Yeah. Good for wind and solar, I think. Not so good for humidity or temperature.
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Hi all! Looking at two potential locations of our Tempest. Please see marked-up photos showing approximately pole locations. Which would does you recommend? What issues or benefits do you see?
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Lean toward the one with the screen porch showing since it’s not as much over a (hot) roof, but neither are great locations for wind unless your prevailing winds are toward the house from the camera’s perspective.
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I would recommend the porch sitting out of the 2. The radiant heat from the roof may impact the temps. In addition, I would recommend a 2-3 week temporary sitting (with easy access) after you get the Tempest online; you need a shake-down period to determine if your Tempest has any defects and if the location is suitable long-term.
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I took two pressure-treated 2x6s, screwed them together, then drilled a hole down the center to create a clamp. I attached one of them to the satellite hardware, then clamped the second one in place with screws.
The satellite hardware is nice because it allows significant adjustments to make sure it is vertical
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I just got my Tempest today in the mail, have been looking around at different mounting options but I’m thinking the flat base mount I was sent was put together wrong or something? Can anyone confirm this? Or is that inside the base supposed to be off centered like that? Not sure how that’d even work…
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There are 4 screws under the sticker on the other side. Just remove them and flip it around and things will line up properly.
I just took a knife and cut out the sticker above each screw rather than take the whole sticker off.
EDIT: I just found the mount I had to fix. Here is a picture showing the location of the 4 screws and how I fixed it without removing the sticker. I just felt for the soft spot and cut away the sticker.
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Awesome! That’s good to know. Thanks so much for the quick reply!
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@robdarman, what kind of post is that, and did you ground it at all? Looks great, and I’m going to be mounting on my house/roof too.
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@Tarnahan, wow, looks great! I’m planning a similar mount with an old dish mount, too. Did you ground your mast at all? If you did, how did you do that?
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DO you have any information on those brackets? Exactly what I’ve been looking for.
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Hard to see in the picture, but it was already grounded from initial installation.
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You really want to get above the roof line for accurate wind and temperature readings, so neither of the locations you marked are ideal. One easy solution would be to use a 20’ TV antenna mast that’s set into the ground a foot or so, and braced with a mast bracket screwed to the fascia board.
Sort of what you show in the second photo, except extended down to the ground and up above the ridge-line. The mast brackets come in different widths, depending on how much overhang you have:
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Got my first false rain report about the same time as my mail usually comes. I excitedly downloaded the video only to find a bird. Not sure why I’m disappointed my mail delivery doesn’t generate rain reports lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcN5cdn0K60
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Thanks everyone for the inspiration! I finally had the chance to get my Tempest mounted. I used a tripod mount from Amazon and fence-top for the post. It is mounted on top of my house, 8 feet above the peak of the shingled roof.
(I’m only allowed to post one photo. Close up to follow - I hope.)
Question:
I want to calibrate for height AGL. Do I use the “Elevation” setting, or is there another “Height Above Ground” variable in the settings (for Tempest and WeatherUnderground)?
Thank you all.
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This is the height your tempest is above the ground that you have to measure. If you don’t have it then just go to the peak and drop a tape measure down to the ground and add the height of the pole to that figure. The app/WF servers will combine the two to get the actual height above sea level for calibration and sea level pressure display.
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We have an owl box on a 14’ pole that is 1 1/2" galvanized pipe by our orchard. I found a 1 1/2" to 1 1/4" reducing coupler, then a 1 1/4" nipple then a 1 1/4" to 1" reducing coupler to a 3’ section of 1" inside diameter schedule 40 galvanized pipe, which makes it about 1.315" outside diameter. It is a perfect fit
and now my Tempest sits at 17’ above ground level here on top of Howell Mountain… elevation 1,940’. I think it came out really nice. We get some crazy weather up here. My share link is https://tempestwx.com/station/23573
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