status to survive hail and having things dropped on it.  The paint may not hold up, but nothing is coming through the roof any time soon.

  Hmm, reminds me of something I've seen on the Discovery Channel.  So have you started shopping for a network for which to audition? 

Any I not adverse to bolting a large sheet of lexan to top of someones prize rebuilt station wagon, after all, we do want to protect that roof don't we 

In a word . . . . . NO!!!!!

There are lots of things wrong in California, but at least here,  trusty wagons are safe in the garage!!

I'll have pictures as I progress with this.

Looking forward to the pics and updates! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[Doc]

Fascinating stuff Doc!

Is the idea to drive into some 'interesting weather' and then abandon ship or to stay with it?

Cheers,
Stu.

Ah, not on you life......."We that spot and run away, live to spot another day!"

If I'm close enough to see the bad weather, I'm close enough.  I've seen 16 tornados and that too many.  I don't have any need to get close enough to watch the thing chew up buildings. Having the barometer alarms available will help a little bit. 

I do have a HD dashboard camera that might come in handy, but I'm not wanting to have it record either my destruction or that of my truck 

Doc

[Doc]

In a word . . . . . NO!!!!!

Looking forward to the pics and updates! 

Cheers, Edouard 

But if you can't take the wagon out in the weather then what fun is that?

No I'm not interested in being on TV, been there, done that, and the T-shirt didn't fit me anyway.  I don't mind people coming up when I'm spotting and asking me "What the HELL IS that?", I can tell them about amateur radio and SKYWARN  and such.  It's fun. 

The Truck keeps getting new stuff added to it as time goes on, so you'll never know what I'll do to it next.

I will be posting pictures!

Doc

[Randall75]

Hi Cat Fans
From Edouard =There are lots of things wrong in California, but at least here,  trusty wagons are safe in the garage!!
When I was In Oklahoma grape fruit size hail went through the roof of this guys garage and went through the windshield and dented the hood big time so I hope yours is super though
 

[elagache]

Howdy Doc, Randall, and WeatherCat fans,

But if you can't take the wagon out in the weather then what fun is that?

You see, my trusty wagon have had our quota of adventures!!  The various restoration efforts have been an attempt to remove some of the battle-scars.  There are still some battle scars that need to be taken care off. 

So, being a mature lady of "some years" our adventures will be more on the mild-mannered side . . . . never-mind work on assembling the engine doesn't appear to have started yet. 

When I was In Oklahoma grape fruit size hail went through the roof of this guys garage and went through the windshield and dented the hood big time so I hope yours is super though

Well, this problem is unlikely . . . . on account of the fact that this is a two-story house with the garage on the lower story.  I sleep almost directly over the car . . . . . so if something like that happens - I'm the guy in trouble!! 

Of course California has other natural hazards.  What worries me is the eagerness with which the CA residences insist on heaping on some man-made hazards of their own!! 

Oh well!! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[Doc]

In Indiana, they tell us that the legislature is in session, and THEN they follow that with the announcement that it's the beginning of Tornado season.  One disaster following another, the first being the biggest 

Then, my truck won't fit in my garage, and neither can my wife's van, so they get hit if it hails.  So far, no problem.  We are on the high ground away from the flooding and maybe away from the tornados too, and there is plenty of wood to knock on.  With apologizes to the trees 

Doc

[Randall75]

Hi Doc
 Maybe all the bad stuff will stay west of us OKla. Missouri, Ill. Wisc. Minn. Iowa, they don't need it either but really don't need it I seen enough while I was in OKla.
 

[Doc]

Hi Doc
 Maybe all the bad stuff will stay west of us OKla. Missouri, Ill. Wisc. Minn. Iowa, they don't need it either but really don't need it I seen enough while I was in OKla.
 

I've been watching it long enough to see that once it's into Missouri, Iowa, or Illinois, we're next, they form a funnel and it always drains down I-70 right to us eventually.  But what a ride 


Well, got the lights done today, the computer (for the APRS, and it's windoz) is giving me fits, but I'll get there.  The weather station is waiting for parts to arrive and I have to do some fabricating for the anemometer first.  But it's looking very interesting.  I also need to clean the old debris off the sensors, probably need a repaint too.

Doc

[Doc]

  Yay, we finally got some rain, after almost a month without and weeks with the temps in the hundreds.  Won't last and we'll be back in the 100s again very soon. 

Got the weather instruments jerryrigged to the truck, the ISS is wireless and the batteries keep falling out.  I don't have the rain bucket up there yet, but that's next. 

Still have a few things to do, like replace the incandescent bulbs in the weather display with super bright leds.  Still have lots to do, but I'll start posting pictures in a few days.  It's been fun!

Doc

[elagache]

Howdy Doc and WeatherCat "mobile" fans, . . . .

Yay, we finally got some rain, after almost a month without and weeks with the temps in the hundreds.  Won't last and we'll be back in the 100s again very soon. 

Certainly some changes in the climate patterns that are quite stable this summer.  I've been puzzling over what appear to me to be unusually low barometric pressure reading most of this summer.  Eventually, the National Weather Service provided the explanation.  Northern California is sitting in a trough at the margins of the high that is keeping the Midwest so hot.  So we are unusually cool this summer (with a few exceptions like this weekend  )

Got the weather instruments jerryrigged to the truck, the ISS is wireless and the batteries keep falling out. 

Uh, ya' sure this is going to work? . . . . . At least in California the road resemble . . . . Eastern Europe!!    So things better darn well be secure!!

Still have lots to do, but I'll start posting pictures in a few days.  It's been fun!

I can't wait to see this!!

Cheers, Edouard