About My Weather Station
| The Weather Station hardware in use at the Altadena WeatherCam is a Davis Vantage Pro 2. I chose the wired version since the wireless version may be susceptible to RF interference from my Ham Radio Equipment. The Sensor Suite is mounted to the side of my house using Uni-Strut and 2" Conduit. The webcam can be seen behind mounted on the eave of the house. |  |
| The Sensor Suite is wired to the Davis Console mounted in the garage on my workbench. It is connected to a computer via a USB Cable. The computer is running software called Cumulus. Cumulus records the data and also uploads the data to my web page, Weather Underground and CWOP. |  |
| The computer is an HP Desktop running Windows XP. It simultaneously runs the following programs: Cumulus which records and uploads weather data, VM95 which records and uploads webcam images and Edcast which streams the NOAA Weather Radio audio. I installed an external 12 volt fan controlled by a thermal switch which comes on automatically on hot days to assist in cooling the computer. |  |
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The Altadena WeatherCam is mounted on the roof of my house.
I am located near the top of Lake Avenue at 1680' Above Sea Level.
The camera is aimed North-Northeast. Echo Mountain is just right of center in this photo behind a Pine Tree.
It is not visible in the WeatherCam Image. The Solar Panels for my Solar Power Plant can be seen on the roof just below the Camera Housing. |
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| The camera is an Olympus C-5050Z. It's a 5 Megapixel Digital Camera with a 3X Zoom.
It is mounted in a Pelco Weatherproof Camera Housing. The Camera is connected to the PC
using two 15 foot Active USB Extension cables along with the 3 foot Camera USB Cable. The Camera is being controlled remotely by a program called VM95 by Erdman Video Systems. A new image is captured every 5 minutes and uploaded to my Web Site. The External Power for the camera and the USB Extension cable are run from inside the garage through 3/4" LiquidTite Conduit into the Camera Housing. |
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| Power to the Webcam, Computer and Weather Station is supplied by an APC XL1000 24Volt UPS.
The UPS System uses two Marathon 90AmpereHour Sealed Valve Regulated Lead Acid Batteries in series.
The two batteries on the left are for the UPS and the three batteries on the right are for my Solar Power Plant
which supplies power for my Radio Equipment, including the Live Streaming NOAA Weather Radio . This provides Data and Image collection, processing and Internet Connectivity for a minimum of 2 hours in the event of a Commercial Power Failure. I also have a generator which can be used for extended outages |
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