My Mobile Mesonet

Now that all the petty stuff is out of the way...

Now, now, let's all play nice here.

Back to the real question, does anyone have a set of plans or series of photos showing the actual construction of the aspirated shield? I've seen most of the photos before, but it's doesn't' tell me a lot other than it's a PVC tube with a cap on one end.

BTW: I've got a Davis Weather Wizards III on the way and like Joey, I would appreciate any good advice or help in getting the construction out of the way. You folks have the expertise and know what works and what doesn't. We can only benefit frmo that experience.

John
 
Re: Why OSI instead of Davis

Joey,

Just curious here. Why did you choose OSI over Davis on your station choice? Price? Features? Looks?

John
Click to expand...

No reason really, I've heard good things about both Davis and OSI so I just picked up the OSI. Price was reasonable on it.
 
How's the MM coming along?

Joey, Haven't heard from you about your project. I'm really curious to see how you set this up.

Since I will be using a Davis Weather Wizard III (temp and wind speed) with the possibility of moving to a Davis Weather Monitor II (Temp, wind speed, humidity and dewpoint) later on, I've decided to keep it pretty basic.

The sensor mast will be 4 feet tall. Below is a quick schematic of what I hope to see. All wires will be internal to the piping. I haven't decided on aluminum (smaller diameter and sturdy? but hard to fix when bashed by trees) or PVC (larger diameter for strength, but more wind resistance. Priced right, but really ugly).

I's certainly appreciate your's and anyone else, comments or suggestions on this design.

John Diel


http://www.pbase.com/image/30689720[Broken External Image]:http://image.pbase.com/u47/okie34/large/30689720.sensor.jpg
 
Hey John, I should be finishing it up shortly... I got my weather station and well.. had to do it. Mysteriously enough, the weather station got mounted on top of my house on the roof.... :D so I'm gonng order another one shortly to be used for my mesonet.
 
Oh, in regards to the weather station since I mounted it we've had rain but the rain guage on it doesn't appear to be working as my weather station just continuously displays 0.00".. connection is good and I have it on leveled ground.. I even poured water into it and still never measured.

Any ideas?
 
Bad rain guage

Since I've never seen the OSI stuff up close, I would venture a guess it's a bad transmitter. Especially if it's wireless. Here's OSI's trouble shooting page. I's give those a try, then call them if they do't work.

http://www2.oregonscientific.com/service/t.../detail.asp?c=2

Still haven't seen any diagrams for an aspirated radiation shield? You would think it would be easy anough, but with the PVC pipe I see most folks using, I'm not quite sure how it all goes together.

Anyone out there listening? Please?? :)

John
 
Actually I got the wired version, the OSI WM918 Weather Station but I'm thinking that when I get the one for my mesonet, I'm thinking about going wireless.. the cables are really long and would be a hassle in my opinion... but we'll see.

I have yet to construct a radiation shield, seems like a simple idea but just trying to come up with a way to make a good one with a good airflow through it.
 
Ha ha

Well, Patrick, I doubt you would have used that a whole lot last night in the areas where I was. I wasn't rolling down windows at all. In fact, I was trying to roll them up tighter!

Sorry man, I just can't see sticking my hand out the window with hail falling or heavy lightning in the vicinity. I'd rather let Davis do that for me.

John
 
Perhaps when you get struck by lightning because your hand is sticking out of the window, then you'll change your mind about mobile mesonets on top of vehicles.

I just read that story recently about the storm chaser from Independence KS that was hit by lightning just simply by hanging his arm out of his window.

I would rather have the vehicle mounted mesonet rather than risking being hit by lightning because my arms is sticking out the window.
 
6 one way/half a dozen the other

Just out of curiosity, why would someone be more susceptible to a lightning strike hanging their arm out the window while sitting inside a vehicle vs lightning hitting the highest obstacle on the vehicle (ie:a MM)and following the wiring into the vehicle?

I was under the impression that first, lightning usually hits the highest obstacle in the area, and second, inside a vehicle you are insulated from ground by four rubber tires.

I am not saying that this hasn't happened, but it would seem that just sitting in a vehicle in a lightning storm, with or without a MM, can be perilous.

How is your design coming?
You going to post some pictures?
 
Patrick,

I'm not saying one would be more at risk by hanging their arm out of the car, but if your arm is hanging out of the car and your car is hit by lightning then you will sustain severe injuries. As far as the mobile mesonet, that's why you use wireless weather station so you don't have no wires running into the car. So that argument is invalid.

If you're inside your vehicle, no arms hanging out, and the lightning strikes your mesonet it'll travel around you via the shell of the vehicle and you should be fine. But even then, the mesonet is made out of PVC Pipe so it's not that great of a conductor to begin with.

So again, I would rather a mesonet get hit by lightning than having my arm hanging out and lightning hit the car.

I'm waiting to get my wireless station and then I should be near completion.

Once done, I'll get some pics uploaded.
 
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