I am looking at updating my weather station to something that is from this century. Currently use a hand held tag from the mid 90's. Bought it new and it is still going strong.

I was looking at the Kestrel 5100 to replace it and get more pertinent weather info. Anyone with any feedback on this unit? I really don't want to spend 1000 bucks on a trailer unit.

I stopped selling these because the readings went up and down so quickly you couldn't tell which ones to use.

If you let it sit for long enough the readings eventually settle down. Don't leave them in the sun, or inside your car.

For a bit more you can get a real trailer station from us. $599 includes everything you need and is far more accurate.

Ultimeter Weather Station

I use one and really like it. I use the lanyard on a carabiner and hang it from my belt loop when I go to the line with the car (one of my sons are driving). When the car leaves I push the snap shot button and it records the weather at that very moment with a date and time stamp. Then at the trailer I take that information and write it on the time slip and enter it into CC. I leave it hang from the lanyard in the shade by the trailer.

If you put it in your pocket, lay it down on something, or hold it tight in you fist, it so sensitive it will skew the numbers.

I run methanol and the grains per pound is what I watch.

I bought the docking station for my lap top and you can set it up to record at different time intervals (say every 15min) during the day. You can also print out the days weather readings for those intervals in excel form.

Just my experience.

Tom

Thanks for the info guys.

Don, does the Ultimeter do Water Grains and/or vapor pressure? We are on Alky and I am looking for the missing figure that moves the car that I am currently not looking at. I believe it to be vapor pressure, but may be mistaken.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Higgins Crew Chief Pro Software:
For a bit more you can get a real trailer station from us. $599 includes everything you need and is far more accurate.

"Far more accurate" says the salesman trying to peddle weather prediction gadgets.

quote:

Originally posted by Boucher Jr:

quote:

Originally posted by Don Higgins Crew Chief Pro Software:
For a bit more you can get a real trailer station from us. $599 includes everything you need and is far more accurate.

"Far more accurate" says the salesman trying to peddle weather prediction gadgets.

?

I can sell both weather stations, but the 5100 isn't all that great of a weather station. Not selling any "gadgets" just real world information from 35 years of being in business.

I literally have 4 different weather stations on a test stand all the time, making sure everything is working the way it should. So, that means I don't take other people's opinions without fact checking for myself. This is one of the reasons I've been in business so long. When I tell a customer my opinion on a weather station it isn't what makes me the most money, it will always be what works best for a given situation and budget.

Quality and value is not a gadget. Racers expect me to have a qualified opinion on everything I sell, and I am definitely qualified to give an opinion on weather stations.

quote:

Originally posted by CHampshire:
Thanks for the info guys.

Don, does the Ultimeter do Water Grains and/or vapor pressure? We are on Alky and I am looking for the missing figure that moves the car that I am currently not looking at. I believe it to be vapor pressure, but may be mistaken.

I'm in the same boat as you. I have 75 runs of good data right now with the Kestrel 5100. I've been tracking DA, Humidity, Temp., Moisture grains, and Barometer

I am also on Alky and can't find any major correlation day to day from these figures. For example if humidity decreases, the car should pick up. At times it does, other times it does not. A few weeks ago, humidity went down, temp went down, other variables relatively constant; but car slows down slightly?

There has to be something I'm not looking at that is changing.

quote:

Originally posted by Holytown:

I'm in the same boat as you. I have 75 runs of good data right now with the Kestrel 5100. I've been tracking DA, Humidity, Temp., Moisture grains, and Barometer

I am also on Alky and can't find any major correlation day to day from these figures. For example if humidity decreases, the car should pick up. At times it does, other times it does not. A few weeks ago, humidity went down, temp went down, other variables relatively constant; but car slows down slightly?

There has to be something I'm not looking at that is changing.

Same exact thing here... glad I'm not the only one.

quote:

Originally posted by Holytown:

quote:

Originally posted by CHampshire:
Thanks for the info guys.

Don, does the Ultimeter do Water Grains and/or vapor pressure? We are on Alky and I am looking for the missing figure that moves the car that I am currently not looking at. I believe it to be vapor pressure, but may be mistaken.

I'm in the same boat as you. I have 75 runs of good data right now with the Kestrel 5100. I've been tracking DA, Humidity, Temp., Moisture grains, and Barometer

I am also on Alky and can't find any major correlation day to day from these figures. For example if humidity decreases, the car should pick up. At times it does, other times it does not. A few weeks ago, humidity went down, temp went down, other variables relatively constant; but car slows down slightly?

There has to be something I'm not looking at that is changing.

With alky you need to look at the amount of water in the air, humidity alone isn't enough because it's temperature dependent! Meaning 50% at 70 degrees vs 50% at 85 degrees is not the same!! Warm air can hold more water than cooler air. Dew point temp's and grains of water are better indicators. When I ran alky I found temp is not a big factor, and cooler air is not good alky air like it is for gas. Basically forget DA with alky.

quote:

Originally posted by TOP38:

quote:

Originally posted by Holytown:

quote:

Originally posted by CHampshire:
Thanks for the info guys.

Don, does the Ultimeter do Water Grains and/or vapor pressure? We are on Alky and I am looking for the missing figure that moves the car that I am currently not looking at. I believe it to be vapor pressure, but may be mistaken.

I'm in the same boat as you. I have 75 runs of good data right now with the Kestrel 5100. I've been tracking DA, Humidity, Temp., Moisture grains, and Barometer

I am also on Alky and can't find any major correlation day to day from these figures. For example if humidity decreases, the car should pick up. At times it does, other times it does not. A few weeks ago, humidity went down, temp went down, other variables relatively constant; but car slows down slightly?

There has to be something I'm not looking at that is changing.

With alky you need to look at the amount of water in the air, humidity alone isn't enough because it's temperature dependent! Meaning 50% at 70 degrees vs 50% at 85 degrees is not the same!! Warm air can hold more water than cooler air. Dew point temp's and grains of water are better indicators. When I ran alky I found temp is not a big factor, and cooler air is not good alky air like it is for gas. Basically forget DA with alky.

Top38,

What variable do you look at with alky to determine ET changes? Do you mind sharing what it takes to change say a hundredth in ET in your car?

quote:

Originally posted by Holytown:

quote:

Originally posted by TOP38:

quote:

Originally posted by Holytown:

quote:

Originally posted by CHampshire:
Thanks for the info guys.

Don, does the Ultimeter do Water Grains and/or vapor pressure? We are on Alky and I am looking for the missing figure that moves the car that I am currently not looking at. I believe it to be vapor pressure, but may be mistaken.

I'm in the same boat as you. I have 75 runs of good data right now with the Kestrel 5100. I've been tracking DA, Humidity, Temp., Moisture grains, and Barometer

I am also on Alky and can't find any major correlation day to day from these figures. For example if humidity decreases, the car should pick up. At times it does, other times it does not. A few weeks ago, humidity went down, temp went down, other variables relatively constant; but car slows down slightly?

There has to be something I'm not looking at that is changing.

With alky you need to look at the amount of water in the air, humidity alone isn't enough because it's temperature dependent! Meaning 50% at 70 degrees vs 50% at 85 degrees is not the same!! Warm air can hold more water than cooler air. Dew point temp's and grains of water are better indicators. When I ran alky I found temp is not a big factor, and cooler air is not good alky air like it is for gas. Basically forget DA with alky.

Top38,

What variable do you look at with alky to determine ET changes? Do you mind sharing what it takes to change say a hundredth in ET in your car?

It's been too long since I ran alky to remember. I'd look closely at vapor pressure and or water grains to come up with something. On a typical given day, the barometer usually don't move enough to make much difference and sometimes temps too. When you see the DA come down mainly due to dropping temps and the humidity go up you likely won't pick up but if you ever see the temp and humidity both drop then you will pick up a bunch.

May be worth looking into Crew Chief Pro! He has an alky prediction option in the software.

I have the “new” Altalab 4X and Saturday night I used it at the track for the first time. It worked flawlessly for me. I just had to get used to looking at the computer screen for the live info rather than scrolling on the old Altalab.

Another nice thing is no screwdriver needed to hook it up to the box on the pole. Cat 5 cable just plugs in, easy peasy.

In our experience with alcohol DA has some importance, but it takes two to three times the change to affect performance ( on a properly tuned engine ).

Dew point, grains, and vapor pressure are all calculated with similar changes, just on a different scale. For example, vapor pressure is a digit, then 4 decimal places back, where Dew Point and Grains are usually just one digit precision.

Take a look at a graph from Crew Chief Pro Software. On the bottom left is the Grains, Vapor Pressure, Dew Point, and Relative Humidity graph. See how close everything tracks except Relative Humidity. In this example, Relative Humidity is the bottom line, in a tan color. It is the only line that does not move exactly like the other lines.

Don,

Is crew chief pro a one time purchase or a yearly subscription? Also, thanks for giving some feedback in this thread.

quote:

Originally posted by CHampshire:
Don,

Is crew chief pro a one time purchase or a yearly subscription? Also, thanks for giving some feedback in this thread.

Also is it a software that I can use my Kestrel to input data. In other words, do I need a "real" trailer mounted weather station to use the Crew Chief Pro Software?

I believe Vapor pressure is calculated based off temp and dew point. A guy could probably google the formulas and put them into excel. Don's software looks to do that for us already though.

https://www.weather.gov/media/...lc/vaporPressure.pdf
https://www.weather.gov/epz/wxcalc_vaporpressure

quote:

Originally posted by CHampshire:
Don,

Is crew chief pro a one time purchase or a yearly subscription? Also, thanks for giving some feedback in this thread.

It is, for the first year any updates are free after that there is a yearly fee to keep getting any updates. I know a few who haven't down the updates and are still happy with what they have...

quote:

Originally posted by Holytown:

quote:

Originally posted by CHampshire:
Don,

Is crew chief pro a one time purchase or a yearly subscription? Also, thanks for giving some feedback in this thread.

Also is it a software that I can use my Kestrel to input data. In other words, do I need a "real" trailer mounted weather station to use the Crew Chief Pro Software?

You can manually input weather data from anything into this program. However when using a weather station, the software will pull the weather data from the weather station automatically once you enter the run time so it saves some time if you have one.

I always watch the water grains. The higher the number the slower it is. But like someone else said. It really depends on your tune up. Watch the water grains and your car et and you will discover a pattern.

quote:

Originally posted by ts393c:
I always watch the water grains. The higher the number the slower it is. But like someone else said. It really depends on your tune up. Watch the water grains and your car et and you will discover a pattern.

Is water grains on the kestrel gpp? I swear I am missing something or misinterpreting something. Because I can find no coordination to weather and my et. The odd thing is whatever it runs first run. It runs that all day. But on blind runs that consistency doesn’t help me.