Are you using an outside weather station? If so, which one?

I have the Renkforce labeled one… bought it for 100 Euro.
It has the same “green” rechargeable batteries like this guy in the video below. (at ~3mins)
these are special batts at 1,5v labeled with “Rechargeable Alkaline”. If you need to replace them other people suggest NiZN batts instead of regular NiCd NiMh
Overall I really like the weather station. As asked above, yes the plastic does surely not look sexy … but if you put it on your roof or garage or somewhere not that visible it should be fine. It should be quite high above anyways.

I’m afraid that is not possible. The restriction of the ten minutes update rate is not in the binding. The main module itself doesn’t send the data any faster.

and in the UK is Aercus Instruments WeatherSleuth

mine looks like it always did. :slight_smile:

I have searched a lot and my two favorites are (from germany) froggit WH2601 and WH4000.

pro WH2601:

  • with network-port (lan) on board

con:

  • all in one - it would be better to divide the sensors, temp 2m high, wind maybe on the roof

pro WH4000:

  • cheaper
  • you can divide the sensors — but how is it with the wireless outside station? Do i have to connect it with long cables?

con:

  • only usb-connection, so you have to install it in the near of your openhab server - maybe there is bad connection?

got mine for almost 3 years, still looks the same in the harsh California sun. One thing you got to do if it doesn’t rain frequently: Clean the rain meter once a year…

-Th

i’m looking for a weather station, too!
the WH2601 seems interesting. is it relevant if the station is placed in direct sun (after ~4pm in the summer) or not?

edit: another question: the WH2601 has no sensor for light / lux, right? so how does wunderground calculate the actual “conditions” (f.e. “cloudy” - “mostly cloudy” …)?

cheers

The problem with this type of stations (all in one single casing) is, that you can not divide the sensors and put the windspeed-sensor on the roof and the temp sensor in the garden…

I´m looking for a way to build esp8266 to every sensor, so i can install them on different places. But this only works with separate sensors like the WH1080 has.

Erm, wouldn’t the temp on a pole on your roof more representative of the actual air temperature than the temp that’s in your enclosed yard? If you’d want the temp of your garden (or any other place, like your garage), I’d install separate sensors, but don’t report that as “weather”.

Cheers,
-Th

Weather stations are in constant conflict between measuring and overmeasuring… :wink:
There’s plenty of discussion on how to place weather stations or individual sensors for best results.

There are professional weather stations ranging up to 2.000€ or more, which also have only one piece and of course, there are commercial ones ranging above 20.000€. In my experience (and from various discussions), there is no big peak even in consumer grade stations in temperature anymore - even if the station is exposed to direct sunlight.
The question only you can answer is, what’s the goal of the measurements: just for fun and some non-vital rules or is it to prevent serious damage. If it’s the first, just place the station somewhere you think, it can do its measurements. e.g. if you don’t have an UV-sensor, it could be a shady place - but where’s no obstacle for the wind sensor.
If it’s the latter and you are concerned about your blinds or something else it’s my opinion you should consider having seperate sensors exclusively for that. I for one have an sensor for my heating controller - it’s completely seperate and my heating uses only this one (installed by my heating contractor). I won’t rely on some radio-controlled weather station’s data for this one. Same goes for my shutters, they have dedicated wind sensors also installed by my window contractor which installed them.

So, basically:

  • if you just like to have weather data for fun reasons (nice display in the UI, perhaps some planning for the weekend, …) go for whatever station suits you (if you prefer to have wind sensor on your roof, temperature sensor in the shadow and rain sensor on your terrasse - go for one with different sensor locations.
  • if you must use the sensors’ data to prevent serious damage, go for dedicated sensors for that appliances

I have a very dark - nearly black - roof and it will be very hot on the roff, when the sun is shining in the summertime. So this is no good place for a temp sensorts, but best place for the wind sensor, because no obstacles around can block the wind.

Best sensor place for temp-sensor is (every weatherstation from the german wetterdienst has this installed like this) 2m above the ground. And on the ground only short grass, no asphalt, concrete or other things. In direct sunlight with a sun-shield, that no direct sunlight can reach the sensor in the midlle of the sun-blocking casing.

If you look at the install instructions, that’s what they say for the 1400ip too: http://site.ambientweatherstore.com/Manuals/ws1400ip.pdf

What I did (my roof is dark too), is mount it on a 6 ft pole that is mounted on the side of the house, reaches ~2 ft out and ~5 ft over the top of the roof.

Wunderground actually handed me a “gold star” rating for that thing, can’t be too bad…
https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCADISCO8

Cheers,
-Th

Not sure if theres a difference - someone else claimed the WH2601 is the same as the AW1400 which I have - but there is a solar radiation sensor (see (9) ):

Manual here: http://site.ambientweatherstore.com/Manuals/ws1400ip.pdf

Cheers,
-Th

I guess, they are indeed the same - the WH2601 also has an UV-sensor.

The only gripe I had with that thing for the longest time was the shoddy software on the little network gateway box. It required a reboot at least once a week, otherwise it just wouldn’t respond. They fixed that in a firmware update along the way, now there is a option to have it reboot itself if there is no network contact for some 20 minutes or so. It seems they also fixed some of the more prevalent bugs in that update, since I don’t see that reboot happening for a few months now. So, if you get a older vintage out of a local store, make sure to update the firmware once you get it setup. It doesn’t do that by itself…

-Th

1 Like

As promised earlier, here the github source link for the binding for WS140x/WH260x/whatever else they brand it under:

It just scrapes the local gateway web page for the values, no cloud account etc. required. Not sure this works for all installs and all language settings, and is probably still a bit rough around the edges. Feedback definitely welcome!

Since there seems to be many brands that offer the same station (I didn’t realize that until reading this thread), I’m open to suggestions for renaming this from ‘ambientweather’ to something more generic. Does anyone know the original manufacturer? Once I figure how to name this properly (and perhaps get some feed back?), I’ll push a release into the OHAB market place for easier install.

Cheers,
-Th

Thanks for sharing. It is worth noting, that despite there’s no need for a cloud account or a wunderground integration, you should configure the station for wunderground integration - that seems to be the only way, the station gets an time update.
Without wunderground integration, the station is timeless it seems.

Hmm, interesting, never used it w/o WU, but there are setting for Timezone and DST, which led me to believe that it got time via NTP:

At the end of the day, the thing is useless w/o a WU account or some other form of storage/presentation. The internal web page is close to useless. Thus, this thing isn’t much more than a bunch of sensors accessible via the network. Time only enters the picture if that info gets stored somewhere.

Cheers,
-Th

Which other weather stations can you choose in the first field of the screenshot?

Is the IP-Indoor-Station compatible with other weatherstations, too?

huh. interesting!
so the station should always be in direct sunlight (for good UV values)?

The only other option is WS-1200-IP. Don’t think it’s compatible with any other types of stations, AFAIK it’s a proprietary RF protocol how it talks to the outside sensor array.

-Th