A surfschool or hotel on the beach can become well known quickly and easily by displaying real time weather data and webcam images from a weatherstation and webcam. Surfers have a good reason to return to the webpage every day in order to find out about wind and waves. Service quality and reputation of the weather station owner can be significantly improved.
The webcam should be installed in a place with a good view of the surfspot. If you can install the weather station behind a window pane then the cam does not need to be weatherproof. If you install the webcam outside you need a weatherproof webcam or you need to put the webcam into a weatherproof box. The webcam should installed not too far from your internet line / router / local network (LAN) or your PC (max. 20 meters) because you need to connect the cam to the internet line.
We strongly recommend the Mobotix webcams because they produce high quality images, are extremely reliable and weatherproof. Further they can transfer their images without a computer via a DSL or ISDN line and some models with a serial port even allow you to connect a Davis Vantage Pro weather station or a Reinhardt weather station to the webcam. With the right settings the cam then transfers both cam images and weather data via a DSL or ISDN line. Another advantage is that you can power the webcam through the network cable so you don't need an extra wire for electricity.
If there is no electricity and no internet line you could power the webcam and weather station with a solar panel and use a cellphone or radio modem to transfer the data. The Mobotix cams have many more advantages like optional night vision, motion alert, etc.. Here we just mention the common advantages regarding use as a beach or surf cam and in combination with a weather station.
Here is a list of Mobotix outdoor cams with key features that we recommend. We can sell you any Mobotix cam you want.
| Model | Image resolution [Pixel] | Lens(es) | Ports | Zoom | Price [€] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M22M-IT | 640x480 | fisheye OR wide angle OR telephoto lens | Ethernet, USB | - | 598 |
| M22M-Sec | 1280x960 | fisheye OR wide angle OR telephoto lens | Ethernet, USB | 1x, 2x, 4x | 798 |
| M10M-Basic | 640x480 | wide angle (43 mm) | ISDN, Ethernet | - | 649 |
| M10M-Web | 1280x960 | wide angle (43mm) | ISDN, Ethernet | 1 x, 2x, 4x | 799 |
| M10M-IT | 640x480 | wide angle (43 mm) | ISDN, Ethernet, serial | - | 849 |
| M10D-IT | 640x480 | wide angle AND telephoto lens | ISDN, Ethernet, serial | - | 1099 |
| M10M-Secure | 1280x960 | wide angle (43mm) | ISDN, Ethernet, serial | 1x, 2x, 4x | 999 |
| M10D-Secure | 1280x960 | wide angle AND telephoto lens | ISDN, Ethernet, serial | 1x, 2x, 4x | 1249 |
| D10D-FixDome | 1280x960 | dual combinations of telephoto lens/wide angle/day-night/fisheye | ISDN, Ethernet, serial | 1x, 2x, 4x | 1499 |
For detailed instructions please read the corresponding manual. A standard installation would be to connect the ethernet cable of the webcam to the network (usually a hub, switch, router or another computer). Then you power the webcam with the power adaptor. It may take up to a minute until the webcam is ready. If the cam is connected to the local network then you can access the webcam from another computer on the network. Enter the IP-address printed on the webcam in your browser's address line (10.1.115.28). If your network uses another address range (192.168.0.X) then you need to temporarily reconfigure your network to use the same address range as your webcam (in this case 10.1.115.x). then you can access and configure your webcam. You can also assign a new (dynamic / DHCP) IP address.
If you want to connect a Davis Vantage Pro or Reinhardt weather station to your mobotix cam you need to make sure that you have a weather station with a serial port and connect that to the serial port of your Mobotix cam.
The configuration depends a lot on what you want to do with the cam, e.g. how often you want to upload data, what kind of internet access and rate you have, etc. So please read your Mobotix manual carefully.
In order to transfer the weather data from the weather station to the internet with the help of your Mobotix cam you need to enter the administration menu of the Mobotix cam in your browser, create a new "FTP Profile" named "weatherstation_<your location>" e.g. "weatherstation_tarifa". Then choose "Serial Interface" > "Setup of serial interface, modem and weather station" in the admin menu.
| Serial Interface and Modem Setup | ||
|---|---|---|
| Serial Interface: | Select: Weather | Off: serial interface deactivated. Data: serial interface used as data terminal or for extended signaling. Modem: serial interface used by modem (phone or GSM). Weather: serial interface used to receive data from supported weather stations. |
| Weather Station: | Select: Vantage Pro | Type of weather station |
| Speed: | Select: 19200 bps | Speed of serial interface. |
| Flow Control: | Select: Off | Type of hardware flow control. |
| Text: |
Temperature in: $(meteo.tempin.c) °C Temperature out: $(meteo.tempout.c) °C Wind speed: $(meteo.windspeed.knots) knots Avg. wind speed: $(meteo.avgwindspeed.knots) knots Wind direction: $(meteo.winddir.grad) ° Avg. Wind direction: $(meteo.avgwinddir.grad) ° Precipitation: $(meteo.rainrate.mmh) mm/h Sunrise: $(meteo.sunrise.24h) Sunset: $(meteo.sunset.24h) |
If you want to display the weather data from the weather station IN THE WEBCAM IMAGE then you need to enter something like this. Enter the text and the weather variables for displaying the weather data in the image. Make sure to activate the text display by inserting either the ^S# or ^s# comment variables in the Text & Display Settings dialog. The #-sign represents the number of rows you need. If you want to display the weather data separately then leave this field empty. |
| Refresh Interval: | Select: 1 min | Interval in which the camera is polling the weather station for new data. Off disables polling for stations that send data autonomously. |
| Raw Data Log: | Select: 1 | Log every nth data record to the log file. Selecting 1 will log every record. |
| Raw Data Log Size: | Select: 10 | Number of weather data records per FTP transfer. If the selected number of records has been reached, the log file will be transferred to the FTP server set in the FTP profil |
| Timestamp: | Select: On | Add the camera's date and time information to the weather data stored in the log file. |
| FTP Profile: | Enter: weatherstation_<your location> | FTP profile for transferring the weather data to an FTP server. Choose the name that you entered for your FTP profile ( weatherstation_<your location>). Replace <your location> with the correct value. |
| FTP Directory: | Enter: weatherstation_<your location> | Directory on the FTP server for storing the log file. |
Click "Set" and "Close" to store the configuration.
The server saves the readings in its database from where they can be sent via SMS. On the Windfinder website you'll find a wind diagram for your weather station which you can embed into your own homepage. If you also transfer a webcam image, we will let you know the address (URL) of the image, so that you can embed it as well into your website. You can configure your webcam image so that it displays your website's address.
You can purchase Mobotix webcams and weather stations from various manufacturers at Windfinder.com. Please do not hesitate to contact us.
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