Aercus Instruments WeatherSleuth IP - how to guide

[Ashley Hinton]

Hello

Just thought I'd post a how-to for the Aercus Instruments WeatherSleuth IP (www.aercusinstruments.com) in case anyone else considers one of these.

I found the unit on Amazon, supplied by Greenfrog Scientific through their Amazon store. I purchased this to replace a finally dead Gadget-branded (maplin/fine-offset) WH1080

Thanks very much to everyone who has contributed to getting these IP weather stations running in weewx, & to Matthew (and anyone who contributed) for the Interceptor driver and for helping me diagnose a problem - nothing to do with the WeatherSleuth or the Interceptor driver, but the fact I was using an old version of the owfs driver which I use to add a couple of extra temperature measurements from my greenhouse.

After getting this unit set-up in Weewx I thought I would post a run through of what I did.

The WeatherSleuth weather station

The outdoor array has the usual sensors (wind direction, wind speed, rain, temperature, humidity) + UV & Solar Radiation.

Meanwhile the indoor sensor has temperature, pressure & humidity (although I don't think indoor humidity is recorded by weewx as a default)

The receiver base station is a small box which has an aerial for receiving the data from the outdoor & indoor sensors, an RJ-45 ethernet port & a power socket for the supplied 5vDC supply.

It does not feature WiFi, it must be physically plugged into using an ethernet cable, which is also supplied.

There are a variety of status lights on the receiver, which incidentally is tiny - fits in the palm of your hand - and since it doesn't display any weather info (there is no console display) it makes it ideal if you just want to feed data into weewx and not bother with USB cables from desktop weather stations etc.

The default set-up out of the box is feeding to Weather Underground, but this is one of the IP-based systems where the data feed destination can be easily changed.

Mine was shipped with Firmware 2.1.9, which is the latest.

Out of the box it comes set for DHCP, so you will have to dive into your router or use some network scanning software to find it.

Alternatively there is a Windows utility supplied on the (tiny**) CD     (** don't slot that in your laptop or any other slot-loading drive, you'll wreck the drive)

Since I'm a Mac & Linux user I didn't use the windows utility but instead logged into my router and found the device - fairly easy since the MAC/hardware address is printed on a label stuck on the bottom of the receiver.

In my case I set a Static DHCP lease in the router, but alternatively you may want to just set a static IP address within the weather station itself or just leave it DHCP, see Local Network config below.

Once you have the IP, open up a web browser and head to the weather station's IP address config page:

http://ip.address.of.the.weathersleuth.

There you'll see the config tabs, first one speaks for itself -Local Network -  DHCP or manual IP, plus fields for the router IP, DNS, Subnet etc. If you're happy to find it on DHCP if & when you need to change anything I don't see any reason not to leave it set to DHCP, as it pushes data to weewx and not the other way around.

Next tab is for the Weather Network, which is where we will set it up to feed to your weewx system.

From the Remote Server pull-down menu, choose Customized

In the Server/Hostname box, type in the IP address of the computer you're running Weeex on. In my case, its 192.168.45.100

I don't know, and haven't tried, whether you could supply a local named address such as "weewx.local" if your computer is called that. The only reason you might want to do this is if the computer running weewx is using DHCP - I run weewx on a ubuntu server which also does other stuff, so its on a static address on my network.

In the Server Port box, specify a unique port that Weewx or other software on the computer isn't using. Try not to use standard ports even if you're not using them right now - you may in the future.

I chose 55, which might be a mistake further down the line, but it can always be changed - with the relevant change in weewx.conf to match.

In the Server Type pull-down menu, choose PHP - note that the other options, JSP & ASP, didn't seem to provide accurate data in my case.

In the Station ID box enter something meaningful. This isn't required for weewx, but the weather station needs *something* there. I used: "weather"

In the Password box enter something this isn't a real password you use, I used "password" - again it has to be there, but it also gets included in the PHP data which is in plain text. If you have to paste the output for diagnostics anywhere, such as weewx forums, you don't want your most secret of secret password there for all to see :-)

Next tab is labelled Station Settings

There are sections for indoor and outdoor sensor types. I enquired with Aercus about extra sensors but it seems there are none available yet.

Leave these at default :

Indoor Sensor Type: WH25 (options: WH25, None)

Outdoor Sensor1 Type: WH24 (options: WH24, WH7, None)

Outdoor Sensor2 Type: None (options: WH26, None)

Wireless Receive Frequency: 434 (not changeable and greyed out, refers to the wireless sensor frequency: 434MHz)

Time Zone setting: as your time zone dictates.

Daylight savings (DST): auto

Units of measure - these only seem to affect the weather station's own internal web display, and not those sent to weewx - I confirmed this by changing the setting and then observing the data it sends out (see below) but if anyone wants to test this and confirm it could be useful. In my case I changed the units of measure to match those I use in weewx, but I don't think this is needed.

Automatic Restart:

System Reboot: YES 

I have set this to yes. It says it will automatically restart the WeatherSleuth station if it can't reach the server for 20 minutes. I guess if it tries but can't reach the server (in this case, weewx) listening on the IP address & port you chose earlier then it will restart itself (WeatherSleuth station, not weewx or the computer its running on) - looks like the timeout isn't configurable.

Next tab, you'll find Live Data

Here is a handy hint I picked up somewhere: Test your sensors indoors before mounting the station outside only to find something isn't working.

So one by one, check everything: blow on the wind speed cups fairly hard a few times and observe whether wind speed is measured in the Live Data tab.

Do the same for wind direction - move the direction vane slowly around and check it shows the relevant wind directions (in this case, shown in degrees)

Temperature indoor, outdoor, humidity etc should all be showing something. Put the indoor temperature somewhere warmer or colder - does it change?

Rain: do this over a sink or small bowel. Tip some water into the rain sensor, when it empties (hence the sink/bowel) out of the bottom does anything show in the rain fields?

You could also place it gently outdoor for 5 or 10 mins to check solar radiation, UV and UV Index are all measuring but at this point I decided I was good to go and mounted it on the pole.

The final tab, Calibration,  I left at defaults and clicked the Default button, followed by Apply just to be sure. Again if anyone thinks something should be changed here please let me know!

Weewx

This could be useful to make sure your computer is receiving data from the weather station, as weewx will listen for data coming in on your chosen port, Open up a terminal and type:

sudo nc -l 55

Where 55 is the port we entered earlier in the WeatherSleuth setup. If you chose a different port, use that.

Wait for a few minutes and some stuff should appear, here is an example from my setup: You will see the ID=weather&PASSWORD=password. Remember we entered that into the weather station earlier, this is why you don't want to use anything sensitive. The host 192.168.45.100 is the IP address of my computer running weewx, which we also entered in the same place.

GET /weatherstation/updateweatherstation.php?ID=weather&PASSWORD=password&tempf=39.7&humidity=86&dewptf=36.0&windchillf=39.7&winddir=255&windspeedmph=0.00&windgustmph=0.00&rainin=0.00&dailyrainin=0.00&weeklyrainin=0.00&monthlyrainin=0.00&yearlyrainin=0.00&solarradiation=0.00&UV=0&indoortempf=67.8&indoorhumidity=46&baromin=30.08&lowbatt=0&dateutc=2016-4-30%2022:7:9&softwaretype=Weather%20logger%20V2.1.9&action=updateraw&realtime=1&rtfreq=5 HTTP/1.0
Accept: */*
Host: 192.168.45.100

Connection: Close

If all looks well then install the interceptor driver in weewx:

Instructions here:  https://github.com/matthewwall/weewx-interceptor

Follow the instructions on downloading, installing, and configuring in weewx.

Here is the relevant part of my weewx.conf

 I'm using the Python-installer version so mine is here:

/home/weewx/weewx.conf 

[Interceptor]



    # This section is for the network traffic interceptor driver.
    # Specify the hardware device to capture.  Options include:
    #   acurite-bridge - acurite internet bridge
    #   observer - fine offset WH2600/HP1000/HP1003, aka 'observer'
    #   lw30x - oregon scientific LW301/LW302
    #   lacross-bridge - lacross GW1000U/C84612 internet bridge
    #   netatmo - netatmo weather stations

    device_type = observer
    port = 55

    # The driver to use:

    driver = user.interceptor

And in my case, I modify the [StdReport] section to reflect my own tastes, including wind speed in knots being a bit of a plane geek/plane spotter!

[StdReport]



   

    # Where the skins reside, relative to WEEWX_ROOT
    SKIN_ROOT = skins

    # Where the generated reports should go, relative to WEEWX_ROOT
    HTML_ROOT = public_html

    # The database binding indicates which data should be used in reports.
    data_binding = wx_binding

    # Each of the following subsections defines a report that will be run.

    [[StandardReport]]

        # See the customizing guide to change the units, plot types and line
        # colors, modify the fonts, display additional sensor data, and other
        # customizations. Many of those changes can be made here by overriding
        # parameters, or by modifying templates within the skin itself.
   
        # The StandardReport uses the 'Standard' skin, which contains the
        # images, templates and plots for the report.

        skin = Standard
        [[[Units]]]
            [[[[Groups]]]]
                group_altitude = meter
                group_speed2 = knot2
                group_pressure = hPa
                group_rain = mm
                group_rainrate = mm_per_hour
                group_temperature = degree_C
                group_degree_day = degree_C_day
                group_speed = knot

That should be about it. By default it seems to update weewx every 5 mins or so. I expect this is configurable should that be too much, too often, either in the Interceptor driver options and/or elsewhere within weewx.

I have included some pictures of the WeatherSleuth base station.

My weather station, courtesy of Weewx, is here:  http://www.achinton.co.uk/weather

Questions, corrections & suggestions welcome.

Regards,

Ashley

[Thomas Keffer]

Thanks, Ashley

There are thousands of threads in the user archives, so things get buried pretty fast here. The best place to put these kinds of "how to" guides is in the Wiki. It also makes it easier to keep them up to date. Could you post your write-up there?

-tk

--
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.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[vince]

Ashley can you post what precise model you bought and a link for how to get one ?   Many of these new-name brands seem to be non-US only, a pointer to the precise Amazon model would be a big help....thanks....

[Steve]

Here's the unit on the Fine Offset site http://www.foshk.com/Weather_Professional/WH2600.htm

I seem to get the most hits on eBay by searching for "ip observer weather station"

Regards,

Steve.

[Ashley Hinton]

Hi Vince

No problem at all, its this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-Weather-Station-WeatherSleuth®-Professional/dp/B00ZVFZUS6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463993860&sr=8-1&keywords=B00ZVFZUS6

Amazon ASIN: B00ZVFZUS6

http://www.aercusinstruments.com/copy-of-aercus-instruments-weatherranger-professional-weather-station-with-wifi-and-real-time-internet-publishing/

http://www.greenfrogscientific.co.uk/aercus-instruments-weathersleuth/

Regards,

Ashley

[Ashley Hinton]

Hi Tom

No problem at all, will do!

Regards,

Ashley

[Steve]

Thanks for the how-to Ashley.

I bought an Aercus badged unit as well. I installed it today (after it sat on the couch next to the indoor unit with batteries in both for nearly a week so I could check the indoor & outdoor temperature and humidity reading via the "live data" page while waiting for the weekend to arrive). It replaced a Fine Offset WH3081, it had been causing me some grief for a while now and I'd been searching for a replacement on and off.

I had made all the changes to WeeWx as per your how-to during the brief showers that kept halting the installation and once it was up I re-loaded the Weewx conf file and everything simply just worked.  

Mine didn't come with any batteries, the Aercus manual just mentions 3 X AA for the outdoor unit and that's what I installed, but I see on the Ambient Weather site for their WS-1400-IP Observer (that looks identical to the FO WH2600 /  Aercus Weather Sleuth) that it comes with 3 X AA rechargeable batteries. Did yours come with batteries if so what type? If not, what did you install?

(I was surprised at how tiny the receiver was).

Thanks again.

Regards,

Steve.

[Ashley Hinton]

Hi Steve

You're very welcome. To be honest I can't remember what mine came with, I *think* it did come with batteries although I've nearly always got AAs & AAAs anyway so didn't think about it.

I'm sure I saw that its best to use ordinary (non rechargeable) batteries in the outdoor unit, as the solar panel provides power to save batteries during daylight hours but does not in fact have enough "oomph" to charge them as well, I guess more of an issue during winter. I think rechargeable's also have less tolerance to low temperatures. 

My next experiment is to see if the battery warning (weewx home)/bin/examples/lowBattery.py works with the WeatherSleuth. The battery status for both indoor and outdoor is reported on its own web page, and at least one of them in the data feed (lowbatt=0) so it shouldn't be too hard even if the lowBattery.py needed modification. I guess if you got a low battery warning you could always go to the web page of the WeatherSleuth to see which, indoor or outdoor, needs attention.

The receiver is tiny isn't it!, I know its essentially a data bridge but still they manage to fit a lot in that little box. Pictures on the web really don't do its petite size any justice.  

I've also added an entry into the main WeeWX Wiki with a tidied-up version of my original forum post, I hope others find it useful.

Cheers,

Ashley

[Stéphane Calonnec]

Hello,
Thanks for everything, with your tutorial I'm running Weathersleuth and WeeWX (3.5.0), with Interceptor 0.9, with no major problem for months now (the only problem I have is wind gust direction not showing - it does work with loop_hilo = false, but today it's the first storm of autumn and wind values were not the good ones so I turned it back to true).

[Stéphane Calonnec]

Hi back,
If it can help someone, here is the structure of what is sent by the weather station. The good new is there are extra info we should be able to get from the station - but I have no idea on how to implement this. (Sorry if it's showing weird, I am French and I copy/pasted from Word lol !)

The station sends this :

GET /weatherstation/updateweatherstation.php?ID=Weather&PASSWORD=XXXX&tempf=36.5&humidity=79&dewptf=30.6&windchillf=32.2&winddir=75&windspeedmph=5.14&windgustmph=7.38&rainin=0.00&dailyrainin=0.00&weeklyrainin=0.00&monthyrainin=4.49&yearlyrainin=6.28&solarradiation=128.86&UV=1&indoortempf=53.2&indoorhumidity=62&baromin=30.27&lowbatt=0&dateutc=2016-11-29%2010:39:16&softwaretype=Weather%20logger%20V2.1.9&action=updateraw&realtime=1&rtfreq=5 HTTP/1.0

Name	Designation	Unit	Value type	Decimal (+ separator)
ID	Station name In Weather logger, it's Weather Network/Station ID	-	Text	-
PASSWORD	Password In Weather logger, it's Weather Network/Password	-	Text (clear !!)	-
tempf	Outdoor temperature	°F	Numeric	1 (.)
humidity	Outdoor humidity	%	Numeric	-
dewptf	Dew Point	°F	Numeric	1 (.)
windchillf	Wind chill	°F	Numeric	1 (.)
winddir	Wind direction	Angle value	Numeric	-
windspeedmph	Wind speed	MPH	Numeric	2 (.)
windgustmph	Wind gust	MPH	Numeric	2 (.)
rainin	Current rain	In	Numeric	2 (.)
dailyrainin	Daily rain	In	Numeric	2 (.)
weeklyrainin	Weekly Rain	In	Numeric	2 (.)
monthlyrainin	Monthly rain	In	Numeric	2 (.)
yearlyrainin	Yearly rain	In	Numeric	2 (.)
solarradiation	Solar Radiation	W/m²	Numeric	2 (.)
UV	UV Index	Index	Numeric	-
indoortempf	Inside Temperature	°F	Numeric	1 (.)
indoorhumidity	Inside humidity	%	Numeric	-
baromin	Barometer	In ?	Numeric	2 (.)
lowbatt	Battery status	-	Boolean ?	-
dateutc	Time / Date	UTC	Timestamp/Text	-
softwaretype	Model and firmware version	-	Text	-
action	HTML GET action	-	Text / Updateraw	-
realtime	Is it a live report ?	-	Boolean ?	-
rtfreq	Refresh time ?	-	Minutes ?	-

[Steve]

Hi Stephane,

I didn't see this post earlier. I had the same problem. To fix it I modified weewx.conf

[StdCalibrate]

    

    [[Corrections]]

        # For each type, an arbitrary calibration expression can be given. 

        # It should be in the units defined in the StdConvert section.

        # Example:

        foo = foo + 0.2

        windGustDir = windDir

Regards,

Steve.

[Stéphane Calonnec]

Hi Steve,
Thank you ! It does make sense, as the Aercus does not send any wind gust direction. I'm testing it (but there's no wind gust currently....)
Thanks very much, next steps for me will be to check wind gust speed accuracy and why sometimes rain is detected, it looks highly sensitive to humidity :)

[m...@iinet.net.au]

Can anyone help in Australia, I have a iinet N600 Dual Band WiFi Gigabit Modem Router on a Mac based system. The setting on the box indicate a 433MHz Weather Sleuth. My WiFi is 2.4 and 5 GHz. I am unable to see the Weather Sleuth on my network, using either IPTool or network scanner. Is this a possible reason? If not why can I not see the Weathersleuth, all blue lights are active except for Server. Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Steve]

Have you plugged the bridge into the router?

The 433MHz is from the station to the bridge. The bridge is a wired connection to the router.