I have read through all the post relating to shields for the Air, be it DIY or using the ambient srs100lx off the shelf shield, however I have come across two glaring siting issues.
1 The air is meant to be portable or fixed but in some climes finding suitable shaded area that allows the Air to work efficiently and be permanently sited outdoors is likely to be difficult. A user is unlikely to keep going outside to move it. It defeats the purpose especially in stormy conditions. It could be kept indoors but that again defeats the reason for the Air. A permanent position must be the answer; therefore it would appear to me that a shield should be a defacto option from Weatherflow. Is there one in the pipeline? If so when would it be available?
2 In your FAQ you mention that you have housed the Air in the SRS100lx unit and this is widely available. Unfortunately it is not available in Europe and so another source is required. I cannot find any mention of the exterior dimensions of the Air on the site and this would be most helpful in allowing users to source a suitable shield, or indeed make a DIY unit. Can this be published please. I have the internal dimension form the SRS100lx but as my units have not arrived I cannot be sure that what I would be buying would be perfect. Most Shield sellers publish the OD and not the IDs so trying to buy the right ones is going to be interesting. Publishing the AIR dimensions would go a long way and would be most appreciated.
I am sorry to say this but all the installations shown here are not good enough to provide accurate reandigs of temperature and humidity.
The Air should be located in direct sunlight inside of a radiation shield, far from walls, fences, buildings, treesā¦
This is a Davis radiation shield, very good shield but I donāt know if the Air fits inside.
If what your saying is truly the case then WeatherFlow should be recommending a shield and to mount it out in the open. I would say it would be very rare for someone at home to be able to mount the Air in the shade without putting it near a structure or tree.
Yes. But it says it recommends one if you have to put it in the sun. What Iām saying is it seems like there is no good place to put these in the shade so technically you shouldnāt even be given the choice. A lot of us are posting about inaccurate readings. Maybe itās because there really is no good place to put it in the shade and hidden in a residential area without getting effects from the surroundings?
Letās try to put all in perspective. This weather station was not intended to be a āhigh endā pro station. Think the price point should be clear enough. It is true that finding the āidealā spot will be hard for most users for all kind of reasons. No garden, no sun free spot etc etc.
Some of us do try to get most out of it since we do have the place, material (stevenson screen etc) and see how well it can be in āidealā situation. Plus the fact this station uses many new materials never used in this class of instruments.
I canāt speak for WF, but I donāt think they dream replacing a Davis Pro station, though in the end it could come close as the testing, fine tuning advances. Plus Davis has a few years advance in this class of instruments. Future will tell. But letās not expect results comparable with units costing 25K USD
I just need to acquire the wood for the lovers which is not an issue. I can add a 5vdc or 12vdc fan to ensure air movement. This may even be a fun project.
With all due respect to the many testers, I see these excuses over and over and theyāre just totally bogus.
Thereās nothing out of line in expecting a nominally $300 US unit to be accurate at day one, capable of being placed anywhere that works for the consumer, and solidly built without things like the battery wire getting dislodged when doing routine maintenance like changing/checking the batteries.
A Vantage Vue can be purchased for $300 US (ok, call it $400 due to their ridiculous datalogger price) so there are longstanding quality products that are in the same price range that just plain work without any of these limitations.
I have a 9+ year old VP2 in the sun that works fine. I ordered the WF because of their API as well as their no-moving-parts design, but the existing growing pains of the WF sure make me hesitant to predict whether a WF would equal a Vue in functionality and quality or not at this point. If I ever āgetā my blasted unit, Iāll be mounting it nearby to compare the two while crossing my fingers.
But please no more āā¦but itās not a pro unitā¦ā excuses guys, we āknowā it is not a pro unit. Neither is its main competitor (the Vue).
What is a high end pro weather station? An all in one station mounted on top of a boiling hot
roof. I bought the WF station so I can put the temp sensor in my own homemade ventilated
shield in the middle of my yard. Built the same shield for a friends WF station that is 5 miles
from me, our temps are always within +or- .5F sometimes exact. Both of our daily high temps
are always lower than most of the stations around us.
it isnāt a question of excuses. Itās a question to see things from a little further then usual. We are all eager to get this hardware better then the Davis one, though it wasnāt meant as such in the planning days (I guess) . Davis is in this line of business for over a decade now with hardware that has been modified, enhanced by them ā¦ they had their problems in due days. This station is in itās early days and uses technology never used in this level of units. So yep we are sometimes disappointed, not happy ā¦ pushing it over the limits (a bit our goal as testers I think) and believe me, it has already made quite some progress from early days. And it will continu because most can be enhanced via software (though we saw hardware changes during testing).
Like many new technology, it needs time to mature and though we (testers) test quite hard things, it will never be like real time life since weather is so changing, so many situations, once they roll out in large public ā¦ the real challenge starts and it is for the staff. You can easily imagine the data flow from over 1000 stations ā¦ it is analyzed and it is fed back into the learning systems to improve reliability but again, sometimes the solution isnāt good and they have to start over to make it even better.
Add to that logistical problems ā¦
And next to that new hardware is developed (new mount system for the sky that should help damped vibration problems, solar panel that is in alpha testing since a few days ā¦)
And sometimes we forget one thing, Weatherflow is a pro company with pro level stations for over 20 years with a bunch of customers that also need their attention ā¦ sometimes I wonder how the folks are able to do all the work
Your station will come. Production is running and a few hundred stations have been dispatched these days. Guess since the time you wait, a few days wonāt change much by now. And since I read you already have Davis stuff it isnāt like you have no data to fool with
vince i gave a totally honest response on the other forumā¦ no BS pro and cons with all home enthusiasts hardware ā¦ hang in there im sure all,will come good at some pointā¦ share the frustration of delivery but perhaps the wait will be iworth it not that makes you feel any better right now. and probably viewed as a predictable response but what else can one sayā¦have a nice dayā¦brian
Does the AIR need a solar shield? Dependsā¦ I live at the 45th parallel. It is May 2 @ 6:30 PM. My AIR is positioned on the north side of the house, 18 inches from the house foundation (not a good place). At this moment, the AIR is in full, direct, setting sun (low energy). It is only going to get worseā¦ I am fabricating a shield and will post some specifications as soon as it is done. Warningā¦ it might not be pretty. I am not much of a craftsman.
My AIR has a house ā¦ or a solar shield. It is not much different than other designs posted here, but why reinvent the wheel. It does have a solar powered aspiration fan, which is a sort of a new feature. The box is about 10 x 10 inches, roughly. The louvered panels are plastic and bug resistant. It looks pretty goodā¦ from a distance. Like I said, I am not much of crafts-person. Making something square is a challenge for me. No real plans, just a vision in my head, which should actually scare you. It could use another coat of paint, but the cedar plywood has 2 coats of penetrating clear water seal. I wanted it to be in place for the coming storms.
The fan came from that online resource we all love to hateā¦ Amazon!
It is a ECO-WORTHY Stainless Steel, Solar Powered Attic roof vent, about $55. Seems to work well, so far, and is equipped with a rechargeable battery so it runs 24/7ā¦ maybe, I really do not know yet.
