For the past few years when people ask me what I would like for Christmas, I usually say ‘whatever’ is fine. This year I actually said what I always wanted… an Oregon Scientific Weather Station and an inexpensive webcam. I put it on the top of my list as adamantly as Ralphie asked for the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle. Without the danger of shooting my eye out, my parents granted my wish and delivered this year! As with any project, it’s not worth doing unless you’re going to do it right. With this in mind, I decided to employ some power tools into the mix and make the project a bit more interesting. If I can’t shoot an eye out at least I run the risk of losing a finger with a table saw.

For the Weather Station, I really didn’t want to just mount it to the facia of the house. I know that the house can create small thermals and micro climates throwing off the weather data. Armed with some measurements and a template of some of the weather instruments I headed off to Home Depot to build some type of weather station mount. As you can see from the photo below, I found a pretty simple solution.

I made a plexi glass base for the rain gauge on top mounted to 1” PVC plug (not a cap). Then I used 1” PVC pipe with some ubolt’s to attach it to our small shed in the back yard. I mounted the wind direction and speed instrument below with another ubolt and then used silicon to seal all the holes in the shed where the bolts attached. I also added a set screw to the top plug to make changing batteries on the rain gauge easier. At the bottom of the assembly, I added a threaded rod with some adjustment nuts and a teflon tip to allow me to make adjustments to the mount and make sure it was perfectly vertical.

Next, I needed to create a mount for the webcam that I wanted to put in the front yard. It’s not an outdoor webcam, so I needed to create an enclosure and an adjustable mounting bracket. I used the same methods as with the weather station, although I didn’t use ubolt’s. Instead, I used an additional PVC plug and attached that under the eaves. This made for a much cleaner and finished look and the final bracket is hardly noticeable from the front of the house. I also created a simple 3 sided plexi glass cube to keep the cam dry from the elements. I kept the bottom of the box open to allow for ventilation and to avoid having the cube get fogged up inside. I also used set screws for the bracket arm to allow me to adjust/maintain the camera easily.

From start to finish this project took me about 3 hours including the trip to Home Depot and the total cost of the hardware was under $10. My next step is developing the other half of this little project, a website/app that collects all this information and displays it for me. Excessive… sure, geeky… you bet, fun hobby project to keep me busy around the house… success! I’ll be following up this post with more as my weather/cam project develops.