W-8681 Wireless Weather Station

 

 

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The W-8681 Wireless Weather Station is made by the Chinese specialist manufacturer of this type of weather product, Fine Offset Electronics Co Ltd, and is a badge engineered version of their WH 1080 model. Their products are sold under various brand names and model numbers; a look at Fine Offset's web site shows the various options and models they manufacture. This model also looks identical to the WH 1081 model - but the 1080 does not have the radio-controlled clock.

This W-8681 is a Watson badged version and, although "Professional" may be a little optimistic, this model will suit the serious amateur weather forecaster nicely. It is pretty good value at between £70 and £80 and not many years ago the features here would have been likely to cost you up to three times as much.

The first thing you will need to do is assemble the outdoor sensor unit which is quite a bulky item - the illustration on the box does not do it's size justice! It comes with a two-section stub mast which can be stuck directly into the ground for low level readings or, ideally, mounted on a pole or mast. Bearing in mind that, although the rain gauge is self-emptying, you will need to access the transmitter unit periodically to replace the 2AA batteries which power it. The spec says the batteries should last up to two years - that may be a little bit optimistic.

A set of Phillips screwdrivers and some small spanners will be required to attach the various sensors and measuring devices to the stub mast. All the fixings are provided including cable ties, screws and nuts and about half an hour should have it up and running. The main niggle in connecting up is the "generous" amount of cable provided on a couple of the sensors - this has to be accommodated on the mast somehow! I found underneath the arms supporting the rain gauge and transmitter to be the best places for this. Some of the units interconnect with each other, others direct to the transmitter; all use telecoms style connectors. As these sensor units also work with Fine Offset's other products as well they are not necessarily designed specifically to be fitted like this - build it as you like it yourself!

That's the tricky part done, all that is needed now is to put the 3AA batteries into the base unit and you're off. The first thing that will happen is the base will search for the transmitter and this can take a few minutes - don't touch anything while this is going on! The internal readings show as soon as the batteries are put in the external ones show when the transmitter is found. Once that happens you can touch the screen to see how it works - it's all pretty intuitive. You can change measuring units, check weather history and do all the other things by just touching the correct area of the screen; about half an hour should see it mastered.

There are a couple of niggles with the screen - firstly, it soon becomes very grubby unless your fingers are spotless! The touch-screen membrane is fitted over the LCD display so the display has to be read through it - this can make it a bit difficult to see. Don't think that there is a protective cover and try to remove it or you will damage the touch-screen! The LCD contrast is defaulted to 5 (of 8) this needs to be changed to 8 for a better chance of reading it. Touch Time zone once - reads LCD5 - press + three times to change to LCD8. The screen illumination is also pretty poor - four green LEDs that light for about 5 seconds when the screen is touched. Probably the worst LCD screen lighting I have ever seen!

All in all a pretty good product, reasonably priced and with many features which will give the right person a lot of fun. There is even some software provided and a USB cable for downloading the data to a computer for record keeping or sharing with others. This is pretty basic stuff though - the current version (v 6.1) of the easyweather software can be downloaded from the Fine Offset web site if a preview is required. A few niggles but still worth four stars.

Being a bit of a amateur weather geek i decided to upgrade my old weather station and opted for the watson.Very easy to set up, wireless connection no problem, comprehensive data stored accessed by pc, all settings can also be changed, ive heard many problems experienced using the software that comes with it, however no problems with windows 7, quad core cpu and 6 gb of ram, however it does stretch the cpu a bit, which may be a problem on an older pc, the screen is covered by a thin membrane which is the touchscreen , i thought the inner screen would be plastic but it isnt, so dont drop it as it will shatter, as i have found out to my cost when i accidently knocked it off the wall with my ladder!. I have ordered a replacement as it is a reliable piece of kit,the generous amount of cable is an understatement, and spray the terminals once you have set up with corrosion inhibitor or wd 40, to keep out the damp.

I bought this product back in June.

The product is pretty easy to set up, but on my first unit, the transmission from the outdoor sensors stopped when the unit got cold. That was replaced under warranty.

The replacement unit is behaving better, though the calibration of the humidity is suspect, pegging at 87%. I could take the entire unit down again, and send it back I suppose, but I'll probably just live with it.

The software included is awful, and I'm in the process of writing a new version, which will be available on the Wieser Software Ltd website when it's eventually available. It's currently difficult at best to use the logged data, and the timestamps in the downloaded data are a little suspect.

The range on the unit is pretty good. I have my station placed 100 feet down the garden, and reception usually works through both walls of a brick garage, 1 external wall of the house and 3 internal walls. I'm not sure about battery life yet.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Fine Offset weather station.
Hi,
I have had this weather station (Fine Offset) for about 3 weeks now and for the money it is very good value. Read more

Published 21 days ago by R. Claytor

4.0 out of 5 stars Really great for the money
Had this over a year now and I must say it has been great.

Everything is still running on the supplied batteries (although the screen side is also plugged into a PC an... Read more

Published 1 month ago by W. Stallwood

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm in agreement with other reviews
Having just finished setting up the unit (easy) and getting rid of the mass of cable (try wrapping it around the mounting arms and tubes/pole)I,m now pondering how to reset some... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Co-Sec

4.0 out of 5 stars Good fun and value but not really an accurate metrological tool
I found that to ensure that there were few missed recorded values the distance between the base station and the outside instruments must be only a tiny fraction of that claimed... Read more

Published 20 months ago by Dave

4.0 out of 5 stars Ugly machine
Works well, looks horrible in the garden. The instructions are as brief as a haiku, so don't buy this if you're not prepared to spend hours trying to sort out how it works. Read more

Published on 15 Feb 2010 by book maven

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Does exactly what it says on the box, very good buy and very pleased with it. Bought another one for the Son, he is also pleased with the product.

Published on 27 July 2009 by George D. Eades

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