Hello everyone,
After more than a year running and following improvements done by Werk, I decided a while ago to upgrade my weather station. Moving to a new place was also a good opportunity to change my hardware. Finally, some of you have build very nice systems and I had to keep it up!
So I started with building a
new pole – well actually I do not have the right tools to work on steel, so eventually I found a workshop and brought them the specs I wanted: stainless steel 40x40 square section, 2.4m high, with a 0.8m welded bar at the top (to fix the wind instruments) and another welded a bit lower to support the rain gauge.
This pole was intended to be on my terrace – as the roof of my building is not an option.
Here is how it looks like before mounting:
[Image: IMG_5793.jpg]
Then the
new instruments: I replaced all my FO sensors with the following:
- Inspeed E-Vane II Electronic Wind Direction Sensor
- Inspeed Vortex II Wind Sensor with MultiPulse
- Davis 7852 rain collector
- Davis 7714 radiation shield for the temp/hum sensor
I also added the
Soil/Leaf Interface, with 2 Vegetronix VH400 sensors. I will add 2 Decagon LWS as soon as they arrive.
In addition, I replaced my TX and RX units and build the TX v3.12 and the RX v5.02. I kept my previous TX unit to connect the Soil/Leaf Interface.
A new housing was then needed. I wanted a clear door box (like the one for my previous TX in this thread) in order to admire at all time the boards ☺ I found a
Schneider Electric IP66 rated clear door enclosure that is just nice and allows enough space to connect the antenna inside as I did not want to have an external one. Not the cheapest for sure but that was the one I wanted.
In order to connect all the instruments, I looked for
waterproof connectors rather than passing the cables through holes, as I wanted to be able to disconnect completely the enclosure to work on it without unplugging the instrumetns.
The
Bulgin Series 4000 are rated IP69 and perfect for the job. They are sold without the contacts, so you have to get them separately. They have this blue locking ring that ensures it is tightly secured.
This is what they look like with the Vegetronix VH400 cables:
[Image: IMG_5955.jpg]
[Image: IMG_5956.jpg]
I also studies the possibility to have a fully autonomous TX enclosure with solar panel powering, but where it is now there’s not enough sun each day to properly charge the battery – so I keep it as an extension later
The enclosure from the front:
[Image: IMG_5957.jpg]
The inside bottom with the connectors:
[Image: IMG_5958.jpg]
and the outside with the connectors:
[Image: IMG_5960.jpg]
[Image: IMG_5976.jpg]
The full setup now:
[Image: IMG_5981.jpg]
[Image: IMG_5965.jpg]
Follow on the next post...
