NEW! ? Shaka Weather Station Weighs 0.34 oz or 9.7 g - 5 Parameters

[Bull Winkus]

Well, I got my Shaka Weather Station in this week. It had to set in the pouch for several days. I went to get the app for the iPhone, but it was unavailable. For unknown reasons, it had been pulled. But, Friday I looked and it was there. I downloaded and installed it, then rushed outside to take some measurements!

I have to say, everything worked as advertised. Wind speed, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure were all read at the same time right there on the phone's screen in whatever units I wanted. There was also some publishing options that I didn't get into, but I was impressed!

I haven't had time to check accuracy yet, but on first blush it seems in the ballpark. It even comes in a nice soft protection pouch that makes it an easy pocket portable adjutant to the iPhone for every day.

Best!
Herb

[Blicj11]

I haven't had time to check accuracy yet, but on first blush it seems in the ballpark.

Herb:

I am interested in this unit. When you get time, I hope you are going to post some accuracy information in comparison to your VP2 readings.

Thanks,

[wurzelmac]

Herb:

I am interested in this unit. When you get time, I hope you are going to post some accuracy information in comparison to your VP2 readings.

Thanks,

Me too - I am playing with the thought of buying this thing.
Cheers,
Reinhard

[elagache]

Hi Herb, Blick, Reinhard, and WeatherCat gadget addicts, 

Me too - I am playing with the thought of buying this thing.

Me three!  I'm preoccupied as usual with other matters, . . . . .  
But I am curious!

Cheers, Edouard 

[Blicj11]

Hi Herb, Blick, Reinhard, and WeatherCat gadget addicts, 

I'm preoccupied as usual with other matters, . . . . .

How can a Buick be more important than a weather gadget?

[Bull Winkus]

Hello everyone! Well, I guess I should have been testing the accuracy of the Shaka instead of what I was doing today.

 

I was just enjoying the warm weather, (high of 67.5? F) by trying to get a few pictures of my local cardinals. I tried yesterday, but only got sparrows. Today I managed to get 14 pretty good shots of cardinals. I'll try to upload a couple.

OK. With the the 2 MB limit, all I was able to load was 2, and only after a size reduction. But, You'll get the idea.

[Blicj11]

Herb:

Nice photos. Really good close ups! Quite a contrast to the 4 inches of snow I removed from the deck this morning. When you get through playing, get back to business with that Shaka.

Keep those wee storms coming our way Edouard.

[elagache]

Hi Herb, Blick, and WeatherCat wildlife photographers,

Today I managed to get 14 pretty good shots of cardinals. I'll try to upload a couple.

WOW!  Really neat photos!  Looks like you reach out and touch those cardinals!  If you keep up this sort of photography, you might need to get yourself a SmugMug account! 

http://www.smugmug.com/

Ask Steve all about it!

Cheers, Edouard 

[Bull Winkus]

I do have a SmugMug account. Didn't put these in it yet. I'm still training myself to get good images.

Believe it or not, all of the images were captured by an iPhone 4s by remotely actuating the shutter from an iPad 2. I used 2 different apps, Remote Shutter and Cam2gether. I used Remote Shutter for a series, then tried out Cam2gether. Remote Shutter was the more polished of the two. Cam2gether was buggy and only worked well if I shut down and restarted my devices prior to each use. It did have the advantage of a higher resolution image preview on the iPad and focus zone control from the iPad. It also allowed HD movie capture which worked pretty well. But for image capture, the screen updated slower than the other program with a new still image on the iPad about every second. The focus zone control was the real advantage. Just touch the screen of the iPad over the area of the image where the subject is and the iPhone pulls it into perfect focus.

The other program was stable and even had a screen button guide that could be turned on and off. One could toggle auto flash on either program, but Remote Shutter also allowed you to toggle auto white balance, auto exposure and auto focus, plus toggle between single and multiple shots. You can even choose between capturing low, medium and high rez images. But, it doesn't do movies, and it doesn't let you move the focus zone around the screen to compensate for a fixed camera position with a subject that might be anywhere in the frame.

Post production consisted solely of image leveling and cropping.

I'll get back to the Shaka after tomorrow if I don't get to it tomorrow. Was out of town today and have some business to attend to tomorrow. Also, gotta help a neighbor get his truck to the shop.

[elagache]

Hi Herb and WeatherCat shutterbug,

I do have a SmugMug account. Didn't put these in it yet. I'm still training myself to get good images.

  . . . . . Why?  Uploading bad images seems to be such the vogue these days . . . . . . 

Believe it or not, all of the images were captured by an iPhone 4s by remotely actuating the shutter from an iPad 2.

Hmm, interesting idea!   I've always gone about it - da' ol' fashioned way - with the long telephoto lens.  However, clearly there are situations where putting en embedded camera nearby something like a bird feeder has advantages as well.

Thanks for the quick tutorial! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[Bull Winkus]

Shaka Comparison:

                 Shaka      Davis
Temp         66.5? F     66.2? F
Press         29.0 inHg  29.82 inHg
Hum          97.7%      97%

Time 4:24 PM. Wind was very light and variable with a slight mist falling. The sky was overcast from horizon to horizon.

The instrument was very responsive for temperature and wind variations. No changes were observed for pressure or humidity.

EDIT: There did seem to be a bug in the software. It presents a screen button to start, then stop measuring. While measuring, the temperature is represented in an actively updating number field. This looks to be accurate enough. However, after stopping measurement the temperature indication is hit or miss. With short measurements, it matched the reading during measure. Keeping the measurement active for several minutes, however, results in after measure readings that are wildly high. I saw it as high as 170? F; way higher than can be explained away by sample pollution. However, if you delete the results and start over, the after measure reading is good.

[elagache]

Hi Herb and WeatherCat gadget junkies,

Thanks for the first bit of comparative data! 

Shaka Comparison:

                 Shaka      Davis
Temp         66.5? F     66.2? F
Press         29.0 inHg  29.82 inHg
Hum          97.7%      97%

Time 4:24 PM. Wind was very light and variable with a slight mist falling. The sky was overcast from horizon to horizon.

The instrument was very responsive for temperature and wind variations. No changes were observed for pressure or humidity.

Well, that certainly is decent especially for the price.  When it is convenient, could you pull it out a few more times under other weather conditions just to see if the Shaka Weather Station can keep up this level of performance?

Still curious!

Cheers, Edouard 

[Blicj11]

When it is convenient, could you pull it out a few more times under other weather conditions just to see if the Shaka Weather Station can keep up this level of performance?

Still curious!

Ditto Herb - thanks for the information and if you wouldn't mind feeding us a wee bit more as you can, I am still interested in purchasing this but would really appreciate more of your thoughts as you use it a time or two.

[wurzelmac]

Hello all,
well I did the purchase yesterday and am waiting on the delivery. I ordered the lower cost device that shows only wind & temp. I will report back when I have had the chance to test the accuracy of the Shaka Wind Meter. 

Cheers,
Reinhard

[Bull Winkus]

Took another measurement.
Time: 11:35 PM, Clear skys.
Wind very light, max observed 4 mph.
              Shaka       Davis
Temp:         67.0      66.7
Press:         29.2      29.97
Hum           71.1      71

Had to stay outside for around 10 minutes measuring, before temperature stabilized at reading. Still an issue with software in that temperature jumps up after "stop measuring" button is pressed if the measurement period is longer than a minute or so.