VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Here is a summary of some new items after a busy weekend of upgrades:

1. New Columbia Beach Weather Station Computer
I was tired of having the old computer (500mhz/win98) crash about once a week and then either Mattdog or I would have to bug Ron to reset it. So, with help from the recent donations, I was able to buy a new computer. This is the same setup as Gordon's Beach and this should help to keep it running unattended for longer periods.

2. Columbia Beach site now has High Speed Internet
This allows us to have 30 second webcam updates and real time wind updates. Thanks to Mattdog for arranging the installation.

3. Columbia Beach Zoom Cam/Camera Move
The zoom webcam from Gordon's Beach has now been returned to Columbia. I'm hoping I can leave it at Columbia from now on (this will be easier).

So, you may have noticed there is no fancy camera at Gordon's now. I could put the fixed zoom camera that was at Columbia there, but I'm guessing that we don't need 2 cameras at Gordon's for the winter. So, I'm planning on moving it to ISLAND VIEW, if that's ok with everyone. I'm going to send the camera back to the manufacturer and get a motorized zoom lens installed, since a fixed high zoom lens is almost as expensive (and the beach is so far away at IV). Hopefully I'll have it back in 3 weeks and up at Island View at the beginning of Nov. Then this webcam will be swapped back and forth with Gordon's (IV Oct-April, Gordons May-Sept). Make sense?

4. Columbia Real Time Winds
Thanks to the new computer and high speed internet, we can see the winds update every 5 seconds. Here's the Gordon's link too.

5. WAP pages
For all you cell phone web brower users, there is a link to the Columbia and Gordons weather station data from the cell phone. There is a link on the bottom of the pda.wml page and here is what it will look like on your phone:
BWD Latest Reports (links to the weather stations on the bottom)
Gordons Beach (5 minute updates)
Columbia Beach (5 minute updates)

6. Columbia webcam archive
7 days of one minute images are now kept for Columbia Beach here.

Whew, that's about it for now. Thanks for the support, your donations have helped pay for some up the upgrades.
Dave

That's great Dave ! S.E. should start to materialize @ I-view by Nov..

Thanks for the responses - it's always nice to get feedback.

you rock dave

thanks for all your work on behalf of the wind and water addicted. we are people too.

by the way, do you know the phone number for the NWS forecasts so to check our waters by phone when not near BWD? Environment canada, bless their hearts, seem a little, well, out of touch, and unlikely to walk away with the world cup of meterology?

keep up the good work.

regards,

robert

Rob Creese wrote:by the way, do you know the phone number for the NWS forecasts so to check our waters by phone when not near BWD?

Thanks Rob!
The only numbers I know are:
EC Victoria 363-6717
EC Parksville area 250-245-8899

If you have a web enabled cell phone just go to the address:
http://bigwavedave.ca/pda.wml

dave

So will the second cam be going up at gordo's when it returns, or not till next spring?

Dave, my sister has a new cam i got for her on ebay a couple years back, for her to watch her pregnant mare. She hasn't used it since, but I'm not sure if it would be good enough for any bwd use. She paid only a couple hundred for it, or so. No zoom or pan....I'll get the make and model from her if you think it might be of any use.

sorry to bump an old thread, but the webcam at Columbia Beach hasn't been displaying wind speed or direction for several days now.

Is it broken?

Hi Steve:

Good question. We've had lots of problems with the weather station wiring at CB. It appears that the anemometer is no longer working. Either something needs to be reset, or something chewed through the wiring (again), or it's really dead. Mattdog (Matthew) has spent a lot of time there keeping it going. I'll get in touch with him.

I have a new wireless weather station that I bought to replace the old one there, but I need to test it out and then go up there to set it up. So it may take a bit of time to fix...
Dave

As long as it is done by the weekend Dave