So we get more requests to support Fine Offset stations than anything else - I've honestly lost count of the number enquiries for this hardware. These are rebranded to many names and Maplin are currently doing a good deal on the WH1081, so yesterday, as if by magic, one arrived - ?59 including all taxes.
Today, seeing as it's raining, I thought I'd set it up
Assembly isn't too difficult, but there are screws and bolts of varying lengths and it isn't totally clear which goes where. In the kit you get a slim, two part pole which holds all the sensors. Wind is taken care of by a wind vane and anemometer - these mount on one plastic beam which sits on top of the pole. The rain bucket mounts on another beam, which clamps to the pole and the thermo/hygro unit mounts on another beam, which again is clamped to the pole. I've attached some images - ignore the Davis ISS below, it was just convenient for me to bolt the Fine Offset pole to the pole holding the ISS. This is not the ideal location for the anemometer, but as you can see it's only a temporary installation to get some data. Cath, is not happy
The rain bucket (I'd
strongly recommend moving it off the wobbly plastic beam and mounting it more securely) and anemometer plug into the the thermo/hygro unit which takes two AA batteries - the manual claims these will last for 24 months (they won't).
Inside, the touch-screen console (see attached images) sits on my desk - this takes three AA batteries (12 months life claims the manual). The wireless connection seems fine, with no problems picking up the signal from the thermo/hygro unit at least initially.
What we're going to do is monitor how stable/reliable it is. My job tomorrow is to start hacking the data and putting the station driver together. I know there are some issues with this hardware - the data-logger doesn't time stamp entries for example, and the update rate of 48 seconds is a lot slower than I'd like, but if we can get it going and it's reliable we'll put it out for a test run.
I'll update as things progress....