Newbie Looking For Hardware Recommendations

[Anthony]

Hello!

I am interested in starting down the rabbit hole that is weather stations and data logging.  I've had a simple weather station for about 10 years (a simple indoor and outdoor temperature probe setup with standalone display), but this weather station recently bit the dust.  I figure it's time to step up.  I'm a geek/nerd by nature (sysadmin by trade) and the idea that I can build a WeeWX server and collect local weather data sounds like a lot of fun.

I'm looking at the list of supported hardware (http://weewx.com/hardware.html) and my head is starting to spin, heh.  I'm hoping the fine folks of this list can help point me in a direction.

I'm looking for a setup that meets the following requirements:

    - A "dummy resistant" local display for the family.

    - Multiple datapoints...Temp, wind speed, wind direction, rain gauge, relative humidity

    - The ability to collect data "off the grid".  Meaning, I don't want to be dependent on any sort of "cloud" service.

Some things that would be nice, but are definitely not required:

    - Lightning detection would be neat, I think.  Or at least the ability to *add* a lightning detection sensor.

    - Hard-wired sensor array (I am no stranger to pulling cable).  My philosophy is that if it's a fixed device, it is cabled. :-D

I don't have a particular budget in mind.  My initial gut is to try to spend no more than ~$200 or so (excluding installation stuffs), but this is flexible if there is compelling reasons to expand the budget.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

~ Anthony

[VE4PER / Andy]

FYI for the group

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Re: [weewx-user] Newbie Looking For Hardware Recommendations
Date:	Mon, 29 Jun 2020 15:31:02 -0500
From:	VE4PER / Andy <andrew.webb...@gmail.com>
To:	Anthony <ant...@vofr.net>

Anthony,

I am using an AcuRite 1035 5 in 1 sensor system here and weewx linux software. The system has been fairly reliable for the price (about $135 - $155 for display/usb comm unit and outdoor mast sensor unit freight included) The only problem I have with it is the wind speed anemometer cups got broken on a battery change session and I ordered a whole replacement 5 in 1 sensor unit to replace it through amazon and they sent two units, supposedly new , that were both U/S. One had no 433 MHz RF output to talk to display unit and 2nd one had RF but no data stream. So sent both back. While waiting to sort it out I came across replacement cups that were inexpensive (less than $15 Cdn) free shipping if combined with something else so I ordered a set and repaired my current 5 in 1 sensor and it is back online now. It feeds CWOP, AWEKAS, WeatherUnderground as well as my own web site in addition to WEEWX site/maps.

I am a radio amateur and only interested in it from CANWARN/SKYWARN perspective so am not into as much data manipulation or coding of presentations. I have it running and feeding a MySQL/MariadB  on the same UbuntuStudio 20.04LTS machine. I like that optionas I can access the data with LibreOffice Base report generators and/or MS Access odbc connections and use it as interface to generate reports from there as well. I have been planning to have the SQL dB run on a separate dedicated server box, fortunately I have been a little slow in implementing that as vers 20.04LTS recent updates have made some changes that would affect the operation of the nfs-kernel-server such that it does not start without errors now and thus not a reliable connection resource for weewx.  dB resident on same machine as weewx avoids that so something to keep in mind.

Libre Office base is not yet as mature and super user intuitive and friendly as Access esp when using visual design views to run different types of queries easily. SELECT ones are OK but if you want to do UPDATE or other types the visual tools aren't there yet and one has to fall back on pure SQL text strings to do the job which isn't super convenient.

I don't have lightning sensors either but would definitely be of use to me.

When AWEKAS emails failure reports to me troubleshooting the comm link between the sensor and display unit is great help; I am using an RSP1A SDR receiver that can tune up into the 433 MHz freq band and sees the RF signals and rich T in a couple of previous posts here in the last couple of days has a way to decode those signals so you can see the actual real data sent from the sensor to the display to confirm it is serviceable.

If your interest lies in coding a bit with different skins etc to manipulate the interpretations of a lot of the data them probably await comments from a few others in the group here.

Cheers and good luck deciding  ---> choices are as wide and they are long LOL

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[galfert]

I think you should strongly consider the Ecowitt HP2551.
Greatly expandable to even more fun and sensors later on.

[Anthony Hoppe]

Thanks for the information, Andy! When you pull data using the AcuRite
1035, does it pull data locally (like, do you have WeeWX pointed to its
local IP and/or directly connected to some serial/USB adapter?) or are
you pulling data from one of the hosted services it reports to?

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[Anthony Hoppe]

I will definitely look into this one. Thanks for sharing, galfert.
When pulling data from the HP2551, are you able to pull data locally, or
do you have to pull it from one of the hosted services it reports to?

[galfert]

The Ecowitt HP2551 has a "Customized" server upload feature. You can use that to point to your WeeWX system and then the WeeWX system with the Interceptor driver installed will pick up the data directly from the console.

[Anthony Hoppe]

Ooo. That is *very* nice to know. Thanks for sharing! I very well may
start with the Ecowitt HP2551...

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[jhn.p...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, June 30, 2020 at 8:17:39 AM UTC-7 Anthony wrote:

Thanks for the information, Andy! When you pull data using the AcuRite
1035, does it pull data locally (like, do you have WeeWX pointed to its
local IP and/or directly connected to some serial/USB adapter?) or are
you pulling data from one of the hosted services it reports to?

The AccuRite 5-in-1 I have, the display panel is directly connected to WeeWX via USB, WeeWX polls it for the weather data via an accurite specific protocol, stores the weather data in a sqlite or mysql database, and optionally updates a webpage and/or weather underground.    you are not using the AccuRite software (awful) at all.   I'm running WeeWx on a Raspberry Pi 3B.  I have WeeWX writing the weather to a MySQL database server in a 'jail' on my FreeNAS home file server, rather than storing a local sqlite database on the SD card in the Pi, since i've had SD cards fail within a year of minute by minute updates.

[galfert]

It isn't the minute by minute update that kills the SD card, rather the OS that is hammering away at the SD card in a much worse way than the minute by minute update. Of course the minute by minute update doesn't help but that part is minor compared to what the OS is doing.

[John Pierce]

I did move my /var/log to a ramdisk.     since the rpi isn't doing anythng but running weewx, I don't expect there is much other writing to it.

oh, and I got a high write endurance microSD card, too, after killing my first one.

thats something I hate about SD cards and USB Sticks, they don't have any diagnostics ala smartctl, so there's no way of knowing how much write endurance they have left.

On Sat, Jul 4, 2020 at 4:01 PM galfert <gal...@gmail.com> wrote:

It isn't the minute by minute update that kills the SD card, rather the OS that is hammering away at the SD card in a much worse way than the minute by minute update. Of course the minute by minute update doesn't help but that part is minor compared to what the OS is doing.

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[Tom Keffer]

A quality SD card makes all the difference. I've been running an instance of weewx since 2014 on a SanDisk Extreme Plus without any problems. Uptime is currently 530 days!

-tk

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[Kevin Davis]

Tom, 

Out of curiosity, what are you running for backup power?  Surely you’re power has flickered enough to almost two years to trigger a reboot. 

On Jul 4, 2020, at 5:02 PM, Tom Keffer <tke...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[vince]

On Saturday, July 4, 2020 at 6:58:53 PM UTC-7, Kevin Davis wrote:

Out of curiosity, what are you running for backup power?  Surely you’re power has flickered enough to almost two years to trigger a reboot. 

Not necessarily.   My Seagate Dockstar running weewx has been up 1289 days (really) since the last power loss here, but it's a spinning disk and I've reset weewx itself a number of times doing updates. 

[Tom Keffer]

I use a 750 VA UPS. About $80 from Amazon.

I live in a windy place, with above ground power lines. Power outages are inevitable, despite being located only 15 miles from a massive hydroelectric dam. 

A UPS is essential for reliability.

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[Graham Eddy]

when you follow the wires you’ll probably find you are more than 200 km from the dam! :-)

need for UPS:

interesting weather → unreliable external power supply → provide own power during interesting events

____________

Graham Eddy

[John Pierce]

On Sat, Jul 4, 2020, 8:52 PM Graham Eddy <graha...@gmail.com> wrote:

when you follow the wires you’ll probably find you are more than 200 km from the dam! :-)

need for UPS:

interesting weather → unreliable external power supply → provide own power during interesting events

Indeed.   My rpi running weewx and the acurite display panel share a SmartUPS 1500 with the FreeNAS server hosting the MySQL database server and my PC workstation as well as the Ethernet switch connecting it all, it's good for at least 4 hours.  6-8 hours if I shut the PC off, but I usually fire up my generator during extended power outages.

[Graham Eddy]

i have one UPS on my internet access (fixed wireless link, can’t do much when the infrastructure tower loses power) and another UPS on my low-power servers (monitors etc not on UPS - client access from laptops with their own batteries). yep, power outages common out here in the bush

data logger on vantage pro2 with its own AA battery backup → no need for generator to avoid weather data loss for very long outages

____________

Graham Eddy

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[Anthony Hoppe]

Does anybody know if the "Ambient Weather WS-2902B WiFi Smart Weather
Station"
(https://www.amazon.com/Ambient-Weather-WiFi-Station/dp/B01N5TEHLI/) is
compatible with WeeWX? I don't see it on the "Supported Hardware" list
(or any Ambient Weather products), but figured I'd ask just in case...

[John Pierce]

that looks like one of those which uploads directly to the vendor's 'cloud' without any external software, and *requires* a android/iphone for configuration (no provision for doing anything with a PC or laptop) 

[galfert]

If you get or have a WS-2902B and you want to connect it to WeeWX you have two ways to do it. 

The easy way:

- be sure to also buy the Ecowitt GW1000 as this will pick up the sensor array of the WS-2902B and it will provide this data to WeeWX (then use the Interceptor driver or the new GW1000 API driver).

The hard way:

- Put the WS-2902B on your network where you can mirror a network port (requires networking expertise) and then send data to WeeWX with the use of the Interceptor driver. Or you can put the WS-2902B console behind a hotspot run by a Raspberry Pi and then capture data that way, but this removes the WS-2902B management to an isolated WiFi network on the Pi and that makes management a bit of a kludge with your mobile device that will then need to jump to that WiFi in order to manage services on the WS-2902B console....This is both messy, complicated and requires networking expertise. If this was greek to you then stick the the easy way and just get a GW1000 for your WS-2902B ....or maybe forget the WS-2902B altogether and just get a GW1001 if you don't need the display.