[vk7hch]

Greetings everyone. I have ordered the boards, and almost all of the "chinese" components for TX, RX and WD systems.
Just playing the waiting game now, and reading lots of forum posts.
I will be running it through a Raspberry Pi B which I currently use with an Oregon Scientific WMR88A.
I recently switched over to CumulusMX from weewx, it is simple matter of switch sd cards!
I am lousy at documentation, so will try to take pictures of various construction highlights.
Cheers for now
Chris

[werk_ag]

I and probably others, will enjoy seeing those pictures. They are welcome.

[vk7hch]

Well the parts are starting to trickle in, I have all the FETs, the 3 nanos, voltage regs, the tmp36, bmp180 and 1.8" TFT so far. I changed my mind about the WD display board after I purchased the 1.8" TFT, so I ordered a 2.4" TFT as well.
I ran a quick test on the nanos, just a modified "blink" sketch, to see if they respond to programming, bit worried about cheap chinese parts. The only problem I found was the USB port under linux, it reports a different port than my UNO, because these use the CM341 chipset. a quick "sudo chmod 666 /dev/ttyUSB0" after plugging in the nano, then start the Arduino ide sorted that. Disconnect the nano, and have to shut down the ide, and repeat the process with the new one plugged in. And I am a member of the dialout group too.

The waiting game continues...

Chris

[Shred]

Sounds like there a few of us Taswegians building the WeatherDuino boards now. It must be something about the colder weather or the distinct change the seasons down here.

I have encountered one problem with the CH340G equipped Arduino boards: they all have the same USB serial number. This means that the COM port numbers are assigned in the order that the devices are connected, since the host computer cannot distinguish each device. In the case of my Linux box, I can't assign meaningful, unique names to each device either. It's not likely to be a huge problem for the WeatherDuino - only irritating, because it makes testing and updating the firmware difficult when I have more than one WeatherDuino board connected to a single computer. For other Arduino projects, I will avoid this chipset in the future.

[vk7hch]

The boards arrived today, and I went to the "local electronics sales place", who have absolutely no idea about electronic components, I was told that they do not carry the IN 4004 diode, in fact their catalogue has no items with the prefix IN. When I looked it up in their catalogue and showed them their number (ZR1004) and the component name are different, I just got a blank stare.
There is no stock of 100nf ceramics in Hobart, I had to order some from the mainland. So much for buy local.
What ever happened to the geek kid behind the counter who can tell what you are building just by the components you buy?
I have (I hope) all the passive components to start building the boards now.
Slow and steady now and remember to take pics.

Chris

[werk_ag]

Hi Chris

The diode (for the TX board) reference is 1N4004, not IN4004.
Best place to find all the parts is eBay, most of the times you can buy 10 units for the price of one at local stores.
For small parts, delivery from China usually is very fast. To Portugal, normally no more than 15 days.

What ever happened to the geek kid behind the counter who can tell what you are building just by the components you buy?

I know what you mean! Some time ago, the guys at electronics stores were experts, now they are just employers, most of them have no idea about what they are selling.

[Shred]

There is no stock of 100nf ceramics in Hobart

Hi Chris,

It's probably a bit hit and miss as to who serves you - the guys in the Launceston store are pretty switched on... even guessed what I was building when I was asking about the cheap Fine Offset weather station that they used to carry in stock.

Have you tried Active Electronics? Electronic components don't get much more basic than 100nF ceramic capacitors.

Scott.

[nparnold]

Hi again, good to hear there are a few others in Tas. I have finished building mine and have tested on the bench for a while but havent had the time to get it up on the roof yet. Im wondering as a guide what settings others use for their fan temp and wind speed. I have built a bowl shield and i plan to put the TX Board inside the roof but its still going to be a pain to get up and change settings once installed.

Hi Chris

The diode (for the TX board) reference is 1N4004, not IN4004.
Best place to find all the parts is eBay, most of the times you can buy 10 units for the price of one at local stores.
For small parts, delivery from China usually is very fast. To Portugal, normally no more than 15 days.

What ever happened to the geek kid behind the counter who can tell what you are building just by the components you buy?

I know what you mean! Some time ago, the guys at electronics stores were experts, now they are just employers, most of them have no idea about what they are selling.

[vk7hch]

There is no stock of 100nf ceramics in Hobart

Hi Chris,

It's probably a bit hit and miss as to who serves you - the guys in the Launceston store are pretty switched on... even guessed what I was building when I was asking about the cheap Fine Offset weather station that they used to carry in stock.

Their (Derwent Park) question to me when I said what I was building was "Oh yeah, I saw that in the magazine. Why build one, we sell weather stations?" Says it all I think...

Have you tried Active Electronics? Electronic components don't get much more basic than 100nF ceramic capacitors.

Scott.

Active Hobart said that they do not normally carry that value, and looking at their meagre component drawers, they don't carry much at all. Unless you want to install a TV antenna that is. I was told that they would have to order them in and would take about a week. Ebay is quicker than that!

Chris