Davis Vantage Vue 6110 (ISS Only) + WeatherLink Live 6100 + WeeWx A Good Combo for Weather Telemetry?

[Roger Lewis]

Good evening all!

I hope everyone had a safe and fantastic Thanksgiving!

I'm a very new user. So new, I haven't even downloaded WeeWx yet (planning to though, and use the simulator at first). However, my son and I are trying to put together a personal weather station, with the intent of eventually creating an amateur radio Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) that broadcasts our weather data. Both my son and I are licensed amateurs, my son is interested in meteorology, and he has already been through some SkyWarn training. I'm pretty comfortable in Linux, and done embedded and desktop programming in the past. But first, we need to specify the hardware.

We are looking at a Davis Vantage Vue 6110, which is only the Vantage Vue integrated sensor suite (ISS), and no wireless console. Along with the 6110, we are looking at the WeatherLink Live 6100.

With the 6110 and 6100, along with WeeWx, should that hardware be adequate to receive weather data from the ISS on a computer, then either display on that computer, or serve it up as a web page? I understand that there is a driver for the 6100, and its only shortcoming is that it cannot retrieve archived data from the 6100. We are okay with that deficiency.

The other alternative would be to get the Vantage Vue 6250 (ISS and console), then add a WeatherLink 6510 USB. This seems to be a more stable config, but $80 more than the 6110 and 6510 USB. And we really don't need the console.

The other alternatives are an AcuRite Atlas + Access, or Peet Bros Ultimeter 2100. Although the AcuRite is priced right, I've seen some things to question their quality. And the Peet Bros. is just way too expensive.

Any thoughts? Any suggestions? Are we on the right track?

Thank you in advance!

[vince]

As always it comes down to budget and feature set you're looking for, and the time-value of your labor and blood pressure, including how much you want to get into Linux/networking stuff vs. the weather and radio stuff you mentioned...

Given some budget, you can't go wrong with Davis.   There's a sale at scientificsales.com with a complete Vue including console and either USB logger or Weatherlink Live at $369 which is a great price.  The Vue ISS itself is only $169, but you'd need to connect it to the weewx box somehow.  Once you do that you might as well just get the whole station including console and pick the USB logger perhaps.

Some other options...

If you're ok with gear that requires a little Internet connectivity, you might want to also look at Ecowitt.   Their gw1000 gateway is 36 bucks.  The  WH32 outside temp/hum sensor is 13 bucks and reads so close to my VP2 it's almost unbelievable.  The two units read no more than 0.1 F and 1% RH off consistently.  Just amazing.      They have a rain bucket for $40, and an integrated wind/solar/etc. solar powered sensor suite kinda like a ISS for either $89 (spinning anemometer) or $139 (ultrasonic) and additional sensors are about 20 bucks each.  Only downside is you need AA batteries for most things. Integrates trivially with weewx.  I'm running mine on a pi3 that also runs a Home Assistant setup, so you need very little compute for weewx.

So a full station 'with' solar would be 36 + 13 + 40 + (89 or 139) so you'd match an ISS with solar too for 200-230 or so.   Pretty great price.

Downside of Ecowitt is the gateway needs a 'little' Internet connectivity for NTP and occasional web queries of Ecowitt's servers in their watchdog timers in the firmware.  Folks have already figured out how to fake that on their LAN pretty easily if you have moderate Linux/networking fu so that can be worked around.   The cost per sensor is absurdly low so you could build something pretty cool piece by piece with/without a console.

Downside of Ecowitt is that their gateway would talk to your network via wifi (2.4 only) so that if your wifi is shaky or your power goes out, you'll not have a Davis-style logger so you'll miss some data.   I don't worry that too much here since our power is stable as is my wifi here.   Ecowitt certainly has a very low cost of entry to get started, and they have a bit of a ala-carte set of sensors to choose from, so you wouldn't need much investment to experiment and see if it's enough for your needs.

[Greg Troxel]

Roger Lewis <rjl...@gmail.com> writes:

> I'm a very new user. So new, I haven't even downloaded WeeWx yet (planning
> to though, and use the simulator at first). However, my son and I are
> trying to put together a personal weather station, with the intent of
> eventually creating an amateur radio Automatic Packet Reporting System
> (APRS) that broadcasts our weather data. Both my son and I are licensed
> amateurs, my son is interested in meteorology, and he has already been
> through some SkyWarn training. I'm pretty comfortable in Linux, and done
> embedded and desktop programming in the past. But first, we need to specify
> the hardware.
>
> We are looking at a Davis Vantage Vue 6110, which is only the Vantage Vue
> integrated sensor suite (ISS), and no wireless console. Along with the
> 6110, we are looking at the WeatherLink Live 6100.

As Vince alluded to, there are several big issues you should consider:

From a privacy point of view, are you ok with a setup that requires
your devices to talk to the cloud? (Even if you choose to publish
some data.)

From a functionality point of view, are you ok with a setup that will
not work without the cloud? Some devices (not necessarily weather)
have stopped working when the manufacturer shuts down their cloud.

You will at times lose utility power or Internet, and you will almost
certainly have trouble that takes more than 5 minutes to fix with your
weewx computer. Many people want their equipment to continue
recording data to have later, even if it can't be reported in real
time. The Davis Serial and USB loggers do this; I have experienced
several power outages with no loss of historical data*. And a
several-day weewx computer outage due to memory card issues, also with
no loss of data. With Weatherlink Live, my impresssion is there is no
data logger and no backfill of the database when the weewx host comes
up.

* But make sure your computer has a battery-backed TOD clock; I did
have trouble with that once.

Being a ham, I'd expect that you want to be able to continue
functioning during Internet certainly and also power outages, perhaps
via UPS/batteries and generator, solar, etc. With the USB logger, you
can do this. With Weatherlink Live, I'm not so sure. Beware that
many people don't care about this and the "no internet, no
functionality" defect of much equipment is not disclosed like it
should be.

> The other alternative would be to get the Vantage Vue 6250 (ISS and
> console), then add a WeatherLink 6510 USB. This seems to be a more stable
> config, but $80 more than the 6110 and 6510 USB. And we really don't need
> the console.

In my view the ability to operate without the cloud, have stored data
during outages, and enable you to have a "if I supply power to weewx
computer, TNX and 2m transmitter my data will still be sent over APRS"
is worth the $80.

> Any thoughts? Any suggestions? Are we on the right track?

You are on the right track. Also consider the Vantage Pro 2 instead of
the Vue. $200 more, but it seems from anecdotes to be more reliable. I
got a Vantage Pro around 2000, had to replace the rain tipping bucket
sensor at some point, and later after the ISS stopped working, I got a
Vantage Pro2 in perhaps 2012. The Pro2 has had no issues since then -
just had to replace the ISS battery once, maybe twice. So I am getting
10 years out of them, at least (Massachusetts), and I think my
experience is typical. There are a lot of cheap stations that fail far
faster; some have a reputation for lasting about a year. So when you
consider price, read about typical reliablity and convert prices into
$/year.

(You can also get the 2+ with UV and Solar Radiation, or an
fan-aspirated temp sensor, and a heated rain gauge, even more
expensive.)

You said you don't need the console. But with 3 D cells, it will keep
working and tell you the outside temp/dewpoint etc. while there is no
power. And it's easy to look at - but keep in mind that you need to put
it close to the weewx computer, and you'll want backup power for the
computer/TNC/radio.

Greg

[weather list]

I have bought two Davis VP2 units on Craigslist, sight unseen, and both are still running after 5 and 8 years, with the odd replacement of solar ISS panels and regular battery changes. Both run in humid, windy, coastal salt water environments. Davis service is impeccable, and they have a setup where they will send you a re-habbed unit to help get you back up and then you return your unit needing repair.

Davis console: I use Meteobridge NANO SD cards in both (which are indeed pricey) but they have many advantages:
no need to have the console near your computer as they operate on wi-fi; a very versatile built-in system of generating charts and reports; built-in support for nearly any weather network you can imagine.

Downsides: Cost. If there are power flutters they can lose the internet/wi-fi connection. This latter has two solutions, both are needed: a DHCP address reservation for the MAC address of the MB, AND, set your wi-fi to use a fixed channel; the wi-fi implementation is known to be slightly less stable otherwise.

Disclaimer: If you are not absent from your station location as I am, much of the rest won’t apply.

Both units operate alone six months of the year in. Maine and Florida. The MB NANO can be reached remotely via the internet, as can your router and local weewx computer if you’re OK with implementing that.

Because mine operate remotely, the most solid setup I have is VP2—>NANO SD—>Saratoga Templates on the server.

Adding WeeWx on a server in the VP2 locations is great as it gets you such good skins and features of which I am very fond. But I have had to settle on simple versions of NUC for stability, rather than RPi.

Needless to say, UPS on the cable modem and router, any network switches, and the Davis Console (and fresh batteries in the latter).

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[Roger Lewis]

Thank you all for the good advice!

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving!