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write your own review of the LaCrosse 2310 Weather Station.
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ZS5J
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Rating: 1/5
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Jul 14, 2006 04:53
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junk
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I did a review of this unit last year, 2 months after I had bought it. My review was rather innacurate, I have realised that this unit falls far short of acceptable.
Being a small unit, I wanted to rely on using the software so I could see all items on the large lcd flat screen of mine. Well....it is very difficult to get the computer and unit to talk, and when I do get them to talk - by repeatedly powering down/up the unit....the unit works fine for a few hours, and then it crashes my computer. I have tried it on all my computers - a pentium 4 desktop, and all three of my pentium 4 laptops. I run XP home and office on all of them.
One time, I couldnt get it to talk to my computer after spending weeks of powering it on and off, and found that the RJ connector, on the unit side, that connects to the pc, was not making connection on the board. So....I hate doing this...but I cut the plug off and soldered the wires directly onto the La Crosse board. It worked again after that. But still, crashing my computer, and choosing when it wants to talk to my computer.
It is also extremely suseptible to rf, just tx on hf, and you get eroneous readings.
Back up service ? absolutely non-existant - they are obviously aware of all the problems, and dont want to confront the hundreds of annoyed customers. I sent 6 polite emails, none of which were acknowledged.
Anyone recommend a good station that I can try ?
73
John ZS5J
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KM5VY
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Rating: 1/5
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Jul 13, 2006 22:42
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You don't get what you don't pay for.
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I have the "Sam's Club Exclusive" version, the WS2317. It is cheaper than the WS2310, but is pretty much the same unit. In my opinion this gadget is a toy. I use the thing wired up to my APRS station and participate in the "Citizens' Weather" program, and it has been a huge headache from day one.
In the first few months I had it, the wireless base unit would lose sync with the outdoor sensor at least three times a week, despite the transmitter and receiver being about 20 feet apart with nothing but a window between them. I would need to remove the batteries from the outdoor unit and/or power down and reset the indoor unit each time it did so, as it would never reestablish contact over hours.
Each time it would lose sync, the computer would receive absurd temperature values from the indoor unit--- for example, it would report that the outdoor temperature was 176 degrees. To prevent that sort of nonsense from being reported to Citizens' Weather I had to hack on the software I used to log the data (Open2300 on linux) to have sanity checks on the data and ignore ridiculous values.
The altimiter (relative pressure) setting in the device is poorly implemented. Instead of allowing you to set an altitude and then computing the relative pressure from the absolute pressure, the thing requires you to enter the relative pressure directly every so often --- if the absolute pressure fluctuates enough you'll find that the formula it uses to compute the change in relative pressure is not valid over a very large range. Basically, I found I had to compute and re-enter the relative pressure about once a day or the thing would be reporting nonsense. In the end, I hacked Open2300 again to ignore the device's self-reported relative pressure and just compute the relative pressure from absolute pressure and known altitude. Once I did that, MADIS-computed error norms for my reported barometer readings dropped back down to acceptable limits.
The "radiation shield" that comes with the unit is essentially useless --- despite having sited the unit according to the CWOP guidelines, MADIS was reporting a clear pattern of solar heating in the temperature data. Eventually I built a "pagoda" style radiation shield out of six 6" diameter plastic flower pots and this went away.
Interestingly, the loss of sync issue pretty much went away after I installed the unit inside the pagoda radiation shield.
As others have reported below, every time I fired up my HF station on 20 meters the weather station would get erroneous rainfall data --- for example, during the extreme drought we had over the winter and spring (when we actually got about .04" of precipitation over the span of several months), the station would suddenly say I'd had 10" of rain per hour after a session at the key.
Just in time for our rainy season, the rain sensor gave up the ghost just a couple of weeks ago. We had several days of very rainy weather, and apparently water got into the temperature/hygrometer unit (to which the rain gauge attaches). Since then, no matter how much rain we get the WS2317 shows no precipitation. This is not due to a broken rain gauge, as the reed switch and rain-catcher still function correctly when I test it with an ohmmeter --- it's entirely in the temperature/hygrometer unit.
The hygrometer is very inaccurate at humidity below about 20%, and since I live in a desert that means that my station is always reporting useless humidity data (MADIS has flagged my dewpoint data as out of acceptable error bounds for almost the entire time I've been reporting my data on APRS, even though barometer and temperature errors are within acceptable limits).
In all, if you're planning on using your weather station for anything like APRS or CWOP, plunk down more cash and get a good weather station. This thing is really more for entertainment than measurement.
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W5GEO
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Rating: 1/5
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Jul 4, 2006 16:52
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Never Worked Right
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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The wind sensor never worked. I don't mean it worked some of the time or wasn't accurate, I mean it never worked. It always read 2-3 mph no matter the wind speed. Customer service is non-existent. No answer to emails. The rain sensor had to be reset often.
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W4LGH
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Rating: 1/5
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Jun 13, 2006 18:53
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Only ggod for short range
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I had one for about 6 months. Works good, when it worked! I was constantly having to go up on the roof and reset it, then it would work ok for few day, then act up again. Also, I did NOT like the way the sensor pluged in 1 transmitter, and 30 day you were changing the batteries.
Have an Oregon Scientific now, Solar powered, and using Weather Display to monitor and run live weatheron my website (www.w4lgh.com)
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W3HII
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Rating: 1/5
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Jun 13, 2006 17:28
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I'm not happy with it
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I have a Lacrosse WS-2317, a similar model that was sold only at Sam's Club. Having lots of trouble with the Heavy Weather Version 2.0 Beta software. It crashes feequently (every 5-10 minutes!)under Windows XP Pro. ALso the receiving/display unit hangs up periodically - everything will stop working - clock stops, buttons don't work and the display don't update. I have to remove AC and battery power for a while to reset it. I thought there may have been some interference to the receiver from a 433 Mhz wireless thermometer, but That unit is now shut down.
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ARRLBOOSTER
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Rating: 1/5
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Jan 29, 2006 22:00
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doggy doo
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Mine failed within a month. Poor design and execution. The CEO should have all the broken units shoved up his loading dock;)
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NB7I
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Rating: 1/5
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Jan 29, 2006 17:45
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Look Elsewhere
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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A friend gave me this thing so he wouldn't have to cuss it every day. Useless for accurate wind measurements. The first time a big gust of wind goes by, you look at it and see nothing due to the long update rate.
The wind speed fan bound up after a couple years in a windy area. The innards corroded. The rain gauge crapped out, corroded. The low range of humidity is 19%; not much use in an area where the humidity is low. Low temp range won't impress anyone up north. The buttons don't work all the time.
Plus - Battery life appears good. Barometer goes up and down.
If you live in an area where the wind never blows, no rain, no extreme temps, humidity never falls below 19%, then you don't need a weather station, anyway.
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WB4QNG
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Rating: 4/5
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Jan 29, 2006 11:12
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Decent
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I think you get what you pay for and this unit is exactly that. It is a full feature weather unit. I have had only two problems with mine. Mine quit working during a heavy rain. I found the cover over the sending unit was missing and it had gotten wet. I brought in the house and dried it out and it worked fine. LaCrosse would not sell me another cover so I now have a pastic cup over it. Only other problem was the rain gage working. I cleaned it out and it works fine now. My biggest compliant is the wind speed. I use mine wireless and since it only updates every two minutes you miss the gust speeds. I have an internet connection to a school with expensive equipment about 5 miles away and its measurements are close. My recomendation is if you are not that much in the weather and just think it would be neat to know the wind speed, rain fall and outdoor temp buy this unit. If you are a weather nut spend the big bucks and get yourself something better.
Terry
WB4QNG
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KD5JCE
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Rating: 3/5
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Jan 15, 2006 17:17
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Would not buy again
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Installation wasn't too bad, except for the u-bolts that came with it. Both had defective threads on the end, as a result it took me hours of searching for new bolts, never did find any, so made do with the defective ones.
The operation is OK, don't like the wind measuring system, it takes much too long to update, as a result you don't get any wind gust measurements, only the average speed over 30 to 120 seconds. I used a very accurate hand held an found on one day we had winds gusting to 35, steady around 22 to 26. The station only showed 22.6 mph. This makes it realatively useless for me. The operation seems ok, wish it had a lamp that would stay on so you could read it a night.
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NY2PO
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Rating: 2/5
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Sep 8, 2005 21:44
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Poor Waterproofing
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Have had my LaCrosse weather station in use for about 18 months here. Best features are barometric pressure, wind speed and humidity readings as they are relatively accurate. Out- door temperature readings are innaccurate. It is 3 degrees in error as compared to more accurate references here at my home. A couple of days ago the temperature and wind guages did not work. I found the problem in the thermo-hygro unit located under the eave of my home. Seems that water vapor in the form of fog had had collected causing internal corrosion which turned the copper traces of the circuit board and other components green. Did a thorough cleanup of board with a burnishing tool and light sandpaper. The corrosion had apparently shorted the traces to each other. After clean-up I resealed the board with nail polish. Found that the thermo-hygro unit is not moisture proof and should be. It would have cost cents to install rubber gaskets. Would not recommend this unit if you live in an area with more than occasional morning fog(dew)as it will find a way into your unit.
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