John's Weather Station
OK, so today I drug Teri kicking and screaming to Best Buy. I wanted to look at receivers and TV's . . . well they didn't have either in the flavor I wanted, so it was pretty much a wasted trip . . . almost. As we were walking along the back aisle, Teri pointed out an Oregon Scientific Weather Station. Now I've wanted a Weather Station since I bought my Dad one a few years ago. I just think they are cool. And last year when I was working in Yelm, one of my clients had one that hooked up to his PC and automatically updated his website with current weather data. NOW that's a geek toy I can seriously get behind!So anyway, I looked at the box for this weather station and it had everything! The main station, a remote wind speed/direction indicator, a second sensor to indicate outside temperature and a rain gauge! Best of all, it connected to your PC . . . cool! There was a sign on it that read: $49.99. Now I've looked at weather stations a lot and I knew this was a GREAT deal. So I picked it up. At the register it rang up as $149.99, but the manager over rode it and took $100.00 off. When I got home I looked it up on the internet and it's suggested retail price is $219.99 and I got it for less than $50.00. Thanks for pointing it out hon!
I raced upstairs to my office and began to unpack the box. I assembled the wind speed/direction indicator and the rain gauge. I checked that they were communicating with the base station and headed outside to mount them. I placed the wind speed/direction indicator on one of the back posts of my fence, and the rain gauge is merely sitting on my patio table. I installed the software for the station and connected it to my PC. There I was looking at real time weather data for my house on my PC! My geek was on overload. So of course I had to see how to go about uploading the data to my website. Unfortunately the base version of software that comes with the station has that functionality disabled. So I looked around and downloaded a trial copy of "Virtual Weather Station". About 5 minutes later, voila! Real time weather data on my website! Pretty stinkin' cool!
I'll be evaluating the various software packages over the next month or so . . . but if you want to see what the weather is like at MY house RIGHT NOW . . . point your web browser here: http://johnhurlbut.com/weather/wx.htm
Here's a link to the weather station I have . . . it's pretty cool! Right now the indoor temperature is reading in my office . . . which can run a bit warm if the window is closed, so I think I'll get another sensor to put in the hall to give a more accurate reading of the house temperature. AND I may get the UV index sensor too . . . you'll want to know when it's safe to be out of doors in Puyallup right!
John's Weather Station - Oregon Scientific WMR-100 USB
Yep, I'm all geeked out today . . .