Alberniweather

Watching the Port Alberni Weather since 2005

Tech @ Alberniweather

How does this thing work?

I often get questions about the stuff that makes Alberniweather. The Weather station, the website, the webcam(s), and all the rest. In the next little while I’ll add information to this page about the systems that make Alberniweather go.

Here’s a starter list of all the components:

Davis Vantage Pro 2 Weather Console – Bought in 2005
Anemometer atop the poll on the house
the black triangle thingy in the foreground is the current rain shroud. it has a tipper inside that measures the rain. In the background is the old rain shroud, it has the solar and UV sensors mounted to it on the back and the temperature and humidity sensors live below in the white aerated area
  • Davis Vantage Pro 2 Console
    (includes 3 main components communicating wirelessly.)
    1. a display console in the house – connected to power with AA battery backup. 
    2. An anemometer on the pole on the roof (visible in the webcam). Solar powered transmitter lithium battery.
    3. Rain gauge, temperature/humidity/barometer/UV/Solar sensor station in the yard. Solar powered transmitter lithium battery.
    4. Data Logger. The Data logger between the “bridge” and the Davis console converts the raw data into something that can be transmitted, it also stores up to a few days worth of console data and will preserve the data during a power loss as long as the Davis Station has battery power.
    5. Serial to Ethernet “bridge”: The “bridge” is a little box with an old Serial wire connection and an Ethernet port. It allows the Weather Server to ask for and receive the data stored in the Data logger. It can be polled up to every second.
  • Amcrest Webcams
    1. Currently have 3 webcams (South, West, Pool).
    2. The 4th “East” webcam was damaged when rain entered the ethernet cable and shorted out the power.
    3. Timelapse images are sent to the Weather Server (see below) every 60s
    4. Each camera produces a livestream that is sent to the Weather Server
  •  Weather Server running WeeWx:
    1. A dedicated computer. Currently a 2008 iMac running Debian Linux.
    2. Includes purpose-built open source weather software called WeeWx that talks to the Davis station, stores the data archives, and creates all of the various kinds of displays of the data that you see on alberniweather.ca
    3. Receives timelapse images from the Amcrest cameras, stores them, overlays weather information from weewx on them, archives them, and creates movies periodically and automatically (usually)
    4. Receives the livestream from the cameras – currently just passes the livestream on to Youtube but can also overlay weather information.
  • Web Server (alberniweather.ca)
    1. This is where you are right now!
    2. Hosted on remote servers in Montreal to ensure the website continues during an emergency even if connection to the live data or images is lost.
    3. All weewx information and periodic timelapse images and video are updated and sent to the web server anywhere from every few seconds to every hours or days for timelapse videos.
    4. Displays all the data, images, and webcam livestream, uploaded from the weather server
    5. Hosts this WordPress Blog

That’s a basic list for now. I’ll add pictures and things another time! 🙂