Looking for weather station hardware recommendation with solar radiation

245 views
Skip to first unread message

Hans Fangohr

unread,
Dec 10, 2020, 4:23:05 PM12/10/20
to weewx-user
Dear all,

I'd love to use weewx with a weather station that can report - in addition to the usual observables such as wind, precipitation, temperature, pressure - the solar radiation (i.e. Watts/m^2 or equivalent).

I have found the Davis Pro2 (but its outside my budget). There also appear to be a range of other devices (such as "Sainlogic FT0300" [1]) which appear to measure solar radiation, but for those it seems they cannot communicate with weewx as they do not have a USB port, and only offer to report data to wunderground via wifi. 

(I am not satisfied with the data visualisations from underground - that's where I want to use weewx.)

Has anybody got a recommendation for these requirements:
- solar radiation
- can communicate with weewx
- less expensive than Davis Vantage Pro2?

Many thanks!

Hans



Greg Troxel

unread,
Dec 10, 2020, 4:50:49 PM12/10/20
to Hans Fangohr, weewx-user

Hans Fangohr <fangoh...@gmail.com> writes:

> I'd love to use weewx with a weather station that can report - in addition
> to the usual observables such as wind, precipitation, temperature, pressure
> - the solar radiation (i.e. Watts/m^2 or equivalent).
>
> I have found the Davis Pro2 (but its outside my budget). There also appear
> to be a range of other devices (such as "Sainlogic FT0300" [1]) which
> appear to measure solar radiation, but for those it seems they cannot
> communicate with weewx as they do not have a USB port, and only offer to
> report data to wunderground via wifi.

Note that the Pro2 does not come with a solar radiation sensor. You can
either add it, or get the Pro2+. But that makes it even more expensive.


If you don't want to pay for a Pro2+ (quite understandable!!), then my
suggestion would be to look at sensors from the maker world, and hook
one up to an ESP8266 and report by MQTT.
signature.asc

Les Niles

unread,
Dec 10, 2020, 4:52:23 PM12/10/20
to weewx...@googlegroups.com
I recently installed an Ecowitt GW1002  which apparently is a Fine Offset rebranding.  It’s not a Davis (I’ve had a Pro2 for 6-8 years and think it’s great) but it includes solar radiation and UV, and the whole thing costs less than a Davis data logger.  I don’t know about the accuracy or long-term reliability of any of the instruments, but it seems to work and the readings pass the sanity test.  

There is a weewx driver for the gw1000 https://github.com/gjr80/weewx-gw1000 I haven’t tried to set it up yet so can’t comment, but there’s a lot of discussion in the weewx-user archives.

  -Les

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "weewx-user" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to weewx-user+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/ad4ea55e-1f25-4c62-b851-99710564d433n%40googlegroups.com.

galfert

unread,
Dec 10, 2020, 4:53:55 PM12/10/20
to weewx-user
Well there is Ecowitt GW1000 or in your case since you are quoting Amazon.de you could also look at anything with the Froggit DP1500.

But you should know that these stations do not really have a UV an solar radiation sensors. What they do have is a Lux sensor and then based on that information they do some estimating and get decent results as to what the UV and solar radiation is. Some adjustment and calibration may be needed for your local. 

So you either accept this type of sensor or you have to pay to play with the VP2.

vince

unread,
Dec 10, 2020, 5:55:22 PM12/10/20
to weewx-user
FWIW, Gary's driver for the gw1000 has been rock solid for me here for a couple months now, and the outside temp/hum sensor are within 0.1 F and 1% RH of my Davis VP2 which is just amazing for a $12 sensor.  Of course it's entirely possible they both use the same sensor chips, but I didn't look into that.

I'd love to know if the spinning and ultrasonic anemometers and the standalone rain cup are equally good, just as a data point.  Granted you are going to buy some AA batteries for a lot of the sensors, but geez they are inexpensive to play with.  (no interest here re: solar/uv/lightning etc, I just want wind/rain/hum/temp accurate)

paul.ba...@gmail.com

unread,
Dec 11, 2020, 7:14:39 AM12/11/20
to weewx-user
Hello,  It happens that I just installed a Weatherflow Tempest station, and connected to weewx without any problem using the udp driver.
The Tempest has UV Index, Solar radiation and Brightness, plus of course P, T, H , Wind, Rain, etc. 
Current price is 329 $US, possibly cheaper from other sources. 
The Rain measure is not highly considered, though my comparison with other measurements (Irox X1) 1 meter apart show good agreement up to now (2 weeks...). It uses microphonic noise from rain drops ! 
The Tempest has no moving part at all, the wind is measured with ultrasonic technics. All detectors have very fast sampling (few seconds). 
Hope this helps.    Cheers,    take care of yourself and all others!     Paul

Hans Fangohr

unread,
Dec 11, 2020, 7:28:34 PM12/11/20
to weewx...@googlegroups.com, Hans Fangohr
Dear all,


many thanks for all the replies and suggestions - this is super useful!!

On 10 Dec 2020, at 22:53, galfert <gal...@gmail.com> wrote:

Well there is Ecowitt GW1000 or in your case since you are quoting Amazon.de you could also look at anything with the Froggit DP1500.

Thank you! 


I am looking at the weather station HP1000SE PRO Wi-Fi Internet Wireless Weather Station [1] from froggit as an option at the moment. This mentions the Ecowitt server. Does that mean I could read the system’s data from weewx (via wifi using the gw1000 driver) and that this uses the DP1500 device internally already?

Or should I get the DP1500 [2] in addition to [1] to be able to access the data with the gw1000 driver (and if so, does the DP1500 have a USB cable connection then or does communication with weewx work via wifi)?


Many thanks again,

Hans








PS


But you should know that these stations do not really have a UV an solar radiation sensors. What they do have is a Lux sensor and then based on that information they do some estimating and get decent results as to what the UV and solar radiation is. Some adjustment and calibration may be needed for your local. 
That’s okay.


Thanks also for pointing to the Weatherflow Tempest - that looks like a fascinating concept, but it appears to be unavailable from Europe (at the moment).



So you either accept this type of sensor or you have to pay to play with the VP2.

On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 4:23:05 PM UTC-5 fangoh...@gmail.com wrote:
Dear all,

I'd love to use weewx with a weather station that can report - in addition to the usual observables such as wind, precipitation, temperature, pressure - the solar radiation (i.e. Watts/m^2 or equivalent).

I have found the Davis Pro2 (but its outside my budget). There also appear to be a range of other devices (such as "Sainlogic FT0300" [1]) which appear to measure solar radiation, but for those it seems they cannot communicate with weewx as they do not have a USB port, and only offer to report data to wunderground via wifi. 

(I am not satisfied with the data visualisations from underground - that's where I want to use weewx.)

Has anybody got a recommendation for these requirements:
- solar radiation
- can communicate with weewx
- less expensive than Davis Vantage Pro2?

Many thanks!

Hans




-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "weewx-user" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to weewx-user+...@googlegroups.com.

galfert

unread,
Dec 11, 2020, 10:24:43 PM12/11/20
to weewx-user
If you are interested in the HP1000SE PRO you could use it with WeeWX without the DP1500. But you will not be able to use the GW1000 API driver. To use the HP1000SE PRO you'll then be required to use the Interceptor driver and set it to type ecowitt-client. This is a push protocol. I think that the GW1000 API is a better way to go as it is a pull protocol and it is a newer driver for WeeWX. Therefore you can purchase both the HP1000SE PRO and the DP1500 and they will work together as the DP1500 will pick up all the HP1000SE PRO sensors....well with exception of the indoor temperature/humidity/barometer because the DP1500 already has those sensors built in.

What you should know is that the GW1000/DP1500 have an extra API protocol that allows multiple software to access this data simultaneously. The GW1000/DP1500 also provide live data via the WS View mobile app when you are on the local network and the HP1000SE PRO does not do this. The DP1500 is a modest additional expense that is well worth it I think.

paul.ba...@gmail.com

unread,
Dec 12, 2020, 11:17:07 AM12/12/20
to weewx-user
Hello,  I  live in Switzerland and received my Tempest 2 weeks ago (see previous message), so it seems available in Europe, though you may have to order it in the US. As I understand, the hub was the problem, as US and Europe have different standards for WiFi. The problem has been solved. I know at least 3 other Tempest user at less than 20 km from me, and all report observations regularly.
Note also that Weatherflow them self monitor and publish continuously your station. The weatherflow udp driver pickup the "broadcast" signal to feed weewx, a very clever trick!.
Paul


Hans Fangohr

unread,
Dec 31, 2020, 4:15:31 AM12/31/20
to weewx...@googlegroups.com
Dear all,


I ended up buying items [1] and [2]. All works well. 


Some details for those interested:

To use the GW1000 API driver, I had to add 
 
  radiation = luminosity/126.7 if luminosity is not None else None 

into the weewx.conf file (source: https://www.mail-archive.com/weewx...@googlegroups.com/msg32175.html); I am not sure this has made it into the documentation yet.


Both the HP1000SE PRO and the DP1500/GW1000 dongle can be used with the interceptor approach (and then then radiation correction entry in the weewx.conf shown above is not necessary). I have not found an advantage of one method over the other - both seemed to run stable for a few days when tried. I have settled on using the GW1000 API as this was recommended in the list.

(Actually there is one difference: if I use the interceptor protocol with the HP1000SE Pro, I record [via weewx] the temperature, pressure and humidity readings from the sensor that comes with the unit. If I use the DP1500/GW1000 dongle (with either interceptor protocol, or the GW1000 API), I record the temperature, pressure and humidity readings from the sensor attached to the DP1500/GW1000 unit (as already mentioned in the email below). Is there any way I could access and record readings from both sensors?)


So a big thank you to everybody contribution to the software, and the friendly helpful people on the mailing list!


More experimentation with skins and reports to follow :)


Best wishes,


Hans





Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages