Trixology

Weather => Weather Hardware/Measurement => Topic started by: elagache on June 14, 2013, 09:45:01 PM

Title: For crying out loud - these little monstrosities still exist!!
Post by: elagache on June 14, 2013, 09:45:01 PM
Dear WeatherCat fans,

 ;) I've related the story of the cheapy weather station we had at my house as a kid.  Well, my nightmare has returned!!  Look at the horror of horrors that Edmund Scientifics is selling:

(http://www.scientificsonline.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/348x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/3/1/3153260.jpg) (http://www.scientificsonline.com/personal-weather-bureau.html)

http://www.scientificsonline.com/personal-weather-bureau.html (http://www.scientificsonline.com/personal-weather-bureau.html)

Nightmare of nightmares, I thought these things went extinct before the invention of the VCR!!  However, now that I'm an old man a new generation of young people is going to be steered completely wrong about weather stations  . . . . . . .

Personal Weather Bureau - indeed!! (http://www.canebas.org/Weather/LWC_forum/Custom_emoticons/rant.gif)

So next time someone tells you about all the progress we have made in the past 40 years or so - send them this URL!!  [lol]

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

P.S. By the way Stu, you can skip supporting this station in WeatherCat!!  [lol2]
Title: Re: For crying out loud - these little monstrosities still exist!!
Post by: Steve on June 15, 2013, 02:20:40 AM
I remember those! I think my grandfather had one out by his garden whe I was growing up on his farm.

Sometime in the early '60s I made an electric anemometer. It consisted of two little servo motors; one outside connected to the wind vane and another inside connected to a circuit board. I soldered a bunch of neon lights to the board, and as the servo motor turned, a wiper closed the connectone,illuminating a lamp at that cardinal point. It was all mounted behind a cardboard compass rose with holes for the lamps.

The wind speed was measured by how quickly another neon lamp blinked as the anemometer cups closed a separate circuit. Funs stuff at the time!
Title: Re: For crying out loud - these little monstrosities still exist!!
Post by: WCDev on June 15, 2013, 10:35:20 PM
P.S. By the way Stu, you can skip supporting this station in WeatherCat!!  [lol2]

Lol
Title: Re: For crying out loud - these little monstrosities still exist!!
Post by: Tailspin45 on June 16, 2013, 04:14:58 PM
Anyone remember this from the '60s? Still available...for $120!

Pneumatic design. Rubber tube ran from the wind vane to display that had light oil in the sight gauge.

My folks weren't real pleased when I drilled a hole through the house wall for the tube!
Title: Another one!?!?! (Re: these little monstrosities still exist!!)
Post by: elagache on June 16, 2013, 09:37:38 PM
Dear Tailspin and WeatherCat fans,

Anyone remember this from the '60s? Still available...for $120!

Sufferin' succotash, my nightmares just continue!!  I remember those also!

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]
Title: Re: For crying out loud - these little monstrosities still exist!!
Post by: Tailspin45 on June 16, 2013, 10:09:46 PM
Kids bought me WeatherCat for Father's Day -- just as my trial expired.

They reminded me that when they were kids (forty something years ago) we made a game of logging the temperature and wind every 15 minutes as a cold front and thunderstorms rolled through.

Didn't remember the wind part until they mentioned the dryer, which made no sense until they described it. Then I remembered the Dryer brand name (surprising since I suffer from CRS).

Sure 'nuff, still for sale. And at a price higher than a a full sensor array such as an Ambient Weather WS-2080!