AfterTen Software

I've been a very satisfied WeatherMan user since OS X was first released so it's only natural to turn to Dean and WeatherTracker now that I'm planning on setting up a Personal Weather Station at a new house we're buying. Believe I'll go with either a Davis Vantage Pro 2 or Vantage Vue. And I'll be running the data through a Mac mini.

So, do I need any additional hardware to get the console data onto my computer and subsequently uploaded to CWOP and/or Weather Underground? I assume there's data ports on the Davis consoles? And if so, are they USB ports?

Or serial ports maybe? And if that's the case, any recommendations on a good serial-to-usb converter which has proven reliable with Macs?

Other suggestions welcomed if anyone would like to describe how they've set up a Davis unit using a Mac. I'd be particularly interested in knowing if anyone has gone the Weather Envoy route and bypassed the console totally.

Many thanks,

Felix

I'd go with a console it's a nice analog to WeatherTracker. I have an Envoy but it is nice to be able to double check WeatherTracker against the console.

On top of buying the station you need to buy a WeatherLink cable (it comes with a copy of Davis' WeatherLink software that you probably won't use).
Buying this can be confusing as they package them as "Windows and Mac versions". There are serial port (Din-9) versions and a USB version.
I'd avoid the USB version as it is simply the serial version with a built in Serial-To-USB chip inside. But this means you have to be able to get the proper driver for the chip they use. This has been a pain in recent history especially after an new Mac OS release comes out.

I would buy the serial version and get it as cheap as you can and don't worry about a Mac vs Windows version the cable is the same for both. Then you just need a Serial-To-USB cable. Keyspan is expensive so I would just find one with the FTDI chip set. I'm betting this cable would work fine...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156003&cm_re=usb_serial_adapter-_-12-156-003-_-Product

I'm also experimenting with a serial-to-ip interface where you plug the serial side in to one end and a network cable into the other. With a little manual configuration magic and some improvements I'd have to make to WeatherTracker you could put the console anywhere you have a network drop.

Keep the questions coming if you have any more.

BTW, a lot of this is covered in my new, short-but-sweet, getting started guide...
Getting Started

Thanks for the help, Dean. I'll probably have more questions when I start setting things up after the house is finished and I have time to turn my attention to the PWS.

BTW, the serial-to-ip interface would be helpful. I'd go for that.

Oh, I do have another pre-purchase question. In your Getting Started guide, I see you wrote "This [Davis Vantage] is the station I would get if I was on a sub-$1000 budget since it has the most options for expansion."

What would your hardware recommendation be if you weren't concerned about the <$1000 constraint? Something which would be compatible with WeatherTracker obviously.

As a separate program but closely related to WeatherTracker I write the software for the WeatherHawk personal weather stations.

Very nice, high quality stations with lots of options for connection. Wired, wireless, and they have an IP module.
Contact them for pricing as I just write and support the software.

The draw back to them is if you want extra sensors like Davis and Oregon Scientific support (extra temp or even soil and leaf temps and wetness) they don't have that.

Wow, I'm intrigued by the WeatherHawk 500 but that's a little more than I had anticipated putting into my weather hobby.

Well you'll probably sneak into the $1000 range with a Vantage Pro 2 wireless with fan aspirated heat shield. If you wanted it sited properly get you anemometer up to 30 ft (more money for the mounting hardware). You can buy their WeatherLink IP module for $200 (this is the version of WeatherLink that connects to the network instead of USB or serial).

I'm going to do a blog post on the "simple" serial to IP interface tonight. I'll post a link to it on this thread as well.

@Vantage Pro 2 wireless with fan aspirated heat shield

That's exactly what I'm looking at.

As much as I'm intrigued by the completely solid state WeatherHawk 500 series (not to mention the high sensitivity), and my willingness to go above your $1K figure for quality sensors, I'm not ready to move into the WeatherHawk 500 range merely to support my weather hobby.

Must admit though, it sure doesn't look like your "ordinary" weather sensor array and would camouflage nicely if powered with AC in the winter (sans external solar panel and/or extra battery pack).