Marazion Webcam and Weather Station Update – Dec 2021

Epic news! The guys from Surfline have sorted us out with a new Wind Meter!!!

Unfortunately it is not the exact same model as before so we need to figure out how to get it working, but at least it’s something!

Next steps are doubling the battery output and hooking up the solar, and obviously getting the thing working!

Marazion Webcam and Weather Station Update – Nov 2021

Well, the good old Cornish weather has certainly done us a solid this time. Unfortunately our (almost) brand new weather station has completely been given a makeover by the fresh sea air. One recurring subject at The Hoxton Special is that sea air and electronics certainly do not mix!

The station has been down for the last week as we fiddled with different types of batteries, cleaning the solar panels and generally fiddling with bits and bobs.

Things we tried.

• Cleaning Everything
• New Re-Chargeable Battery (Wrong Size)
• A New Re-Chargeable Battery (Right Size)
• A Non-Rechargeable Battery (Turns out the weather station is not designed to use rechargeable batteries)
• Sanding back and cleaning the contacts again.

Finally after serious cleaning of everything including the contacts on the inside, I decided to open it up and take a look, unfortunately there is so much corrosion that the battery contact has completely sheared off!

Beyond Repair.

I have been in touch with Weather Shop and unfortunately Davis do not sell spare parts for the Vantage Vue. So as of now, no station.

As usual I will keep everything updated here.

Stay Tuned.

Marazion Webcam and Weather Station Update – Oct 2021

The Kitesurfers, Windsurfers and Wing Foilers will be super happy to know that we have successfully managed to install an inverter and a battery protector into the hut!

This will mean that you should have almost un-interrupted weather station data all year round. Well maybe not all year round but at least until the batteries run out!

We are now one step closer to having the a fully automated weather station that works even when we are not here.

This has been a massive step forward for us and has taken a lot of trial and error, so thank you all for your patience, we are getting there 🙂

Our weather station runs on coffee.

The weather station takes a a lot of looking after and a lot of man hours, not to mention a lot of money to get it working to a point where it is completely automatic.

If you like using it please support us by popping in any purchasing a coffee or two at out hut.

As the wind gets steadily more consistent over the next few months kitesurfing in Cornwall will really start to come into it’s own again! We will continue to work towards our dream of a completely off-grid weather station, and eventually a completely self sufficient Kitesurfing School.

We are looking forward to catching up with you all after your session and are currently open 10-4 Thursday to Monday.

You can get to our webcam and weather station here

Marazion Webcam and Weather Station Update – May 2021

Stage four of the webcam build is to install the batteries and get a battery protector connected so that if the voltage goes below 12volts the load wil be cut.

This is SUPER important because Lead-Acid batteries do not do well under 50% charge. Once the battery dips below 50% it actually damages the battery and it will not hold it’s charge as well as before. What happens is a sort of cascade effect…

When the batteries are discharged the first some, some minor damage occurs. This means that the batteries do not hold their charge as well as before and therefore become discharged easier in the future. If you are running a daily cycle of charge and discharge then it only takes a matter of days before your batteries are rendered useless.

Last year we ruined a £440 battery bank by leaving my phone accidentally plugged in over night.

We chose the Victron Smart Battery Protect, it’s a very swanky bit of kit, but we are having trouble with getting it to work properly. Currently it is on it’s way back to the supplier to be checked for proper operation and will hopefully be returned either fixed or with some instructions on how to get it working. It has had myself and 12 Volt Planet absolutely stumped for the last month.

Marazion Webcam and Weather Station Update – April 2021

Right,

So just to help everyone out with a staged plan so you can all see whats to come, i’m just going to outline the stages that we are aiming to complete.

Phase 1: Live weather while we are open.

Install the internet, buy the equipment, set it up and get it working while we are open.

Stage 1: Complete!

Get the webcam up and running. It currently runs while we are open. It’s important to understand that the hut is completely off-grid so we only have power while the generator is running.

Read: The Problem With Getting Internet…

Stage 2: Pending

Get the live wind meter working. We currently have a Meteo bridge Pro, which was working fine up until last week, then it stopped. We are not sure why….

Stage 3:

Network Propagation, this is just a fancy way of saying that our weather and images will be available on multiple apps and weather websites.

Phase 2: Live Weather while we are open and closed during summer.

Stage 4: Complete

Purchase and install a smart switch and a battery bank so that we can have power while we are closed. This will work as long we charge the batteries every morning. The battery protector will automatically cut off the webcam if the batteries become discharged, saving the batteries from damage.

Read: The Trouble With Battery Protectors.

Stage 5:

Install a smart switch. We are going to build a Raspberry Pi smart switch which will turn off and on the webcam and live weather feed during nighttime. This will help save on battery power which will come into play later.

Phase 3: Live weather Summer and Winter.

Stage 6:

Installation of solar charging for batteries. Together with the battery protector and the Smart Switch this will mean that the webcam can be live during daylight hours all year round, even when the hut is closed over winter.

Stage 7: A yearly party to celebrate!

A giant party to celebrate that fact that we did it! So far it has cost us £4,500 and it continues to cost us £40pcm to run. Hopefully we can raise some funds to help with upkeep and running costs.

Marazion Webcam and Weather Station Update – Oct 2020

Righty, time for a quick update!

Lockdown has finished, although we may well be heading into another one in a few weeks, who knows.

BT have finally finished the necessary repairs to the phone line which hopefully is the end of those particular problems. We now have a 6meg connection which is fast enough to live stream a webcam out to everyone on the internet.

Our problems now come with the fact that the salt water seems to have destroy ed our camera and we still need to set up some port forwarding and finally an interface that will allow you all to see the bay and get a wind reading at will.

Moving forward we hope to have a new webcam installed in the next few weeks. After that we shall start tackling the port forwarding issues (the stem of all our troubles, which should be resolved by using a static IP off a phone line, instead of a data connection)

As always you can find the live wind feed on wind finder for your viewing pleasure. Just search for The Hoxton Special.

Okay that’s it!

Marazion Webcam and Weather Station Update – May 2020

Hello everyone again! So I have just spoken to BT who have very nicely offered to hook us up with a 4G connection to the Hut, unfortunately I explained to them that we already have a 4G connection and that we need a landline to actually be able to do what we need to do. Which is allow you all to log on to the camera remotely from a non-local connection i.e from your homes or wherever you are that isn’t in The Hoxton Special.

The fight goes on!

Marazion Webcam and Weather Station Update – March 2020

COVID-19 has stopped all work until further notice, sorry guys!

Marazion Webcam and Weather Station Update – March 2020

Hey everyone,

Just to fill you in. We are still trying to get a solid internet connection to the hut. It has turned out not to be a simple job at all.

Just to fill you in: We need a landline connection to make a live video feed possible. Currently we have a high speed data connection but due to a fundamental difference in the technologies used this will not work.

BT and Openreach are doing everything in their power to help and are being incredibly transparent. They have just sent me this update.

Marazion Webcam and Weather Station Update – Feb 2020

Hi everyone!

So a few of you have been asking for updates for the weather station and webcam. You can access the weather station from windfinder at the moment. Once we have everything up and running the plan is to get everything shared with the other popular weather sites as well.

Currently we are waiting on an internet connection. The Box which was dug up early this week needs to be altered and a different team are going to be responsible for that.

I will update this post again as soon as something else happens!