My aging memory seems to recall seeing ultrasonic anemometers with NMEA output and built-in GPS at one point, specifically for the sailboat community so that they can extrapolate wind conditions even while in motion.
With GPS chips being cheaper than Fritos these days, how much would it cost to include one in a future version of the hardware? It would even have a secondary use as a time source for the whole WF system, and what geek would not like to have their very own stratum-1 NTP time server on their home network???
Right you are @vreihen . . . both on including a GPS chip in future hardware and, especially, on every geek needing a stratum-1 (or even stratum-2) NTP server in their network. Best I can do here at the moment is a Cisco C3560 serving NTP and synchronizing to USNO. Very, very, very close to the correct time!
I can also see some other uses for mobile weather stations. As an amateur radio operator (WX2P) I participate in numerous ARES/RACES deployments in support of our local (and not so local) emergency services (eg: hurricanes Irene, Sandy and Maria are great examples).
To be able to report weather conditions during such an emergency situation has helped incident commanders dispatch the correct resources to the places where they will be most needed. Tracking flood, road and, yes, current weather conditions by location during an emergency is a big help.
Some of this can be done when there is no Internet connectivity (see @vreihen comments regarding amateur radio APRS systems . . . also other amateur radio efforts like IP-based Broadband Hamnet which provides an Internet-like connectivity via radio over large areas).
Sometimes the historic data and graphs are niceties that can be dispensed with in favor of operational benefits during a disaster response and recovery.
WeatherFlow is well-positioned to help out in this effort because of the affordability of the instruments and, of course, the spectacular staff and cast of field-testers that are making this product so good.
Yes, in your case I actually think the best solution would be to create a new āstationā each time you move. The app would need to make it easy to move your hardware from one āstationā to the other. And of course give you some way to browse your history of āstationsā. Thatās not on our roadmap yet, but something weāll consider in the future.
Or maybe a third-party developer could jump in soonerā¦ What other apps do you use as a RV-er? Our approach is to keep our own app simple, but allow developers easy access to the data.
As for on-board GPS, that will likely find itās way into a future smart weather device, not just for the mobile station case but also to ease installation and reduce the need to enter that information manually.
A good use-case is the Indy Racing League. All of the team trailers have a very sophisticated weather station built in. These stations move from track to track and keep detailed records of data. These arenāt so much āmobileā as they are āportable.ā
In the military the Air Force and Navy have true mobile weather stations. In the Army we used portable stations that were only used when stationary though they would be moved within days or weeks.
The data location is as important as the data itself. There would need to be a method to store the location each time moved Vs storing the location data with the weather data.
A subject near and dear to my heart! I ordered a second WF set when the campaign was open, intending to use it as a portable station in my race car hauler. Over the years, I have competed in conditions that needed numeric quantification to believe. At one event, over 13" of rain fell in 6 hours. Another time, a wind gust blew a porta-potty about 312 feet across the paddockā¦with someone inside! (I had to pace it off and write the accident report insurance form for the āpassengerā who was covered in blue chemical and sewage at the end of his ride.) Spring trips to Mississippi and summer trips to Kansas were usually interesting, and you havenāt lived until you have seen a bunch of adult men grab the mattresses from their motel rooms to prevent their sports cars from getting pelted with hail as a front passed through. My car was safe under the motelās front door canopy, because Iām a weather geek and saw the front approachingā¦
As a side note on the portable station subject, WF has promised to provide the Bluetooth BLE specs. Once that info is available, there is nothing stopping someone from rolling up their sleeves and either making their own hub or writing PC/app software to do anything you want with the sensor data.
In celebration of Pi Day (3/14), the Raspberry Pi Foundation today released a new Pi 3 Model B+ with dual-band 802.11ac wifi and Bluetooth 4.2. The hardware is certainly in place to remove the hub from the picture if someone wants to make a portable setupā¦
For now, you may just do what I do, and that is to update the position of the station when I arrive at my destination. I have used an iPad and a cellular access point to connect to the internet. The station uses very little data so it hasnāt been an issue for me and my 15GB/mo plan Iām on, even when it has been on for over two weeks. The Tempest is great for the RV since it only requires one siting rather than two like the SKY+AIR requires.
FWIW, I have the public location fixed and only change the actual location which WF uses.
Wow. Seems so long ago since I posted this. I did end up satisfying my requirements. I implemented a node-red server, listening to the udp broadcast from the weather flow hub I was able to capture current conditions. My Victron inverters control panel supports a USB GPS receiver and communicates via an embedded mqtt server. Therefore I was easily able to capture my location which I then integrate with dark skys api to pull up the forecast. Finally I use reverse geocaching to display my current location. Works great.
