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Home weather stations and temperature monitors are popular additions to the digital home. Weather reports on TV and radio are great, but they usually can't tell you what's happening right now outside your house.
When you're selecting a home weather station, look for a system with these features:
- Solar power: Solar-powered weather stations eliminate the need to run power wires to your roof or another hard-to-reach location.
- Wireless data transmission: Along with solar power, wireless data transmission eliminates the need to run a lot of wires. Information flows wirelessly from the weather station to a monitoring panel inside your home.
- Internet Protocol (IP) server: An IP server allows you to connect the outputs from the weather monitoring station to your home's Ethernet network. Once connected and configured, the server module lets you monitor the weather readings using a Web browser on any networked computer in your house. If you have a static IP address for your home, you may even be able to use the Internet to monitor the weather conditions at your home from anywhere in the world.
 | WeatherHawk makes home weather stations that have most of the features in the preceding list. They also sell an IP server module that connects to the outputs from the weather station. The server module supplies information to your computer's Web browser over your home's Ethernet network. |
Once you connect a home weather station to your home network, computer software can monitor the weather station input, and use it to automate actions within the home. For example, the software can turn on the air conditioner when the outside temperature exceeds 76 degrees Fahrenheit.
 | The typical computer hookups include the sound card's sound output and microphone input, Ethernet network communications, and USB ports. Connecting computer electronics beyond this may require other standard and even non-standard interfaces. The standard interfaces include RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485. Often the connections for these devices can be over common twisted-pair wire such as Cat 6, and in other instances you have to use shielded cables with very precise connections from and to certain pin numbers on the devices' connections. Closely follow the manufacturer's instructions for connections, pin outs, and cable types when wiring to install any specialized equipment with non-standard wiring requirements. |
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