Hi,
I recently installed my brand new Tempest (station #8986(?)), and so far I am very satisfied, although I have nothing to compare to since this is the first wx station I own.
One issue I have is that I am located at 65N (Fairbanks, AK), and in the dead of winter, the sun is very low on the horizon at noon. In December and January, we can’t expect much more than 5% of solar radiation at noon on a clear day. I can’t imagine that the battery will recharge at all. WeatherFlow claims that the battery should last about a month with no solar input, but that means that my weather station will be dead for over a month before it gets enough solar energy to recharge (partially) the battery. So, here is my first question: Is there a way, or do you have a plan to have a way, to connect an external source power, like a larger solar panel or an external battery or something? I would hate to have the thing dead in the winter which is a time I am really interested in having weather info, especially if I’m away from home.
Second question: Is there a way to download the data from the weather station? I recently noticed a sudden jump in my barometric pressure, so I wanted to make a post about that, but when I tried to capture it to display it on the post, I noticed that I could only go back a short time, so I had missed it (in the mean time, I found a post describing the reason for the sudden jump, so I’m good). Anyway, I am a data person (scientist/engineer) and I am very interested in being able to look at months of data, look at trends and things like that.
Thanks,
In answer to your first question, I believe WF are working on a “Power Booster” for exactly situations like yours. I don’t have any details, as as far as I am aware it is still very much in the design/testing stage.
As for your second question, check out the myriad of Third Party Applications. There are a number that will do exactly what you want.
you can try the REST API (in the top bar of this forum page).
but know that weatherflow doesn’t store all the high res data. The older the data, the less resolution.
Thanks a bunch for the quick reply.
For question 1, do you think that they will send an email or something when they have something more concrete, or do I have to keep navigating the meanders of this forum?
For question 2, thanks, that will probably work for me.
I kind of looked at that, but I probably have a whole lot more reading before I can figure out how to use the API. My programing is a little rusty (I learned programing in the days of Fortran 4!). Have used mainly Matlab and a little bit of Python, but I’m no expert.
Also, the explanations of the API, I don’t see an example on how to get data from a time range, just the current data point.
Thanks, that worked quite well, but it is limited to 1 sample per minute.
Next, I will try what @peter was mentioning about 3rd party application and see how well that works.
Thanks again.
@gctytgat Hello Guy! I was stationed at Eielson from 1983-1987! I surely remember the interesting weather in the “North 49th”. . .especially Ice Fog, the -54°F temperature I experienced…and the “Chinook Winds.”
To comment a little on your first main paragraph — I can understand the low sunlight in winter and charging of the Tempest battery. I remember on Winter Solstice Day…the sunrise at Eielson was at 11:35am local time. . .and sunset was at 2:45pm in the afternoon. . .giving only 3 hours over Very Oblique sunlight. Here in eastern Nebraska. . .my Tempests suffer from many days of overcast conditions in which Tempests will not fully charge. WeatherFlow is working on a “Power Booster” as @peter mentioned above. They (WF) have a prototype that will power the Tempests in areas where sunlight is a problem: Fairbanks (and northern latitudes) in winter months, my backyard etc etc. Here is a sample of some of their latest posts. . .
We are working on a “power booster”, that will provide a backup power source for those Tempests in locations that simply don’t receive enough sunlight (regardless of where the start-charge voltage is set!). We’ll be looking for field testers and anyone with a struggling Tempest unit will be first choice!
Update (as of ~ 24th of June): We’re close to a final design and hope to have prototypes by the first of July and, with luck, expect to start field testing by the end of July or early August.
Several others from another community forum page have asked how they could become field testers for this “power booster” as well. I mentioned to just stay tuned to the forum topics and when you see anything posted about it in the coming weeks. . .just express a deep desire to participate in this when it is announced.
I’ve been in Fairbanks since January 1981, so we were around at the same time. Lucky for you, you missed the 1988-1989 winter. Been in Fairbanks for 40 years, and that was hands down the coldest winter I experienced. It is during that extreme cold temperature period, when the Barom. pressure reached record high as well, which caused unfortunately a Canadian Herc to crash on landing at Eielson because their altimeter adjust. was maxed out. The Fairbanks airport was actually closed, not because of the cold, but because it was beyond the limit of altimeter adjustment. I don’t really know how cold it got because my outside thermometer, which went to -50F was pointing at “Made in USA”
I am very interested in that power booster thing, and would love to be able to field test it.
Thanks for that info!
Guy
