New Home Weather Station Needed

[Astrobirder]

Well, after 15 years of valiant service, my Davis Vantage Pro (not Pro2!) has apparently given up.  I've tried changing the batteries on both ends,  but it appears the the ISS isn't transmitting any longer.  All this a mere 2 months after gettting WeeWX setup on a Raspberry Pi to allow access to my home station via internet!

So, now it's time to consider a new station.  Weewx compatibility isn't a requirement, but some way of getting to the data via internet is.  I haven't ever used any of the cloud services (Weather Underground, Ambient, Weather Cloud, etc.) in part because my station can't really get accurate wind measurements and I'm not that keen on publishing the data for all.

So, I've been poking around and see MANY more players have entered the market since my Davis purchase.  So much so that it seems challenging to find the right station for me.

I thought I'd open up a discussion here to get input from the community.  

Here are my general requirements, above and beyond the internet connection listed above:

Sensors:
Rain

Wind Speed & Direction (though only useful to me)

Outdoor Temperature (asperated not required, but nice)

Outdoor Humidity

Indoor Temperature

Indoor Humidity

Extra sensors a plus, (UV radiation, etc), but not required.

Ability to add/expand with additional indoor temperature sensors a big plus.

Same for indoor humidity.

Outdoor ISS needs to be wireless, with Solar and battery rather than wired for power or data.  

Open Source API a plus

Weewx compatible a big plus ;-)

Though I've enjoyed my Davis, I haven't enjoyed the difficulty in getting access to the data and the extra expense of the Weatherlink setup.  Perhaps this has changed, but I have my doubts based on a little research.  I've liked the accuracy and the 2.5 second update rate.

With that, I'll listen to your recommendations.

Thank you in advance for your time.

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[vince]

Have a budget number you want to hit ?

Given 15 years history with Davis, you might pick up a Vue  or maybe just the sensor suite if your old console is compatible.   Looks like Scaled Instruments and Scientific Systems have dueling sales going on.  A full Vue for under $275 is a pretty good deal.  Given you have your old system connected to the pi, you have to have some kind of modern-enough datalogger that would still work with new Davis gear (?).  

Nice thing about Davis is that it doesn't require connectivity to phone home to a vendor site in order to function.

If you want to go low-cost and add indoor sensors cheaply, Ecowitt is pretty nice although its gateway needs Internet connectivity for its watchdog timers.  Given the vendor is in China, that concerns some folks.   But Gary's driver works great.

If it's me, I would skip the $279 Ecowitt HP2551 and go with a Vue at the same price, if you already have a compatible logger.   But it's not me :-)

[Astrobirder]

I didn't include a budget as all the stations I've looked at are under $500, except the Vantage Pro 2, and I could stretch to that if it were the recommended solution, but it appears that to use it for my case, would mean the station AND a new WeatherLink module (arghhh) so the price really hits over $1k, which seems a bit steep.

I have the old Weatherlink that works with the old Vantage Pro, but it looks like it isn't compatible with either the Vue or the Pro2!

[vince]

Perhaps contact Davis support and see if they'll cut you a deal due to incompatibility.  Worst that happens is they say no.

[Tom Keffer]

I wouldn't give up on your Davis quite yet. It's worth a call to Davis support. It might just be a bad supercapacitor, which is common in stations of that era.

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