Weather software, dataloggers and data plans
A weather station shows you the weather now. Software and a datalogger let you keep it — building an archive you can search, graph, export and publish rather than a display that overwrites itself.
This range covers three things: desktop software for archiving and analysis, hardware dataloggers that connect a station to a computer or network, and cloud subscriptions that store your data online and make it available on a phone or through an API. For the stations themselves, see home weather stations and the professional weather station range.
Davis WeatherLink
WeatherLink is Davis Instruments' data platform, and it is the most complete of the systems we supply. It exists in two generations, which is the first thing to get straight.
The older route is a hardware datalogger plugged into a Vantage Vue or Vantage Pro2 console, feeding Windows software on a local machine. The WeatherLink 2.0 Windows software with USB datalogger and the serial port version cover this. It suits anyone who wants their archive held locally, on their own machine, with no dependence on a cloud service.
The current route is WeatherLink Live 6100, a small network device that receives the sensor transmission directly and uploads to the WeatherLink cloud. There is no PC to leave running, the data is available on any device, and it will stream from any Davis wireless station. For most people setting up today, this is the right answer.
WeatherLink cloud plans
Basic WeatherLink cloud access is included with the hardware and covers current conditions plus a limited history. The paid plans exist for people who need the archive rather than the display.
WeatherLink Pro, one year extends history retention, shortens the upload interval, and adds full data export and API access — the plan to choose if you are archiving seriously, feeding data into another system, or contributing to a network. WeatherLink Pro over three years is the same plan at a lower annual cost.
WeatherLink Pro+ adds agricultural modelling on top: evapotranspiration, degree days, disease and pest models, and crop-specific alerts. It is aimed at growers making spray, irrigation and harvest decisions from their own site data, and it needs a station fitted with solar radiation measurement to be useful.
Davis Connect data plans
Where a station sits somewhere without Wi-Fi — a field, a remote site, a second property — Davis Connect hardware uploads over the cellular network instead, and that requires a data plan. Plans are sold by upload interval: five minutes for near-live monitoring, fifteen minutes as the usual compromise, and sixty minutes where you only need a record rather than a live view.
Shorter intervals cost more and consume more data, so choose on the basis of what you will actually look at. Most agricultural and environmental monitoring runs perfectly well at fifteen minutes. Call 01243 558280 for current plan pricing and to confirm which plan matches your hardware.
HOBO and HOBOware
HOBO dataloggers are the standard choice for standalone environmental logging — temperature, humidity, light, voltage and pulse inputs recorded to the device rather than transmitted live. HOBOware Pro is the software that configures the loggers and reads them back, and it is stocked as a download, on USB and on CD for machines without an internet connection or for sites where downloads are restricted.
For MX series Bluetooth loggers, LI-COR Cloud MX data plans provide one-year cloud subscriptions so readings sync from the logger to a cloud archive rather than only to a phone. See data loggers for the hardware.
SpecWare and SpecConnect
Spectrum Technologies equipment is used mainly in agriculture and horticulture, and it splits the same way. SpecWare 10 Basic and SpecWare 10 Pro are desktop applications for downloading and analysing WatchDog logger and station data, with the Pro version adding disease and insect models and more advanced reporting.
SpecConnect is the cloud side. Subscriptions are sold by modem type and device count: SpecConnect Web Portal Pro for Wi-Fi modems and SpecConnect Web Portal Pro for cellular modems both run for one year. There are also FieldScout Pro subscriptions banded by number of devices, a rain and temperature station subscription, and an initial setup fee charged per device fitted with a modem. If you are specifying a SpecConnect installation, call us — the combination of modem type, device count and setup fees is worth confirming before ordering.
Free and third-party software
Weather Display is long-established third-party software that talks to a wide range of station hardware, including many models that never had good manufacturer software of their own. It is worth knowing about if you own an older or unusual station. See the Weather Display range for details.
Davis also publishes upgrade paths for older WeatherLink versions, including a V5 upgrade and a Mac OS X build, which are listed here for owners of legacy hardware.
Which do you actually need?
If you want to look at your weather on a phone from anywhere, you need a cloud-connected device and the included basic plan. If you want to keep everything and analyse it later, you need either local software with a datalogger or a paid cloud plan with export access. If you are making growing decisions, you need Pro+ or SpecWare Pro and a station that measures solar radiation. If your station is somewhere without internet, you need cellular hardware and a data plan.
Pricing on software, dataloggers and subscriptions changes with licence terms and supplier pricing, and several items here are configured to order. Call 01243 558280 and we will confirm the right combination for the station you own or are planning.