RV Weather Station (Update)

[turbopilot]

In June of 2018 I documented the installation of a weather station on my New Aire.

Weather Station on a New Aire - iRV2 Forums

Now that I have moved my NA to an RV storage yard for the Summer I am gaining growing confidence that I can leave the coach fully powered without shore power sustained by the 1kW solar array on the

www.irv2.com

Since then I have put over 14,000 miles on the weather station without any problems. Did a roof inspection today and found two problems. First, the rain cup has departed the rain collector. The rain cup is simply twisted in place without fasteners. So at some point it departed the weather station for parts unknown. I also found the battery door ajar and the batteries close to falling out. Again just press to fit plastic parts. So vibration is takeing a toll.

I took the opportunity to upgrade from the Ambient 2902 to the Ambient 2902A Weather Station. The 2902A reports more parameters and is much easier to couple to the coach WiFi. I taped down the wind cup and battery door to avoid a repeat of the problems with the 2902.

Here is a link to the live output from my coach weather station. The coach as of this post is in an aircraft hanger at Thermal, CA.

https://dashboard.ambientweather.net/devices/public/12a1eae3b2ed77c3d88e1e8427d227aa

 

[Neal]

I had a hunch the rain collector wasn't going to stick around so I siliconed mine in place. I'll have to check the battery compartment, thanks for the heads up. I've shown mine to quite a few people and shared my public link, everyone loves it. Easy to add to your coach, no wiring required as it's all bluetooth I think.

 

[turbopilot]

I had a hunch the rain collector wasn't going to stick around so I siliconed mine in place. I'll have to check the battery compartment, thanks for the heads up. I've shown mine to quite a few people and shared my public link, everyone loves it. Easy to add to your coach, no wiring required as it's all bluetooth I think.

I get a lot of debris and bird crap in the rain measurement device so rain collector needs to periodically come off. Also for those parking the coach indoors you need to replace the roof top weather unit batteries often since the solar collector is not working.

 

[Neal]

I was playing around with my Ambient Weather Station as I have one at home as well as on my roof of my coach. I was wondering what the temps were getting down to here in Tucson over night as last night it was colder than usual. Should I be disconnecting water and bringing in my On The Go Water Softener? I didn't realize the data was charted and discovered it and saw temps down to the mid 30's so that answers that! Great resource.

 

[turbopilot]

Charting function has always been there, just have to scroll down the page to see it.

 

[Neal]

Charting function has always been there, just have to scroll down the page to see it.

No doubt, I just haven't used it. I was tinkering with the widget, bottom center are buttons that take you to things. Cool!

 

[Akdare]

How did you attach the bracket to the roof? Dicor?

 

[turbopilot]

How did you attach the bracket to the roof? Dicor?

3M double sided tape and Dicor.

 

[Chuggs]

I would love to add one of these to our coach...just worried how long the rooftop unit will last getting smacked by low hanging twigs. Many places we go here in the East are wooded and have some unavoidable brushes with trees.

 

[Neal]

I would love to add one of these to our coach...just worried how long the rooftop unit will last getting smacked by low hanging twigs. Many places we go here in the East are wooded and have some unavoidable brushes with trees.

It's lower than the AC. I haven't had an issue to date. I have mine aft of the rear AC I believe.

 

[J&JD]

Probably a really stupid question but doesn’t the unit tend to self destruct riding along in 70mph wind all day while traveling? I have no experience with the unit so I have no idea of its construction or limits.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Maybe, it just serves as an auxiliary speedometer.

TJ

 

[Neal]

Probably a really stupid question but doesn’t the unit tend to self destruct riding along in 70mph wind all day while traveling? I have no experience with the unit so I have no idea of its construction or limits.

I've had no issues with it. I siliconed the rain gauge on, otherwise the spinning wind gauge (anemometer?) just thinks it's that high of a wind speed and it handles it. Just realize "north" is the front of your coach and not north if you orient it that way. It is a very nice thing to have in my opinion. For some reason my inside temps aren't close (I don't think) but it is nice to look at it for outside temps, and the web based information is cool. I can monitor home weather or coach weather as I have two units.

 

[Neal]

Correction. Mine is midway between the AC’s (next to our solar combiner box)