It is a good idea to do the set-up in the comfort of your own home or office. Get the receiver set up, check the transmission is coming through, then take the sensor suite outside and check the transmission before digging the post hole and installing. This is especially true if you have a remote site
Davis Instruments gear likes time when setting up. Why, we don’t know! It may take 5, 10, 15 minutes for a console to start receiving. EnviroMonitor nodes can take a few hours to start reporting. Once they are going, they will keep chugging away for years, but patience on set-up day is required
For us in the Southern Hemisphere, the solar panel will need to face north. The North Americans would set up their Vantage Pro 2 (VP2) sensor suite with the solar panel facing south (to get maximum sun) and the anemometer facing north (to give accurate wind direction). We can install the wind sensor facing south and put in an adjustment of 180 degrees if we don’t want it blocking the solar panel
Davis stations are designed for owner installation
The Davis manuals are excellent and will step you through the stages
Davis Instruments also have a You Tube channel with some great video demos
All Davis sensor suites and outdoor units come with U bolts and all the parts required to mount them to a pole or post. If you have your own pole or post at home, you don’t require anything else
Generally, choose a site that is flat, above grass, and where your wind readings are not blocked by trees or buildings
Keep your sensor suite away from heat radiators, such as concrete, asphalt, and air conditioning units
The World Meteorological Organisation measures temperature and humidity at 1.5-2.1m and wind at 10m, but choose a height that is meaningful for you, your staff, crop or animals
Consider how to keep your sensor suite safely away from stock, orchard machinery and other site hazards
Choose a site that gives you a good representation of the area whose weather you want to measure. For example, for the orchardist, this might be inside a shelter belt, under canopy
Consider how easy it will be to maintain your sensor suite, as leaves and spiders can cause blockages
Avoid sites that may need special safety requirements, such as a roof with limited access
All Davis sensor suites (ISS) are set to transmit on transmission channel ‘ID 1’. Most people do not change this factory setting. So if you know there is another Davis nearby, when installing your sensor suite, consider using another of the 8 channels. Instructions on how to do this can be found in the ISS manual
If the owner agrees, you could just buy a receiver such as the WeatherLink Console and get data from their station. It might be worth checking the reception/distance to your house first
Download the Davis WeatherLink app and have a look. Not all Davis stations are online and not all online stations are set to Public, but you might be able to find the station on the map and save it as a Favourite and get hyper-local weather data for free
