I sent my Davis into them for a total rebuild they will fix and replace what needs done the price was $125 plus shipping one way much cheaper than a new unit and they replaced a lot of parts!!
Personal Weather Station - Suggestions?
- Thread starter dragoneggs
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DieselBound
Elite Member
It's a WS-1001 (or WS-1002, which is what the new sensor array is). Supposedly the 2902 uses the same sensors, which, I'd figure, ought to utilize the same reporting algorithms/metrics.
Ambient "help" is now stating that Weather Underground might be the culprit, though I cannot quite understand how that can be (I looked through data logged from STx's station [WS-2902A] to WU and I see that it's reporting rates as low as 0.05, and with far fewer 0.07 entries- data looks a lot more normal). They're suggesting to check the console's display (when it's raining- rain expected late tonight) to see what it's showing: I'd offered to fetch data directly from the console (SD card), but either they didn't pay attention or they didn't think it necessary (which seems like poor troubleshooting to me): I think I'm going to do this to help save a bunch more correspondence volleys.
Yesterday I had 31 rain event data entries captured by WU. ALL of them were 0.07 inch rates.
If anyone else here has an Ambient weather station and is reporting to Weather Underground I'd be interested to hear from you as to what your precip rate numbers look like.
OP
dragoneggs
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I wouldn't be surprised if WU isn't the culprit... if that is where you are looking at your data. I just checked my WU station and it says, 'currently not reporting'. I have had this intermittent problem a couple times now and pretty much abandoned it. My go to on my cell phone is the Ambient app. More data and no issues.
oosik
Epic Contributor
Steve(B7510HSD) - did you send your Vantage back because certain parts are "broken" or just for an upgrade. When I first got my station I tried connecting to WU and it didn't go well for me. I think it may have been because I was new and not far enough along on the learning curve. In any case I'm still using the Weather Link software for Mac that I purchased along with the Vantage and Weather Cat.
Now that we have finally got our fall rains - I'm totally surprised how detailed the rain fall measurements are with this unit. I've reset my unit to a Nov 1 rollover date for annual rainfall recording. So far I've had a total of two inches. Doesn't sound like much but it certainly makes things wet and also a lot of mud.
I just hope I learn more on the use of this unit BEFORE it wears out. Without much doubt - its one of the most complicated software programs on my computer and I've got some really intense photo massaging software that a lot easier for me to understand. Of course, I use the photo software programs daily - makes a difference.
Now that we have finally got our fall rains - I'm totally surprised how detailed the rain fall measurements are with this unit. I've reset my unit to a Nov 1 rollover date for annual rainfall recording. So far I've had a total of two inches. Doesn't sound like much but it certainly makes things wet and also a lot of mud.
I just hope I learn more on the use of this unit BEFORE it wears out. Without much doubt - its one of the most complicated software programs on my computer and I've got some really intense photo massaging software that a lot easier for me to understand. Of course, I use the photo software programs daily - makes a difference.
I sent it back because the anemometer was bad it quit registering any wind I did not send the console just the outside unit the sent me a new anemometer as well as replacing the main board in the main unit as they found the humidity sensor did not meet their specs.the price of the anemometer alone was $70 at the time and over half of what the total rebuild would have cost.
DieselBound
Elite Member
I looked at my data as recorded in the console itself to see the same phenomena. And today the rains started up and I'm seeing rates of 0.07, 0.14, 0.21 and 0.28. Noted the console display also was showing 0.07" rate at one point. Totally bizarre! I found a nearby station that's running the WS-2902A and looked at its data and it look perfectly normal (and at the time the total precip reported was the same as with my station- I figure my issue is ONLY that the "rate" is wonky, which isn't in any real sense a show-stopper, just a head scratchier that I, as an ex-techie, have a hard time just letting go of [I HAVE to find out WHY this is happening!]).
oosik, I used to run a La Crosse weather station which had its own software running on Windows. I had to keep my laptop running Windows just for this reason, but eventually found some open source software (that I could run under Linux) that would operate it. It was, to say the least, a bit messy; but, it worked. Biggest beef with the La Crosse was that re-syncing the sensors (multiple ones) was a huge pain, and it seemed that I was replacing one of the sensors every year. The other manufacturers seemed to have cobbled the computer software and wireless components (many reviews of such) so I was never, despite the claims of better hardware, willing to go that route. A downside with the Ambient is that you don't get to readily capture data on a local device: you CAN, however, pull it off the console via SD card, but I haven't bothered- if I want the data for local consumption I can download from Weather Underground (use a more user-friendly interface- web browser).
oosik
Epic Contributor
DieselBound - I tried WU about six months ago, when I bought this station. I went on a WU blog and a lot of posts indicating problems and no longer operating from several folks. But that was six months ago and it might be all OK now.
I post all my data on PWSweather.com and it fine as far as I can tell. I collect data from over 50 private stations all up/down Ea WA. I've been caught more than 65 miles
from home on my motorcycle - looking dead into the blackest storm clouds coming right at me and being rained on for a good hour. NOT my idea of a fun ride.
I'll use everything I can get my hands on to avoid stormy wx when I ride. A true sunshine rider that puts around 8000 miles a year on his bike.
I post all my data on PWSweather.com and it fine as far as I can tell. I collect data from over 50 private stations all up/down Ea WA. I've been caught more than 65 miles
from home on my motorcycle - looking dead into the blackest storm clouds coming right at me and being rained on for a good hour. NOT my idea of a fun ride.
I'll use everything I can get my hands on to avoid stormy wx when I ride. A true sunshine rider that puts around 8000 miles a year on his bike.
DieselBound
Elite Member
Yeah, you'd think that would be the case, and it certainly is behaving just like that. But, according to Ambient the resolution is 0.01 inches and reports are 10x per hour, giving a lower bound rate reading of 0.06 per hour.
I finally found (well, it's a matter of having the time and digging around for it) another nearby station that's using the same hardware. It is ALSO reporting in 0.07" rate increments, so that would seem to suggest that 0.07 is in fact the lower limit. Station is also showing all but one events as being divisible by 0.07: interestingly, there is a single outlier to this, an entry of 0.43: I'd seen this also with my station.
It is appearing that Ambient's "help" is reading from a bad play book.
DieselBound
Elite Member
I really haven't had any issues with WU other than I'm not all that impressed with the smartphone app (on my phone the app seems to get stuck and I have to kill it fairly often; also, can't look at data). From a web browser it's good.
OP
dragoneggs
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Well I just checked WU and my PWS is 'reporting' now. Sure is bugging me why it is sometimes online and sometimes off. :confused3: That's why I resorted back to Ambient website and app.
Crap went to look at it again as we speak, to get the address to send to you and it's not reporting again. :mur: I have some kind of intermittent transmission problem with WU.
I did confirm that my WS2902 does measure in 0.01in increments on Ambient.net website.
DieselBound
Elite Member
Likely your Internet connection and not the weather hosting site. I'm battling a similar problem with something unrelated to weather equipment and know how frustrating it cane be: on-board wifi chip doesn't play well with my generic software drivers (linux); periodically locks up, requiring me to reboot; when I get a chance I'll be disabling that on-board chip and switching over to a USB device that's got a hardware chip that plays well with the software drivers.
Wifi stuff is sensitive to a lot of things. Ironically (in the sense that we're talking about weather devices), weather can cause problems. And then there's one's Internet service provider's equipment/lines: possible bad connections can cause a lot of dropped packets.
Wifi stuff is sensitive to a lot of things. Ironically (in the sense that we're talking about weather devices), weather can cause problems. And then there's one's Internet service provider's equipment/lines: possible bad connections can cause a lot of dropped packets.
OP
dragoneggs
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Here isa pic of my console. Showing 0.02in rain accumulation today.
DieselBound
Elite Member
Ha ha! I can say that I have zero rain for the day! Not very often that I can say that during this time of year :laughing: (might have to arm-wrestle you as to which one of us gets more annual rain!)
The total precip (whether hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly) is, according to Ambient, reportable down to 0.01". For me it's the Rate (which is an extrapolation out to per-hour) that's seemingly odd. In the setup you should be able to set the rain reporting to instantaneous/rate. It's this value that is claimed by Ambient to be reportable down to 0.06 (it's stating hourly rate, meaning current 10 minute window times 6 window slices for the hour). On the 2902A I've seen the rate down to 0.05, and on the 1001 I've only seen (from three different reporting sensors) down to 0.07.
The total precip (whether hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly) is, according to Ambient, reportable down to 0.01". For me it's the Rate (which is an extrapolation out to per-hour) that's seemingly odd. In the setup you should be able to set the rain reporting to instantaneous/rate. It's this value that is claimed by Ambient to be reportable down to 0.06 (it's stating hourly rate, meaning current 10 minute window times 6 window slices for the hour). On the 2902A I've seen the rate down to 0.05, and on the 1001 I've only seen (from three different reporting sensors) down to 0.07.
jcummins
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I've thought of getting a PWS and reporting via weather underground....but that website has gone to crap, and from what little I've read it's because it was bought out by the weather channel. Now I see this....End of Service for the Weather Underground API | The WeatherAPI Community Customer Community
Those closer to this....what's the true story on this?
Those closer to this....what's the true story on this?
DieselBound
Elite Member
Sounds like they're just dumping their support for developers. Perhaps looking to control access through their own software bits only, which, it would seem, is likely a move toward a longer-term goal of some sort of paid subscription (maybe). Lots of weather station packages are bundling up with subscriber-based services (requiring some sort of extra cost, monthly, yearly or whatever). Maintaining servers (data storage) ain't cheap. This is one of the reasons why I drug my feet in letting go of my old La Crosse system (I could have, if wanted to, publish my own data off a personal server): my Ambient can only upload to one of the preset weather server services, no ability to provide a live data feed to a local server.
I maintain a server for another household function and can assure folks that it takes some bit of work to do so. It's all a trade-off: somewhere along the line you're going to pay; I prefer to minimize how it's dictated, in which case I'm more prone to do things myself.
I maintain a server for another household function and can assure folks that it takes some bit of work to do so. It's all a trade-off: somewhere along the line you're going to pay; I prefer to minimize how it's dictated, in which case I'm more prone to do things myself.
OP
dragoneggs
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JC, thanks for posting this... I was wondering why I was having so much trouble with underground. I just switched to PWS a couple days ago and already like it quite a bit more.
Here is the link to my PWS if you are interested...
PWS - Station Observations for KWASEABE23
dnw64
Veteran Member
Finally got around to getting the ISS off the roof and checking it out. Looks like the main problem was that the solar panel was not plugged into the panel...
Put a new battery in, hooked up the panel and, wow - it's transmitting! BTW, I did check the panel and it was putting out just over 2v under cloudy skies.
However, it is not outputting wind speed/direction. When I first got it going I was getting Direction, but that went away in less than an hour. Contacting Davis to troubleshoot.
dnw64
Veteran Member
I certainly will if need be.
They are sending (at no charge) a wind test cable. It simulates a speed and direction. If I get a reading, that means my anemometer is bad. If I don't get a reading, that means the wind module on the board is bad. Either way I think it will be a relatively simple task I can complete, unless the module is soldered on, but it didn't sound like it.
Everything else is working great - I manually dumped some water in to make sure the rain gauge was working.
Really looking forward to have this up and running. I already have a WUnderground station online, but I'm not promoting it since there's no wind info, and if I do have to send it out for repair it will obviously be entirely offline for a while.
Here are some similar links:
