Maplin UK - Wireless Weather Station Special Offer until 11 June 2013

[Ruyton]

Maplin are running a special offer on their 'Gadget wireless weather forecaster' until 11 June 2013.  The Gadget appears to be a Watson W-8681 clone as this is the station that I replaced with the Gadget and it was just a case of swapping the units without making any software changes.

UK price is GBP59.99 reduced form GBP99.99 - not sure if I'm allowed to post links to commercial sites here, but you will find it if you search the Maplin site for:

Black USB Touchscreen Wireless Weather Forecaster

or

Silver USB Touchscreen Wireless Weather Forecaster

Cheap (and maybe 'nasty') but the Watson lasted about 5 years and I can buy a 7 of these for the price one a Davis Vatnage Vue and a Weatherlink USB.  5 x 7 = 35 years 

Joking apart, I'll probably treat myself to a decent weather station when the Gadget goes 'pop'.

Regards

Gary

[WCDev]

Thanks for the heads-up. They seem to do this on a regular basis (that's just what we paid for the one we have here). Just make sure it has  ferrite clamps on the USB cable, if it doesn't I'd highly recommend fitting one. Our first one didn't, it wouldn't run for more than a day or two so it went back - the second one had clamps either end of the USB cable and has performed flawlessly for months now.

A nice cheap upgrade from the 1080 is a 3080 - this gets you solar and UV and rechargeable batteries for the sensor suite - we've had one here for two/three months now and I keep comparing it with the VP and there's not a lot in it (of course you don't get the update rate or range of the Vantage!). For the price it's a good performer and very good value for money (not sure how long it'll last but the measurements from it aren't bad).

Please post the link if you have it.

Cheers,
Stu.

[Ruyton]

Stu,

Thanks for the advice on the weather station upgrade option and the ferrite clamps for the USB lead.  As a radio Ham (albeit QRP or low power operator) I've got ferrite clamps on everything - except the weather station lead!  I did find that the Watson would loose connection unless it was plugged directly into the back of the iMac, but I didn't try ferrite clamps.  I would really love to upgrade to a Vantage, but the last straw is the cost of the Weatherlink USB, it just seems completely disproportionate when compared to the cost of the weather station itself.

Anyhow, for the cheaper option, here are the links to the black and silver 'Gadget' weather stations from Maplin.  I note that they are offering free delivery on these.  I'm seem to remember that my Watson was a special offer from Maplin too.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/black-usb-touchscreen-wireless-weather-forecaster-228825

http://www.maplin.co.uk/silver-usb-wireless-touchscreen-weather-forecaster-223254

I just realised that my 14 day WeatherCat trial is almost up, so I've done the deed and paid for registration.  Shame about the 20% VAT though, what's the saying, only 3 certainties in life and that's life, death and taxes!

[WCDev]

Thanks for posting the links and the registration  Hopefully the links will save someone some money