I posted this in another area but just realised it may be better placed in here:
I am currently in the process of setting up a home weather station using Hobby Boards weather sensors and just wanted to check to see if they can be run by a Mac running Os 10.5.
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Any advice would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Tim
Tim
Thought I might share my thoughts and current experiences.
I too run MacOS 10.4 and 10.5 and have very recent hopped on to the 1-wire Weather Station band wagon (most of my sensors are still sitting inside or are on their way from Hobby Boards as we speak, only wish I had looked at Hobby Boards before my initial foray). I'm currently running Tim Bitsons TWS4.07 software on a Dallas DS80C400 evaluation kit (TINI) which is reading a AAG TAI 8515 weather station and a AAG TAI8570 Barometer and everything is behaving nicely, but the Barometer looks as if its going to be a headache to program (observations from various online sources). The aim (with the additional aid of the sensors and kits which Hobby Boards have shipped) is to be able to use the Mac to provide the design bench for the software (working hard to get myself up to speed in Java thanks to Tims book, which so far has been a god send), which will then be ported to the Tini for control of the 1-wire network, collection of data and posting to wunderground and my local systems, and then my Mac acting as a graphic interface for the current and historical data.
The immediate goal is to have humidity/temperature recorded inside, outside and in a glasshouse, solar and temperature measurement on the roof (beside a planned solar water panel), a rain gauge and fifteen temperature sensors distributed around the house and buried in the ground, and just for fun a lightening counter (we don't get much lightening activity in this part of New Zealand.
I work for our countries National Measurement Institute, so I'm also looking forward to checking out how good these sensors are (both accuracy and drift) and have the opportunity to have several of them calibrated. Hence I'm keen to be able to alter calibration coefficients within my code. I've already made a modification to anemometer to improve its resolution to 6 counts per revolution (
One wire mods) and was surprised to see the equation for the calculation of wind speed posted by AAG (
Windspeed calc) doesn't directly relate to the circumference of the cups x RPM, so they must of wedged a correction factor in there to allow for slip, resistance etc.
Sorry for the verbose post, but as this is my first post and since I've only been at this 1-wire stuff a couple of weeks, its all very exciting. I'll keep you posted of how I get on as I'm sure there must be more MAC fans out there you would love to try this and so far I must admit things have been going well (well there are always headaches and this Barometer looks like it may be mine, as it doesn't behave as it should using the TMEX format file, but that is a topic for another board).
In short if you run a Mac then check out Tim Bitson's Book Weather Toys or check out his
Website for a peek at his software. Don't make my mistake, read the book before you buy the parts. I should have opted for the Hobby Boards Barometer, and no I'm not affiliated to Tim or Hobby Boards, but so far I can't say enough good stuff about them.
Greg
Just a quick update, most of my parts are here. Mac is happily spitting out data (Wind speed and direction inside are a bit lame, but they work) from all my sensors so far constructed or purchased. AAG WS1 v3, Barometer and Rainwise rain gauge with Hobby Boards counter (very nice piece of Kit thanks Eric). Humidity and Solar Sensors should be finished this week. Then its a case of calibrating and installing them outside. But so far everything has been a piece of cake.
