Home weather station suggestions

[Popgadget]

. I'd use a Raspberry Pi these days but there is no point when the Tempest does a good job on its own.

The Tempest does a great job of uploading and hosting the data.
My disappointment is with the quality of the data it collects. Temperature is dead on, everything else is off by varying degrees, the rainfall being the most inaccurate.

 

[ponytug]

The Tempest does a great job of uploading and hosting the data.
My disappointment is with the quality of the data it collects. Temperature is dead on, everything else is off by varying degrees, the rainfall being the most inaccurate.

That pretty well is the same experience we have here between my Davis, and my neighbor's Tempest.

I think from an electronic sensor perspective, temperature is easy, and from there it starts to get more difficult, and the rain and wind speed is not easy. Accurate weather stations without moving anemometers and rain gauges seem to be extremely pricey when I have looked at them, and they do the non-contact measurements differently from the Tempest methods.

I do hope that Tempest succeeds on improving their accuracy. Given that by now they would appear to have more than enough data at this point in time to improve their software/firmware, I suspect that they have some hardware deficiencies/impediment(s) in the existing versions. I think that sites like @Popgadget's would be ideal for software improvements. I think that does beg the question why they haven't rolled out a new generation of more accurate sensors.

All the best,

Peter

 

[B7510HSD]

That pretty well is the same experience we have here between my Davis, and my neighbor's Tempest.

I think from an electronic sensor perspective, temperature is easy, and from there it starts to get more difficult, and the rain and wind speed is not easy. Accurate weather stations without moving anemometers and rain gauges seem to be extremely pricey when I have looked at them, and they do the non-contact measurements differently from the Tempest methods.

I do hope that Tempest succeeds on improving their accuracy. Given that by now they would appear to have more than enough data at this point in time to improve their software/firmware, I suspect that they have some hardware deficiencies/impediment(s) in the existing versions. I think that sites like @Popgadget's would be ideal for software improvements. I think that does beg the question why they haven't rolled out a new generation of more accurate sensors.

All the best,

Peter

I guess my main problem with the "All in One" stations is you cannot mount them according to the suggested site installations. Typically rain gauge for 4 to 6 feet above clear open space and the anemometer ideally at 33ft above ground.

 

[Popgadget]

I think that sites like @Popgadget's would be ideal for software improvements.

As an early adopter of the Tempest, I let them know that I had the Davis colocated with the Tempest, and gave them links to the data to compare.
Over time, they greatly improved the accuracy of the rain measurement, and some improvement in the wind, the barometric pressure was always in the ball park, until it went to 23” and stayed there on my present station, but the bottom line is that it is not as accurate, but is probably decent for the price point.

 

[ponytug]

As an early adopter of the Tempest, I let them know that I had the Davis colocated with the Tempest, and gave them links to the data to compare.
Over time, they greatly improved the accuracy of the rain measurement, and some improvement in the wind, the barometric pressure was always in the ball park, until it went to 23” and stayed there on my present station, but the bottom line is that it is not as accurate, but is probably decent for the price point.

I think that was extremely good and civic minded of you to do.

With my neighbor's Tempest, I see the same issues. Both the rain and the wind are the two sensors that are most at variance to nearby sites, occasionally by amusingly large amounts. A recorded 3.5" rainfall at his gauge for a 0.25" rainfall here was one that stuck in my memory.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Oz_Kioti]

With my neighbor's Tempest, I see the same issues. Both the rain and the wind are the two sensors that are most at variance to nearby sites, occasionally by amusingly large amounts. A recorded 3.5" rainfall at his gauge for a 0.25" rainfall here was one that stuck in my memory.

We had a Davis Vantage Vue which started acting erratically reporting rainfall. Checked the battery, the funnel for blockages, the inside for spiders, phoned the Australian reps, but all to no avail. Rather than pack it up and send it to them for examination and possible repair, I just bought a new cheaper one. It's pretty good, less refined than the Davis, with longer updating intervals to the inside display, but lo & behold, it too started giving wonky rainfall readings.
At that point I read the manual!
It clearly stated to ensure the unit was mounted to something rigid & steady, else rainfall readings could be erratic in windy conditions!!!
All good now.

 

[ponytug]

We had a Davis Vantage Vue which started acting erratically reporting rainfall. Checked the battery, the funnel for blockages, the inside for spiders, phoned the Australian reps, but all to no avail. Rather than pack it up and send it to them for examination and possible repair, I just bought a new cheaper one. It's pretty good, less refined than the Davis, with longer updating intervals to the inside display, but lo & behold, it too started giving wonky rainfall readings.
At that point I read the manual!
It clearly stated to ensure the unit was mounted to something rigid & steady, else rainfall readings could be erratic in windy conditions!!!
All good now.

That's a great story. Thanks for sharing it.

All the best,

Peter

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Does anybody know where or how to enter in Wunderground's weather station ID and Key into an Ambient Weather Ws2000?

My old WS1000 was super easy to set up and this new one is baffling because I see nowhere to set it up on the weather station.

EDIT: One must first go to https://ambientweather.net/welcome and set up an account, and THEN on that site enter in the ID and Key to connect to (in my case) Wunderground.


Also, in other news: after taking my old WS1000 down and replacing it with the new station, i was able to clean up the battery compartment and fire it back up.

 

[Grumpycat]

Does anybody know where or how to enter in Wunderground's weather station ID and Key into an Ambient Weather Ws2000?

My old WS1000 was super easy to set up and this new one is baffling because I see nowhere to set it up on the weather station.

EDIT: One must first go to https://ambientweather.net/welcome and set up an account, and THEN on that site enter in the ID and Key to connect to (in my case) Wunderground.


Also, in other news: after taking my old WS1000 down and replacing it with the new station, i was able to clean up the battery compartment and fire it back up.

It would appear you have to post your data to Ambient, who then forwards it to Wunderground.

 

[Spike56]

Does anybody know where or how to enter in Wunderground's weather station ID and Key into an Ambient Weather Ws2000?

My old WS1000 was super easy to set up and this new one is baffling because I see nowhere to set it up on the weather station.

EDIT: One must first go to https://ambientweather.net/welcome and set up an account, and THEN on that site enter in the ID and Key to connect to (in my case) Wunderground.


Also, in other news: after taking my old WS1000 down and replacing it with the new station, i was able to clean up the battery compartment and fire it back up.

Hi Eric,
I WISH I could help, but NO. I have the 2902 series and it was a nightmare to get connected. Think years ago I finally did it, but then at some point it stopped working.
Just sticking with the Ambient network now so I can pull the data up on my phone screen. Good Luck.

 

[Oaktree]

Hi Eric,
I WISH I could help, but NO. I have the 2902 series and it was a nightmare to get connected. Think years ago I finally did it, but then at some point it stopped working.
Just sticking with the Ambient network now so I can pull the data up on my phone screen. Good Luck.

I just replaced my kind of flakey WS1900 indoor unit with a 2902 (kept the old outdoor sensor unit). This one allegedly has wifi, but I can't seem to connect to it. According to the manual, it should appear as it's own network with an IP address of 192.168.4.1, which I can't see on any PC I tried. We rarely use wifi for anything other than a tablet my wife has for work, but even on a laptop on the wifi it didn't show up, nor could I ping it. Tried setting a static IP in the laptop in the .4 subnet (house network is .88), still nothing. Is there a trick to this? I am moderately competent in IT matters, makes me wonder why they didn't set these units to DHCP...would make it easier to find.
It works fine otherwise.

As I mentioned upthread, I have no interest in sending weather data anywhere, was just curious about a built-in feature.