Richard Paul Russell Ltd has recen tly extended their WeatherFile network in the Solent with the addition of a Gill MaxiMet GMX200 sensor at Ryde Pier.

This takes the Solent network to five and is an essential resource for sailors, water sport enthusiasts and others wishing to have live and accurate wind speed and direction measurements.

The MaxiMet range of compact weather stations is designed and manufactured by Gill Instruments. MaxiMet products use reliable, high quality instruments to provide accurate meteorological information in a wide variety of applications. The Gill MaxiMet GMX200 sensor at Ryde Pier has a built in compass that will always find north thus increasing further accuracy regardless of sensor movement.

One of the main challenges Richard Paul Russell Ltd faced when fitting this unit was to overcome the lack of a local power supply and Wi-Fi internet access. Our newly developed WeatherFile Mobile Unit (WMU) allows data to be gathered directly from the Gill MaxiMet GMX200 sensor and sent to our WeatherFile website. This was locally powered through a deep cycle leisure battery (70Ahr) connected to a solar panel. The result is cable free live data through WeatherFile completely independent of mains power and local internet.

Further applications for this system could include weather monitoring and warning from isolated locations, construction industry, including crane operations, health and safety site operations, marine and offshore, wind farm surveying, roads, bridges and tunnels, agriculture and horticulture, sports and outdoor activities, education and research projects, remote airfields and many others.

Another key feature is the use of the mobile network to transfer the wind and weather data to WeatherFile.com, this separates it from the customers own Wi-Fi network and any associated security risks.

For more information contact Richard Paul Russell Ltd at sales@r-p-r.co.uk