What is this website?
I have been asked why I have setup several weather stations around Canterbury - my typical answer is 'Because I Can!' The first Weather Station I installed was on View Hill in 2005 which is near Little Akaloa. It was setup so I could see what the weather was like; to turn the spa on and off remotely and to use as a voice repeater as there is no phone or cell-phone coverage in the bay.
From the first Weather Station that has been revised several times and well soak tested; the number of stations has grown to include: Belfast, Methven and the Little Akaloa Wharf which includes the Ocean Temperature. Each weather station is based around the same controller PCB that I have had manufactured professionally. Communication to the sites is via radio communication or the Internet. The image below shows the configuration of the whole setup.
A few pictures of each install are below as well as a brief description.
Little Akaloa - View Hill
This site is located on the northern side of View Hill on Banks Peninsula; it has a pretty good view of North Canterbury.
Little Akaloa - Wharf
This site is installed primarily for seeing what the swimming temperature will be like over summer. The ocean temperature sensor is located approx. 200mm below low tide.
Belfast
This site is currently undergoing a shift to prevent too many warm readings when the temperature sensor gets hit from the sun. There is also a camera on the roof that takes an image every 15minutes during the day.
Methven
This site is housed in an implement shed below Mt Hutt; the data is gathered from the server every half an hour. There are occasionally times when the data from this site is unavailable this is due to the Wireless ISP and frequent power cuts. This site also includes a pressure transducer and a web camera.
