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suburbancowboy
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# Posted: 10 Apr 2013 12:02
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Morning everybody
I am looking for a remote weather monitoring station with video that will use a cell phone service to log temperature and a photo once an hour. The only one I have found it here and kind of pricey.
http://www.weathershop.com/WWN_wireless.htm
I would like to stay in the < $1000 range if possible.
Other than that requirements are:
Internet access to view the logged photo and data.
Daily high and low temps
hourly photo and current temps.
That would be the basics.
Any ideas?
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razmichael
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# Posted: 10 Apr 2013 16:42
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There are many brands of weather stations that connect up to a pc for logging and internet access if available example here is one example (no personal experience with them). The main thing to sort out is what kind of infrastructure do you have? Depending on what you have in place now I would first look at the best and cheapest way to provide internet access. I suspect anything weather station you find that connects directly will be expensive and you are better off to look at a separate means to connect that could be used for other purposes well. Then a cheap laptop could provide the interface. The laptop could also host a mobile stick for the data link. Certainly a lot cheaper than the example you looked at.
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suburbancowboy
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# Posted: 10 Apr 2013 18:31
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No phone lines and no power but solar. Also week cell phone service and no data for t-mobile. Verizon is a bit better but there cheapest plan is $50/month. Same for att. I was thinking I could use a cheap low wattage laptop, maybe netbook. Connection a web cam to it and point it out the window. And use something like this: http://www.weathershack.com/product/la-crosse-technology-ws-2811.html?gclid=CKOptaTkw LYCFaF7QgodHUkAgg
with a USB connection for the weather station. The question is how to get to the computer remotely when I am at home. I'm not sure if you can use a product like pc anywhere when you are using usb cellular connection.
I also worry a little about the power comsumption and leaving my inverter on all the time when I am not there.
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ICC
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# Posted: 10 Apr 2013 23:35
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i think the idea is cool and very interesting but i scrapped the idea myself as it gets more complicated and expensive than the info is worth to me. maybe if i won a lottery, but there's little chance of that.
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razmichael
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# Posted: 11 Apr 2013 06:58
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I agree with ICC on this - it is certainly do-able but is it worth it? That's why I suggested you look at this firstly as how badly do you want internet at the cabin and how much are you willing to spend? We had a recent thread on cell phone boosters (which, if feasible, could provide a signal to a laptop 3g or lte (or whatever you have in your area) stick). You can also look at the various providers routers that support an external antenna if your coverage is that bad. Keeping everything as 12 volts is also possible but involves a lot more investigation and will limit your options more.
By the way, you asked about PCAnywhere over a Cell connection - given a decent data connection this would work - I use VNC often on my laptop tethered to my Iphone. However, in your setup, the aim would best be met by connecting to the web service of the weather station (which most are designed to use). Similar for a camera - either built into the camera or a service on the laptop - lots of ways to skin the proverbial cat.
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suburbancowboy
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# Posted: 11 Apr 2013 11:48
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I am less interested in weather portion only as a hobby and more interested in the webcam. One for security and more importantly to see how much snow I have at the place to for when I go up after the snow flies I can see if I should take the snowmobile or the 4 wheeler up. Early winter and Early spring it is hard to know what to take. I am at the top of the mountain. So the bottom is dry and the top can have 1 foot of snow.
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razmichael
Member
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# Posted: 11 Apr 2013 14:33
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I still think this comes down to how much you want to spend to get internet (and what is available in your area). This naturally includes start up costs and then monthly fees! I took a quick look at the mobile hubs offered by Rogers here in Canada and at least one of them runs on 12 v (although generally from a wall adapter). If this type of thing could get a signal (possibly using an external directional antenna - or possibly a cell booster - more expensive) then you could add a number of external camera's connected directly to the hub. I have three cameras at home each about $100 and they include both wireless, wired connection options along with built in web servers and run from 12VDC. They will even sent an email or text notice when motion is detected. To save power I would not run them in wireless but connect directly to the hub. You could then access them anytime from anywhere (I'm skipping over the configuration details).
If you could make this work then you could easily add something like this WeatherStation (no idea how well this works) which appears to connect directly to a hub or router.
Add a netbook if you want to do more but this would not be required. All comes down to how much you want the internet!
With all of this you would need to watch the power draw but you could do it with minimal impact I would think, especially as you would be away (not using anything else) when this was most used. Optionally you could set up a timer system to turn on the hub etc during certain time periods - lots of options.
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gumbo2go
Member
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# Posted: 8 Jul 2014 19:00
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suburbancowboy
Did you ever decide on a system for your remote cabin? I am searching for a similar setup for our off grid cabin.
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