David Hayward has a go at predicting when it's going to rain
As Mrs Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility once said, "If you cannot think of anything appropriate to say, you will please restrict your remarks to the weather", which demonstrates the British fascination of the weather past, present and future.
It's obviously something we take considerable time over. There are umpteen weather apps installed on our phones and desktop, as well as reports every half-hour on the radio. Perhaps it's not just a British thing? Maybe it's a human thing?
To help satisfy our odd addiction to the weather, Archos has introduced a smart weather station that works with an accompanying Android and iOS app.
The Weather Station consists of three main elements: an outdoor sensor, indoor sensor and a soil module. Both the indoor and outdoor sensors are a pair of spheres with white plastic upper hemispheres and a polished aluminium lower hemisphere. The soil module is a long probe-like device with a rounded top, where the sensor and electronics are housed along with the battery compartment.
It's quite an impressive, futuristic-looking setup and thankfully remarkably easy to use. All you need to do is download the Archos Weather Station app from the relative store (or by scanning the appropriate QR code on the box), power up the indoor orb followed by the outdoor orb and the soil module and locate the kit via wi-fi on your phone.
When you've registered the kit with the Archos app, you can then go through the motions of pairing everything, which each module will enter when you insert the batteries. The indoor orb connects to the app through its built-in wi-fi connection, then it communicates to the outdoor module and soil module via an RF connection, which is good for at least 100m (30m for the soil module).
The data available from the indoor orb is quite interesting, covering temperature ranges from -5°C through to 50°C, humidity from -1 % to 99%, atmospheric pressure from 850hPA to 1050hPA, CO2 levels from 0ppm to 5000ppm and a noise sensor that measures from 35dbA to 110dA.
The outdoor orb measures the temperature from -50°C to 70°C and humidity from -1 % to 99%, while the soil module reports soil temperatures from -50°C to 70°C and humidity from -1 % to 99%. Sadly, there's no rainfall monitor or wind speed indicator available for the outdoor kit.
The information display on the app is well ordered and split into four sections detailing a three-day forecast, the indoor measurements, outdoor measurements and the state of the soil. You can opt to view more detailed information on the current views, as well as setting up alerts altering the station configuration and changing your preferences.
Over time, the data can be viewed in a variety of graphs, so you can monitor the improvement of air quality inside different parts of the home, for example, or the quality of the soil if you're planning on planting something more exotic than our climate can normally handle in the greenhouse. There's not a huge amount of data involved, but it does have its uses.
The Archos Weather Station is a fun kit to have. There are real-world uses for it, as well as the scientific fascination involved with changing environmental units. It's fun, basically. However, at around £100, it is a little pricey. David Hayward