The Main Sensor Suite

The Main Sensor suite or ISS is the Davis Vantage Pro 2 that was purchase along with a Daytime Fan-Aspirated Radiation shield to help improve temperatures in during the day. ISS is located approximately 5ft off the ground, on the picture below you can see the Main sensor suite. The Large Black self-tipping rain bucket has been set-up to tip each 0.2mm of Rain. Above this you can see the Rain Spike which help prevent birds from landing on the bucket, and using it as a bird toilet. The two sensors on the Outside the bucket are (on the Left the UV Senor) and (on the Right the Solar Radiation sensor) The Original Solar panel has been replaced with a Dual Solar Panel Cell. The Top Panel provides power to the Daytime Fan-Aspirated Radiation Shield, whilst the lower panel is providing the power to the Main Sensor suite and sends the data back to the main console wirelessly. The Large White set of disks under the main Rain Bucket is the Davis Stevenson Screen which house the Daytime Fan-Aspirated Radiation and helps to prevent erroneous readings recorded by the External Temperature and Humidity sensors. The White box to the right and lower down is the Transmitting unit for the Soil Moisture and Temperature sensors. Currently these are running 2 Soil Moisture Sensors 1 at 10cm and one at 30cm, and 4 Temperature sensors, one mounted on Concrete, one mounted on Grass, one at 10cm and one at 30cm.

The Anemometer

The anemometer is located at the side of the Garden backing onto the fields beyond. The anemometer has an approximate height of 6m Above ground. The Original pole was from the Original Oregon WRM200 Station, but this only raised the anemometer a few feet off the ground and really wasn't suitable. The new pole is a Telescopic Flag pole, and also has the advantage of being able to lower much easier. So far the Turbine has stood up to gusts of   winds. The Wind vane and anemometer mounted at the top of the pole are the newer Davis version with the brass tip which helps to keep the readings more accurate in lower wind speeds.

Old Station Whilst the Station was in sevice at the old location in Chelmsford the Anemometer has had the Wind Speed cartridge replaced as after 5 years of service the internal ball bearings were starting to stick. hopefully this will help improve accuracy at lower wind speeds. After making the changes on the 12th December even with light winds that day it has made an improvement straight away.

The Console

Data From the ISS is sent Wireless to the Davis Vantage Pro 2 Console. The System used Spread spectrum hopping to improve. Data from the ISS is sent back to the Console every 2.5 seconds. This is then sent onto a Raspberry Pi 3.

Davis Airlink Station

The Davis Airlink station is mounted on the side of the House on a North Facing wall out of the way of direct sunlight. This sensor provides the 3m Height Temperature and Humidity data along with the Air Quality Readings

The Raspberry Pi

Data from the ISS is sent to the Raspberry Pi3 computer which is running CumulusMX and the station then updates all the weather data on this website approximately every 5 seconds.

With Thanks

Thanks too all the people at the Cumulus Support forum who have helped me out over the years. Support Help and Scripts from Mark Crossley, Kevin Reed, SM Blinkhorn,Mapantz ,Dazza1223