weather station for 400-600 Euros

[metalmi...@gmail.com]

Hi guys,

as the title suggest, I'm searching for a weather station in the 400-600 Euro price range. Currently I have a Froggit WH1080 SE, but after around 4.5 years, it seems that the station could fail completely in the next days/weeks. So I'd like to be prepared, if it's completely broken.

What I would like to have with the new station:

- More robust and longer lasting hardware

- Console with a nice big display

- Wall mountable console

- Wireless data transmission 

- USB connection from the console to the pc preferred, since weewx runs in a virtual machine on my server (if everything else fits, the usb connection is not crucial, I can find a solution)

I had a look at the Davis Vantage Vue, but the 250 Euro extra for the usb adapter hurt.

So if you have any alternative, feel free to comment. ;)

Thank you for your help!

Flo

[michael.k...@gmx.at]

Hi Flo, I had similar requirements and finally bought Ecowitt hardware some weeks ago and I'm really happy with it. They have a modular approch and you can choose between numerous consoles, gateways, sensors, ... That was the main reason why I chose this hardware. You can also get spare parts and extra sensors any time later.

There is also a significant large community running this type of hardware.

All sensors come with independent wireless transmission, but there is no USB connection for the data transfer. But, if you buy the gateway, with the GW1000 driver it should be even more easy to get the data into weewx running in a VM using (W)LAN.

I spent not even 500€ for:

- wireless HumiTemp Outdoor Sensor

- a nice, customisable console, wall mountable, SD-Card data storage

- indoor humitemp & pressure sensor

- the gateway

- a lightning sensor

- a 7-in-1 sensor with an ultrasonic anemometer, luminosity sensor, piezo rain sensor, extra outside humitemp sensor (overruled by the other sensor)

- a classic rain gauge with bucket

There are more sensors available you can connect, like for air quality, leaf wetness, soil temperature, extra humitemp sensors, ....

In EU (DE) there is froggit branded ecowitt hardware available.

https://www.froggit.de/

Or buy from ecowitt directly, they should take care of all tax and customs fees: https://shop.ecowitt.com/

[metalmi...@gmail.com]

Thanks Michael for your reply.

I'm aware of the Ecowitt/Universe. Earlier this afternoon, a guy from Ecowitt suggested some Froggit Stations, for example the Froggit HP1000SE Pro Ultrasonic and the GW2000/DP2000 in a German forum for weather stations.

Since a friend of mine had also a WH1080 SE which died within 4 years and mine is also dying now, I'm not sure about the reliability of the hardware from Ecowitt/Froggit. That's the reason, I want to get more robust and stable hardware.

[Rainer Lang]

it seems you posted the same question in the German Weather Forum https://wetterstationsforum.info
There you already got the suggestion to read their WiKi section about Ecowitt (clone) weather stations:
https://www.wetterstationsforum.info/wiki/doku.php?id=wiki:wetterstationen:ecowitt-stationen
and the central wxforum.net thread in the Ambient/FineOffset/Ecowitt forum
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=40730.0

as far as pricing is concerned, look up https://www.froggit.com or https://shop.ecowitt.com or the Ecowitt Store at amazon.de

the different Ecowitt stations all fulfill you mentioned needs - up to you to choose/select one based on criteria like
- extra sensors beyond basic wind, rain, outdoor T/RH, solar radiation, UVI
- expandability

or compose something yourself

depending on your choice you will end up between 250 - 400 EUR.

the "need" for USB for weewx running in a VM is not a real need - unless you have a completely closed down VM from the network point of view - what nobody normally does
(even a Secure Cell has network access via restricted firewall rules)
if you can access your VM via your local network, weewx can access/can be accessed (depending on the consoles) your console via the local network

with Ecowitt stations you can get a host of different sensors (if wanted or needed) beyond the very basic stuff at a reasonable price/performance ratio.

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[Rainer Lang]

sorry to say that but you are just trading subjective non-representative opinions regarding Ecowitt (and clone) stations and hardware

modern Ecowitt stations have proven to be quite reliable and to compare an ancient WH1080 with the modern Fine Offset / Ecowitt hardware is like comparing a year 2020 BMW or Mercedes with the models around the year 1940.

Most of the Ecowitt station owners nowadays are quite happy with their choice. Shit can always happen, also with a 2-5 times more expensive Davis Weather station. The main users of the German Weather forum are quite critical regarding quality etc. - and of course nothing is perfect (a Davis Vantage Pro2 neither). In that forum they call a spade a spade and nobody has a business relation to FineOffset/Ecowitt there (what you are insinuating in your mail). Some shortcomings of the modern Ecowitt stations exist, yes, but are not in the area of longevity so far. Mostly rather what Germans call "complaints at a very high level".

But of course the choice is yours

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[metalmi...@gmail.com]

Regarding your first post:

This is actually correct. I thought, the community here in the google group may be larger and therefore I can get more input.

I'm just wondering, if the Vantage Vue really is the only weather station in this price range, which is compatible with weewx. 

"if you can access your VM via your local network, weewx can access/can be accessed (depending on the consoles) your console via the local network"

That is true, when the console and the vm are in the same network, which is actually not the case. My server is in a dmz and I only have wifi for my LAN, so USB would be the easiest thing. Of course I can put a wifi dongle to my server, pass it through to the vm and connect the console of the weather station with that wifi dongle, but that would be much more work.

Regarding your second post:

Of course it's a non-representative opinion about Ecowitt/Froggit, but it's based on my experience and on the experience of my friend. And in my opinion it's totally legit to make future decisions from these experiences. 

Ok, I have to admit, that I didn't know, that there is such a big difference in these models.

I'm totally aware, that shit happens at Ecowitt and at Davis, that's no question. 

The reason why I thought, that the person who replied to my topic works for Ecowitt is firstly, that he was totally focussed on Ecowitt products and secondly that he wrote "have a look at the overview in OUR wiki". This could lead to the assumption, that he works for the company. Please get me right, I'm totally fine with his answer. It's totally subject-related and super helpful. 

Of course what I do here are "complaints at a high level", but I'm just checking my options. As I said, not only my family sees the data of the weather station, our whole village has access to it. Therefore, I would like to provide a service which is as reliable, as it can be (in a certain price range of course).

Right now, there is no choice, but the comparison with the cars was very helpful.

[Rainer Lang]

just technically speaking:
if your server stands in a DMZ, it has a internal LAN side and an external WAN side.
You should be able to access the server (and an application running on it) from the internal LAN side.
Then, why do you need an extra WLAN access point at the server/ VM ?
I'm not saying that's not possible, but is it necessary ?

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/30af6ad1-c3cd-4ced-9168-ab8f4c1b39bdn%40googlegroups.com.

[metalmi...@gmail.com]

Because the server is in a different subnet than my LAN.

Let's say the server is in the 10.10.20.0/24 net and on my LAN I have the 10.10.10.0/24 net. A demilitarized zone (DMZ) has only access to the internet and to no other net. A Firewall rule blocks outgoing connections from the DMZ to all other nets, exept the internet. So from the VM I have no access to my LAN, where the console would be. The other way round is possible, from my LAN network I have full access to all machines and services in the DMZ. 

[Rainer Lang]

and that's more than enough for the Ecowitt console(s) to post their data to weewx 😎
(apart from the possibility to introduce specific firewall rules on specific ports 😉)

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/eaea7611-a484-41d8-8645-2b5088b81d13n%40googlegroups.com.

[metalmi...@gmail.com]

Yes, the guy in the German forum told me already. 

Pretty smart, these Ecowitt consoles. :D

[metalmi...@gmail.com]

So I got a HP1000SE Pro Black Edition and tried to set it up today.

Unfortunately, it seems that weewx does not recieve any data from the console, because there are not entries in the syslog. 

I set up the interceptor driver with this guide. Concerning the libpcap package, following packages are installed on my system: libpcap-dev, libpcap0.8, libpcap0.8-dev and the package pypcap installed via pip.

In my weewx.conf, the section about the interceptor driver looks like this:

[Interceptor]

    # This section is for the network traffic interceptor driver.

    # The driver to use:

    driver = user.interceptor

    # Specify the hardware device to capture. Options include:

    #   acurite-bridge - acurite internet bridge, smarthub, or access

    #   observer - fine offset WH2600/HP1000/HP1003, ambient WS2902

    #   lw30x - oregon scientific LW301/LW302

    #   lacrosse-bridge - lacrosse GW1000U/C84612 internet bridge

    #   ecowitt-client - any hardware that uses the ecowitt protocol

    #   wu-client - any hardware that uses the weather underground protocol

    device_type = ecowitt-client

    mode = sniff

    iface = eth0

    pcap_filter = src 192.168.1.24 and dst port 80

The iface is correct, as well as the IP of the console in the LAN network.

Weewx starts without any error. Here's the log:

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx systemd[1]: Starting LSB: weewx weather system...

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3129] INFO __main__: Initializing weewx version 4.10.2

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3129] INFO __main__: Using Python 3.9.2 (default, Feb 28 2021, 17:03:44) #012[GCC 10.2.1 20210110]

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3129] INFO __main__: Located at /bin/python3

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3129] INFO __main__: Platform Linux-5.10.0-23-amd64-x86_64-with-glibc2.31

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3129] INFO __main__: Locale is 'de_DE.UTF-8'

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3129] INFO __main__: Using configuration file /etc/weewx/weewx.conf

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3129] INFO __main__: Debug is 0

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3129] INFO __main__: PID file is /var/run/weewx.pid

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.engine: Loading station type Interceptor (user.interceptor)

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3119]: Starting weewx weather system: weewx.

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx systemd[1]: Started LSB: weewx weather system.

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO user.interceptor: driver version is 0.60

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO user.interceptor: device type: ecowitt-client

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO user.interceptor: hardware name: weatherstation via interceptor

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO user.interceptor: mode is sniff

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO user.interceptor: sniff iface=eth0 promiscuous=0

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO user.interceptor: sniff filter 'src 192.168.1.24 and dst port 80'

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO user.interceptor: pypcap (1.3.0)

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO user.interceptor: sensor map: {'pressure': 'pressure', 'barometer': 'barometer', 'outHumidity': 'humidity_out', 'inHumidity': 'humidity_in', 'outTemp': 'temperature_out', 'inTemp': 'temperature_in', 'windSpeed': 'wind_speed', 'windGust': 'wind_gust', 'windDir': 'wind_dir', 'windGustDir': 'wind_gust_dir', 'radiation': 'solar_radiation', 'dewpoint': 'dewpoint', 'windchill': 'windchill', 'rain': 'rain', 'rainRate': 'rain_rate', 'UV': 'uv', 'txBatteryStatus': 'battery', 'extraTemp1': 'temperature_1', 'extraTemp2': 'temperature_2', 'extraTemp3': 'temperature_3', 'extraHumid1': 'humidity_1', 'extraHumid2': 'humidity_2', 'soilTemp1': 'soil_temperature_1', 'soilTemp2': 'soil_temperature_2', 'soilMoist1': 'soil_moisture_1', 'soilMoist2': 'soil_moisture_2', 'soilMoist3': 'soil_moisture_3', 'soilMoist4': 'soil_moisture_4', 'leafWet1': 'leafwetness_1', 'leafWet2': 'leafwetness_2', 'pm2_5': 'pm2_5', 'extraTemp4': 'temperature_4', 'extraTemp5': 'temperature_5', 'extraTemp6': 'temperature_6', 'extraTemp7': 'temperature_7', 'extraTemp8': 'temperature_8', 'extraHumid3': 'humidity_3', 'extraHumid4': 'humidity_4', 'extraHumid5': 'humidity_5', 'extraHumid6': 'humidity_6', 'extraHumid7': 'humidity_7', 'extraHumid8': 'humidity_8', 'soilTemp3': 'soil_temperature_3', 'soilTemp4': 'soil_temperature_4'}

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.engine: StdConvert target unit is 0x1

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.wxservices: StdWXCalculate will use data binding wx_binding

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.engine: Archive will use data binding wx_binding

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.engine: Record generation will be attempted in 'software'

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.engine: Using archive interval of 120 seconds (software record generation)

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.restx: StationRegistry: Station will be registered.

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.restx: Wunderground: No config info. Skipped.

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.restx: PWSweather: No config info. Skipped.

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.restx: CWOP: No config info. Skipped.

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.restx: WOW: No config info. Skipped.

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.restx: AWEKAS: No config info. Skipped.

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO user.wetter: service version is 0.7

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO user.wetter: wetter API version is 5.0.2 - 2015/06/01

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.restx: Wetter: No config info. Skipped.

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.engine: 'pyephem' detected, extended almanac data is available

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO __main__: Starting up weewx version 4.10.2

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.engine: Using binding 'wx_binding' to database 'weewx.sdb'

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.manager: Starting backfill of daily summaries

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.manager: Daily summaries up to date

Jun 28 21:52:40 weewx weewx[3132] INFO weewx.engine: Starting main packet loop.

But that's all and there are no entries about weewx recieving data from the console. 

How can I get weewx to recieve data from the console?

Thank you for your help!

[Rainer Lang]

it's not
mode = sniff

it's

mode = listen

no pcap_filter needed

in fact the descrition of the use of the interceptor driver with an Ecowitt console describes that 😉

the entries should be

**********************

mode = listen  #can be omitted as it is the default mode

device_type = ecowitt-client
port = 8xxx  #has to match the port you choose/chose in the console Customized server setup

iface = eth0

***********************

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/c601c850-2aba-463a-9068-4a45208fbe47n%40googlegroups.com.

[metalmi...@gmail.com]

Thank you Rainer, I got it. 

I also tried with sniff mode, but that didn't work. 

What was missing was the part with the setup of the custom server. 

Now everything works fine.

Thank you very much for your help!