Mobile Weather Station Project in the works.

[Doc]

  thanks

[Doc]

Well, winter is on it's way and I've been working on getting my truck ready for it.  I've reinstalled all of the radios and computer monitor/keyboard and weather station so that I can once again have a passenger if necessary.  It's all very stable now since I found a nice (and cheap) gamber/johnson computer mount for the monitor and keyboard and revised the mount for the radio heads.  It's all very nice now.  I can see without any problems, but I can also fold down the monitor if needed.  Here are some pics of the current installation.  Still looking for a good place to mount the Davis Monitor II (wireless no less and I did get a datalogger for it, it does work with my laptop, but not with the PC and APRS). 

[elagache]

Howdy Doc!

Yup, very impressive!! 

Just one thing.  Does the truck drive itself now?  There hardly seems any room left for . . . . the driver!! 

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. Today, I finally seems to have located a radiator that will work for my trusty wagon, so one step closer to having . . . . mobility to observe the weather!! 

[WCDev]

Indeed, totally impressive! Is there a switch there marked 'Missiles'?

[Doc]

Not quite ready for autonomous driving yet.  Plus I like to drive!  Mostly, I need to keep the stuff out of my lap and away from me when I'm driving and not in a position to be cooked by the suns heat.  So far so good there.  I'm still working on where to hang the three microphones that are there.  And possibly another one soon.  Working on that. 

I've got to take all the pointy stuff off tomorrow so that I can get it all washed and pretty for a demonstration on Saturday.  Plus getting the fluids changed/topped off and lubed too.  But by Saturday it should be ready for winter. 

For those Scouters out there, I'll be working JOTA on the 20th using the Callsign WD9BSA, so if you are participating, look for us!

And as for the question about the Missiles button, yep, and there's the FIRE button on the other side. I just hate having an unlabeled switch there, so it's there until something needs it.  Until then, just think of it as an ICBMD.  Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Dodge, running around with a six pack and a Polaris   

Next thing to work on will be getting mobile wifi working, that's being problematic at the moment.  Still working on it.

Doc

[Doc]

 

Well, almost, that's not my truck!      But the nice nearly new Government Surplus, nearly free, Panasonic monitor suddenly, with malice but no warning, released all of it's magic blue smoke.  I tried to put the smoke back in, but found out that the magic smoke leaves a magic residue all over the insides, and the magic residue is conductive thus shorting out many other circuits.  Fortunately, I have a backup monitor and put it in use.  All is much more better now 

Doc

[elagache]

Howdy Doc and Mobile weather tracking fans,

Well, almost, that's not my truck!      But the nice nearly new Government Surplus, nearly free, Panasonic monitor suddenly, with malice but no warning, released all of it's magic blue smoke.

Certainly glad that nothing more serious happened. . . . . . cuz sometimes . . it does!! 

However, . . . . I thought you were setting up a first-class mobile weather station.  Government Surplus monitor!?!

For all you know, this monitor may have been assigned to the budget office .  . . . . Over there, they need lots of smoke and mirrors!! 

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. By the way, fans of da' trusty wagon may like to know I have been keeping myself busy modifying the dash to accept air conditioner vents.  The center panel has been modified and the next challenge is to cut the holes for the outer two vents.  The latest hope is that the engine swap will happen in December.  December is a slow time in the automobile repair business because people are too busy merry-making.

[Doc]

Yea thanks  , in Indiana, specially with OUR state government, we have to deal with a lot of smoke and mirrors.  But there were pallets full of these taken out of service, some of them had never been installed, and I got to pick and choose, the last one I bought was only $20 with the gamber/johnson monitor/keyboard bracket and the monitor and keyboard.  So I'm not out much, that's why I got two of them.   

The weather station is working very well.  The rain sensor died again, seems that I need to seriously reinforce the reed switch, they do not take to vibration well it would seem.  It's a low priority according to the weather service, so I'm not in a hurry at the moment.  The winter weather kinda keeps me from working on the outside of the truck in the driveway 

But next month should be a great deal of winter fun!     First of the month we have a deep woods trail marathon which will run no matter the weather, as long as the runners can run, the only thing that will stop it would be deep snow, and that's not going to happen this far south!   

And then, in January, barring me breaking my ankle again like I did last year, we have  the Purdue Orienteering Clubs main event, three days of Orienteering fun (for them).  Take a few hundred people, backpacking in the forrest, looking for waypoints to get a paper punched, nothing electronic allowed, no gps, no radio, no cellphone, no ipad, no iphone.  The only equipment they are allowed are their survival supplies, I think a flairgun, food, cooking equipment, a map and a compass.  They run day and night till they are done, or the three days are done.  My group is there for safety, we man the fire stations, several camps, and then we patrol the forest fire roads and such (my job) looking for people dropping out.  It's really great fun.  I'm hoping for snow, just bought a new set of mukluks to keep the feet warm and me upright on the ice 

Once it get's dark, I'll get taking a few breaks and running 160meter mobile for the hams out there, either that or I'll be too tired and I'll 

Or I could just set fire to the truck again to keep warm?

Sounds like the wagon is coming along nicely! 

Doc

[WCDev]

Great stuff Doc! Thanks for posting.

[Doc]

   Here we are in Indiana and Summer has changed to Winter again, fall just sorta falls by the wayside as usual. 

Things have been very busy with the Emergency Communications/Command/Disaster Response Truck.

The Weather station is gone, at least gone until I can replace the wind sensors.  Do you know what happens when a Davis Wind sensor has a confrontation with a tree at any speed in the forest?  The anemometer looses it's cups first and the wind vane redeploys without a parachute, leaving wires dangling and broken housings.  Leaving only the instrument package only.  I was just about to redesign the weather mast to allow better access to the truck bed when it happened. 

Cost concerns and other requirements have since kept the weather station offline in the truck,  I still have the instrument package hooked up for barometer/hygrometer and temperature readings, but that's all for now.  I've been conversing with Davis about installing a more "armored" wind sensor from a third party, but so far they aren't being much help.  I know the specs on their sensors now very well and I think I may be able to modify one of my military sensors for this use.  If it will survive underwater in a submarine, it should survive the Hoosier National Forest, we'll see.

In the meantime, requirements have been changing for what is expected of us.  Add search and rescue to our list of things we may be called for.  So I just finished rebuilding the roof rack with the addition of a punched out square steel tube to hold the new accessories.  Six new LED offroad lights, each 24 watts and my gods are they bright.  Two forward, two to the back and one for each side.  Turn on all of them, and I bring you daylight in the woods at night.  But I now can see when I'm backing up and when I'm on those fire trails, I can see much better than before. 

I also got very lucky and acquired two more items, a nice 1993 Dodge Dakota truck bed (the back half of the truck, the front half was burned away in a fire).  Nicely converted into a little trailer, with big tires and heavy duty suspension.  On the front of that was added an old 1978 ONan 4kw gas generator.  I'm working on getting the genny up to spec, it seems to be missing a fuel pump, once I replace that, it should be 100%.  Or close I hope. 

Why?  Well, I do like camping, and I'm having bariatric surgery in a month and will be loosing a lot of weight and once again I will be able to go camping again.  There are several companies who make tents for truck beds and my wife bought me one for our anniversary, add a large air mattress to the bed and it's very comfy.  Sleeps two nicely.  In the winter, I'll add an electric blanket to help with keeping warm  With the addition of a small triangular cargo box to the front, things should making camping out very nice in the future. 

It's been suggested that I put the weather station on a shelf behind the generator.  But that won't work, the heat from the generator and the vibration would through the weather reading off too much.  As part of this setup, I have a 47 foot radio antenna mast that I can put up, this will also be used for a fixed weather station from time to time once the sensors have been replaced.  Should be fun.