Davis Instruments had a surprise up its sleeve at CES, revealing on Thursday a modern weather console ready for the smart home. Now available for preorder for $395 on Davis’ website, the manufacturer tells us the new product will ship in February.
The Davis WeatherLink Console is a dramatic upgrade from the consoles that have been part of Davis weather stations for nearly two decades. A large full-color touchscreen display finally replaces the 1990s-era monochrome LCD screen.
The new display can show information on up to 21 parameters (two to three times what the current consoles can, depending on the model), and the user can customize what is shown. From the demo video on Davis’s website, it looks as if the console ties into Davis’ web-based WeatherLink portal, enabling it to report historical weather information and graphs in addition to weather alerts.
It also looks like it would be easy for Davis to add new functions to the console down the road; that’s a big change as the current consoles cannot be upgraded at all. The modern industrial and user interface catapults Davis into the 21st Century—finally.
Davis finally joins the smart-home revolution
Davis says its new console is “smart-home ready” and the company is exhibiting the device in the smart home area of CES. While it appears this new product’s voice assistant support remains limited to Alexa and Google Assistant—same as the existing WeatherLink live—Davis’ press release vaguely mentions a new ability to interact with smart sprinkler systems. This could mean your Davis weather station will instruct your sprinkler controller to hold off watering if the weather forecast predicts rain, but we have an inquiry in to Davis to find out for sure.
Regardless, it’s been a decade-plus wait for a real technology upgrade for Davis weather station owners, and this new console could put Davis’ weather stations back on top of the market—or very near to it. Yes, the $395 price tag is steep, but I’ve owned Davis products for many years and the premium is usually worth paying if you’re serious about in-depth weather monitoring. Look for our in-depth review in the next month or two.
Author: Ed Oswald, Freelance contributor
Ed is a technology journalist, music nut, and gadget geek who hails from the somewhat small town of Reading, Pennsylvania.