Iphone App for use with weather station

[Mike Potter]

I was wondering if there is an application that I can connect a mobile weather station via usb or some other means to my Iphone?

 

[Tyler Allison]

Yup.

"HomeWthr"

It will pull the weather data from your CWOP/APRS update. So as long as your home weather station is reporting into CWOP/APRS you are good to go.

 

[Mike Potter]

Thanks Tyler you are the GURU.

 

[John Erwin]

That sounds like a neat app, however I'm not entirely certain that this solution will fit the problem so easily.

The OP mentioned that he wanted to use a mobile weather station, not a home unit... and given that he wanted to get the data onto his iPhone then I'm assuming there will be no Laptop or other computer in the vehicle (if this assumption is false than all bets are off). I think the fact that the person is from an EMO type operation we can assume that there may be ham radio equipment in the vehicle however.

What this means is that if we want to use this solution, we need to find a way to get the mobile weather data into the APRS stream. Unfortunately I'm not aware of any TNC's or APRS-equipped radios that can be directly connected to a weather station (If I'm wrong then I would be VERY interested in finding info on that). In every case I've seen of this type of setup you need a computer to connect the weather station first... which is then connected to the TNC/radio.

Sooooo.... if the mobile setup in this case is intended to be computer-less than we may need to come up with something else to accomplish what is needed.

Yup.

"HomeWthr"

It will pull the weather data from your CWOP/APRS update. So as long as your home weather station is reporting into CWOP/APRS you are good to go.

 

[Lou Ruh]

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any TNC's or APRS-equipped radios that can be directly connected to a weather station (If I'm wrong then I would be VERY interested in finding info on that). In every case I've seen of this type of setup you need a computer to connect the weather station first... which is then connected to the TNC/radio.

Sooooo.... if the mobile setup in this case is intended to be computer-less than we may need to come up with something else to accomplish what is needed.

Well ... I think there are a few out there. I know that the ARES/RACES group in Chester County PA is doing it. I've forgotten which hardware they're using for the TNC or equivalent, but, they are connecting Davis VantagePro2 stations using it.

A quick web search shows this one ... http://www.byonics.com/wxtrak/ ... it's configured via a computer program, but, once configured, the computer is no longer needed.

For the Davis stations, that same source says you need to use http://www.byonics.com/tinypack/ for that. This, plus http://www.weathershack.com/davis-instruments/6540.html I think works with Davis stuff and is probably what Chester County is using.

 

[John Erwin]

Well ... I think there are a few out there. I know that the ARES/RACES group in Chester County PA is doing it. I've forgotten which hardware they're using for the TNC or equivalent, but, they are connecting Davis VantagePro2 stations using it.

Excellent info Lou! It figures that somebody had worked this out since there's likely at least a small demand for this kind of thing. I could use this myself.. and the cost for the Byonics unit in particular is quite reasonable.

Maybe the OP will find this information useful too..

 

[Tyler Allison]

excellent catch! I must have just read over that fact. I just never thought anybody would want to connect a weather station to an iPhone. The only real option would be to use a bluetooth interface since the iPhone "cable" is proprietary. Though I guess you could try and hack it...then you'd have to build an app..blah..blah. Not the best way of doing it.