This is a simple project, but a nice thing to have in your RV for your next camping trip. These weather stations are surprisingly accurate at predicting the weather after they have been running a couple of weeks. Apparently they need to "learn" the weather patterns for accurate results. One curiosity on my part though is when you travel to other areas - how accurate they will remain - and if not - how fast they can reconverge the weather patterns. And I suppose you can anticipate whether or not you need to obtain more firewood for the campfire if cold weather moves into the campground.

I originally considered one of those weather stations that measured humidity, temperature, rain fall, wind direction, and wind speed, but they have a rather large sensor that has to be essentially roof mounted. I could have mounted the sensor package on a pole on the roof ladder, but I would have had to re-align it everytime we went to another location (so the wind direction would remain accurate). As well, any time we went highway speeds, there would be a risk of spinning the anemometer off it's bearings.

So I settled on a weather station that provides temperature, humidity, and pressure, along with morning, noon, and night weather predictions. It can also provide a history graph of the temperature, humidity, and pressure from the last 12 hours.

Installation of the exterior sensor was a breeze, and I was able to mount the sensor on the hitch at the rear of the RV. The sensor has a range of 330ft, so it was well within the operation parameters. I found I had full signal strength from the sensor.

The best place to mount the sensor is somewhere out of the sun, which certainly applies for the location I chose.

I mounted the remote sensor with a double-hook mesh loop pile called "Power Grip Tape" - similar, but much stronger than Velcro. I don't think there will be any issues with the sensor falling off. However, I may put a cable tie around it for safety's sake.

The weather station itself was mounted in the main salon, below the television. I had to drill a hole in the wall to do this, and I further secured the station by adding another strip of the Power Grip Tape.

While I hate drilling holes in walls and such, it is a necessary task for these kind of things, and as long as you make it look nice, there is not really any issue. The only time it would be a bad thing is if you really "gooched" up the project.

Completed project.

  

 

Installation Video.

 

 

Operational Overview.

 

 

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References:

AcuRite Website