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Ok what have I been up to lately? Thanks to Dr Stefan du Toit and Nico Oelofse I received a Acu-Rite weather station as a gift. Christmas has come early! Now this station is one of the latest weather stations on the market. Affordable, absolutely a bargain if you look at the prices of other stations. The weather station arrive safely via courier. I opened the box and needless to say that I installed the station the very next day with the help of Johan van Aarde who brought his GPS to ensure that the station faces true North. After installation the station was switched on and the display console was placed where it can be observed with ease. Needless to say that a weather station's data must be fed to the Internet. This was done the next day, but here is where I ran into all sorts of trouble.
When you buy this weather station, you receive no software with the station. Acu-Rite host your stations data on a web-page called My Backyard Weather which display basic weather information and data. Information can be fed to only WeatherUnderground but their is currently no APRS or CWOP publication functions. For the local weather man My Backyard Weather will be more that adequate to set-up and run the station. I was however looking to use this weather station to it's full potential. Third party software is the way to go. I could not find any third party software at first but later ran into the Weather Display software which was still in beta testing and far from working correctly. This weather station is using the USB protocol. I downloaded the beta version of the software for testing. As in all beta software you will find bugs that must be rectified. After two weeks of testing and uploading new versions I finally got this very useful software to run perfectly with the Acu-Rite weather station. Thanks must go to all the beta testers and all those responsible for writing the software changes to the Weather Display software. It is really a pleasure to use Weather Display.
With the software now running I was able to successfully link the data of the station to many other publications. I am still in the process to add more publications as and when I get the time to setup the software. Weather Undergound and APRS (CWOP) is running flawlessly.
Just as I thought that I can now relax and monitor the weather data, I noticed that the outside temperature would stay very high and was completely incorrect at times. I calibrated the temperature but to no avail. The next option was to reset the console and the outside unit. This solved the high temperature reading, but the reading was still far from correct. It was way to high and did not correspond with my other temperature sensors although all the units are installed in the same place. I re-calibrated the console but still not joy. It then strike me. This machine is built for the Northern Hemisphere and when the outside unit is installed the solar panel is pointing south instead of north. I could not find any settings in the software that would rectify this hurdle. If I turn the outside unit around, then I would get incorrect readings for the wind direction. The solar panel is used to drive a fan inside the unit to regulate the temperature inside the outside unit. With no sun on the solar panel you will get an incorrect temperature reading, albeit my earlier wrong readings.
What to do next. Turn the outside unit to the north instead of the south. No either way I will not receive the correct reading for either the temperature on wind direction. I came up with an idea to solve this. I set-up the station as prescribed. I then installed a small mirror on the outside unit that reflects the sun onto the solar panel. This solved the problem. I now receive the correct temperature and wind direction readings. The unit is still under test but so far I am satisfied that it is doing what it is suppose to do. I will still monitor the unit for the next few weeks to ensure that I get the correct readings from all the sensors before I will do the final installation.
This weather station is really a narrow budget station which I enjoy very much. I have learned so much about this weather station, it's software and set-up that I am actually disappointed that it is now working so flawlessly.
Finally: This is a really great weather station for it's price. It gives you so much information and data that it is really worth the while to purchase this unit if you do not want to fork out a lot of money for a weather station. However be warned if you live in the southern hemisphere, you will have to make a modification to the unit. This will void your guarantee but at the price these units sell for, it is a chance worth taking. I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Stephan and Nico who so unselfishly donated this weather station to me for use. I cannot thank them enough as this weather station enriched my knowledge of how weather stations operate and functions. Further more it was really a pleasure to tinker with this unit to get it operational in the southern hemisphere. I am convinced that Acu-Rite will hopefully look into solving the Northern and Southern hemisphere issue by installing two solar panels on the unit or by adjusting the wind direction sensor for either the northern or southern hemisphere. Overall I enjoy this weather station and Weather Display software.
