Electronic barometer

[B_Hunter45]

Looking for an electronic barometer.
weems had the 4002 model (still on sale in some places) now they have offer the mintaka ( 300% more expensive). Is the 4002 good? does someone have experience with another system?

[Paul L]

The NADA metoman has worked well for us at a decent price.

[rbk]

I’ve been using Garmin etrex handheld gps with barometer. It doubles as backup navigation, anchor alarm in my berth where I can actually hear it and can track and record barometric pressure, tides, moon/sun all the usual gps functions etc. They aren’t cheap but do serve multiple purposes.

[Cat36Mahalo]

Yacht Devices has one.

[Ivanvet]

If you already have a NMEA network, you can get this barometer and It'll appear on your chartplotter.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Cpt Pat]

I have a Peet Brothers weather station aboard. It has remained accurate over several years after initial calibration. The wind gauge however failed after a few years when debris in a 50kt gale hit the sensor. I also gave up on using the rain gauge - bird poop filed the sensor.

Here's the output plotted by APRS telemetry: https://aprs.fi/weather/N8QH-9.

https://www.peetbros.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=2

[Snore]

I use my iPhone X. "There's an app for that"- the app also tracks trends.

[dksail]

We have the 4002 model and I would have to say we are disappointed. Not at all what I think of when I think of Weems and Plath quality. The buttons are flimsy and the setup is cumbersome. One of our buttons quit working so we returned it for another. Seems to work okay, but I would not buy another one at any price over $50.00. I can see why they have discontinued it.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Ivanvet

If you already have a NMEA network, you can get this barometer and It'll appear on your chartplotter.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Or get probably the same sensor for a fraction of the cost >
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32672210336.html

Add an arduino or esp32 to get the data into a computer then add signalk to make some nice charts

[Ivanvet]

Originally Posted by conachair

Or get probably the same sensor for a fraction of the cost >
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32672210336.html

You can't beat that price!!

[a64pilot]

I have this one, largely because it’s been calibrated to NIST standards and comes with a Cal card.
Now people argue that you don’t need a calibrated one, and they are correct, but if it’s not been calibrated you have no idea of whether it really works or not, and if it’s showing the true drop in pressure or not.
I have a large mechanical one that hangs on the wall, and it’s pressure only changes very little. It’s pretty much worthless except as a decoration.

Anyway you need a graph over the last at least 12 hours cause it’s the change in pressure and not jus the pressure your worried about.
https://www.thomassci.com/Instrument...ital-Barometer

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have this one, largely because it’s been calibrated to NIST standards and comes with a Cal card.
Now people argue that you don’t need a calibrated one, and they are correct, but if it’s not been calibrated you have no idea of whether it really works or not, and if it’s showing the true drop in pressure or not.
I have a large mechanical one that hangs on the wall, and it’s pressure only changes very little. It’s pretty much worthless except as a decoration.

Anyway you need a graph over the last at least 12 hours cause it’s the change in pressure and not jus the pressure your worried about.
https://www.thomassci.com/Instrument...ital-Barometer

Doing a one time calibration when you are near an airport should be good enough for the barometric pressure use on a cruising boat. The Nasa unit I referenced above supports user calibration. I think I did it 4 years ago or so.
The absolute value of pressure is not near as useful as having a good, clear trend line.

[a64pilot]

Without a multi point calibration, you don’t know it actually works.
For example I can “calibrate” my mechanical one by moving the pointer to the correct pressure, but when the pressure changes, it only shows about half the change, so a major storm can be coming, but barometer only shows a small drop in pressure, despite the fact it was calibrated.

It’s sort of like a watch that doesn’t work it’s right twice a day.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Without a multi point calibration, you don’t know it actually works.
For example I can “calibrate” my mechanical one by moving the pointer to the correct pressure, but when the pressure changes, it only shows about half the change, so a major storm can be coming, but barometer only shows a small drop in pressure, despite the fact it was calibrated.

It’s sort of like a watch that doesn’t work it’s right twice a day.

After I did the calibrate I've compared to other readings multiple times. They are certainly close enough for the way I use a barometer while cruising. No need to make this overly complicated. It is just one additional piece of info while dealing with weather.

[Pizzazz]

A barometer is just a pressure sensor. It turns out that it is relatively easy to measure pressure and you have all sorts of cheap electronic barometers that measure pressure accurately. You do not need an expensive pressure sensor, they are all pretty accurate.

Wind sensors on the other hand are difficult. So, get any electronic barometer or two, play around with calibration and you will be OK. Spend money on the wind sensor.

SV Pizzazz