[Klug-general] Linux weather station!

[Benjamin Donnachie]

Just wondering whether anyone has any practical experience of running
a Linux-based weather station?

Long story, but after years of neglect I've decided that it's time I
made progress with my garden.. and being a geek I've decided that a
weather station that sends me frost alerts etc is the only way to
progress!  I've already got CAT5 laid to the end of the garden and a
spare machine ear-marked for the job.  One day I may even tackle the
weeds/jungle/nature reserve...

I quite like the WSI-603 1-wire Weather Station Kit[1] and will look
into modifying wview[2] or OWW[3] to work with it.  Over time I'd
quite like to add a range of home-brew sensors including rain[4],
humidity, pressure and various stats on the state of the soil.
However, as much as I like attempting to build electronic circuits, I
seem to possess a massive static charge and can kill an IC from the
other side of the room even wearing an earth strap.  Also toying with
the idea of expanding my current X10 infrastructure to facilitate
automatic irrigation[5], but I suspect a watering can will prove more
effective!

Anyone tried this sort of set up or similar?  Any pitfalls?  Any
advice on home-brew sensors and connecting them up?  Anyone used the
1-wire protocol under Linux?

Many thanks! :)

Ben


[1] http://www.audon.co.uk/1-wire_weather.html
[2] http://www.wviewweather.com/
[3] http://oww.sourceforge.net/
[4] http://www.edcheung.com/automa/rain.htm
[5] http://www.laser.com/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=71&category_id=0ea352fe93bd371eddebbab31a05fcfb&